Ice, ice baby

The subject of this post is the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival), the most fun I have ever had, probably ever will have in sub-zero temperatures.


My fellow adventurers and I began our northern adventures on Saturday with a flight to Sapporo from Fukuoka. Almost immediately upon landing, we could tell we were no longer on Kyushu; the sun was shinning (well, actually it was more the snow on the ground that gave it away)!!! After a long, overheated train ride into Sapporo proper and a short subway ride followed by an interminable underground trek from the subway to the exit for our hotel (I am pretty sure we walked further than we rode the train) we emerged onto the street in front of Odori Park, where the largest snow sculptures are located. We made a bee-line for our hotel to drop off the bags and put on a few more layers before setting out for some late lunch in "ramen alley." While Kurume/Fukuoka is known for its tonkatsu, or pork based ramen, Sapporo is known for its miso based broth. One local specialty is butter corn ramen, and its as much of a heart attack as it sounds like, but oh so oishii.

Would you look at that big pat of butter!?

Ramen alley was convieniently located in the Susukino district of Sapporo, where all of the ice sculptures were located, allowing us to walk off our lunch while admiring beautifully crafted blocks of ice. Tour guide Jamie helpfully informed us that all the sculptures were made from naturally frozen ice brought in from a lake somewhere on Hokkaido. How did she know? The internet probably, but once we knew what to look for--natural ice is clear, while refrigerator frozen ice is more opaque--we too could see that this was some high quality ice. Jamie also says that there is a man who lives by this lake and makes his living monitoring/extracting/shipping the ice from the lake to Sapporo for the festival.

The ice sculptures came in many styles:

1) Fishy

(Real sea creatures frozen into this one!)



2) Japanese

3) Borderline tacky

and 4) Refreshment related

Sapporo's famous ra-me-n...giant ice bowl with real noodles on top. Weird. Made even weirder because the sign read "Wonderful Sapporo Lamian." Pick up any Japanese-English dictionary and within the first few pages (if not on the inside of the front cover) is a chart that converts hiragana and katakana into the roman alphabet. It's not that hard!

Ooo the Bailey's ice hut. Creative marketing at its very best. Build a small square building out of ice with large bottle outside. Offer small servings of hot Bailey's and milk/coffee at 200 yen a piece. Watch repeat customers come through again and again.

As night fell we made our way back toward the hotel/Odori Park to see the "iruminashion" of the large snow sculptures. The first thing we noticed was not actually made out of snow:

Yet another Japanese city with an impressive T.V. tower. Sapporo felt the need to add a rather large clock to theirs, which provided us with endless "Gee, I wish I knew what time it was," jokes. The tower was at one end of the park, the other end was 12 whole blocks away. In the middle were all of the sculptures as well as some vendors selling "Japanese culture" on a stick, "fried potato" and other carnival faire, plus a huge variety of souveniers--earmuffs, towels, t-shirts, pins, ketai charms, hats, yadda, yadda, yadda. I picked up a few charms to bring back to people in Kurume, but my purchases paled in comparison with Jamie's. Some people buy drugs; Jamie buys Hello Kitty charms. Aware of her addiction, she budgeted 2-man (around $200) for all of the charms she wanted from Hokkaido. Luckily though, she brought extra cash because she ended up spending almost 3-man on over 70 charms (for her own collection as well as for omiyage ). There were so many in fact that she bought a huge lavender Hello Kitty bag to transport them all home in. She wasn't the only person at the airport carrying one however...

Back to the sculptures. There were many of them. I have not included too many pictures because I think this post will be long enough as is. There were maybe 10 really big ones; one was Prince Caspian themed, there was a weird Cup-o-Noodle "Freedom" themed one; a Japanese castle, and a Japan Airlines landmarks of the world one. My favorite was the large eskimo/mammoth/polar bear one. Great use of medium. You can get a sense of its massive size by looking at the shadowy crowd at the bottom of the picture.

There was also a nature-themed ice stage which hosted a piano player in a heated box and some awful local radio personalities. I think it was better off empty and lit from behind as I have captured it below.

Hokkaido is hosting the Toyako G8 Summit in July, which will have a special focus on the environment (I think I should be paying a lot more attention to this than I am) and there were a lot of posters and a few premature welcome signs up in Sapporo this weekend. As one might assume, a festival based completely around snowfall is very concerned about global warming. The theme of this year's festival was "Stop the Global Warming" (soooooo effective considering almost everyone probably took an airplane to get there) and global warming spokesman Al Gore (or A-ru Go-a in katakana) made a guest appearance:

in the form of a snow statue. He was on the same block as most of the Japanese cartoon character effigies. At least he was there.

