There are many small things about Japan that we didn't include in the posts, but were worthy of being spoken about, from the kick-ass bathrooms to the weird Kit Kat flavors. In honor of our marvelous, yet short, visit in this incredible country, we'd like to tell you about all the little things that we love about Japan (some are both of us, some are one of us) in no particular order:
1) Restrooms - Anyone who doesn't understand why a toilet would be on a list of awesomeness has clearly never been to Japan. Other than the fact that they are almost always heated, to the point where you butt's feeling as hurt when one isn't (not to mention your central nerve system), they almost all come with a remote control (with such features as bidet, extra strength bidet, and a sound to play while you are doing your thing), and many of them also have toilet seat sanitizer, which wasn't as exciting for Rony as it was for Talia, but she's a girl. Talia especially liked the bathrooms that had drawings on the doors indicating if the toilet was Western or Japanese, and almost every bathroom - and always at malls and airports - there was at least one that actually had a baby seat in it so that you could sit your baby down while you sit down to do your thing.
Sit or stand?
Their coolest invention, which should totally be used in Israel and other countries with severe water issues, is this one: There are many toilets that, when you flush them, the water comes out through a faucet on top of the tank for you to wash your hands with. The water is then used in the tank for the next time you flush. Can you say genius?!
Such an awesome invention. We need this in Israel
While usually a restroom is an important place that we always need, in most countries it's not usually easy to find outside of one's house. Well, not in Japan. There is always a restroom around: On the street (public toilets), at the mall, on the subway, on the trains, of course. And there are always signs indicating where is the nearest is, on the street and on different maps we had during our trip. That's the Japanese way: Never feel discomfort because you have an urgent need.
2) Kit Kats - The first place that we saw interesting Kit Kats was in Kyoto, a few days after arriving in Japan. They had green tea-flavored Kit Kats and another that we can't remember. As we continued our travels through the country, we found out that there were a multitude of other flavors, ranging from blueberry cheesecake, apple, potato, orange and strawberry, to more "exotic" flavors, such as soy, chili, and wasabi.
Yum... wasabi Kit Kats!
3) Reversible seats on trains - Almost all of the trains we were on, other than the subways trains, had a button on the seat that would let you turn around the chairs. Many times, we boarded a train at the first stop, when the train had just arrived from the same direction we were going in, so when the travelers all got off the train, the cleaning staff went in to clear and turn all the chairs around. There were several times during our time Japan where we reversed our seats, especially one time where the train switched direction mid-way. This is totally cool and we loved it and wish we had to do it more often.
4) Hot beverage vending machines - There are vending machines everywhere in Japan, on every street. While they always have regular, cold beverages as usual (from colas to water to juices), they also have hot drinks, ranging from coffee and tea to hot chocolate and soup (for real). It's soooo nice to be able to have a cheap and warm drink at any point, and we found ourselves looking for a vending machine more than once.
Blue means cold drinks, red means warm drinks
5) Sweet baked goods - While the Japanese say they don't eat many sweets, and, in truth, there isn't that much candy to be found, they excel in the pastry department. Every city and prefecture we went to had their own specialty, and we tried almost every type - and loved almost every one of them. If the most popular filling anywhere we know would be chocolate or vanilla, in Japan it is red bean, which is sweet. All in all - yummy!
SOOOO delicious!
6) Smoking areas - While Japan is incredibly advanced with their smoking areas in the streets - there are many places where you are not allowed to smoke outside and only at specific smoking stations - they are way behind Western countries, and most of the restaurants have smoking areas. While this isn't a "new" thing, we didn't even realize how used to non-smoking restaurants we are until Talia kept walking into the smoking areas. It's gross, but whatever. It's probably our only complaint about Japan.
Smoking areas on the street
7) Music at stop lights - Almost everywhere in Japan, when the pedestrian light turns green, music plays to let you know that you can cross. While Australia always has a special beep that lets you know you can cross, we really loved the music in Japan. In some places, they would divide the music between the four different crossings - simple, but awesome.
8) Pachinko - Pachinko is a Japanese addiction. People can actually make a living off of it. It's a cross between a ping ping machine and a slot machine where you do something or other with balls that we didn't understand but you can read here if you're incredibly bored. Gambling is illegal in Japan, so instead of money (like quarters in Vegas), here they use little silver balls. When they are done playing, they take the silver balls and exchange them for a prize, like a camera. From what we understood, they then take the prize to a pawn shop and receive money for the prize. :-) These places are noisy and always full of people - it's hilarious.
