So I was supposed to write a post about Popeye’s in tokyo, way back when and it kind of sat in my writing queue forever. I had started a couple of times and it just wasn’t flowing. Then I decided to revive that post with some information about a couple of pubs we visited in Osaka, but this also did not flow. I will give it one more try with some company from the Sapporo brewery.
The winter festival in Sapporo has three different sites. Susukino, home to most of the ice sculptures. Oodori Park, home to the snow sculptures. Satoland, about an hour train/bus ride from downtown Sapporo, home to snow play.
As soon as we boarded the bus for Satoland I realized that maybe we had, um, made a bit of a mistake. First of all, a vast majority of the people on board were outfitted for some serious winter activities. Hats, ski coats, mittens, snow pants, the whole works. We, on the other hand, were a bit less equipped. Also, most of the people on the bus were quite a bit shorter than we were. I know that we are “huge” foreigners, but I am talking about really short, like under-the-age-of-ten short.
Despite all that, we continued on, convinced that coming from Minnesota and Wisconsin we would be able to cope with the cold and have a little fun of our own.
A really neat thing about the snow festival was that all the major sculptures also served as stages for various events and performances. One of the ice sculptures was sponsored by Yamaha and they had this little booth with a piano inside it. While we were visiting we were lucky enough to see a performance by this young woman. The lights were coordinated with some of the music and it was absolutely stunning!
These two little “children” really caused me to do a double take while we were in Sapporo. First of all, they just seemed so cute. The way they were peering into the window of the shop at the little toy snowman. They seemed captivated.
So, I thought that it would be fun to take a picture of them. By the time I took out my camera, the children were still standing there in complete fascination, and I thought maybe something was up.
Wait a minute, they have stood still in those spots for so long that snow has begun to accumulate on their jackets. Those aren’t real children at all, those are fake children!
Sometimes it takes me a little longer to pick up on these things….
This weekend we spent some time up in Hokkaido, the northernmost prefecture of Japan. Each year they hold a snow festival, the yuki matsuri. While we visited Sapporo we found a lot of really fun and interesting Engrish, among other things. Part of why we found so much is because we again felt like tourists. We were able to wander around, looking and exploring, something that we haven’t done in our own little town in quite awhile. Amazing how quickly Gifu went from being intersting and new (sometimes frustrating) to old hat. But, more on that tomorrow.