After 12 blocks (really more like 24 beacuse we went up and down both sides) we were cold and in need of some more refreshment, having skipped a real dinner in favor of the yummies on a stick. Where does one go when they need snacks and warmth? Karaoke of course!! Several beers, a platter of fried goodness and many, many horrible renditions of songs that were once great later, we called it a night.

Day 2

Off to a bright but not too early start, we hopped on the bus to Satoland. Designed primarily with children in mind, Satoland was basically a snow covered field about 40 minutes outside of the city where a smattering of snow themed amusements had been set up. There were a few slides, a maze, another stage, children's dig-in-the-snow-for-treasure areas and more food, but the best part was the build your own mini "ra-vu" daruma. The snowman building also had the shortest line. The lines at the other attractions prevented us from going on them. I am pretty sad that I missed going down the big snow slide on an intertube. Maybe next year?

The slide I didn't get to go down. Harumph. I think my age regressed back to my shoe size while at Satoland.

The field of mini-snowmen!!! Chou kawaii!!

After ooooing and ahhhhing over the work of others, Jamie, Hannah, Allison and I set to work on our own. At first we wanted to make one with snow boobs, but since this was a family venue, we decided on a cute mouse instead for the Lunar New Year (I just added that last bit.) Getting started was a bit tricky (the building committe was 3/4 Arizonan, Californian and Hawaiian after all) but after seizing control of a jug of water to help pack the powdery snow into the large mixing bowls they gave us to use as molds, we ended up with this:

It was a bit hard to leave him behind when we had to leave Satoland for the next destination. We hopped another very crowded bus back into the city and got off at the stop for the train station. We followed the signs down some stairs, and then some more stairs, and some more stairs and came out in the middle of a huge underground shopping mall! What? After battling our way through the crowds and past the temptations of sales at our favorite stores (although we did have to stop for ice cream--c'mon Hokkaido is famous for its dairy products) we finally made it to the train for Otaru.

View from the train. Really lovely. We even saw some ocean out the opposite side.

Otaru is known for two things: its canal and glassblowing. We went to see both. During the Snow Festival, the canal is lined with what can best be described as giant snow luminaria. People built lanterns and altar-like structures in snow and then light candles in them when it gets dark.

Otaru Canal, pre-darkness.

Snow lanterns, also pre-darkness. These were outside of the Otaru Brewing Company.

Along the canal, after dark. Really crowded, a bit slippery and very difficult to photograph.

Away from the canal is a street filled with glass shops. They are filled with some beautiful pieces, and an over abundance of sickeningly cute, ultra-mini glass animals. While the below isn't exactly an animal per-say, I think it fits in with the theme of this post better.

Like the sculptures in Odori Park, only the complete opposite, the scale of this snowman is a bit hard to determine from the photo. I would say that the card in front of him is written in 10 or 11 pt font. They were soooo small.

And while Otaru isn't exactly known for them, it is home to some very impressive icicles. I still think real icicles look fake. To me, "icicles" are fancy Christmas lights that look oh so snazzy hanging from the eaves of a stucco house.

Day 3

Day 3 was a bit rushed, trying to cram in last minute attractions before joining what felt like all of Japan at the airport. Allison and I sleepily stumbled around the city before breakfast because I wanted to see the clock-tower (not to be confused with the TV tower with a clock.) The clock tower is a big draw for Japanese people; one guy was even taking a film of the stationary building. I am not sure what all the commotion was about, but thought "when in Sapporo..."

The clock tower and...

...its plush likeness for sale at the airport.

All around the city we saw these "layer cakes" of snow along the edges of the streets that had been plowed. Some were really big, others not very impressive. I think this one was in the middle somewhere.

Sapporo Eki with its huge underground shopping mecca.

The crowded airport. A light snow was falling, so a lot of flights were delayed. Thankfully ours wasn't one of them, but we still had plenty of time to kill.

So we ate lunch. Pasta with creamy crab sauce. Sapporo/Hokkaido is famous for kani and this was my last change to eat some. And it was perfect...hardly resembling the animal it came from and any seafood-y flavor was drowned in the creamy sauce. Yummy. In a side note, check out the size of the water glass--not thimble sized!!

A very cool weekend to be sure. I need another vacation just to recover.

Itsumo omoshiroi

Just when you think you've seen it all, Japan will throw some interesting things your way.