A Pachinko machine
9) High-pitched voices - This is, probably, the hardest point to get across here. All the salespeople in Japan - and we mean ALL of them - speak in an insanely-high voice when customers enter the store. They great people who pass by them constantly, and it's really funny the first time, and freaky every time thereafter. When you see us, please ask us for an imitation. :-)
10) Short skirts in the winter - For some unfathomable reason, Japanese females do not realize that when it is snowing outside. We saw countless girls (not children) wearing short skirts in the freezing weather. In second place was 1992-fashion of tights with shorts over them, which isn't much better. Our only explanation for it is that children in Japan go to school in shorts and short skirts year-round, including winter, so by the time they are in their 20s, they have lost all feeling in their bodies.
Someone who didn't get the memo that the white stuff is snow
11) Tissue advertising - The most popular form of advertising, bar none, was tissue paper. We received countless numbers of tissue packs that had advertising on them. If we were Japanese, we would have received more (some people wouldn't give it to us). What this basically means is that you don't really have a need to buy any tissues, even during the winter. It rocks. :-)
This may be 1/4 of what we got
12) Tourist Information - Tourist information rocks in Japan! Every single place you go has a tourism office with maps and coupons and sometimes even free gifts for travelers! It's marvelous. We came to rely on these offices so much, that we kept lamenting the lack of such offices in Israel. When we returned to Israel, we went to the Information desk at the airport and found out that the Tourist Information in Tel Aviv was closed a few years ago, but there is one at the municipality by Rabin Square and supposedly a really great one at the airport (so make sure you stop by there for information if you need any).
13) Plastic food - Almost every restaurant in Japan has plates outside in a window that shows several of their offered dishes. These are mouth-watering and so realistic. It's obviously plastic, but we seriously entered many restaurants based solely on these replicas. They should have them everywhere.
Doesn't it look realistic?
14) Music on the trains - Every time a train was about to arrive at a station, classical-type music played to get travelers' attention before the announcement. Music played at the train stations, too. It got to where we actually waited for the music to listen to the announcements. :-)
And this is the list that we are able to remember. We know there is a lot that we forgot - we often remembered random things we wanted to add to the list when we were carrying all of ours bags on the way somewhere, so they were forgotten.
Oh, well, guess that means that we will need to go back.
Here are the last pictures from Japan, including some new ones of some of these random things and our last evening:
After a long drive back from Morioka, we arrived in Tokyo a bit early - at 6:30 AM. While this normally isn't a huge problem, our hostel's reception doesn't open until 8 AM, so we looked for a place at the station where we could have a cup of coffee and relax until it was late enough to go to the hostel.
Unfortunately for us, the early hour meant that nothing was open at the time. Nothing, that is, except Starbucks. This was probably our second time at a Starbucks during the entire trip: We don't care for the brand and it's inflated prices, but this was the only place with comfortable chairs and a place to sit, for that matter.
Now that Valentine's Day was finally over, Japanese advertising went back to normal. Or, actually, now was officially the opening of the cherry blossom season. Not that it felt like any type of spring outside (you have seen our pictures from Japan), but the cherry blossoms (which we are, unfortunately, missing) are one of the most famous Japanese tourism attractions, and a big part of national pride (which we found out when, at every town we went to, people said, "Oh, if you were only here during cherry blossom it would be so beautiful!" Whatever.)
So Starbucks actually has a huge cherry blossom-themed display, much like during Christmas season, complete with gorgeous mugs, glasses, thermoses, and other price-inflated items. They also had a special cherry blossom frappacino (frozen drink), which Talia ordered since it looked so great. It comes with whipped cream (but Talia asked not to have any), and pink-colored chocolate sprinkles on top. it was DELICIOUS! They also had a few cherry blossom cakes, but Talia forgot to take pictures of them (full of cream, not her type of cake at all).
cherry blossom frappacino
Finally, it was late enough for us to head home. We mean, back to the hostel we were at when we first arrived in Tokyo (Khaosan Tokyo Samurai). It was so awesome - we were really happy to be going back and to see our friends from reception again. We loved it so much the second time, and, in retrospect, it's good that we came back for the end of the trip, too.
When we walked in, we were greeted with smiles and happiness from our friends who were happy to see us (and Talia's strawberry hat) again. Once again, we were greeted by an Israeli flag prominently displayed at the reception desk. Our room wasn't ready yet, since it was so early, so we went upstairs to the common room to update our blog for you and gather a bit of strength before heading out to Odaiba, an island in Tokyo that we missed the first time around.
