Sapporo Snow Festival

After a 3-hour bus ride back to Sapporo from Niseko, we finally arrived around 6pm. After quickly checking into our rooms, we headed straight over to Sapporo Brewery. They have a variety of restaurants, but we went to the one that specializes in Hokkaido's original barbecued lamb/mutton and crab. We decided on the all-you-can-eat BBQ, and WOW was that a good choice - it was fantastic! I wasn't a huge fan of the lamb, but I ate my way through numerous plates of crab. Unfortunately I couldn't have a beer, but Joe and the rest of the guys who participated in the all-you-can-drink Sapporo beer would vouch that it was also good. Obviously no Bells or Pyramid microbrews, but Sapporo is Joe's favorite Japanese beer, so he enjoyed it nonetheless.

The next morning we headed out for a day of sight-seeing at the Sapporo Snow Festival. This year marked the 64th annual festival! It had 216 beautiful snow statues and ice sculptures, which were all very impressive.

Among the snow sculptures, there were 126 total: 5 large, 6 medium, and 115 small. The large snow sculptures were over 50-ft tall! The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force personnel and the local Sapporo citizens come together and work on the sculptures.

Here is just a sample of the many sculptures that we saw.

There's even an international snow sculpture contest, and 11 teams from around the world participate. Ironically, Joe's friend and co-worker knows one of the American team members, so Joe was able to chat with him and get the scoop on the sculptures. We were there in the beginning of the festival, so each country was just beginning to start their piece. I wonder how they all turned out, and which country won...?

Ok, I just looked at the Sapporo Snow Festival website, and it looks like Thailand won with an incredible elephant sculpture! You can see it here. Nicole, you will love this! And actually, I have a "before" picture from when we were there and the team was just starting the project. If you look closely, you can see the tiny elephant figure that they were using as their model on the very top of the snow mound (right next to the man standing on the left). Do you see it? I find it amazing that people can create these beautiful sculptures just from using a tiny figure as a model, truly a work of art. You should be able to see the sculptures from all 11 countries in the link above.

We took an afternoon break to stop for lunch and eat Sapporo's famous miso ramen. Our group took up the entire counter space in this small restaurant. We ordered the chef's recommendation, "butter corn miso ramen." All 10 of us ordered the same thing. A perfect, satisfying meal on a bone-chilling Sapporo winter day.

Do you see the chunk of butter they put in there?! They weren't kidding around.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon looking at the ice sculptures. Large and small sculptures line the city center, and they were stunning - so much detail in each one. You can touch some of the sculptures, or sit on them to take a photo. There was even an "Ice Bar" where you could get a hot drink. They were certainly impressive, but not quite as impressive as the giant snow sculptures, in my opinion. Below are a few of my favorites.

After seeing the ice sculptures, we headed back to our hotel to rest and warm-up. Then later in the evening once the sun set, we went back out to see the snow sculptures lite up. Some of the large sculptures also had animated shows displayed on them coordinated with music - it was pretty incredible. Despite spending the entire day outside, it being late out, and freezing cold, Elodie really loved this part! The lights, music, and shows were not only entertaining, but just beautiful to look at.

You can see all of our photos on Shutterfly in our Niseko & Sapporo Snow Festival album.

This trip has been on our Japan travel list since we first arrived here 3 years ago. But it's expensive to go, and the timing just never seemed to work out. Luckily our good friend Yumi, the only Japanese person in our group to go, organized the entire trip for us. With this being our last year here in Japan, it was now or never. Plus, you really can't give up a trip in a foreign country that's organized by a native person - we didn't have to put any thought or planning into the trip at all. It was seriously the perfect Japanese vacation. Thank you Yumi for all your hard-work in organizing this incredible trip. We all had a great time!

Niseko

We went on a 6-day, 5-night trip to Hokkaido, in Northern Japan, for some awesome skiing and to see the famous Sapporo Snow Festival. We went with a group of friends, which made the experience even more fun.

After a 2 hour flight from Nagoya to Sapporo, we had to take a 3 hour bus ride to Niseko for the skiing portion of our trip. I was nervous about this part: Elodie and I on a bus, winding through the mountains on narrow roads, leads to some serious car sickness. But it ended up being just fine. We stayed in Niseko for the first 3 and a half days of our trip.

My first impression of Niseko was - whoa, are we still in Japan? It felt like we were in a mountain town in the U.S. rather than Japan. The town was completely Westernized and everything was in English. I hardly even saw any Japanese people there, it was almost all Australians. It was an interesting feeling taking a vacation in Japan, but yet feeling like I was somewhere back home... or anywhere but Japan for that matter.