For example:

--School lunch yesterday. Some noodle-y soup, bread/strawberry jam, and a bowl of "meat" covered in glaze. Some of the pieces were chicken, and some of the pieces were...? Having heard tales of whale in school lunch from other ALTs, I was terrified. The chunks were dark and smooth, and since I have no idea what whale looks like, (I think Jamie once said it was dark and weird looking) and was prepared for the worst. I poked at it a bit with my chopsticks, and it didn't really appear to be a muscle (nothing stringy about it) then pushed it aside so I could eat the chicken. Later, the school nurse came in and sat at her desk beside me and comented to the science teacher about lunch. It was all in Japanese, but I know enough to understand "liver" and "kirai" (I hate liver!!). The mystery of the mystery meat was solved. And although I still didn't eat it, I was very relieved that it wasn't whale.

--Hehe. Riding home from school yesterday I saw a little old lady jump off of her tractor and do her own "Chinese firedrill" to make the light change so she could cross the road. It was quite hilarious.

--Today I met a Buddhist monk. He's married. He said in perfect English that he got married first and then became a monk. A bit un-orthodox. When I told him his English was really good, he of course played it down in the usual Japanese fashion, but he is the first person I have ever heard say, "my English is grassroots." He also speaks Thai and some other language. He then proceeded to tell me that he and his wife (who volunteers to teach English at one of the elementary schools I visit) sometimes talk about languages at home. The conversation went like this:

Monk: If a person can speak two languages, we call him bilingual. If they can speak three languages, he is trilingual. What do you call someone who can only speak one language?

Me: Hmmm, unilingual? (although now monolingual sounds better)

Monk: An American!! Ha ha ha.

I was not expecting that one, and it hurt a bit, coming from a monk.

-----

I am sure there are more, but considering I leave for the snow festival in Sapporo (sooooo excited!) in 10 hours and have yet to do the dishes from dinner, clean my apartment, pack, shower and get a bit of sleep, I will save them for another time.

Better Late then Never

Family trip continued.

• Deer Park, Nara. Where are the deer you ask? Good question. Their poop is there on the bottom right. Almost immediately after getting off of the bus, my mom suggested that we buy some deer wafers to feed them. So I did, and was promptly surrounded by deer. I threw the wafers at my mom and let her get bucked by the mangy creatures. Gross. The baby ones were cute though.

• Todaiji Temple. Huge.

• World's largest wooden Buddha at Todaiji Temple. Very difficult to get a sense of scale. One of his fingers is probably about the size of an adult person. Our tour guide on this day was full of information...she talked the whole two hours on the bus from Kyoto to Nara (or so I'm told, I was sleeping off the buffet lunch) and throughout our time at the temple. Unfortunately she had the bad habit of saying "ahh" in between every 4th or 5th word. I don't think I really heard anything she said, just the "ahhs."

• Approaching Kyomizudera in Kyoto. At the top of a big hill. Lots and lots of people.

• A rather pale me standing next to Kyomizudera's intense support structure.

• Like so many other Buddhist temples in Japan, Kyomizudera shares part of its grounds with a Shinto shrine. The one at Kyomizudera was dedicated to the god of love and relationships. The couple-lyness of it all was a bit much. Maybe I should have at least tossed in a coin though, Valentine's Day is coming up!

• Beautiful garden we stopped at on our last day in Kyoto. We almost didn't make it inside, we walked around the whole thing before finding the gate. Worth the walk.

• If it looks this good in December, just imagine it in bloom in the spring!

• Sand sculptures at Ginkakuji (The Silver Pavillion). So intricate, so perfect. This flat expanse represented a lake. A cone off to the right represented a mountain. Go figure.
  

• The weather wasn't quite as nice on the day we went to Ginkakuji, but it actually made it rather atmospheric. Ginkakuji isn't all blinged out the way Kinkakuji is...the guy who built it ran out of money before he could put on the silver leaf. Whoops. Still a very nice garden though.

• Need a fan?

• Kyoto Tower at night. Did not go up this one.

• New Year's Eve at Narita-san in Kurume. I had no idea what to expect, but I had heard that you had to go to a temple at midnight to hear them ring the bells 108 times, chasing away the 108 and sins to start the new year off right. All of a sudden, it sounded like people were counting down, and then it was over. Hmmmmmmmmm. Maybe next year I'll understand more (oh yes! That's right! I officially signed my recontracting papers and will be staying another year)
  

• Street leading up to Narita-san. It was actually snowing! which was really cool (pun intended) but it made things very cold and soggy.

And that concludes the Phelander's Holidays in Japan 2007-8 entries. Yosh!