View of Odaiba from the subway
We went straight to the Museum of Science and Emerging Technology, which we both wanted to go to (*cough* geeks *cough*). It was totally awesome! We are very happy that we had a chance to stay as long as we wanted this time and didn't have to leave early.
First of all, we had discount tickets. We mentioned when we just arrived in Japan that there was a map (the orange one) that has a bunch of coupons and discounts in it, and this was one of them. Again, not a huge discount (a Dollar), but they add up, which they did for us, when you go to a few places.
Anyway, the ticket you get is a printed electronic ticket with a bar code that you scan to get in and out of the exhibitions. Included in out ticket was also a free movie, if we were interested, and one of them looked cool to us, so we got the tickets for it for later.
The nifty ticket
The first exhibition hall we walked into was about emerging technology - new things, to be clear. :-) The moment we walked in, there was a young lady there giving a hands-on presentation about super conductors. Ordinarily, a presentation might have been boring, but she had PROPS. More importantly, there were already 3 Westerners sitting there, so she was explaining everything in both Japanese and English, which we really appreciated. Even the signs showing the laws that she was showing were in both Japanese and English!
Science experience - semiconductors
This was an awesome introduction to the museum as far as we were concerned. We continued to walk around this hall and there were all kinds of displays about how to create energy (e.g. by stepping on the ground at the subway!) and lots of displays where you click buttons to see how things work - it is a very hands-on museum.
One of the informational displays
We then saw that there was a huge area that was sealed off, which is where their star robot, Asimo, was going to come out a give a show - exactly at the same time that we were supposed to be in the movie theatre. So we decided to forego the movie so we can see the robot, because - hello! - it's a ROBOT.
And we're happy we did. The robot was SO cute, and spoke and danced and pointed and walked REALLY funny. There were a zillion kids there, all talking to the robot and having a great time - it was really fun.
When the robot left us, we continued on to a display explaining how the Internet works in very easy terms - it was actually really interesting. In theory, that is, since it was only in Japanese. But the display was very interesting and we could understand what they were doing.
Asimo the robot (who also plays soccer!)
Upward and onward we went to the last 2 exhibition halls, which were about earth. Rony loved these halls, and Talia less, but still enjoyed herself, don't worry. Here there was a lot of information that we knew from high school (even Talia who could have paid more attention in class...), and, yet again, interactive displays, such as a deep-sea submarine that you can get into and touch all the buttons (that's what the guide says). The guide also instructed us to give him our cameras so he could take pictures of us inside the submarine. That was cool. :-)
Our favorite display was, most definitely, the high-energy accelerator. Rony would like to point at that the largest one in the world is in France. Done. :-)
High energy accelerator
When we first came across this display, there were about 5 or 6 teenage girls around the machine, and the one who was making the machine work was rolling the ball so hard that she couldn't stop laughing because it was so difficult. After Rony made fun of them for being weak (to Talia, not to them), he decided to do it himself. Ha! It was really hard! You need to make the ball go as fast as you can for it to go around a circle on the screen, and it shows your "strength," which really makes you try to go faster.
At one point, Talia had to take over for Rony so he could rest, but it was too much for her, too, and he took over again. Eventually, after beating the game (we think? Who remembers), he collapsed on the floor for a few minutes before we continued through the rest of the exhibitions.
We ended our visit by ordering a hot dog (guess who ordered it) and a green tea and chocolate muffin (guess who ordered that!)
After literally a few hours at the museum, we headed back to the hostel - it was already late afternoon and we hadn't slept at all the night before, so our eyes were like ping pong balls on acid.
In the evening, one of the girls who works at the hostel, the one who gives the free origami lessons, invited us to join her for dinner at a place that serves eel. Of course we accepted. :-) Along the way, we made friends with a really cute Australian couple from our hostel and they ended up joining us as well.
The food was SO delicious, and ridiculously cheap - seriously. It cost about $6. Isn't that what a small (Tall?) coffee costs at Starbucks? :-)
The next morning, we got up, had "breakfast" at the hotel again (Rony didn't even bother going down this time, watched a really funny program on TV that teaches kids to speak English (by repeating the words "win" and "lose" 900 times), and then we checked out of our hotel.
We went to the train station nearby to put our luggage in lockers, since we were taking the night bus to Tokyo that night and didn't want to carry everything with us all day. We then walked around Morioka for a few hours before leaving for our 3-hour train ride to Yokote.
We fully intended on sight-seeing in Morioka, but it was snowing and really cold, and the truth is that even the things we wanted to see weren't worth seeing. So basically we walked into a lot of stores, bought some gifts for our family, and then went to the train station when it was time to catch the train to Yokote.