The skiing started off rough, but ended up being fantastic. The first day, it rained in the morning. This turned into ice, which made for some crappy ski conditions. It eventually turned into snow after a couple of hours, and then didn't stop for the remainder of our trip. But it was so windy the first couple of days that the air was blowing all of the fresh snow everywhere - leaving the ice underneath for us to ski on. The high wind conditions also closed all of the top lifts, so we weren't able to visit any other parts of the mountain (you have to either take a bus to other parts, or go all the way to the top to ski over to other resorts).

Luckily, the third day was awesome. Feet of fresh snow, no wind, amazing conditions, with all the top lifts open. This day made the trip worth it.

You can see in the map above that there are 4 different resorts or sections of the mountain. It's seriously huge. So you can see why we were a little disappointed that the top lifts were closed the first couple of days. There wasn't any other way to get over to different parts other than to take a bus, and we didn't feel that was worth our time. Luckily, we were in the middle section, which I think is the best part of the mountain. Below is a picture of Joe and I going up the very top lift on the last day, thanks Sarah.

We stayed in a Japanese-style room, which ended up being perfect for us. I don't usually like to sleep on futon mats on the floor because they are typically pretty thin and therefore you might as well just be sleeping on the hard floor. But what I've learned is that the beds in Japan are just as hard, so you might as well sleep on the floor anyway. No beds in the room made extra space for E to play, and then we didn't have to worry about her sleeping conditions, since she also slept on a futon mat on the floor. It worked out perfectly.

It was also E's first experience in daycare. We put her in daycare for all 3 days that we skied. All in all, it went really well. She didn't particularly like us to leave her, but she got over it and did just fine. I'm glad the resort offered a daycare facility, otherwise Joe and I would have had to take turns skiing... and that's just not fun.

A great ski trip, with wonderful friends, on a beautiful mountain.

I'll write about the Sapporo Snow Festival in my next post. It was amazing.

Ise Shrine, Mie Prefecture

We took a weekend trip to Mie Prefecture, a couple of hours drive from Nagoya, to see the famous Ise Jingu Shrine - otherwise known as the Grand Shrine of Ise.

Ise Jingu consists of two shrines: the Outer Shrine (Geku), which is dedicated to the Shinto diety of clothing, food, and housing, and the Inner Shrine (Naiku), which enshrines the most respected deity, the Sun Goddess.

The two shrines are actually quite far from one another, separated by the densely wooded forest. I read that unlike most other Shinto shrines, these Ise shrines are built in a purely Japanese architecture style, which shows no influence from the Asian mainland. The site of the Ise Shrine has long been sacred, due to its forests of sacred Japanese cypress trees.

Being so well known as one of the most extraordinary grand shrines in Japan, I was expecting... well... "grandness." But really, these shrines were amazingly simple. Set in the forest, there is really nothing but trees, gravel lanes, and wooded building.

As you already know, I like to tell about adventures with pictures, so here's a slideshow of our trip!

Day 1: Unagi lunch, Ise Outer Shrine, fireworks at the hotel

Eel lunch... delicious!

The entrance gate to Ise Outer Shrine, you walk down this path through the woods to reach the main shrine.

Walking down the path to the main shrine (do you see Joe peeking his head out?)

I love this picture of Taku and Joe.

Outer Shrine's main entrance.

Pictures are strictly forbidden inside (which I didn't know!) and managed to snap this shot before being yelled at by security.

Mie Prefecture is right on the coast. This is the view from our hotel room.

Miyoko brought some fireworks, and we lit them on the beach!

Ise Day 2: scenic drive down the coast, Ise-style udon for lunch, walking through Ise town, Ise Inner Shrine, tea and akafuku mochi dessert at a Japanese tea house.

Rest stop along the way on our scenic coastal drive.

Udon is my favorite Japanese dish. Each prefecture has their own style, so I was excited to try Ise's famous udon noodles. Ise udon = concentrated soy sauce and sweet Japanese cooking sake are used to crate a black broth, which is then poured over thick, handmade noodles. Topped with spring onion. It was really yummy, but I have to say that I prefer Nagoya udon! :)

Walking through the town of Ise to the Inner Shrine.

Entrance gate and bridge to the main shrine.

So many of these adorable lanterns everywhere throughout both the Outer and Inner shrines.

Crowds waiting their turn to enter the Inner Shrine's main gate. Sorry, no photos allowed inside.

