Sapporo snow festival

So after a night in Aomori, we had a taste of what the cold and snow would be like in Sapporo, our next big stop. (Talia was very excited.) (Not so much.)

We left Aomori early in the morning, because it takes 6 hours (!!!) to reach Sapporo by train. Aomori is the northern-most city reached by the Shinkansen (the fast train), so from now on, we could only travel by regular trains.

The position of the train in the tunnel is displayed every few minutes in the car

The train from Honshu to Hokkaido passed through a long tunnel (which is actually crossing the sea), and after a short transfer in Hakodate, we finally arrived in Sapporo around 16:00.

Sapporo is the biggest city north of Tokyo and it looked very lively when we arrived: People rushing everywhere, subway lines, and long walks to get out of the station.

One of the great idea we saw in Sapporo subway: reserved cars for women, children and disabled during morning rush hour

You know you're in a big city when you see that kind of stuff :)

Our hotel was a luxurious one: Mercure Hotel in downtown Sapporo, a 5-minute walk from the Snow Festival main event are and near the busy shopping street.

We received a cup of hot chocolate as a welcome present, and we had TV with BBC! Why are we so excited? Because we haven't had foreign channels for a long time, probably since Tokyo.

All was well, but one thing: they didn't leave any shower soap or shampoo in the bathroom!

Well, it's good that we're backpackers and we have everything we need on us. Also, we probably could have asked at the reception desk, but we kept forgetting.
We didn't spend much time at the hotel and went directly to the Snow Festival main street - Odori - to admire the beautiful sculptures.

 

There were small sculptures:

And big ones:

And there was an international contest going on when we were there. They had less than 24 hours to finish their sculpture:

And a snowboard show:

And lots of food stalls everywhere. One thing is sure in Japan: You can not be hungry for very long. Or need the toilet for very long. Which is awesome if you are a girl.

Anyway, even at -5 degrees, we enjoyed being there.

That's how Japanese girls are dressed when it's -5 Celsius degrees. Insane!

The next day, we walked around the other festival events and one of them was just around the corner from our hotel: Susukino site.

Susukino site

Even if it was smaller, it was a good surprise too:

Talia tries to eat a frozen crab!

Ice Transformer!

And we could go stand on the sculptures!

Rony and Talia in their crystal palace

But it was mainly for kids:

Vroum! Vroum!

Tchu! Tchu!

We then went to warm up and have dinner in the huge underground mall that connects 3 subway stations: Susukino, Odori and JR Sapporo station.

And have some Baskin Robbins ice-cream:

And Talia bought herself a few (more) shirts. She really likes the fashion here :)
Maybe she can import it to Israel and create a start up :) This is only our 5th idea for a start up since we started our trip. :-)

On the third day, we went a bit further in Sapporo, to another Festival site and had some fun sliding on our butts:

Even if this place was mainly for kids, we had fun too.

Talia even met a family from Houston!

Then we went to do some more shopping. After all, we're leaving Japan soon. If we could bring back everything we like here, we would probably need a cargo. But since we are limited in weight (by the airplane companies and by our backs too) we need to make a selection.

In one of the mall we stroll, we saw that and of course we couldn't miss it :)

Anyway, Sapporo was fun and we're happy we came to the Snow Festival. It's the last big thing we planned to do here in Japan. But don't worry, we still have a few things to see here, mainly other snow festivals around Morioka, on the way back to Tokyo.

But that's for another post ;)

Pics from Sapporo and the snow festival:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=616687&id=906005363&l=e79d7189a8

Japanese Snow Monkeys

After the wonderful evening we had with our hosts, we decided to see one of the main attractions we planned on seeing in Japan: The snow monkeys. Long before this trip was planned, Rony dreamed of visiting these special monkeys. And today was the day!

The monkeys are located in Jigokudani Park which is near Nagano. The train from Shimo-suwa takes 2 hours to get to Nagano (free with the JR Pass), then we have to take a bus (1300 Yen each direction) for 40 minutes until the bus stops at Kanbayashi Onsen-gushi station, then we have 45-50 minutes of a very slippery walk to the park itself (500 Yen - park entrance, not slippery climb fee).

