Hokkaido Yuki Matsuri

So after almost 2 years of hard work, stress, sleepless nights and god knows what else I’ve finally managed to get me some data I can work with. This of course means I’m now elbow deep in data analysis. A lot less stressful than experiments for sure but also a lot less fun. It’s repetitive, it’s boring and, thanks to the ambiguity of the technique I’m working with, seemingly never ending. But at least I have something I can work with.

Data analysis does however come with some benefits though. Almost all the analysis is computer based and as such can be done anywhere. This means I can do the unthinkable and…take a holiday mid-week. I know I know it’s very out of character and I’m pretty sure very un Japanese but hey, I’m not Japanese and neither is my boss so I managed to get away with.

So what prompted the desire to take a bit of a break, apart from being fully done in by several months of hard experiments? Well I’ll tell you. With my departure immanent, albeit not as soon as I was thinking it would be, I’ve been taking every opportunity to explore further afield whilst I’m in Japan. With that I decided to head out to the northern most reaches of Japan, Hokkaido.

The northern Island of Japan is famous for several things. Its natural beauty in any season is lorded by many of those on the mainland, its low population means that much of the natural landscape lays undisturbed. The same can also be said of its wildlife. Sadly this is best seen in the summer months and as we are in the middle of winter there wasn’t much chance of that. However winter also boasts some unnatural beauties of it’s own in the form of the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (札幌雪祭り).

The snow festival is one of Japan’s biggest events seeing more than 2 million people flock to Hokkaido annually to bare witness. It was started by a few High school students building Snow statues in the centrally located Oodori park in the 1950’s and has grown and grown ever since. One of my favourite facts is that the local defence force is required to participate as a training exercise.

The festival runs for one week and whilst you can visit the sculptures anytime I definitely recommend heading down after dark. Sure it’s freaking cold (about -10­⁰C)

And yes the streets are crowded but the lighting is absolutely fabulous and really accentuates just how amazing these things are. Pictures do not do these things justice. The scale is just something else with entire buildings being reconstructed purely out of snow. I was pretty much in awe of everything I walked past, some of these sculptures were easily over 10 metres.

A little bit down the way is Sapporo’s central entertainment district, Susukino, where the streets are lined with spectacular ice sculptures. Again these really need to be seen at night as the pure ice glistens with the surrounding lighting. Once more I really can’t do these justice with pictures but I gave it a go anyway. If you go for the start of the festival you can also be treated to watching some of the sculptors hard at work with their chainsaws putting together some of the statues.

Of course no festival in Japan would be complete without Yatai’s, small portable food stores, and these were a bit of a treat. The other thing Hokkaido is famous for, besides nature and being mega cold, is food. It is one of Japan’s central agricultural hubs, being home to about a quarter of Japan’s arable land. Add to this the cold northern seas and that gives you great fish and veggies to boot.

Being that it is very cold Hokkaido food tends to be on the heartier side but when you are out in sub-zero temperatures that is pretty welcome. The miso ramen was amazing, a really nice blend of aka and shiro miso, and the curry soup is possibly the tastiest thing I’ve eaten in Japan. Sadly as it was only a 2 day stay I missed out on all the good seafood but as it was crab season I think I would have missed out anyway.

Due to the short nature of the trip there really wasn’t much chance for side trips unfortunately but I did manage one. Just a short journey from the centre, maybe 30 minutes by train and bus, is a small peak called Moiwa san. It’s not particularly but it does offer some amazing views out over Sapporo, as well as having a rather unique cable car journey to the summit. Sapporo doesn’t have many tall buildings so you can really see pretty far out across the area.

To be honest that is pretty much it. I probably spent as much time travelling out there as I actually did in Hokkaido but I’m really glad I went. My favourite moment? Well that is a bit private but one thing I found highly amusing was Panasonics stage at the Snow festival. They had cornered off an area to advertise their new range of air-conditioners, complete with Hawaiian scenery and a fake beach. Was it successful? I’ll let the thermometer do the talking.

Mata ne.

Hachikita ni ita, skitte mimasu

This weekend I embarked into the northern winter wonderland of Hyogo prefecture with my colleagues from work for a short two-day ski trip. Our destination was Hachikita, one of the biggest and most popular resorts in the region. I was a little nervous since it was my first time doing any sort of winter sport, but still very eager as it was something I’d wanted to try since I was small.

A quick peruse of the resorts website the night before revealed that there were rental places with my shoe size so all systems were go. It was an early start as the drive would take us about 3 hours but I still wasn’t over jetlag at this point so rising early didn’t prove too difficult. As we got closer the temperature dropped considerably and soon we were surrounded by a wide snowscape. The northern region of Hyogo is particularly pretty at this time as it is much more rural with many snowcapped mountains and fields of white.