The moment we arrived in Yokote, we knew we were going to have fun: 2 of the station's employees were handing out amazake (which we told you about yesterday)! Totally awesome. And to make things better, there were a few cute snow sculptures right by the station and the staff kept taking pictures for everyone there! Of course, we were the only non-Japanese people there, but we've already gotten used to it.
Train station staff giving everyone amazake
Our expectations for Yokote weren't extremely high, considering it is a tiny town, but it turns out that tiny towns have the best fun! Our first stop was close to the train station, and everyone was (of course) excited to see us. More people offered us amazake, but we were still drinking the cup that we got from the train station staff (which, by the way, did not stop them from trying to give us more anyway).
We then walked in to a small building where they were selling all kinds of food, one of which was vegetarian gyoza (so yummy!), plus it was a great opportunity to warm up a bit. As we ate, we walked around the looked at the really beautiful pictures they had there - there was some kind of an exhibition about the town in that hall.
Gyoza
One guy gave us some juice to drink - we're not sure what it was, but it was delicious, and it had a carrot on the sticker - and Rony picked out a baked noodle-type ting (we have no idea what it's called), and when we wanted to pay, the seller said it was on the house! People just love giving us free stuff here! :-)
When we were done, we walked outside to see the little kamakuras, which are like little igloos. They generally have candles inside, and other warming devices, so they are warm when you walk in. Before we had a chance to see which way was up, the guy who gave us the free drinks told us to come with him, and he had us stand in front of a kamakura whose entrance was shaped as a heart, and told us to give him our camera so he can take a picture (this, of course, was all in sign language).
So we did, and he took a picture, which didn't turn out great, so he told us to go into the kamakura and the picture is so awesome, that people think it's Photoshopped! But it isn't. :-) There were a few other people there who saw us inside and took pictures of us, too (we're famous!), and a few little girls who kept walking up to us and saying, "Hello!" - they were really cute.
One of the kamakuras
When we were done, we started walking toward the main kamakura site. Once again, we passed the ladies with the amazake, who, once again, tried to give us more. We passed, and not 20 meters later, there was a huge table with sake and another sake-based liquor (that wasn't warm). They gave one to each of us (we each had a different one), and they couldn't stop laughing at our (Talia's) facial expressions because it was so strong. Also, they were drunk. :-)
We didn't know exactly where to go, but we just followed the crowd. Along the way, the town had set up a bunch of lights and special snow fixtures so we wouldn't, heaven forbid, get bored along the way, and some of them were amazing! One of them looked like a menorah, and Talia took a picture, but she accidentally deleted it, so oops.
Some of the stuff along the way
We arrived at the main station, and at first it was similar to the Sapporo festival since there were a bunch of snow sculptures, among them Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. As we walked on, we saw a huge row of kamakuras with people inside them and their shoes OFF! We took pictures, just like everyone else, of the people inside the kamakuras. They were all warming up amazake (and offering it to us, of course!) and also rice patties, which tasted to us a lot like the pita bread that you make out of flour and water at a camp fire.
Talia with Donald Duck
The rice patty
Along the way, of course, we were handing numerous packs of tissue paper, and some of them (from the local police) actually had hand warmers on them, too! And another group was handing out packets that had hand warmers and a notepad! Totally awesome.
At one kamakura, there were 4 14-year-old girls, who were adorable, and they invited us in. At this point we couldn't say no, especially since they were trying so hard to speak English for us. Talia wasn't thrilled at the prospect of removing her shoes at sub-zero degree weather, but the truth is that it was really warm inside because of the fire in the middle.
Us and the cute 14-year-olds, who kept us well-fed
We sat with the girls for around 15 minutes, during which time they kept feeding us (apparently they learn to feed the foreigners at a very young age), and had to move on since our time was limited. If we were staying in Morioka for the night, we would have taken the last train back, but we had to catch the 11 pm train to Tokyo, so we were on a tight deadline.
But we had time to see the food market that was around the corner and Talia bought a banana covered in chocolate on a stick which was delicious.
Bananas on stick, some covered with chocolate, some with other stuff we didn't try
All in all, the evening was awesome. We ate too much, drank too much (liquids in general, we didn't get drunk or anything), and had an awesome time, ooohing and aaahing all along the evening. We were truly sad to leave Yokote and its festival, especially since there were a few more stations that we hadn't had a chance to see.
One of the last thing we saw in the festival: Kamakura made of plastic bottles!
