Naginata

Wow, we've been quite remiss in updating lately haven't we?

As it turns out, November and December is crunch time for teachers in Japan. In fact, the old name for December in Japanese (shiwasu) can be translated to mean "Teachers Run". Our lives were no exception, and we're desperately wanting winter vacation to finally arrive.

In addition to our heavier than normal workload, we also had the extra stress of an impending Naginata competition back in November.

"What is Naginata?" you might ask.

About a year ago, to the day, we wrote about our experience with Kendo. Naginata (officially called "Atarashii Naginata" or "New Naginata") is essentially the same as Kendo but using a Japanese styled halberd instead of a sword. The same rules apply: you must call out your target as you hit it with proper technique to score. Besides the difference in weapon, Naginata adds an additional target than can be hit with the inclusion of shin strikes. Needless to say, this leads to many a bruised foot and knee.

It is traditionally seen as a woman's martial art. Indeed, in Japan the women outnumber the men by a large percentage (outside of Japan, men dominate the art for social reasons). It was believed that because of the longer reach it provided, the weapon was a better choice for the naturally frailer woman who could not hope to match a man with a sword (likewise the bow was also paramount to Samurai women). But training in the weapon has always been an important endeavor for both sexes of the warrior class.

As for our own history, I've been training since August and Jane started back in April.

This is actually Jane's second time taking part in a Naginata competition. Her first time around she only participated in the Kata section however. Though, she did manage to win one of her three rounds there. Surprisingly, we were able to do fairly well for our first fighting competition.

I took 15th and Jane took 20th out of 32 competitors.

There were only two clubs representing all of the participants (there are at most four total in all of Sapporo I believe). Ours is the sole adult recreational club. The club is mainly comprised of elderly women, so we only had six members participating; 4 men including me and 2 women including Jane. The rest of the competitors came from a single High School and were all women save for one European exchange student.

The format was a little strange and probably too difficult to type up here. But it was basically a kind of a marathon round-robin with three matches going at all times. You cycled through as many matches as you could in the time limit (about 2 1/2 hours). To keep track of your results, you would have stickers placed on your bogu (armor) for each match, points scored, and victory. At the end you added up all your stickers and the person with the highest score won. I ended up with around 50 points and actually somehow won the majority of my matches. The top three spots were taken by the other three guys in my club and their bogu looked like light-brights. I think the highest score was around 140. The girls from the High School actually weren't too far off from that. Here's what mine looked like:



Jane and I both got pretty banged up (my hands and feet were all kinds of purple and her shoulder had a pretty ugly bruise on it) but we had a great time and are eagerly looking forward to our next competition.

Here's some videos for reference (not of us):

Women's Championship
Men's Championship
Naginata vs. Kendo

-Ryan

Haunted Waterfall: Heiwa no Taki

I hope you like scary stories!

Late one night several weeks ago, our friend Rob sent us a message:

"Hey, you want to go to a haunted waterfall?"

Being the huge fans of the macabre that we are, of course our only response was a resounding "Of course!".

We quickly made our preparations. Flashlights and cameras stowed, sweaters donned, and shoes laced up tight, we made our way out. In addition, we brought an Oni mask with us. Rob's girlfriend, like many Japanese, is very superstitious and had refused to join us on our excursion. We had hoped to use the prop to take some scary pictures to show her to punish her cowardice. Little did we know, we would have no need for such a device!

After a few wrong turns we made it to our destination. We were greeted by this slightly unsettling memorial.


To get down to the actual waterfall, you have to traverse three sets of slippery stairs and decaying handrails. In more than one spot, the foliage itself hinders your progress. It's as if the very area is telling you that you are unwelcome.


I was not the least bit deterred however. I quickly made my way down ahead of my companions. Alone, I decided that I would do a bit of exploring. There was a small shoreline of moist pebbles around the edge of the pool. My footing was sure, but I suddenly found myself nearly waist deep in the water! I frantically clawed my way out and looked around. I was sure that something had pushed me, but still I was friendless indeed! Needless to say, I was more than a little on edge from this moment on. But, I kept my experience to myself, saying only that I had foolishly slipped on some moss covered rocks. I would gladly endure their mocking over incredulous stares.

The air was unseasonably warm that night. But shortly after my seemingly supernatural experience, a chill set upon us. We quickly took some pictures of the spring and crash of the water and made our way out.


Before leaving we decided we would take a few commemorative shots to hold onto. It wasn't until we had arrived to our homes that we noticed them. Behold!

Is that a face next to me?