So we departed very early, because Rony wanted to go skiing after seeing the monkeys. The biggest ski resort in Japan is just nearby, Shiga Kogen. We arrived in Nagano at 10:10, and we went to the local tourist information to ask when the next bus to the monkeys park was leaving. It departed 4 minutes later! So we had to run to the station, fortunately located at the exit of the train station.

We departed on time and got off at the bus stop as planned. But it appeared that we were only 3 people getting off the bus: Talia, Rony and an Australian woman from Melbourne. Now, if you plan on going there, plan ahead on taking some money with you for the park entrance and the ride back (and more if you plan on doing other things): There are no ATMs around. Not that we learned this by experience, mind you. Kanbayashi is a small town with almost nothing around but a gas station and an hotel.

The path to the monkey park

After a 45-minute of slippery walk on ice, where Talia almost died twice and where we saw a few tourists (they all come with bus tours or private cars, mystery solved), we finally arrived at the monkey park entrance. At the entrance of the park you can stop at the small gallery hall where a few pictures of monkeys are displayed and where you can have a few explanations on how the monkeys live, and then you arrive at the main attraction: Monkeys relaxing on the hot springs.

The monkeys come to those hot springs to warm up, relax, and enjoy "quality time" with their families/tribe.

And Talia took a bunch of photos of those monkeys :)

So we let you enjoy those gorgeous pictures:

When we were there, we learned that these are the only known monkeys in the world to use hot springs.

After that, it was too late for Rony's ski planning, so we went back to Nagano and had lunch, then to warm up in a book store (one of our favorite activities) and went "home."

Josie and John had planned on preparing (vegetarian) sushi for dinner and it was great! We spent the evening talking forever and tried to stretch the hours so we won't have to leave so soon the next morning.

We spent the next day walking a bit in Shimo-suwa, and seeing the shrine by day, and we left for Matsushima, which has one of the best panoramic views in Japan. But once we reached Sendai, there was a huge mess with the trains there, apparently due to the heavy snow, so we decided to pass Matsushima this time and continued to Aomori, at the north of Honshu island, where we rested for the night.

Next up: Sapporo and the Snow Festival!

Here more photos from the Snow Monkeys park:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=613966&id=906005363&l=c7923fba95

Shimo-suwa and Matsumoto

So after our adventures in Osaka and Nara, we were ready to meet our couch surfing hosts.

But first a few words about them: We contacted them a few weeks ago, when we were still in Australia. They looked like a cool couple and they also have a blog about their adventures in Japan! Actually that's how we decided to visit them.
Their blog is about how a couple from Minnesota is teaching English and living in a small town in Japan and their view on Japanese culture. It's very interesting and we learned a few things about living in Japan as foreigners.
Their blog was so instructive and interesting that Rony kept reading it even after they accepted us as couch surfers.
Employing English speaking foreigners as assistant teachers is a big industry in Japan and there are around 60,000 ELTs in Japan!

Shimo-suwa at night

So we arrived in this small town called Shimo-suwa and we were greeted with music on the street, as in Uchiko. It was a bit late already, around 8, so there was no one on the streets and everything was dark. But we knew the short way to our hosts and we were greeted with a warm welcome.

The communication was very easy and we spent the whole evening talking about a lot of things: Their life, our trip, our views on Japan, their views on Japan, and so on...

The next day we planned to visit Matsumoto, a city known for its castle, and to buy a few groceries there for the dinner we planned to prepare.

Matsumoto castle

Matsumoto castle is one of the few original castles that remains as it was 400 years ago,when it was built.

The visit to the castle is very interesting and less freezing than the one in Matsuyama. But with steeper stairs than the previous one. And English explanations everywhere.

There is also a small weapon museum in it.

And the view is great in all directions.

It is believed that a local goddess has protected the castle since its construction, and that explains its longevity.

And we tried the local vending machines and bought ice cream! Just for your information, it was 10 degrees Celsius.

After that, we went to the local city museum, which is located in front of the castle entrance. Why would we go to a small local museum? Because the entrance fee was included in the castle ticket.

