Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) in Sapporo

What a wonderful weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The participants: Me, Meg, Chas and Becca (2 Aussies and 2 Americans)

We started by taking a plane to Sapporo from Haneda airport in Tokyo on the Thursday night.

Friday was the day for the Sapporo Brewery. Chasna was very excited. She is as Aussie as they come. Her language and beer drinking skills are spot on occa (is that how you spelt it?)


Meg and i navigated our way to the brewery. Chas and Becca were just crusing and nearly went the wrong way, had i not stopped them on the train platform. So after a train ride and a walk we stumbled across a park with a huge mound of snow in it. We just thought it was heaped up snow till be got around the other side. And it was a slide. What fun that was.......Chas and i decided to go down it with our arms locked. That was a mistake. I got stuck in one of the small grooves in the ice and ended up going down on my side behind Chas as she still held onto me. BUT it was so fun. There was so much snow around. Much more than in Saitama where i live. And we slipped around quite abit. No one fell over till after lunch but that is a story for later. We also stumbled upon the Winnie the Pooh snowman and the Kitty snowman in the photo above this. Winnie was awesome.


When we finally made it to the brewery, we took some photos and decided to head inside as it was snowing quite abit by then. I was also hungry and wanted to get the museum over and done with so that the eating could begin. And Chas just wanted a beer. The strange thing about the building was that it reminded me of Auschwitz. It had a chimmney which probably didnt help. But later in the museum i found out that the founder of the brewery went to Germany and was so impressed with the beer came back and started his own brewery. He introduced beer to Japan. Thus the reason why the buildings look European. I still cant get over how much it looked like Auschwitz though.

I found the museum to be abit boring but the others were having a good look so i just hung out in the warm. Chas and I had abit of a laugh cause the attendents were dressed in clothes that were the pattern of the David Jones logo. They could have worked there in these clothes.

Then came lunch. It was so good. Chas cant eat beef because of her religion and Megs is a vego. So we went to a Yakiniku (BBQ plate in middle of table) This happened to also be the beer garden at the brewery. And they had the best lamb ever. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Chas got all you can drink for 1 hour and 40 mins and she made good use of it. The other two had a couple beers as well but i stuck to the water as i was on cold and flu medication. And i didnt think the ice and a drunk Tubby would have been a good idea. We also had some of the famous ice cream. Hokkaido is known for its milk and butter, lamb and seafood. So the ice cream we had was so creamy that i had to have two serves.

Then we headed off the buy some souvenirs. As soon as Chas walked out of the beer garden after her 5th beer she slipped on the ice and had to be picked up by Becca. It was very funny.

Oh and i should mention that on our way from the museum to the beer garden we found an igloo. Which was so cool. Many photos were taken and it was so awesome for this desert chick to go inside an igloo. There was also another slide. Not as high this time but still long. Meg and Becca decided to have a go and seemed to have fun.


Then it was off to the giant ferris wheel. Which happened to be on top of a building. You had to go up to the 7th floor and then get on it. It was quite strange and not something i had ever seen before. It was good and the lights were nice.

Next, we headed to the Yuki Matsuri. The whole reason we had come to Sapporo. It was so awesome. There were snow sculptures that were as high as a three story building. One of them was based on the new Narnia movie - Prince Caspian. Another was the Valley of the Kings because it is the year of exchange between Egypt and Japan. This one was awesome. And another had a giant mammoth on it.



The ice sculptures were amazing as well. They were all lit up in different colours. Such amazing detail. I loved the peacock and turtle that were on a street right near our hotel. And at Odori Koen (park) there was a leopard that was so great. The atmosphere was really good too and there were lots of smaller snow sculptures that we could take a photo with. I liked the Thomas the Tank Engine and a wonderful one of three elephants.

Then we headed back to the hotel. Chas went to a dance party and we all went to bed.