Same bench; different angle. Do you see the man?


Child at play?


A woman next to the tree?


To say were shocked at what we captured would be an understatement. The experience forced us to delve further into the lore of the area. There is a story of a local family that met a rather horrid demise some years ago near the waterfall. When they were of this Earth, they frequently came to the falls to spend time together. In the afterlife, it seems that they are doing the same.


-Ryan

Makomanai Park and the Salmon Festival

Finally rounding out our tour of all the parks in Sapporo is Makomani Park. (There's still other parks we've yet to see in/near Sapporo but the weather is quickly becoming colder and I'm not sure it's going to be park weather for long so this one might be the last new park we'll visit.)

This park is about a 25 minute subway ride south and 1 km from the station. We packed a lunch and headed off. We could have ridden our bikes...but I think we wanted a relaxing day. Anyway, the subway ride gave us time to read/play our gameboys. The weather looked great until we stepped out of the station and it started drizzling. Actually it was more like a misting. We seemed to be walking away from the rain but once we got to the park, the mist had turned into substantial drops. Good thing we didn't ride our bikes and that Ryan happened to have his umbrella in his backpack! (Was he a boy scout?)

I remembered that there was supposed to be a Salmon festival at the Living Museum of Salmon in the park so we made our way to the museum. Besides the fact that this event seemed interesting (I really want to see salmon swimming back upstreat!), a museum meant shelter and shelter meant being warm and drying off. When we got to the museum the rain wasn't so hard so we actually laid out our picnic tarp (picked up at the 100yen on the way because we forgot our usual tatami mat! oh the convenience of the 100 yen shop!) under the trees and ate our lunch.

After lunch, we walked around the festival. First thing we saw was a turtle race!! Much more exciting than it sounds, really! You'll see in the pictures that the blue turtle won, the red turtle didn't move at all (she was the oba-chan aka grandmother), and the yellow one, the tiniest turtle, made it half way and then decided to stare at us. Of course, since it was the cutest, the yellow turtle was the crowd favorite. After the excitement of the turtle race we walked around the museum, which had indoor and outdoor exhibits. There were some monster salmon there! They also had other river animals, like water beetles and crawfish and a variety of fish and frogs.

Overall it was pretty fun but I didn't get to see any wild salmon swimming upstream. I WILL see them one day!!

Enjoy the pictures:

Makomanai Park and Salmon festa

Summer's Over!!!

And what have we been doing with these last few warm days? LOTS!!!!

First of all, it has been a hot summer...for everyone, I guess. But for Sapporo?! We have neighbors who didn't even own fans until this summer. Coupled with the unusual humidity...everyone was exclaiming: 蒸し暑い (むしあつい　= mushi atsui = humid) and wiping their necks with their handkerchiefs the last few weeks. We are finally experiencing some cooler weather, though this is a far cry from last September when the first snows were falling in the northern Hokkaido mountains already.

We missed the Summer Festival Beer Garden in August because it was too rainy but I don't feel too sorry for that. We more than made up for missing the beer garden in our own ways:

BBQ!!!

Learning Japanese drinking games!!!
I think they are more enjoyable than American games!

Drinking at Liebspeise Beer Garden...
Otaru Beer is supposed to be the best beer in Hokkaido (?) and their recipes are actually based on German beers. Very interesting flavors- such as strawberry and banana. The Pilsner was my choice. Also, it was all-you-can-drink for 3 hours at only 2000yen!!!

And karaoke, of course!!

So, I think we did enough partying that we didn't need to spend the night in Odori drinking as well.

At the end of August we were also able to watch the Hokkaido Marathon. There were 9000 runners in it!! I put an album up with some random shots and then a few of people in costumes. I was so excited when I noticed on the TV that they were coming close to our apartment that I ran out to the refreshment and sponge tables up our block and forgot to load my camera with its SD card. Luckily Ryan brought it down to me just in time for the first runner...However, when I saw him, I was in so much awe I forgot to snap the picture!! Besides that, he was too fast to catch on film! Hahaha.

It was so hot that day and the race started at noon! I made the mistake of crossing over to the same side as the refreshment table and was basically trapped for an hour as 9000 people ran by. Ryan says his favorite part was buying a Pepsi from the vending machine and standing in the shade of an RV in a parking lot. Hahaha.

Hokkaido Marathon

Lately, we've been hitting all of Sapporo's parks. This is a truly green city. After today's rainy excursion to Makomanai Koen (koen = park), I think we've only got one or two left to go. So you're in for a treat 4 park picture albums!!

