Sapporo: Day Four...

Day four started with getting packed up and organized.  I had contemplated sending our dirty clothes home by way of the Japanese post office, but none of them opened until nine, and in the end I got all our clothes rolled up and fit nicely back into our backpacks, so we just took them with us. 

We had another great breakfast; with one large exception...  Brave Miss M, always willing to try interesting new things, picked up a big pink thing labeled "cod roe."  It looked like a piece of raw fish, which she has enjoyed many times, so she grabbed her chop sticks and plopped the whole thing into her mouth.  It immediately became obvious that this was not normal raw fish...  It was, in fact, the sack of fish eggs, straight from the fish, and had, I hear, an EXTREMELY strong flavor.  We reckon that you're supposed to squeeze just a few eggs on other foods, to add a hint of taste.  Not just eat the whole thing in one go.  B and I are looking at Miss M gagging, and I'm thinking "There's no where for her to spit it out or throw up!  What are we going to do??!?!"  So I told her to hurry and swallow it and I would give her my orange juice, my water, whatever, and she could eat however many pastries she wanted, just PLEASE don't throw up!  And she got it down.  It was pretty impressive.  B thought he would try it, I have no earthly idea why, and he said it was about the most awful thing he'd ever had in his mouth. 

I wanted to take some pictures to remember our lovely rooms. 

I really loved that they had local artwork on the walls, not just random meaningless abstracts.  I wouldn't mind some prints of these...

 Here's the hotel lobby.  We saw two of these huge, amazing arrangements while we stayed there.  They must cost a fortune.

We walked over to the station.  We left our backpacks in a locker there, 600 yen well spent I think!  Instead of riding the train one stop to catch a different train, we decided to walk, underground of course.  It was fantastic!  You hear "tunnel" and you think dark, narrow, and subterranean.  But here it means bright, well-designed, and full of shops, galleries, statues, and displays.  We found a forest of columns, all hung with more Ainu quilts! 

 A note about the Ainu:  They are indigenous native people from Northern Japan and the nearby Southern Russian islands.  The height of their civilization was from about 1400 to the early 1700s.  But then they were conquered by the Japanese, oppressed, and made to culturally assimilate.  There was a cultural revival in the 1980s and 1990s.  Here is a link to a brief history from the Ainu Museum.

 These quilts are just so beautiful.  I read some articles here, and especially here about Ainu clothing and needlework. 

 From the second article:  'The patterns are geometric, but organic in nature, with a strong sense of movement and emotion, with dynamic swirls, s-curves, lozenges and ovals, all of which provided with barbs to symbolically prevent evil from entering the body of the wearer. "

 Since I am, unfortunately, illiterate, I can't tell who made these quilts, and if they are from the cultural revival in the late 20th century or if they are older.  Or if they are cut from clothing, or made and meant to be quilts.  But I think they are striking and lovely!

 The girls took pictures of all the quilts, then I got some close ups.

Here is a shot of the tunnel between stations.  Not only were we warmer than if we were above ground, but we found a craft fair!  (About my favorite thing.  And cue huge eye roll by B...)  I only bought a few wee little things:  a chop stick rest carved out of beautiful burl wood, and some hand sewn and quilted pouches to put in the girls' Easter baskets.  The quilting lady and I had a bit of a friendly fight over the money.  She said I didn't need to pay the extra 40 or whatever yen, and I, thinking her stuff was way underpriced as it was, tried to pay it anyway.  Of course she wouldn't let me, and there was much bowing and smiling.  She was very nice. 

 Everyone had to wait for me while I did my craft fair looking...

 The girls like to look for the subway train to appear.

 We rode the same train as on our ski trip, and got off at Maruyama Park to see the Hokkaido Shrine.

 The walk through the snowy park was beautiful.

 We stopped at, I think, Hotaki Shrine, on the way to the big shrine.  It looked shiny new.

Here is the Hokkaido Shrine.

While we waited for my goshuin stamp, we wandered around inside some of the back room areas.  They had a display of these paper people.

 They were so pretty and intricate.

 We were supposed to go to a nearby zoo, but we all came to the conclusion that we would rather get to the airport early, look around the mall and everything there, then have more time to rest.  I think we were all getting a bit tired...

 We walked back to the train station, and finally found an un-snowy cover.

The train on the way back into downtown Sapporo was very straight, you could see every hill and bump we went over looking up through the cars.

 Back in Sapporo Station, we stopped to take a last look at this beautiful carved statue of an Ainu elder. 

 From what we could gather from the sign, he is doing a dance.

 Isn't it amazing?  Here is a photo I found for comparison: 


We got on the airport train.  I was thinking on the ride out, through the snowy woods, how much I have missed snow.  It has been forever since I have lived in a place where you have the opportunity to look out on or walk through snowy landscapes.  I think there is a different kind of peace that comes when you watch snow falling, and piling up.  I feel like the flakes also fall inside, and make fall with them any anxieties or fears you may have.  Snow is still.  How have I been functioning without that for so long? 