Akafuku Mochi dessert and tea. Akafuku mochi is a pounded rice cake confection topped with a sweet bean paste. The shape symbolizes the Isuzu River which flows through the Ise Grand Shrine region, with three ridges in the sweet bean paste representing the clear water that flows through the river, and the white mochi depicting the pebbles that lie on the riverbed. Wow, Japan's attention to detail and symbolism always amazes me!!!

We had such a great trip with wonderful friends. I love traveling in Japan, especially with friends who know the culture and region well. It's like having our own personal tour guides! :)  Thank you Miyoko & Co. for a great trip.

Tokyo Weekend Trip

We went to Tokyo for the weekend with Miyoko and her husband Kiyoshi. Their nephew is a theatre director in Tokyo, and his play was showing in a theater downtown. So we went to the show, and then spent the rest of the weekend touring Tokyo. Even though Joe and I have been to Tokyo before, we were able to experience all new things this time because 1) Tokyo is HUGE and there is so much to do there, and 2) we had our own personal tour guides!

On our way to Tokyo, we stopped in Yokohama to eat at this cute floating restaurant with spectacular views on the bay. Surprisingly, there were quite a few Mexican dishes, so you can imagine how excited Joe and I were! (Nagoya does not have any good Mexican restaurants!) Anyway, the food at this particular restaurant in Yokohama was very good. We both had fish tacos, and they were fabulous.

Floating restaurant in Yokohama.

After our quick lunch, we drove the rest of the way to Tokyo to see the play. It was interesting to watch a play in a language that we don't understand. Surprisingly though, because of the costumes and actors, we understood almost everything. I'm sure we would have enjoyed it more had we actually known what they were saying, but overall we still had a nice time. Miyoko's sister volunteered to watch Elodie, so Joe and I were actually able to sit through part of the play together, which was really nice.

Standing next to the advertisement for the play.

After the play, we went to a really fancy Japanese restaurant in the heart of downtown, right next to the Tokyo Tower. Each party has their own private room, which resembles the culture of the Japanese Edo period. The restaurant overlooks a 71,000 square foot Japanese garden.

It was set menu with 8 courses, all of which were really lovely - everything from the appearance, detail, and taste - was absolutely wonderful. Our set menu included: boiled pike conger & shrimp, deep fried tofu coated with sweet miso sauce, assorted sashimi, eggplant with sesame dressing (my favorite!!!!), tofu in seasoned soy milk, sauteed Japanese sea bass, rice with ginger and burdock root, and fig for dessert. 

The restaurant entrance.

Walking through the garden to our private room.

This isn't a great picture of anyone (except Joe who looks really cute!), but it's the only picture I have of the table and wanted to share what the room looked like.

Miyoko showing Elodie the tea kettle in our private room.

The waitress, dressed in Kimono, who served us each course.

Joe & Elodie with Miyoko's nephew (the director) and his daughter.

It was a wonderful Japanese experience, and I'm so glad we went! The only downfall is that it was very expensive. The set course cost us about 10,000yen each - or about $127.50 per person (and that didn't include drinks!). But the atmosphere was outstanding, the food was delicious, and it was an overall fantastic Japanese experience - so I'd recommend for anyone visiting Japan to go here! Although I should warn you, the restaurant specializes in tofu. ;) Here's the English website if you want to see pictures of the restaurant: Tokyo Shiba Tofuya-Ukai.

On Sunday, Miyoko and Kiyoshi drove us around Tokyo to show us different parts of the city that we had never seen before. Here are a few highlights from our day....

The new Tokyo Sky Tree, which opened this past May 22. It has been sold out for MONTHS!.. and you still can't go up without an advanced reservation.

Pagoda at Asakusa temple.

Asakusa temple, a Buddhist temple built in the 7th Century. It's Tokyo's most famous and popular temple. It is also one of the oldest, although the current buildings are post-war reconstructions.

Nakamise, a shopping street from the temple entrance gate to the temple. Any and every kind of Japanese souvenir can be found here! It was incredibly crowded!

Tokyo style "monjya" in the Tsukishima district. It's basically Tokyo's version of okonomiyaki. They have similar ingredients, but monjya has a lot more liquid and is more runny. It's then eaten directly off of the grill using a small metal spatula.

Joe eating monjya with his small spatula, haha! We liked okonomiyaki much better than monjya.

We also stopped at Daikanyama for some shopping, but I didn't take any photos there. I found some cute moose cookie-cutters, and Elodie got new hair bows... a successful shopping trip. :)

Wow, that was an exhausting but fun weekend!!!