Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a lovely New Year and a great start to 2012!

We spent New Year, like most 20-somethings do all over the world, by getting very drunk and dancing! There was lots of alcohol, lots of crazy drunk Japanese people wanting to dance with us, and it was a lot of fun! The hangover the next day wasn't as fun, and unfortunately unlike most New Years I didn't have the winning combination of pancakes, walk, chilli to cure it! Instead, I spent the 1st January being very lazy!

Our New Year got more traditional once we'd slept off the hangovers, and on the 2nd January (our last day in Sapporo :( ) We visited the Hokkaido-jingo Buddhist shrine in Maruyama park again. It's traditional in Japan to visit the shrine in the first few days of the New Year, for luck for the year, and to get a new fortune (as they all run out at the end of the year!). My fortune is good, and, while I think it's all rubbish really, it's nice to be told I'm going to have a very lucky year! 

It was still really busy! 

New Year's decorations

This was so pretty!

A lovely start to the year, and a lovely end to our holiday in Sapporo!

Genghis Khan

Not the Mongol massacrer, but the traditional Sapporo dish, mainly to be got at the Sapporo beer factory. Lots of beer, lots of lamb and a beautiful building??? John was there like a shot, and I wasn't far behind! And when it was an all you can eat lamb and vegetable BBQ for 2600yen (£20), with an extra 1000yen (£8) getting you all you can drink too, we were all very very happy we went! Oh, and did I mention it was DELICIOUS!

Beer, as fresh as it gets!

John very much in his happy place!

Silly

The Brewery

Don Quixote

This shop was so funny it deserves its whole own blog post. I'll let the photos speak for themselves!

Snow business

As I said in my last blog, skiing on Boxing Day didn't happen due to lots of snow, so we mostly just huddled indoors. But we did make the most of a break in the snow to go for a walk and get ramen for lunch.

John stuck in a phone box!

Soooo cheesy!

The last two days have been spent skiing! A lot of fun but just as difficult as I thought it would be! The first day we went to Moiwa, a slope right near Sapporo. It was easy to get to, just the subway to Suikawa and a 2 mile walk (or there is a bus from Makonamai but we didn't get it). Supposedly it's good for beginners, but there were actually too many groups of children about learning to ski, so the nursery slopes were packed :( A bit stressful for someone who had never put on skis before (ie ME!). But after lots of falling over, tears, words of encouragement from John and sweets from a lovely lovely Japanese lady, I finally started to get then hang of it, and tried the big slope. I still fell over a lot but it was a lot of fun! John pushed himself a bit to hard, but I was impressed how good he was since he hasn't put on skis for 11 years, and only went on one holiday then! Since I fell so much, I didn't dare take my camera with me, but here are a few shots I took before and after! 

Bridge on the walk there

My first ever ski site :)

Are you proud I managed this hill? It may look easy but it wasn't for me!

View from the top. Wow!

Skiing day two was at Sapporo Teine, a little further away, but much bigger and better! We got a transport, 4 hour lift pass and ski hire deal from JR Sapporo station for only 5850yen (£50). 

(The trains are really frequent, and buses at 9:10, 10:15, 11:50, 14:40 everyday plus 8:40, 9:40, 11:15, 12:10, 13:10, 14:10 weekends and holidays (takes 30 minutes to the top, you can get a timetable from the JR lady you buy the tickets from. I've put all the times here because I couldn't find one online anywhere). )

We went with Scott and Wayne, two Aussies we met on Christmas Eve. They were better than me, but not by so much that I felt too embarrassed!

We went right to the top area, Highland, and against my better judgement, got the lift right to the top. I must be mad!

Yes, right to the top. See that chairlift? I was on there, with skis on, fearing for my life!

It might have been a bit much, and the top of the green run down really tested my 1 day old skills, but slowly, slowly, I snowplowed my way to victory, and got all the way to the bottom! The run from Highland down to the lower course, Olympia, was fun for a real beginner like me, and a real confidence booster! Repeat, 2 more times, and I feel both completely knackered and like I have really accomplished something. So much fun! Wayne was braver than me at taking his camera today, so there's some better photos! 

Don't we look pro?

So pretty! I didn't ski all the way to the bottom (runs didn't go that far) but a good section of it!

At the bottom - I'd come from almost the highest point you can see, and I'd only fallen over once...about 10 meters before where this photo was taken!