 

After a brief stop to put chains on the car we were up the mountain and ready to get kitted out. Snow sports are absolutely huge in Japan and now I finally understand why. It’s actually not incredibly expensive to do. Hire of all the gear, ski’s, boots and clothing, as well as a lift pass came in at under 8000 yen. This combined with the shear number of ski resorts, all those mountains are good for something ey, makes the whole thing much more accessible than in the UK.

Testament to this was the large volume of people on the slopes. Not just numbers but also a range of ages, from toddlers to pensioners. I went with Ski’s on the advice of friends, it was apparently easier to pick up, and after getting kitted out I was left to my own devices. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but I did enroll in a ski school to get the basics. Sadly I missed the morning class so I just dosed around on the nursery slope till the afternoon.

 

The afternoon was much more fun however. I Joined a mother and her small child in the absolute beginners class (初めてです。) to learn the fundamentals. I quickly grasped how to stop and was told to progress to a different class as I was a little more advanced than my class mates.

The second class had me joining three kids between about 10 and 14 (I think) and was a good giggle. The instructor was really chatty and the kids kept spouting phrases at me in English followed by much laughing. It was a bit annoying but I know I do the same since I really want to practice my Japanese. After learning how to stop and turn safely I went to my first proper slope and after a few goes I could slide all the way down without falling.

 

By 4:30pm it was time to leave and after meeting up with everyone we bundled back into the car to set off for our accommodation for the night. I was pretty happy with how the day had gone, I didn’t fall over too much an even had an excellent opportunity to practice my language skills, all the classes were taught in Japanese though I guess they were fairly visual.

That night we stayed in a Ryokan, traditional Japanese guesthouse, in the wonderful Onsen (hot springs) town of Yumura. Yumura has a long history, having been established as an Onsen town over 1100 years ago. The temperature of the springs at the source is an impressive 98⁰c and many tourists buy eggs from nearby shops to cook in the springs. Alongside the river the are also many places to bathe your tired feet. The whole town has a great aesthetic feel of old time Japan and it really was very scenic.

Inside the ryokan we donned our Yukata and bathed our weary muscles in the inns hot tubs, also fed from the hot springs. Onsens are definitely one of the best things about doing any kind of sport in Japan.  I went back to the room to get changed again and on my way heard one of the older members of staff mumble something I doubt was too kind about rowdy foreigners when she thought she was alone. Classic 本音　(ones true feelings) and 建前　(ones public feelings) in action.

After that it was back up to the second floor to get our lavishly prepared traditional Japanese meal. Sadly the area is particularly famous for crab and beef, two things I couldn’t eat but was assured were delicious, however as the meal consisted of about 12 different dishes I didn’t go hungry. Well fed we went back to our room, I think our boss had hoped for a night of drinking and chatting but everyone was wiped and asleep by about ten.

The following day we were up early and after a quick soak in the tub it was time for breakfast. As with dinner it consisted of many small dishes. Most of it was fine and in fact I quite like miso in the morning but I still can’t stomach rice. Fish no problem, tofu, ok, but rice just doesn't sit right. My boss asked me what a normal English breakfast was like so I decided to try and explain egg and soldiers to his amusement.

We headed back to the slopes and they were as packed as the day before. I was now faced with a dilemma. Do I ski, which I’d picked up fairly quickly and thus could see a lot of the mountain, or do I give snowboarding a bash. My ego got the better of me. I’d really wanted to try snowboarding and I figured since I’d skateboarded for like 4 years it couldn’t be too difficult right?

Wrong. I spent the morning on my bum. I could go forward but I just couldn’t figure out how to turn the board to stop and so rather than crash into anyone I just threw myself at the floor. After a frustrating two hours I joined the guys for lunch, taking a break from the assault on wrists and rear.

Now I had a choice. I could try and get some lessons again but then I’d lose another two hours and not get to see much. I opted to figure out on my own and, rather stupidly now I look back at it, took the ski lift to the top. I strapped on my board and just went for it, worst come the worst I could just go down on my bum.

I’m not sure how but I realized that I actually found it easier to ride switch, opposite foot forward. Suddenly I had more control and could brake and turn a bit. Now that I could control my speed a bit I made my way to the bottom. I still fell over but not quite as much. Feeling a bit more confident I rode up to the top again, the height and incline not quite as daunting as before. It was a lot of fun now I could pick were I was going and how fast to go. I’m glad I kept at it in the end, though my body isn’t, boarding was a lot more fun than skiing once I could bomb it down the slope safely. I definitely want to go again though maybe once my bum has recovered a bit.

 

 Mata kondo ne.