First up, Sapporo Geijitsu No Mori (Sapporo Art Park).

Sapporo Art Park and the Ghibli exhibit

I really wanted to go here because they were having a big Studio Ghibli exhibit- the makers of anime such as Princess Mononoke, Totoro and Spirited Away. This exhibit was gigantic!!! I mean, the amount of work they had on display...I guess it makes sense- they were basically showing sketches for the movies- but I was only 1/3 of the way finished looking at all the work and I almost gave up! Many of the pieces were drawn Hayao Miyazaki himself! The exhibit organizers did their job well- I gained a lot of appreciation for the work that goes behind animation. You'll see in the album pictures of me laying on Totoro's stomach and of the kuro-kuroski (black dust balls) that I drew for their wall.

The art park itself was wonderful. They have studios that you can rent and do work in and a crafts building where they teach crafts (really?!). I think there's even a music hall. My favorite part of the park was the pond. There are stairs that basically go into the water and when I first walked up to it, I noticed a mother and child throwing pieces of bread into the water. I thought they were feeding ducks but as I got closer, I didn't see any ducks near them. I only saw that the water in front of them was swirling and writhing. Holy crap! I thought. There's a sea monster in this pond! Well, that's a silly thought- it'd be a pond monster, if anything. Anyway, you'll see from the pictures that my pond monster was actually gigantic fish. They were practically walking up the steps!

Next, Takino Suzuran Koen. Actually, maybe this park doesn't count as a park within Sapporo. It was a 35 minute bus ride south of the city.

Takino Suzuran Park

This was a kind of spur of the moment trip. We decided we needed to take advantage of the good weather and I decided on this park because it supposedly has one of the 100 most beautiful waterfalls in Japan. Well, you'll see the album has zero waterfall pictures. Actually, there are waterfall pictures but it wasn't THE waterfall that we were aiming for. We were still pretty happy to see a waterfall (see pictures).

What we did get to do was play in what I think is Teletubby land. Actually, I think it was the Children's Valley and had lots of things to do like rolling giant red balls up and down a giant hill, various slides (some so dangerous kids were wearing helmets!) and a really cool underground play area with a giant net that kids jumped around in. It was awesome!! There was also a giant anthill.

We're going to revisit this park soon so we can check out that waterfall (and probably play again!!).

Next, Maeda Forest Park. We went there this past weekend because even though the forecast said it would rain, it was bright and sunny and once again, we had to take advantage of the good weather. (Did I mention that lately the weather has been nice and warm EXCEPT on days we have off?)

Maeda Forest park

So we decided to ride our bikes there- a nice 10km ride. All in all it's a beautiful park with a really long canal leading up to a building that websites say is supposed to look like a castle but only sort of looks medieval. I was lucky enough to spot two girls wearing costumes and having a photoshoot. So, of course, I asked them if I could take some pictures with them. Don't ask me what I was trying to do in the last picture. I think I said "I'm going to look scared now!"

It seems like a great park for runners and dogs. We saw a lot of those. We also saw some men putting together an RC car. Japanese people always have such interesting hobbies!

The last park is Makomanai Park, which we visited today. I'm glad we finally got to it since I'll be running my first 5K race there in less than two weeks! But I haven't uploaded the pictures yet so you'll just have to wait for the next post!!! Until then, enjoy the pictures!!

(I'll try to caption them ASAP as well though I tried telling their stories in this post!)

As if I really needed ANOTHER blog...

Trust me, there WILL be actual updates soon...there are so many pictures and stories to tell but it's been like Grand Central station over here! (That means, really busy, right? Probably means something more like lots of people have come through here...even then it applies!)

Anyway, just wanted to inform you all that I've started another blog solely for tracking my Japanese studying:

Ganbari Jane!

So...enjoy!

Blast From the Not So Distant Past

Well, I never finished my "Blessed with Snow" series which should have been a three parter- with the さっぽろ ゆき まつり ("Sapporo Yuki Matsuri" = Sapporo Snow Festival) being the conclusion. So here it is!

For those of you who don't know about Yuki Matsuri, it is a festival celebrated in Sapporo every year in February. Hundreds of snow and ice statues are built in three different sites- Odori Park has small and large snow sculptures, Susukino has ice statues and the Tsudome Dome is basically turned into a playground made of snow and ice with funny activities such as Waku-waku Tappy Land and Snow Crystal Watching.