The place is a former school building, and it displays old items from Matsumoto and explains the history of the city. Everything is in English too, so we could learn a few things.

We then walked around Matsumoto a bit, and saw a nice shopping street with lots of frog sculptures.

Apparently, the frog is somehow the symbol of the city.

And we saw a huge sculpture of a frog fighting a lizard!

And we saw this awesome clock:

which has some puppet show at every hour. See our video page for the show.

After that, we went to shop for the dinner we were going to prepare in the evening for our hosts.

The plan was to prepare some Israeli-French food and since our hosts were vegetarian we planned on preparing  falafel, hummus, tahini, halva, and a vegetarian quiche.

Well, it was 50% successful: After hours of preparations (we prepared everything from scratch) the quiche was good, as usual, the hummus was great, and easy to prepare too, but the tahini, made from sesame seeds we bought, and the falafel, made from chickpeas we bought in Kyoto 10 days earlier, were a flop: The tahini was just a sesame paste and the falafel looked good until we started to fry them: They all fell apart! But our host wanted to try them anyway so we ate flat and oily falafels, humus and quiche. And had lots of sake to drown our sorrows. :-)

The humus

"And the halva?" You probably ask. Well, since the tahini was not really a tahini, it ended up as sesame butter: Peanut butter but with sesame instead. Our host wanted to keep it anyway, since it tasted good. But it was no halva.

We finished our dinner by discussing music and books and French and Israeli politics for hours. It appears that Rony and John have the same taste in books and music and it was a great evening, discussing everything with people we felt were friends and could stay in contact even after we leave them.

More photos of Shimo-suwa:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=17025495&l=eaf3da5944&id=906005363

Osaka and Setsubun Matsuri

We were sad to leave our friends in Yawatahama, but we had to continue our trip and see as  much as possible of Japan. We took the ferry from Yawatahama to Beppu in the morning, so we could enjoy the capital of hot springs in Japan. When we say "we" we mean Rony.

We didn't expect much from the ferry, but it appears it's quite different from any ferry we have seen or traveled on: There were no seats. It was Japanese style: You take off your shoes and sit on the floor.

Talia posing in the ferry

Fortunately, there was almost no one there, so we could sleep on the floor. There were even small cushions to put your head on. And the view was so nice! The sun was out finally, but that's a bit logical: We had left Yawatahama, so the good weather was back :)

The ferry from Yawatahama departs every 3 hours or so and takes 3 hours to arrive to Beppu. It also cost 3020 Yen.

We arrived at 13:00 and we looked for the train station to leave our bags. Once at the train station, Rony wanted to go to the sand hot spring. But it appears it's 5 minutes from the ferry and we missed it!

So we decided to stay and have something to eat. Maybe it was the heat in the ferry or maybe it was some fatigue from the last 10 days, but Rony didn't feel very well and passed on the hot springs.

But we took a few pictures.

Crepe with ice cream, banana and chocolate. Can't be bad

Aburaya Kumahachi or ShinnyUncle, the father of tourism in Beppu and children benefactor

We then went to Fukuoka for the night. The city seems very lively and very young, but we didn't feel like going out to bars or see the night life so we decided that it was good to rest a bit and skipped the beauties of Fukuoka. In the end, we didn't do much during our day in Beppu and Fukuoka, and it's good to rest a bit, too.

Typical postcard in Fukuoka

The next day we went to Osaka. The distance between those 2 cities is quite big, but with the fast train, called Shinkansen, it takes only 3 hours.

Rony's bento on the train to Osaka

We arrived in Osaka and walked over to our hostel. The place is brand new - the owners, a young couple with a baby, just opened it a few months ago (when the baby was 2 months old!) We really felt right at home very quickly. Here we also had Japanese style beds, but they gave us an extra futon, so it was very comfortable. It was actually only us and one other girl the whole time we were there, so it felt like a private home stay (that we were paying for).

In the evening, we went downtown to Umeda to walk around the famous area. We soon found ourselves in a gigantic bookstore that left both of us awestruck. Of course, it is difficult for us to pass such a store and not walk in, so we did. :-) Rony actually found something he was really looking for, and Talia found a gift for her niece, so it was a very successful venture.