When we got back to Morioka, we had about half an hour before our bus to Tokyo. Why a bus? Because our JR passes had expired the day before and we had to pay for this ride, and the night bus was the cheapest (when you factor in 1) having the extra day since you travel at night and 2) not having to pay for a hostel for that night).
In theory, the night bus is great: The chairs are individual, you can lean back really far, and you can even prop up your legs. Every window is covered, including the passage to the driver, so it's almost pitch black in there. As a bonus, each chair has an individual pod-like top that you can pull over your head (not on it, just over) that makes it dark for you, but totally breathable.
The cool seats in the bus
So where's the problem? The night bus to Tokyo is not direct. It makes about 8-10 stops along the way, geographically located exactly 3 minutes after each time Talia fell asleep (which is more than Rony was able to do). Each time we came up to a stop, the driver would announce it on the loud speaker, and people would get off, and others would get on. So while it was fairly comfortable, definitely more comfortable than a flight is, we didin't really get any sleep at all.
About the JR pass: We've mentioned it a few times. The pass is a train pass that you can purchase outside of Japan and is only available for non-Japanese tourists. You can purchase it in 7-day, 14-day, and 21-day denominations, and it allows you to travel an unlimited amount of times and distance within the given time period.
We purchased the 21-day pass and only started using it when we left Tokyo for Kyoto, and, like we just mentioned, it expired the day before we had to go back to Tokyo. The pass cost us 57,700 yen (about $700) each. Expensive you say? Not when you calculate how much the train would have cost us.
We calculated the trains we took, and the grand total is, wait for it.....155,000 yen which is about $1860!
Pics from this festival (in addition to the ones from the last post) you can see in this link
After Hakodate, we left the island of Hokkaido and went back to the main island to Morioka. Before we go, though, we would like to share this marvelous song with you. It is officially our favorite:
We weren't really planning on seeing anything in Morioka itself, but it was a good base for a few snow festivals in tiny towns nearby.
We got into town in the afternoon, settled in to our hotel, and left for Shizukuishi for a snow festival. When we arrived in Shuzukuishi, we went to the tourist information center at the train station (if you can call a person who doesn't know a single word of English "information"), and were informed that there was no public transportation to the festival, which is stupid, especially since this festival is heavily promoted in Morioka and surrounding areas.
After literally 10 minutes that it took us to understand what the guy was signing (after the blood drained out of his face upon seeing us arrive), we understood that we could only arrive in a taxi, and that it would cost us about 2700 Yen in each direction - $32 - so we decided to forego it, even though it totally pissed us off, since we were really looking forward to it.
A couple days later, by the way, when we were at tourist information in Morioka to ask about a different town, Rony casually remarked that it's a shame there was no public transportation to an event that was so heavily publicized, to which the tourist information lady (who spoke great English) replied, "If you would have come to us when you got into town, we would have told you that there was transportation from here." Conclusion: Between all the coupons and free gifts, and important festival information, be sure to stop at every single tourist information center you come across.
We went back to Morioka, sulking, and asked at reception where we should have dinner. They referred us to the main road, which was close to us, and we ate at Hot Ja Ja, one of the restaurants they recommended, and OMIGOODNESS it was delicious!!!
First of all, you know you're in an awesome restaurant when you are given directions about how to prepare and eat your food:
Our dinner's instruction manual :-)
Basically, there was only one dish there, an udon (noodle)-based dish, this time not based in a soup, which it usually is. You receive the noodles with some leek and cucumbers and a splotch of miso and are supposed to mix it up. Then you add seasoning of your choice and mix it again. When you are just about done eating, you break an egg in your plate and call for the wait staff.
They then take away your plates and bring them back with egg drop soup - yummy!!! We were REALLY full at this point, but we ate some of it anyway since it was so delicious. All in all, if there was a battle between us and the food, the food won. We just couldn't finish it all.
It was one of our favorite meals in Japan.
We went back to the hotel, updated the blog for your guys, and turned on the TV, where we were surprised to discover TV in ENGLISH! We watched like 3 or 4 episodes of Law and Order, which is either 3 or 4 more than Talia had ever watched, but it was so exciting! We could understand what was on TV! And we went to sleep happy. The following day, by the way, these English stations weren't working anymore, so it was just the one night, but what a glorious night it was!
We had free "breakfast" at the hotel, if you can call it that, and went over to the train station to catch a train to Kakunodate. We went to tourist information to get a map (usually the larger cities have maps of the smaller towns in the area), and to ask them if there's something special to see. It was then that we were told about the transportation to the festival that we missed the night before (it was the last evening).