The 2010 festival was the 61st. The festival was started in 1950, when a group of high school students built a few statues in Odori Park. Five years later, the Japan Self-Defense Force decided they wanted in on the fun and started building massive snow sculptures. The Self-Defense Force is actually in charge of bringing in all the snow and has to bring in snow from outside Sapporo when accumulated snowfall is low. This is considered a training exercise for them!

I can't even remember what day we went to the festival but it's only a week long, so we must have gone on a weekend night. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in Sapporo before and I probably won't again until next year. It was freezing but worth it just to see the amazing things they built! I did not expect the statues to be so big but three or four of them were actually stages.

On to the most important part: the pictures! Enjoy!

Yuki Matsuri 2010

Long Time No See!

Well, it certainly has been a long time since I've written anything here hasn't it? It's been a bit slow here in Sapporo since the ski season ended, but let me get you up to speed on a few things that have happened since our last conversation.

Early April (or was it late March?) our friend Ruky came to visit us from the U.S. She came along with one of her friends that was stopping over on his way to return home to Taiwan. Their visit consisted mostly of traveling around the main island of Honshu, but they managed to trek up North for a weekend.

Arriving late on a Friday night, we assumed that they'd be some combination of jet-lagged, hungry, and shocked by the still frigid weather of Hokkaido. So, it was only natural that we feed them our city's comfort food: Soup Curry!

Jane has mentioned this once before but let me give you a little more in depth description. Soup curry is an Indian influenced spicy soup usually made from a tomato or beef stock. Though, we've seen other varieties including coconut and seafood. Curry houses and Indian food in general are very popular dining options in Sapporo and there seems to be quite a large population of Indian immigrants on our island. We're not really sure why that is in a country as homogeneous as Japan, but we're quite happy with it seeing as Indian food tops our list of favorites. Digressing, you can have pretty much anything you want with your soup curry. Jane and I prefer mame chizu which is a vegetable option with two large pieces of mochi smothered in cheese. Delicious!



The next day, we took them to all of the popular tourist attractions in Sapporo. Unfortunately, Sapporo isn't terribly interesting unless you're planning it as a hub on your winter sports excursion. And frankly, I'm having a hard time even remembering exactly what it was we did this day, so let's just skip to the next day shall we!

Besides skiing/snowboarding, Hokkaido's other main attraction are onsen. We had already visited a very famous set of onsen in Noboribetsu when we first arrived. This time we opted for something a little closer in the towns of Hohekyo and Jyozankei. Our good friend Midori also decided to join us for our little excursion. A short bus ride later, the five of us were in the town exploring the many nooks and crannies it had to offer.

First stop, a foot bath!


I'm probably breaking every rule there is, but I'm relaxing the only way I know how!

Afterward, we walked to an interesting local shrine.


Built into the ground below is a narrow tunnel housing many Buddhist statues. It was kind of a tight fit for me but a very fun adventure nonetheless.



There were several other hot spring attractions, such as this little waterfall.


The water is actually hot enough to boil eggs!


For the last part of the day, we took our friends to the onsen for the full Hokkaido experience.

Coming up next: Jane's naginata training, our experiences at a Filipino Pub, and more!

-Ryan

And then it was spring...

April went by quickly...Spring break wasn't really a break (worked almost half of it); Ruky came to visit for a few days (Yay!); The weather was bitter cold and rainy (Ryan often reminded me that spring is NOT the best season); Then Golden Week came upon us (More on that later); And last night while we slept, someone did this to our tree:



It is finally はなみ (flower-viewing) season in Sapporo!!! I'm sorry this is going to be short. I assure you I have a backlog of posts that will be published sooooooon but I have to admit now that the blossoms have arrived, I might be a little distracted. I was feeling a bit sorry that winter was ending in April (I would trade freezing rain for a blizzard any day!) but today's warm breezes won me over! Happy Spring, everyone!

Busy busy!

The month of March flew by! Three weeks since my last entry...Gosh!

Well, if you're still at the edge of your seats wondering about the "natto experiment"- I guess it was a success...though I didn't really set any parameters to indicate a failure or a success. Natto is basically my primary source of protein now- I've taken to using it at dinner instead of breakfast because that's my last meal before going to work out usually. So I guess I'm taking it back to feudal Japan...natto and miso being vital sources of nutrition. Haha.

I am currently on はるやすみ ("haruyasumi" = spring break) though I have had to teach a few special spring break classes at Blueberry. Those were especially fun because I was able to meet the older students who usually come for after school English lessons. They are around 9-10 years old and their English is pretty astounding- I felt like I was in an American classroom, almost. The students also had はっぴょうかい ("happyoukai" = recital) and graduation this month. I was so proud of the kids, especially the little ones, for performing so well!