After eating some dinner, we walked around a bit more, fully intending on calling it a night very soon. We saw a big building with a lot of lights and noise. So we went in. It was a big 3-story building of arcade games and games of all sorts! The building is actually a Namco building and it was a paradise of all kinds of games, from the mechanic arm that grabs stuffed Hello Kittys to slot machines. And every arcade game under the sun.

Crazy.

We had to try it.

So we played "Pirates of the Caribbean."

And even if Talia had not see the movie, she managed very well.

We had a lot of fun :)

Now our day was complete and we could go back to our homey hostel.

The next day was a special day in Japan: It was Setsubun Matsuri. Of course you all know what it is - it's the spring festival! It somehow matches the Chinese New Year and the celebration is quite the same: Scare away the evil spirit of last year and bring the good spirits in.

We asked our hosts where we could see the celebrations and they recommended 2 places which celebrate it in two different ways: Nakayama Shrine and Ohatsu-tenjin Shrine, a Shrine in Umeda, a 5-minute walk from the place we were the night before. Nakayama Shrine was a bit outside of Osaka and started earlier, so we went there first.
We didn't know what to expect but it was great!

In Nakayama shrine

There were about 300 people there, of all ages, and we were the only Westerners there, so we got a lot of attention. The show itself was actually the "bad spirits" that were being banished. See the videos on our video page to have a glance on what we saw.

The evil spririts. Boooooh!

After the "show," some people dressed in traditional clothes threw soybeans at us and everybody was pushing to catch them! It was crazy! We never saw the Japanese so enthusiastic and so excited! People were falling on the grown (and luckily, others were helping them back up). The audience of pushers ranged from young children to 70-year-olds!

Throwing beans at us!

And people try to catch them!

And it was so hot that day, that Rony was ACTUALLY wearing a T-shirt for a few minutes. Wow! It was the first time since Australia! We guess it's really a spring festival then!

We succeeded to catch a few packets of beans (it was not wasy), and at the end of the ceremony, people gave us their leftovers. We guess it's also a tradition to share the beans.

After so much excitement, we were ready for lunch and we decided to have the Osaka speciality: Okonomiyaki!  Yes, again, we ate okonomiyaki and we loved it again. Even if, once more, the old lady that served us didn't know a word of English.

It was time to go to Ohatsu-tenjin Shrine, the second shrine. That was very different from the first one. No big celebration, no show, just a free meal and sake for everyone who wanted to wait in line.

We saw for the first time the less wealthy people of Osaka, maybe some of them without income or homes. We were happy to see that other side of Japanese society and meet, even for a few minutes, some of them. Most of them were quite happy, probably because of the sake and for having a free meal, and they were quite friendly. Especially since Talia was wearing her strawberry hat and she had to pose for one of the photographers that was covering the event.

Opening of the sake

She'll sign autographs when she gets back.

What was peculiar was that the shrine was in the middle of a busy shopping street with a lot of Pachinko parlors, where women in short skirts were handling flyers on the street, and at the shrine we could witness a whole other world.

Traditionally, on this holiday/festival, people throw beans while saying, "Evil out, good spirits in!" Also, some areas have an additional tradition where they eat a long sushi roll (uncut) without talking. We don't know the reason for this, but we decided to follow with this one since there were tons of sushi rolls for sale and they looked delicious.

When we got back to our hostel, we gave some beans we received to our hosts, since they had to stay in the hostel all day. They were very touched by our gesture and the next morning we all took a picture together before checking out.

That night we had to meet our new hosts in Shimo-suwa, but before that we decided to do a last minute stop in Nara and check the temples to see there.

That could have been a good idea if we had left early enough.

We ended up running the whole way to the temples and actually didn't seen much beside the largest concentration of tourists since we arrived in Japan and the largest deer community in Japan.

Talia making friends with a deer

Well, maybe next time.

We were now on our way to Shimo-suwa, a small town in the Japanese Alps where we were suppose to stay for 3 days, our first couch surfing experience in Japan (officially, anyway).

For more photos from our Osaka trip:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=614001&id=906005363&l=69a1abb7bb

But that's for another post.