Kakunodate is a cute town that has a main street that is full of old samurai houses, which is the main attraction of the town. We arrived in town and the first thing we saw was that the streets were lined with snow "sculptures," though in this case they were all street lamps. It was so awesome!
After a slight detour, where Talia decided to fulfill yet another childhood event that she missed, where she slid down a snow slide, we arrived at the samurai street. The street itself is beautiful, and we were told that it is lined with cherry trees that are just beautiful in the spring. Marvelous, we were told that every place we went, but we don't care, we loved everything we saw anyway.
As we walked up the street with our trusty map, we realized 2 things:
1) Everything was written only in Japanese
2) Every house we were passing was closed.
Total bummer.
As we made our way up the street, Talia fulfilled yet another long-time dream of hers: Making a snow angel! Well, technically the dream remained partially unfulfilled, seeing as the snow was so deep that once she dove backwards into the snow (weeeeeee!!!!!) she couldn't move to make the snow angel.
A dead snow angel
She also couldn't get up - she was stuck. Rony, forever the loving and helpful boyfriend, made sure her attempt to get up was photographed for your viewing pleasure, while laughing in the background - but that you can't see.
We slept in separate rooms that night.
Not really.
We finally reached a samurai house that was open! But we were asked not to enter yet since there were so many people inside already. So as we waited in the minus-bazillion degree weather, we saw an older man shoveling and moving snow around. Rony decided to help him out, and started shoveling it for him so he could rest! The man was shocked. He was really funny, too - when he had enough snow on the wheelbarrow, he would run up the little snow hill to dump it!
Such a gentleman!
We were then told we could go in (who knew we had to work for entry?). We removed our shoes, which made Talia think twice about entering, and the lady tried to explain something to us. We aren't sure what she was saying, but suddenly we heard a voice, by another (Japanese) tourist, saying that she speaks English and she can translate.
We were all lead into a small room and invited to sit on the (padded) floor. There were 2 guides there, and one was roasting chestnuts (on an open fire...)The people who were already in the room moved back to let us sit in front of the fire - they were already warm, we were still freezing from outside.
The guides were talking about the history of the house and the samurai era, and we were very lucky that the Japanese English speaker was there, because she translated just about everything that he said, so it was even more interesting than it would have been. When the chestnuts were done roasting, they passed them around for us to eat.
Mmmm... chestnuts!
They also explained about how the samurai wives would dry freeze and smoke many vegetables so that they would have food for the winter, and everything was pickled, since it was the best way to preserve them - and then we were given some pickled vegetables, too, which was also delicious.
As they were wrapping up (well, the one guy was wrapping up, the other guy kept falling asleep and making funny faces,) they pulled out a couple of posters to let us know about a local festival that they were having that day. It was a 2-day festival and today was the second day, and we were surprised that tourist information didn't tell us about it. We weren't sure yet if we were going to stay, because we had a lot more to see and we were tired, so we decided to play it by ear.
We had a really great lunch, which in all honesty could have fed 4 hungry, large people, and started walking back toward the train station. Since we had about 40 minutes before our train, we made a stop at a cute store that we hoped to find presents for our families at, and ended up missing our train.
Once we saw what the time was, and when the next train was, we decided to stay. After all, it was already 16:00, and the festival started at 18:00, so we stopped at the tourist information center, just to make sure it was worth staying for, and then, after resting a bit at the center (which was really heated, so it was really nice), we started our walk back to the samuari area, which is where the main part of the festival was going to happen.
On the way, we stopped at a really cute bakery and bought some really delicious small cakes. They were SO yum!! At this point, the sun was already setting so the snow lanterns now had candles in them that were already lit, so the whole town looked different. We were already happy that we stayed, and we hadn't even reached the festival site yet!
We still had about half an hour left, so we stepped into another store and saw the funniest and oddest things there, such as this:
Mobile ashtray (it's called "the ground" everywhere else)
Fake security system stickers - BTW check out the scared face in the drawing!
We finally arrived at the main site and there was a big bonfire going on - it was like Lag Ba'omer - but not! We didn't know what to expect, but soon enough we saw the festival begin. Basically, they had these woven basket-type things that are tied to a rope, and people are supposed to light them on fire (for real) and then swing them around their bodies (for real). We thought that these were professionals that were doing this (we saw the pictures on the posters), but then someone walked up to us and gave one to Rony and told him to do it. Of course, we were the only tourists, again, so we did receive a lot of attention.