March brings the end of the school year here and for students, teachers and some other public workers it's a pretty emotional month. I know we had a few tears at Blueberry. It's pretty heartwrenching to see a pretty well-adjusted child start to cry because they are scared of しょうがっこう ("shougakkou" = primary school) and so heartwarming when the child's classmates comfort and assure them that they will make good friends in their new school!

For teachers and public workers, March is the month that they get transfer notices. Our two favorite teachers in Ryan's office are actually getting transferred! (Actually most of the teachers we know are our favorites. Haha.) A transfer can mean something small like moving to another desk or floor or something huge like a different school clear across the prefecture. And it's a very short notice since classes start up again in April. It's a strange system here.

However, because of this upheaval and probably also because winter is ending, the calendar has been full of drinking/dinner parties. It's been tiring and fun.

Speaking about winter ending...we are still in the single digits (in celsius...aka low 40s in fahrenheit) with the temperatures dropping below 0 in the evenings and fresh snow coating the streets in the mornings. We don't anticipate cherry blossoms until late April/May (most likely May) but we're considering a trip to southern Hokkaido in late April so maybe we'll enjoy some はなみ(hanami" = flower viewing; usually cherry blossoms) a little earlier than in Sapporo.

Well, that's its, folks...now all I have to do is put up the ゆきまつり ("yuki matsuri" = snow festival) pictures...

では また! ("dewa, mata!" = see you!; usually pronounced more like "ja mata!")

P.S. Had an earthquake this morning- the longest and shakiest I've experienced so far! Don't worry- it's still just a baby quake.

Day 2 Natto still tastes good!

Second day of eating natto and still kinda love it! Today I really tried to take in the smell and taste of the natto. There's no way around it- natto smells awful. But tastes good! Someone suggested that maybe I can try a different brand of natto to see if it's just the brand I bought. So I went and bought another pack today. Will try it tomorrow!

This morning I stirred my natto a lot to get it all sticky and stringy. Yum!

I said I would examine the flavor a bit more today and like I said yesterday besides the smell and the outer texture, natto really just tastes like beans on the inside with a little bit of an earthy taste on the outside.

Stay tuned for the new brand review tomorrow!

Day 1 Natto Experiment

Today I had natto for breakfast and guess what?! I LOVED it! I don't know why my first time was so bad. Here is my breakfast: rice, natto and tea with milk.

Inside the natto cup:

Pulling up the cover:

Feast your eyes on this sticky natto!!

Then you stir your natto around, add the soy sauce and mustard and BAM!

Place it all on top of your rice and itadakimasu!

I guess during my first experience with natto, I was completely consumed by its aroma. To say it smells bad is an understatement. I don't think I will ever smell natto and say "mmmMMMmm!" This morning the natto didn't smell as bad. At least I wasn't as put off as the first time. Maybe the remnant of my cold is still dulling my sense of smell.

Another obstacle is its texture. It is very sticky and stringy and the more you stir it the more sticky it gets. This does not bother me that much actually. I think I rather enjoy its texture and stringiness. After I was done eating I did have to wash my face because I felt like all the little strands were sticking to my mouth and chin. That was a little gross.

As for the flavor, it IS strong but I found it very tasty! The beans seemed to have retained a slightly sweet bean-y flavor on the inside and had a sort of...well, indescribable flavor on the outside. It tasted like natto! It tastes earthy, I guess. I will try to think about the flavor a little more tomorrow morning.

Now I'm dreaming about natto sandwiches...

Skiing on Olympic ground and Day 0: Natto Experiment

We had a nice relaxing weekend here in Sapporo. On Saturday we skied Teine Highland aka site of the 1972 Olympics! Met up with some of the teachers from Ryan's office. They are AWESOME skiers...but what else can we expect from people who've grown up in Hokkaido?!


I tried the "Expert Only" course. It only took me 30 minutes to go down 1500m!! Hahaha. It was an ungroomed course through the trees and full of moguls. Next year I want to cut my time down a bit. Haha. But despite how difficult it was for me (not being able to jump turn or sometimes just get over my fear and go) I rather enjoyed that trail and hope to visit it again soon!

We ended the day with our favorite soup curry from Voyage. (More on that another time!) Skiing and soup curry on a Saturday! What more could one want?

Today, we were able to sleep in (until 10!!) and just cleaned/had a lazy day.