 Back at the airport we went to the same food court we enjoyed on the incoming trip.  This is a girl who is so obsessed with reading Harry Potter, that she can barely eat her ramen.

 The airport had a stamp rally, so we used our extra time to wander around collecting stamps.  We came across a chocolate factory...

 Some sort of theme park in honor of this creature that we didn't know anything about but was quite cute...

 And much other interesting stuff.  The prizes the girls got for their stamps were quite nice.  Miss A chose an origami plane book.  Miss M chose a large notebook.  Miss R got a plane pull back toy.

Now, about mascots.  I mentioned earlier about the clock tower guy.  Another of Hokkaido's mascots  is the melon bear.  Here is an article about this, um, creature. 


This is from that article:
The city of Yubari in Hokkaido is renowned for its eponymous melons, a pair of which recently sold for 1.5 million yen at auction.  (Note:  I didn't taste one, because I don't like melons of any sort, but they look remarkably identical to canteloupe melon...)
So you have this scary bear with a melon stuck on his head.  I found these little bell key chain things at one of the airport shops.  It's hard to see, but they have the bear eating an animal, with the animal's tail in his mouth, and the head being pooped out the bear's tail end.  And if you think that takes the cake for Japanese mascot weirdness, than hold on.  You're no where close.  

This, my friends, is Marimokkori.

I will give you wikipedia's description:  Marimokkori (まりもっこり) is a character popularized in Hokkaidō, Japan. Much like the Tamagotchi, the name "Marimokkori" is a portmanteau: marimo is the word for the green algae clusters that grow in some of Hokkaidō's lakes, while mokkori, literally "bulge", is a Japanese slang term for an erection.

Marimokkori's fame comes through merchandising, with a number of various souvenirs being sold in Hokkaidō and throughout Japan.

Go ahead and do an image search for that if you like...

So there you go.  You have the Japanese love of clever word play, and the Japanese love of weird mascots, and you get this.  On top of that, B introduced me to some catchy 80s song called "Marimo," and made up crazy alternate lyrics, and now I permanently have that running around in my head.  It's great.  The marimo, incidentally, are totally cute.  I don't know why they didn't just stick with them...

 

We boarded our flight and said goodbye to Hokkaido.  I must go back!  I want to see it in all its seasons.

We had a beautiful sunset as we took off.

By the time we got back to Haneda airport and took the train back to Yokosuka, we were beat.  Thank Heaven for our wonderful friend N.  When I asked, she came and picked us up in her car at the station, to save us the walk back.  It was wonderful.

All in all, we really loved our trip.  B noticed that his Japanese got exponentially better in the few days we were there.  He thinks it was because, unlike around our American base, we only heard Japanese.  If for some reason we ever move back to this country, I would like to try living up there.

Sapporo: Day Three...

Thursday, our third day in Sapporo, was all about the skiing...  The girls were super excited!

First we enjoyed another fantastic hotel breakfast.  No fish for me this time.  Then we entered the underground labyrinth that is the Sapporo subway...  This picture doesn't do justice to the vast number of people.

We rode the train for 25 minutes, then got on a bus to take us to the resort, maybe another 20 minutes.  Not bad, we thought.  This resort, Bankei, or BanK, was the one recommended by the nice tourist info lady.  She said it is small, but where the local families go.  B is a fantastic skier, but I, although I'm from the home of the "greatest snow on earth," have only gone a few times, and never progressed beyond the my-hips-are-killing-me-snow-plow stage.  I prefer cross country.  So I did not ski.  This was the first time for the girls. 

I had read a bit about this resort, and thought that they did not accept credit cards.  So I paid for the lift tickets and equipment rentals with cash.  Since I had forgotten to top off at an atm that morning, that left us pretty short for yen.  Bear this in mind for later... 

The very nice resort boys helped the girls on with their boots, I'm sure marveling at  the large size of their feet along the way, and we got ready to go.  I bought sunscreen and slathered them all with it.  Repeatedly!  Usually I forget to reapply, but today there was only one sun casualty, and that was me... 

The girls' first walk in their ski boots.  I should have filmed instead; they looked extremely ungainly.

Here is a view of the lodge, and the almost imperceptible hill B had them practice on at first.  I spent almost the entire day down there by that snow covered deck back there, looking up at them practicing.  Thus my sunburned eyes...

Here is the translation of the day, from the lodge bathroom.  What is a voice cliff?

B tried to teach the girls to snowplow, herringbone up the slope, and get up after they fell.  Two girls then learned how to snowplow into a turn, then straighten up their skis in between turns.  This one was not one of those two...

Miss A caught on, so B took her up on the lift once, and came down with her.  Then she was turned loose to go as much as she wanted.  I stayed by the deck watching the small ones practice their turns (in Miss M's case), and barrel straight down the little slope (in Miss R's).