Not one to be frightened by fire, or anything for that matter, Rony accepted the challenge. While most people were given a try without any fire, they lit Rony's on fire right away, though luckily the fire was small. So small, that they stopped him and lit it again. And this time, Rony got tons of oohs and ahhs and stuff in Japanese that we couldn't understand (sugoii!) There were TV crews there and everything! Rony may have made his Japanese TV debut, we don't know. But here's our recording of the event:
When Rony was done and turned around to come back, everyone started clapping - around 25-30 people. It was really cool. They then offered Talia a chance, but she ran away and ducked beneath the table in fear. Sorta. Actually, we DO know the word for scary in Japanese - kowai - so she just kept saying that until they realized it wasn't going to happen.
It was then that people started offering us free soup and sports drinks and sake and beer - it was hilarious! Everywhere we go here, people offer us free food and drinks. There was also another drink, a rice-based liquor, that we were given, and it was nice.
About half an hour later, after we continued to marvel at the people playing with fire, including some weirdos (a lady who was still holding on to her completely-flammable purse) and fearless parents (who held their little children with one arm and threw fire around themselves with the other,) we started walking to some of the other stations to see if there would be something different there.
We arrived at the place where Talia slid earlier, and they also had a bonfire going on, though a smaller one, and the fire thingy, too. Rony decided to have another go, and he says the second tim isn't as scary as the first. Just so y'all know.
Of course, we were the only foreigners there, too, so we again attracted much attention, especially when Rony did the fire thing again. And again, we were offered soup and sake, and they just wouldn't take no for an answer, so after more soup and more shots of sake with a few funny drunk Japanese men, we headed back to the train station to go back to the hotel and get some sleep.
All in all, this was an awesome day, especially since it was completely unexpected.
But it's not over! Another snow festival is coming soon: Kamakura Snow Festival in Yokote.
Stay tuned!
Our last morning in Sapporo couldn't have started more abysmally: As it turned out, the alarm clock in the room was set for 5:07 am. Of course, this woke us up, following a small heart attack since we had no idea what it was at first, and then couldn't fall asleep any more.
That morning, however, we were leaving Sapporo for Hakodate anyway, which is just a bit south of Sapporo, but a 3-hour train ride since it's a slow train that has to go stop in every little town on the way. Since we have been in Japan during off season, and very often we've been the only Western tourists where we are, we've had a very easy time getting tickets for the trains.
However, since Sapporo is such a hot destination, due to the famous snow festival, by the time we got to the ticket counter, there were no more seats available on the train, the next train had non-reserved seats only (read: Stand up for 3 hours), but there was room on the third. So, we got a very late start that day, having to wait at the train station for over 2.5 hours just to begin our 3-hour train ride.
While waiting at the Sapporo train station, we had this awesome cheese cake at Starbucks Coffee. It was so good!!
Needless to say, we arrived in Hakodate late enough that there wasn't really much for us to do that day anymore. Because of the winter and the snow, everything has been closing around 4:30 or so, so we just rested, which was important since we were exhausted from being awakened at 5:07.
Our hotel in Hakodate was awesome. They have a lot of free stuff: Free laundry (and soap), free hot springs (transportation included), and they have a free breakfast in the morning, which isn't very popular in Japan (and definitely not Western-style - usually this is just a regular meal with rice and noodles and meat), but they also have a really cool extra: From 21:30 to 23:00 (that's 9:30-11 pm for you non-military-time types), they serve free ramen!
For you Americans, ramen is not the 25-cent baggie thingies that college students live off of, it is a really wonderful noodle-soup-type dish that you are supposed to make noise sipping. Rony had no problem easing in to this tradition and happily slurped his soup (it's the right thing to do here, after all), but Talia couldn't do it. Physically. She tried, but it wouldn't happen. Perhaps it's a psychological barrier - she will get it checked out when she's back home.
Anyway, we went downstairs for this dinner and went to bed.
The following morning, we got an early start and set out to see one of the main attractions in Hakodate - the Goryokaku tower and star-shaped fort. We started out in the tower and went to the top, along with many others. The view is spectacular. Even the most gorgeous pictures we took cannot begin to explain how beautiful it all was. Since the whole country, practically, is covered in snow, and especially the north, the whiteness of everything was just awe-inspiring. Of course, Talia isn't used to these amounts of snow (or any, for that matter), so she just kept ooohing and aahing about everything.
The fort as seen from the tower. See the small dots in the snow? Those are people!
What's special about the tower is that you can see the entire star-shaped fort below. Usually it's surrounded by water, but in our case it was snow. Still, it was beautiful.