And tomorrow will be my first* day eating natto for breakfast!! Natto is a traditional Japanese food- everyone here always asks if we like natto. The answer is always "no." Why? Natto is fermented soy beans- which means it has a very distinct scent. Frankly, it smells like compost and tastes like it too. (Well, it tastes like how I imagine compost to taste like...) It is super sticky and extremely slimey. Read the wiki that I linked to at the beginning of the paragraph.


*My first actual day eating natto was over the summer at our hotel in Noboribetsu. However for the purposes of my experiment, tomorrow will be Day 1.

Then why am I eating natto tomorrow? Because I think I should give it a chance (again). So many people LOVE it here (even the children!) and it's SO healthy for you. I have bought a pack of 4-20g containers of natto and I will consume one pack a day with my morning rice. I wanted to take a video but mornings are a little busy in this household so I think pictures will have to do.

Well...better go to sleep so I can wake up and eat my natto! Oyasumi nasai!

Sushi on a Conveyor Belt! Finally!

So last night we FINALLY went out to eat sushi at a conveyor belt style restaurant!! Yeah, yeah, I know, you can do that in NYC. But it's special here! We went with our friends and their daughters. So here's the view from our booth next to the belt:

That faucet you see there dispenses hot water for the green tea powder that they also provide on the table. Kakkoi!!

If there's anything in particular that you want that's not going around on the conveyor belt, you can order by writing down what you want on slips of paper. Here is our friend's daughter making special orders for us:

They were having a special deal that day- 3 pairs of different types of salmon sushi for 126 yen!!!

I had already eaten one of them before taking this picture. Haha. The last pair that's wrapped in nori (seaweed) is actually called the parent-child roll because it is salmon with salmon eggs on top. Oishii!!!

How do they know how much to charge? By the number and color of your plates!!

This is our stack of plates towards the end of our sushi feast!

After you're done eating, you can make some soy sauce art, as demonstrated by our friend's other daughter here:

Ohkay, that's not really true- She just got bored and wanted to play with soy sauce.

Well, I've got to run to work!! Just wanted to make a quick post!! OH and I should also mention that I FINALLY got to have a taste of sea urchin (uni)- it is DELICIOUS! More later maybe...

Niseko vs. Furano and other things...

I was going to make a post comparing Niseko and Furano but I think it's pretty apparent what the differences are. The biggest difference is that there are no drunk Australians in Niseko. Other than that- Furano has better snow but Niseko was more challenging runs (and is bigger in general). Furano is much more peaceful and feels like/is a small town while Niseko is a a pretty developed ski resort. The end!

So I think there's one last "Blessed with Snow" entry and it's going to be about Yuki Matsuri. I have over 100 pictures to go through but should be done this week!

I really want to start a series of posts about food. Good food, Bad food, Weird food...Once my cold subsides and I can taste flavors again my first subject will be なっと ("natto" = fermented soybeans). YUM! Not really though...I've had it before and it was not pleasant. Ryan said maybe I should eat natto while I'm sick so I can't taste it. But I want the full experience and so do you!

Stay tuned!

"Blessed with Snow" Part Ni: Furano Ski-jo

aka ふらの は すばらしい でした!!! ("Furano wa subarashii deshita!!!" = Furano was awesome!)

Furano is known for three main things: lavender fields, the television drama きたのくにから (Kita No Kuni Kara = From the North Country; I think that's what it translates to), and Furano Ski Resort. Well, the lavender fields are buried in snow and I don't know a thing about that television drama...so I guess all I have to talk about it is the skiing! Of course!

Furano is 142km east of Sapporo. It's smack-dab in the middle of Hokkaido- which is why it's sometimes called the へそ ("heso" = belly button) of Hokkaido. They even hold a へそまつり ("heso matsuri" = belly button festival), which is during the summer and will not be talked about here- though you should do a google image search of the festival because it's pretty funny. (ohkay, i made you guys a link...just click google image search.) This city (8th largest in Hokkaido!) is surrounded by the biggest mountains in Hokkaido- Mt. Tokachi-dake of the Taisetsu Mountain Range, also known as the "roof of Hokkaido," and Mt. Ashibetsu-dake of the Yubari Mountain Chain.

Furano ski resort has two zones: Furano Zone and Kitanomine Zone. In the Furano Zone, they have a super high speed ropeway; it takes 101 passengers something like 2,330 meters in less than 5 minutes. I think we only rode it once the entire time we were there though. Haha. Just like Niseko, Furano is blessed with snow from the Sea of Japan and Siberia except that its powder is even drier than Niseko's. What?! So it basically sounds like THE place to ski, doesn't it?!