Then it was Miss M's turn to go up with Daddy.  R kept speeding straight down the little hill, while I tried to tell her to turn.  Like I have any clue how to do it!  My inept advice had no impact on her, and she kept herringboning up, snow plowing straight down, and falling backwards to stop.  Over and over.  I should have put my fit bit on her.  I bet she climbed the equivalent of Everest going up that little slope.

 B took Miss R down once too, then he needed a break.  So I took the girls in for lunch, while he went on all the runs.  He said there were not many real black runs, at least not by Rocky Mountain standards. 

I was worried about lunch.  I had two thousand yen left, or around $20.  With what I remembered of US ski resorts, I thought that would about cover two orders of french fries.  Maybe.  I had gone into the lodge earlier to ask if there were any atms close, which there weren't.  Back down by the train station was the closest, and B didn't want me leaving the extra girls alone while he was up with them individually on the runs.  I explained to the workers that I had used most of my cash on the gear and tickets.  Turns out I could have paid for those with a card!  It was only the restaurants that didn't take them...  I should always ask if a card-o is ok.  So when we went in to lunch I had a long look at the ordering machines in the lodge.  Luckily they had half orders of ramen for 500 yen each.  The girls each picked one, and they ended up being pretty huge!  Also, like most eating areas in Japanese malls and food courts, they had a place to get glasses of water for free.  I got a curry bun for a hundred yen, and we were set.  B didn't want anything to eat, so we ended up having extra cash.

After the girls and I ate, we walked over to see Japan's largest half pipe.  It was huge!  They don't look that big on tv, but this one is 180 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 6-7 meters deep.  We watched a few people go down.  It was fun.

After lunch B was ready for a fresh attempt at teaching three vastly different girls how to ski.  He said later that he had forgotten the biggest rule in teaching skiing:  everything is better after lunch.  He said that each time he has taught a kid to ski, it has been torture all morning.  They just never get it.  Then they go in to eat, and something magic happens in their little brains, and they come right out and can ski.  And so it was this time.  So the afternoon was quite nice for all of us.  The girls were free-range, and I sat in the lodge next to a heater and read. 

I popped out every once in while to take a photo and see how everyone was doing.  But it was very cold...

 I asked B what he thought about how the girls were learning, and he said that Miss R was hands down the fastest.  She rode up the lift, skied straight down the mountain without a hint of a turn, and did it again.  And again.  I could always spot her, not just because of her bright pink coat and pony hat (crocheted by the marvelous Miss Melissa back in VA) but because she looked like a starfish with her appendages all splayed out as she rocketed down the hill.  Miss M was the very slowest.  But B said that she had the best skills, and would be the best off long term.  Miss A was somewhere in between. 

They had a wonderful time, and it was a great day.

I liked the signs on the lodge doors...  Nothing says "welcome!" like facing a sumo wrestler head on.

The same nice boys were there to pry the boots off, and we headed for the bus.

Unfortunately, we got on the bus headed in the wrong direction...  It came six minutes before the bus we wanted, and I wasn't paying attention.  This was not good, since we were all fairly exhausted and wanted nothing but to be home in our rooms, warm and dry.  Thank Heaven for google!  I watched on the map, and found when the bus got close to a train station, and we jumped off.  So it worked out ok in the end. 

I was still chilled when we got to the hotel, so after we got the girls in bed, I hopped in to the tub for a nice long hot reading bath.  It was lovely.  Until...

   
My first real earthquake!  I would much rather I had not been sloshing around in a tub for this experience though.  It was crazy.  I have always been fascinated by natural disasters.  I studied them extensively in college.  I have also watched many documentaries about them.  In one, about the 2011 Japan earthquake, you see footage of people in an office in Tokyo.  When the earthquake hits, they stand around, but don't really do anything.  Every time I have watched that I wondered why they don't get under their desks, or try to exit the building, or do something!  Now I totally get that!  I know, forgive me, but really quite a lot about earthquakes.  And I was struck motionless, not knowing how long was it going to last?  How big was it?  Had the L waves arrived?  Was more going to happen?  I'm heartily sorry for all those office workers I had been judging all this time. 

We did not grab the girls and evacuate the hotel.  Which turned out to be a good thing.  But in the mean time, a hotel worker got on the PA system, and while another person spoke panickedly in the back ground, spoke very loudly and urgently in fast Japanese.  Then they left the speakers in the rooms on, while they conferred about something, and people screamed in the background.  I kept asking Brigham, while I threw on clothes, should we get the girls and go?  He wanted to wait, not wanting, I'm sure, to leave his nice comfy bed, and realizing that it was best to stay put.  It's not like we were in dodgy cinder block construction in Haiti or something.  Japan has the best earthquake preparedness in the world.  I went to check on the girls.  The two oldest were awake.  Not because of the earthquake, which they slept right through, but because of the loud voices on the PA.  Miss R never did wake for any of it.  Eventually someone did come on and gave an announcement in English, for which I was very grateful.  There was no need to evacuate, everything was fine.  But the elevators were not working, and would take some time to re-set. It was an exciting evening!  And that was day three.