When we went back down to the first floor, we were surprised to see a long line at a gelato (ice cream) stand. We approached to see what the fuss was about and OMIGOODNESS you have never seen such beautiful colors - and odd ice cream choices. Of course, we had to have some, even if it was -4 C (25 F) degrees outside. It was delicious! We got a few different flavors so we could taste as many as possible.
Some of the flavors they had: black sesame seeds, purple sweet potatoes, pumpkin and milk
Rony tasting the purple sweet potatoes: "OMG! It's good!"
After our delicious ice cream, we went outside to walk around the fort. The city is beautiful, as is the fort. As we walked around and saw different parts of the fort, including the magistrate building, which was cool, but apparently just a copy built a couple of years ago and finally opened last year, we suddenly heard really weird chanting.
The magistrate office rebuilt and reopened last July
At this point, we were on top of a hill looking over a large part of the fort, so we started running toward the noise to see what the noise was. And OMIGOODNESS was that run worth it! Apparently there was a group of 10 or 12 young guys, barely passed their teenage years, who were NAKED but for a mawashi (like the sumo diapers). As a reminder, it was -4 (25) degrees outside!!
What? How? Who are they?!?
So we had to run to take as many pictures as possible, because - let's face it - who would believe us without the pics? Rony ran after them (Talia walked slower because she's not used to walking on ice), and took as many pics as possible of this weird phenomenon. A few of the guys were carrying a gurney with what appeared to be a large ice statue of some sort that would couldn't figure out yet.
What the hell is that?!?!?
At first, we thought they were going to interrupt the ceremony that was going on below, including a marching band (that played a lot better than Talia's high school's marching band, no offense), but then we saw that, in fact, they were part of the ceremony!
The guys continued with their chanting (and everyone present continued snapping 100 photos per minute of the spectacle), and place the ice sculpture - which turned out to be the head of a dragon - on top of the body. They continued to chant, and suddenly people started throwing buckets of water at them! And they were still naked! And it was still snowing outside and freezing and OMIGOODNESS Talia almost froze to death just watching them.
But we couldn't stop laughing and watching in awe. Of course, we had no clue what was going on, and the only people who spoke English were other tourists who, also, had no idea what was going on. Luckily, we received somewhat of an explanation while writing this blog post. Apparently, these guys volunteer for this ceremony and it is supposed to show that they have guts, or something along those lines. We tried to find an explanation online, but couldn't. Oh, well. It was hilarious anyway, and we had fun.
As we were leaving, we heard a lot of noise (again) coming from the street. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a few men on top of a big van, not unlike the Chabbad van, but these guys weren't dancing in the middle of the street, but trying to bring upon social change. We are clearly fluent in Japanese. Actually, there was a guy there handing out fliers and (of course) tissue paper (our 10th packs, more or less, since we've arrived in Japan), and we were able to make out what it was about because of their awesome use of cartoon characters.
Vote for us!
The first cartoon shows a guy stamping a time card at 18:00 when it's 21:00, under it you can see a injured guy asking for sick leave and below a mother asking to go take her children earlier, but the boss says no. At least that's our interpretation :)
The next stop was Suehiro-cho, which is an area of old waterfront warehouses that were turned into mini shopping malls where they sold all kinds of random stuff, from souvenirs and toys to chocolates and light fixtures - in short, pichifkes ("bric-a-brac" in English... and French). They also had the same ice scream shop as we had eaten in the tower! But enough was enough. :-)
Old warehouse turned to shopping mall
Nearby was the Russian Orthodox Church, which is one of the famous landmarks in Hakodate. They require that you remove your shoes when entering, which is funny since it's a Christian religious institution, but, we guess, when in Japan...
Russian Orthodox Church
The last stop was the view from Mount Hakodate. When we arrived at the train station the day before, we went through the tourist information office to see if there was anything we didn't know about that was worth going to see. They gave us a map, of course, and then a coupon for the ropeway up to the mountain for the view, which was a $1.20 discount, more or less.
A note about tourist information in Japan - always go, even if you know what you are going to do in the town/city. They often have information that you can't find online, like for random festivals, and we have gotten many coupons and presents from several of them! You can't beat free stuff. :-)
There is a store with drinks and food at the top and the bottom of the mountain, in case you wanted to know. There's also a small movie theater at the top where every 15 minutes they show the history of Hakodate, and a great indoor and outdoor lookout. The view from the mountain is spectacular, of course, so this was a fun part of the visit.
Hakodate from Mt. Hakodate view point
The next day, we crossed back to the main island to Morioka and a few other snow festivals, but that's for the next post. :-)