Well, it is!! Furano is hands-down my favorite place right now. I'm having a lot of trouble keeping this entry organized because I just want to rave about Furano...Let me just give you a short recap:

Ryan and I ended up getting ourselves a 4 day weekend last week (Ryan actually got 5 days off!!) so I booked us a bus to Furano and pension accommodations by the gondola in Kitanomine Zone. It took about 3 hours to get to Furano and it was a half km walk from the gondola to our pension, Pension Ressha House. The pension was nice but we didn't get a room with ensuite bathroom so it really was more like the Japanese ryokan we stayed in in Hamamasu. The bathrooms were dorm-style and the shower/bath was gender separated Japanese style. I never actually had to share the shower/bath with anyone so it was like having a huge shower room all to myself and my own pool to soak in afterwards. I have to say that although it was a really nice place, I never felt rested there. Maybe because I was too tired or starting to get sick (I've got a pretty bad cold right now) or it was too hot...or maybe it was the weird elevator music that was constantly playing. That REALLY bugged me. They did turn it off at a certain time at night but still. Anyway, like I said before, the pension was 0.5 km from the gondola and unlike Niseko, Furano doesn't have its own free shuttle bus service for the resort area. It wasn't a terrible hike though.

What the walk looks like from our pension to gondola

So the first day we decided to take the bus into downtown Furano for some おみやげ ("omiyage" = souvenir) shopping and dinner. I happened to see that there was Geo in town (Geo is a multimedia store that sells lots of used video game stuff) so of course, we had to stop in there so Ryan could get his video game fix. The best places to find rare items are in small towns in the middle of nowhere and Ryan really lucked out because Geo was having an insane sale.

After buying the souvenirs and some games, we had dinner at Teppenyaki Masaya where we ordered the Furano Omu Curry and their super fluffy おこのみやき(okonomiyaki), which I can't remember the name of anymore. You can translate okonomiyaki to "whatever you want cooked" and that's basically what it is- a pancake type dish with whatever ingredients you want. In most okonomiyaki restaurants you actually cook the pancakes yourself and have a choice of toppings and sauces. In other places the chef makes the okonomiyaki on a grill in front of you. The specific okonomiyaki we had at Masaya was different in that it was extremely fluffy. It was actually the first okonomiyaki I've had so I have nothing to compare it to. It looks very light and fluffy but since it is made with potato it is also pretty filling.

Masaya of Teppenyaki Masaya making our food!

Our Okonomiyaki

The Furano Omu Curry is Furano's signature dish. First of all, Omu Curry is just rice wrapped in an omelette with curry on top and can be found pretty much anywhere. To be a Furano Omu Curry you must follow these rules:
1. Use Furano-raised rice, vegetables, and eggs.
2. Must be served with a glass bottle of Furano Milk.
3. Must be under 1000yen.
If it follows these rules, only then can you plant a little "welcome to Furano" flag in the rice before serving. It is very tasty and the milk was really good too!

Furano Omu Curry

So we had a good restful first day. The next day we had breakfast at our pension and then made the hike up to the gondola (which, not gonna lie, was not the best part of my day). I soon found that even though I had to climb uphill in my boots with my skis and poles, it was totally worth it. Furano powder is awesome and plentiful! I was scared at first because there was a sign that read "Attention Beginners!! There are NO beginner courses at the top of Kitanomine gondola!!! Take the lift instead!" But boy, do I feel sorry for those beginners who stay away from the top...the view is amazing!! (Also, it would have been another uphill climb to the lifts from the gondola station.) And as I would soon find out, there is almost no course in Furano that I CAN'T ski. I have to say it's a combination of the amazing snow and the fact that the courses really aren't that hard as compared to Niseko. I think that first day we skiied pretty much everything except for the three expert courses and the mogul run.

That night we ate at Panier. We had chosen the restaurant because it advertised homemade pizza but when we arrived we decided that we weren't in the mood for pizza and it didn't really look like a pizzeria anyway. The restaurant was really cute- pretty big but also just felt like we were sitting in someone's home. I suspect many of the places around the ski resort are like that especially in the Kitanomine zone, which is known to be an area full of pensions and small hotels. That's part of the charm of Furano- it doesn't feel touristy; it's just a small town with a really big mountain. We ordered mushroom black curry and pumpkin gratin. The black curry was apparently their specialty so we had to order it. It was a pretty mild curry, very dark and thick. I was surprised by the serving size- it was almost as much rice as our rice cookers puts out- and we have a 3 cup rice cooker. Luckily, I have Ryan. The pumpkin gratin was really good too. We ended the meal with chocolate banana cake a la mode! Yum! The vanilla ice cream had a delicious blueberry sauce on it. It was Ryan's favorite part.