Saturday was another interesting day. Meg and Becca set off early for an Onsen that was about one hour away. This was Meg's main thing that she wanted to do. Chas and i slept in and then checked out of the hotel. Then headed to get some nice breaky or lunch as it turned out cause it was so late. Then we wandered around the Susukino area for awhile and looked at the ice sculptures in the area. There was a whole street of them including little ice buidings where companies has set up to advertise their products. We also went on the ferris wheel again. Which was much better than at night becuase we could see the hills surrounding Sapporo. All snow capped. Chas got very excited. And it was a very nice view.

Then we headed back to Odori Koen where the main festival was. We wandered around looking at all the sculptures again. And unlike on friday night, we could barely move there were so many people. We took some quite amusing photos of ourselves which i will post. Then it was dinner and back on the plane to Tokyo.


The pathways were lit with these candles. They were decorated by school students in Sapporo. It was really beautiful. Chas took the photo of me in the snow surrounded by candles and just as i lay down to have the photo taken i vibrated. It was my mobile phone but it was quite a strange sensation lying on the snow and vibrating. I was abit confused for a second.


Oh i forgot to mention that we didnt see the other two girls all day cause they got all the way back to Sapporo from the Onsen (1 hour away) and Becca left her wallet behind. So they spent the whole day on buses. Poor them. We met up at the airport where Chas and I nearly missed our flight cause we were running so late.

It was a really awesome couple of days. Great laughs and lots of great things to see. So different to anything i had ever seen before and so different to the red desert of Alice Springs.



Here are the links to the rest of my photos: (there are four links but cant get them to separate)

• http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40000&l=5764b&id=684506290
  
  
  
• http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40005&l=5fac3&id=684506290
  
  
• http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40009&l=d6fc3&id=684506290
  
  
• http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40012&l=dda90&id=684506290

Some interesting thoughts...........

So in Japan, you arent allowed to talk on your phone on the trains or buses. And the few times i have done it, i have been stared down by people and yelled at by the bus driver. So why when i was on the train the other night at 10pm did i count 4 Japanese people talking on their mobiles. Is there some unwritten rule that says that you can talk after a certain time????And they were not even talking in the quiet way where they cover their mouths with their hands. Plus two of them were sitting in the priority seating area. Where u arent even allowed to message on your mobile, in case u disturb the baby in a mum's tummy, or an old person or a disabled person. The strange thing about this is that a disabled person wouldnt be able to get on the train most of the time. My station has no elevator so wheelchairs cant get to the platform. And another thought is....why cant u message near the priority seats......is the baby gonna hear u typing on your phone.

Just some of the many things that perplex me on a daily basis in Japan.

Newest photo links

January in Japan

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37804&l=7b058&id=684506290

Snow photos - my favourites......3rd of Feb

For more photos click the links below........

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39261&l=926ce&id=684506290

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39263&l=fcbfc&id=684506290

Setsubun - to welcome spring.....umm hello its snowing

This is a carry over from the message about snowing. That day was also Setsubun. This is the Buddist festival to welcome spring, ward of evil spirits for the new year and get rid of the ones from last year. Specifically, the evil spirits are to do with health. The ceremony begins with prayers and then the demons come out.

Below is the description from the Temple's website:

Setsubun in SouganJi Temple (Kazo City)

Takes place at SoganJi temple on February 3. Setsubun is a ritual which takes place on the day before the beginning of spring on calendar, that is the bean-scattering ceremony celebrating the coming of spring.On this day, demons of red, blue and black carry big torches and run around the corridor of Fudou-Dou (a hall dedicated to the Buddhist god Fudo-Myo-Ou) in Souganji temple. Men and women of the year (based on the Chinese zodiac) throw beans at them shouting the spell "Oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi." (which means "Demons go out, luck come in"

Alex, Amy and I stood there and waited and waited. The demon finally came out but it was hard to get photos. Plus it was snowing really hard and we werent allowed to have our umbrellas up. There were about a million police there. Guess they expected more people but cause of the snow there werent many. It was quite funny cause it was almost like there were the same number of police and festival goers. They were all in white dress uniforms. Amy was obsessed with them cause she thought it was funny that there were so many. Some of them were quite cute too, which she enjoyed.

Then our friend Chris arrived and we headed back to the station via the longest route possible. We thought we were going the right way, but we got distracted creating our own setsubun ceremony. Amy put the mask on and then the others threw the beans at her.