What a fun few days in the snow!

Christmas, Japan style!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! It's Boxing Day here (the 26th for those crazy non-Brits), and we were planning to go skiing but unfortunately the weather has decreed otherwise. So we've put that off until wednesday and we're going to have a lazy day instead!

Yesterday started off slowly...not surprising since John didn't get in until 7am! Oh well, I'll let him off since it;s his birthday as well as Christmas! Then we woke up and had presents, thanks to Mum, Terry, Stacey, Aunty Alison and John's Aunty June and Uncle John! :D

John in his new t-shirt!

We then headed out and got lunch.

This is Soup Curry, a Sapporo speciality. Most importantly, it had roast chicken, roast potatoes and roast vegetables in it. Almost a traditional Christmas Day lunch!

We then decided to make the most of all the snow and went to a park in central Sapporo. We visited a shrine, got our fortunes and prayed for good luck, and then played in the snow.

"I'm a big tree". It's a Peppy thing.

Pretty river

Walking to the shrine

Praying for good luck

Making snow angels

Ridiculous icicle

Winner of a kids Christmas tree decorating competition

After a short relax(and a skype chat with lovely lovely Stacey :D ), we headed out for tasty tasty sushi...what could be a better dinner for Christmas in Japan? Well KFC actually as that's what they eat here for Christmas (apparently due to a successful advertising campaign in the 1970's!). But we decided sushi was a better option!

The only thing better than sushi? Shinkansen sushi!

John ate crab innards. Gross.

Yes, that is burger sushi.

Yum yum yum! The whole idea of Christmas is to stuff yourself stupid, right???

We then headed to central Sapporo, and did some more highly traditional Christmas things....

Playing air hockey

Trip on a Ferris Wheel (according to Andrew on the phone "just what Baby Jesus did on the first Christmas"!). This is actually on top of a building. I'll take a photo another day!

How pretty in the snow!

We met a random girl who was dressed like this!

I'm being Japanese!!

Christmas was almost over, just one thing missing....cake!

Yummy Japanese Christmas Cake.

We had candles and sung Happy Birthday :D

A very different but very fun Christmas day!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

...and this year it might actually come true!!

Living in the UK, there has only ever been 1 white christmas in my lifetime...last year, when I was in Cambodia! So it's still a dream to have a white Christmas. So, to be on the safe side, we've headed to Sapporo, in North Japan for Christmas! It snows here on average 25 days out of 31 in December, so, as their tourism website says, they can guarantee a White Christmas!!!

We got the boat here from Sendai. It took 15 hours, but was overnight and we had beds (sort of) and I actually really enjoyed the trip! Spending half my life on a boat (thanks Dad!) has made me almost immune to seasickness, and there was a lot of enjoy! Drunk Japanese teenagers, my first public bath experience (it's compulsory to go in naked, but it was a female only bath and not nearly as cringy as expected!), shops, arcades and kareoke rooms! I enjoyed sleeping, sewing, studying Japanese and learning to play Daifugo, a popular Japanese card game a little like sh*thead.

Our boat

Not exactly the same as Andromeda, hey?

Seaworthy sailors!

A Japanese man was very overly happy to take this photo of us!

When we arrived in Tomokomai, the nearby port, we got the bus here, it was a little cold waiting for it but very easy! We met Eric (friend from training, and (since he lived in Sapporo for nearly a year before) tour guide extrondinare!) and went to our apartment, aka Eric's old apartment that his very lovely landlady is letting us have for very cheap <3

As Christmassy as home lights get in Japan.

Lots of snow!

We had Japanese style burger type things for lunch, obviously had some snowball fights on the way and spent the afternoon relaxing and wrapping Christmas presents (not that poor John has any exciting birthday or Christmas presents from me!).

We then went out for the evening, had yakitori (skewered meat - tasty, but a little expensive, and not one of my personal favourite Japanese meals), and then had some drinks. We met a lot of other people at the bar, mostly foreign, through various different connections, but everyone was very friendly and we had a good night! Being the lightweight I am, I left to get the last subway home and have left the others partying the night away! On the plus side, on the walk to the subway I saw the Sapporo illuminations, which were very pretty!

Random.

This random man told me I was beautiful, and then danced with John!

Sapporo illuminations

It's already the 25th here, so MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!! Have a lovely day everyone, whether it's a traditional family and turkey dinner kind of day, or a random day like mine!