A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Since this is late anyway, I hardly feel any pressure to present these in the proper chronological order. If you must know, I met my family in Tokyo and we had about a day there before taking off for Mt. Fuji/Hakone, Inuyama/Nagoya and then went to Kyoto/Nara. Once the tour package expired we spent another few days in Kyoto on our own which was really fun (finally able to take things at our own pace, not that I regret the tour at all. I am so glad that I saw everything that I did) before catching the very crowded Shinkansen down to Kurume for New Year's.

• Nagoya-jo. Probably the most impressive castle I've visited. Completely reconstructed. Highlights include the golden dolphins on the top and the (original!!) carvings in the rocks that form the battlements. Samurais were required to haul large rocks to the castle site, and many of them scratched their family names into the rocks. Can't remember if they had to in order to get credit for their work or just wanted to show off to the competiton.

• Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto. The first of many, many, many temples, but definitely one of the more scenic ones.

• Kinkakuji (The Golden Pavillion), Kyoto. In the old days, rich people didn't so much wear their bling as put it on their garden gazeboes. We were so lucky to have nice sunny weather the day we visited.

• Mommy and daughter at the Imperial Palace, Kyoto. Getting in was quite a process. Everyone on our tour bus (and the other two buses out that morning) had to line up in rows of four to be counted (and re-counted until things we just right.) But they didn't even glance into the backpacks/large purses people were carrying. Oh Japan.

• Sadly, I have no idea what this temple is actually called. All I know is that it's on top of a hill and has an amazing view of Mt. Fuji on a clear day. The temple itself isn't too shabby either against the blue sky.
  
  
  
• Top of a hill above Lake Ashi, another spot we went to see Fuji-san. I am looking in the wrong direction, but the view is still pretty amazing. It was also rediculously cold up there, with lots of wind and some ice patches on the ground.

• Inuyama-jo. The only original castle I have been too. Much smaller than any of the other ones too. Full of charm i.e. the steepest stairs ever. For not being too large, it had a very nice panoramic view.

• Snazzy building in Nagoya. Future home of a fashion design school. When viewed in conjunction with Inuyama-jo above really demonstrates the fusion of Japan's old and new architecture. (Ugh that sounds like something from a bad paper)

• Shadow of Nagoya Tower. Something to love about Japan--almost every city builds a huge, potentially ugly TV tower and adds a platform, turning it into a tourist attraction. They do provide some amazing views. At the top of this one is wall commemorating all the couples who have been married at the top. Awwwwwww.

• The family prior to their first onsen experience. It took some convincing to get them to walk downstairs in just their yukata, but after the initial uneasiness, I think they enjoyed it. They went again at the next hotel.
  

• Even though we're hardly around each other enough to fight these days, I still think this is a nice picture of peaceful sibling interaction---on the Shinkansen no less. Snazzy.
  

• One of the highlights of our tour. When we went to Inuyama, it was just the four of us, so we all got dressed up by the local kimono dresser. It was pretty incredible. Mine had a full under-robe and about a bazillion ties in the middle. Then they made us slip into a pair of narrow sandals and hobble (mince?) our way down the street to this photogenic gateway for a full-on photoshoot. We attracted quite a few stares. When we returned to the shop, we were undressed...and I let out a huge sigh, relieved to be able to breathe again. That's when the dresser told our tour guide in Japanese that they had made mine "loose" and if I was really going to wear a formal kimono, it would be much tighter. Sheesh.

• This probably ice cream picture #87 on my blog, so by now you know that no sightseeing trip of mine is complete with out some "sofuto kurimu."
  

• Hmmm, back to Mt. Fuji. Maybe I should organize these...sorry. Again, really lucky with the weather.

• Lovely family portrait in front of Mt. Fuji. This is about as close as we got. I think I am going to start using this picture for my self introductions at school instead of the one I have from Costa Rica where we're all wearing helmets and harnesses after riding the zipline.

• Tokyo Tower!! Another TV tower all gussied up as a tourist attraction. Nice views. I think the Japanese are very proud of the fact that their "famous" tower is taller than the Eiffel Tower (by 6 meters or something rediculous like that.)
  

• Andrew, mom and me looking down from inside of the tower. Neat-o.

• Hahaha. Trying out the ride-able animals at Lake Ashi. Unfortunately, we were a bit big, so they didn't move too well under our weight. My lion barely moved and when Andrew tried one, it didn't budge. But it was worth the 200 yen just for the rediculous pictures in my opinion.

• Mmmmm, pickles. Since we were traveling right before New Year's, all of the temples had large displays of sake offerings from local sake brewers out front. This temple in Nagoya also had numerous barrels of pickled veggies. Interesting.