Then we decided to have a snowball fight and chase each other around. It was so fun. But our feet were freezing by the time we finished. Coming from the desert, i had heard the idea that if your feet are warm then will be fine. It was so uncomfortable having wet feet. So when we eventually made it to the station, via every street of Kazo city, we went to the 300 yen ($3) shop to buy new socks. It was amazing how much better it was with dry socks.

It was a really great day.

Waking up to a winter wonderland covered in white snow

It's snowing again..................i love it.............

okay so i am sitting here at my computer.....duh....and looking out at the apartment complex and it is snowing. The whole place is covered in snow. It is so amazing. This is only the second time i have seen snow falling. I cant believe how beautiful it is. This is the best moment in Japan so far.
AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, its snowing. So excited.

okay so i just had some post ranting thoughts. Today is setsubun. Which means the beginning of spring and it is snowing.....................ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I just cant work this country out.

Oh my gosh, it is really hard now. This is awesome. I could just sit here forever and watch the snow. Can u tell i am excited....................

Japanese version of muck up day.....my kinda day.

So the other day, i was asleep in the office at school (slow week)when one of the teachers came in to tell me that i should go to the gym to watch the performances to farewell the 3rd years (yr12s). Any students could perform. One girl played the harp, it was awesome. And a couple of 2nd years (yr11s) got up and sang some popular J-pop songs. The girls went crazy when these two boys were singing. There was also a group of third years who danced dressed as animals and the middle dancer was a boy in a skirt. It was quite funny. Then the school dance club danced for a long time. It was awesome. The costume changes were so fast and the boys were really good. Something we dont normally see in schools in western countries. Then the third year teachers presented a video to farewell the third years. It was a collection of the teachers doing Romeo and Juilet. They had also done skits on the school camps over the years. While the Japanese was very fast and i couldnt understand much of it, it was really funny. I especially liked watching the third year girls giggling. The teachers made it a very enjoyable experience cause they were silly in the movie. Also all of the third year teachers recorded a good luck message for the students. The last thing was a powerpoint presentation of the third years. There are ten classes so there were lots of photos. But i sitting in amoungst the third years so i got to hear the comments and laughing etc. Many cried cause this was their last day at school.

The reason this was so foreign to me was because of the horror we allow students to engage in called muck up day in Australian schools. I participated in mine but was only responsible for the toliet papering of the school. The cat food in lockers and flooding of dorms are two examples of muck up day gone wrong. Muck up day serves only to allow students to wreck the school that has given them the education and opportunities of the last 6 years. While some students may argue that the school is not a good one and it was a waste of time, i would remind them that many kids dont get the opportunity to go to school at all. And that finishing High School opens so many doors to them. Muck up day at my high school and the school i started my teaching career at, served only to disrupt the day and does not unite the school in a celebration of these wonderful kids. The assembly i witnessed at my school here in Japan was outstanding. The whole school came together to farewell the seniors. It was a school spirit building experience and much more positve than the muck up days in Australia.

I am slowly entering a phase of my time here where i am settled enough to see the good and the bad of Japan. And i think some Australian schools and students could learn alot from this 'muck up day' Japanese style.

Right brain vs left brain

So i finally finished reading my book on what makes the Japanese Japanese. And one of the most fascinating things i read about was right brain vs left brain in language learning. It claims that English speakers use their left side of the brain for language and Japanese (rich in vowels) and other picture script languages use their right side of the brain. The author of this research says that the Japanese are as they are because they use the right side of their brain which is the emotional side of the brain. This means that when a Japanese hears a foreign language like English there brains have to switch hemispheres. Which confuses them and places them in an alien world. This means that because English and Japanese languages are processed on different sides of the brain, there are differences in behaviours as well.

Of course there are many other theories but this one was the most interesting to me. When reading the chapter, I felt a sudden understanding as to why it is hard to learn picture script languages for English speakers. I am not sure if it was an explanation of why I have had to study Japanese for so long to get a good grasp of it. Very interesting theory i think.