Mushroom Black Curry

Pumpkin Gratin

Third day we were there was a bluebird day. I forgot until now to mention the weather. Furano was really cold but not as cold as we were expecting. Maybe around -8 celsius? Not sure, maybe it was colder. Anyway, it wasn't as windy as Niseko but it did snow a lot while we were there. So the third day, we skiied everything except maybe one of the expert courses in Furano Zone...but it's hard to tell sometimes which course you're on or where exactly you are. So who knows. I was so happy to be able to experience Furano during some snowfall and some sunlight. I have to say in either situation, the view is breathtaking. I especially loved the views from Furano Zone's highest lift- aptly named "Downhill Romance."

Don't actually think this is from Downhill Romance...
But it's a pretty good representation of what pretty much all of Furano looks like.

The mountain was full of students that day- I think a high school school was having a field trip. It was pretty funny to see all the students dressed all in the same ski outfits- from their matching hats and goggles to their ski/snowboard boots. We're not sure if they were dressed like that so it would be easy to spot them or keep them in a group or if it was just for solidarity. Probably a little bit of both. It's a pretty interesting sight to see from the lifts- the whiteness of the slopes dotted with groups of people all dressed alike. There were also men dressed in green camouflage or solid olive green snow suits using really old-school looking cross country skis. We decided that they were members of the self-defense force's mountain unit. Wish we had pictures of all these...

In Kitanomine Zone there is an expert course called Furikowaza which slopes downward off the edge of an easier course and is ungroomed. When we approached it that day we found a group of high school boys laughing like crazy and having a ball basically falling their way down the course. So, of course, we joined them! I got a lot of encouragement from imagining that their ski instructor at the bottom was yelling "がんばって" ("Ganbatte" = Try your best!) to me as well as to the boys. I wish I could have skiied with them all day! Haha.

At the end of the third night, we decided to go back to Panier because we just liked it there so much. A different man served us at first and brought us a Japanese menu but the previous waiter saw us and was so excited to see us. Both of them were very impressed with our Japanese. This time we ordered the potato gratin and a mushroom doria. とてもおいしい!! ("totemo oishii!" = very delicious!) And of course we ended dinner with cheesecake a la mode, just so that we could have more of that delicious blueberry sauce.

That night we also went to Ningle Terrace, a string of 15 cottages where artisans create and sell their products. It's advertised as a "fairy tale arts and crafts village" "lit up with thousands of fairy lights" and has "well dressed snowmen and huge snow mushrooms on every log cabin." It's behind the New Furano Prince Hotel, which is huge and has its own onsen and is probably really expensive to stay in. Anyway, it was a really cute "forest boardwalk" but we were freezing and didn't want to miss the bus back to Kitanomine. I did get to buy an awesome kaleidoscope made out of a tree branch and we tasted the やき ミルク ("yaki miruku"= a baked milk drink) at Chu Chu Cafe. We were really surprised when I ordered it because the cashier just brought it out from under the counter. I really liked it though. It had a really tasty kind of caramelized skin on top. I think it would have tasted better hot though.

Yaki Milk!! So Good!

Ryan and the ferociously cute snowbear!

Should have borrowed their scarves...SO COLD!

On our fourth and last day, our bus wasn't leaving for Sapporo until 5PM so we decided to check out of our room in the morning, store our bag at the pension and ski for a few hours. It was another beautiful day. On this last day, I pretty much got all the falling I didn't do the other two days out of the way. I figured it was a good day to fall a lot since I probably wasn't skiing the next day. My best fall was when I decided to ski into the ungroomed powder on one side of a course and face planted into it instead. Hahaha. I guess I underestimated how fast I was going and how deep the powder was. My skis basically just sunk in and I tripped over them. It was the first time my skis popped off though and I had quite a time trying to get my skis back on on a slope. It was a lot of fun though!

So...that's basically everything that happened in Furano. I just want to get this posted so ASAP since I've been working on it like all week and I'm getting sick of it...more later...

I'm going to ski off the horizon!!!

Please click the link below for the full album!
(Unfortunately we're not the busiest shutterbugs...but it's better than nothing!)

Furano