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Published: February 27th 2007
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"Shouldn't you be working?"
Hmm...yes, a thought that continuously entered my head as I departed for a 5 day trip to Hokkaido (the northern island of Japan). Many Japanese consider Hokkaido far away, and freezing cold...these are not so true. Sapporo is famous for two things: 1) The beer of the same name, and 2) The yuki matsuri (snow festival).
The yuki matsuri swells the population from 1.8 million to almost 4 million. As the number of tourists that come for the week-long festival numbers around 2 million.
Chris, Mike and I landed in Sapporo Thursday morning. They quickly headed to Furano (a ski resort area that we were staying at for the first two days) as I had to drudge over to the Canadian Consulate to apply for a new passport. I of course forgot all the maps needed for me to get to the Consulate and had to phone the woman a good 5 times before she just told me to wait in front of a department store and she would come and get me. After getting that sorted out, I met Chris and Mike in Furano just in time for some food and some beers.
Skiing
Don't I look like a natural. We woke up to a flurry of snow which lasted all day. It was awesome seeing so much snow after Ishikawa recorded no snow in January for the first time in 100 years. I of course was terrible at skiing after taking a 5 year hiatus. I still enjoyed it though, as the slopes were empty and the powder was as soft as cotton candy (good thing too, or else I'd have broken bones throughout my body).
That night trying to decide on our restaurant for dinner, we finally agreed upon Barbarian. With a name like that, how can you go wrong? I'll tell you how, with a terrible menu and the biggest asshole we've met in Japan as the bartender / waiter. We decided to forgo food and only order a drink. How is this guy an asshole...? Well, this is our sample conversation.
Chris: I'll have a gin martini please.
Bartender: Uhh...ya, you don't need to say a gin martini if you want a martini. All martini's are made with gin, if you want a vodka martini then you say "vodka" martini.
Me: I'll have a rum and coke please.
Bartender: Do you want a
Susukino
The big Sapporo Beer sign at the top. cuban libre instead, they're much better, it's cuban dark rum, coke, and lime juice.
Me: No, a plain rum and coke is fine.
Bartender: Are you sure?
Me: Yes.
Combine this with his smug attitude, scowl on his face, ignoring us when asking questions, making the smallest drink in a tiny glass and charging about 9 dollars Canadian and we were ready to smack him in the face.
Luckily we made up for this by going to Mongolian BBQ, simply one of mankind's greatest inventions (forget Korean BBQ). The two Japanese waitresses were friendly (we were the only ones in there) as we chowed down on mutton that we cooked in front of us and drank sake.
The real action began on the weekend in Sapporo as the city is alive with visitors. We were staying in Susukino, which a teacher had told me was the sketchy part of town, where strip clubs and other such things were. He made it sound dangerous and shabby, both of which are not even close to true. True, there were some hostess bars (not strip clubs) but families were still walking around the area...lol. Sapporo is an awesome city, a
Indiana Jones
One of the coolest clubs I've ever seen. good size and a few good clubs. Most impressive was what we dubbed the
"Indiana Jones" club with the carved face on the outside. Chris and I stumbled in there to check it out. The music was pretty good (tho we weren't in a dancing mood...lol) and there were mostly Japanese people. Funniest was one Japanese girl who had obviously had a few too many
Sapporo's as she danced the whole night with her head
inside the speaker on the stage. I feel sorry for her little ol' eardrums, as I'm sure she wouldn't be able to hear any alarm, any conversation, or even her own thoughts from the pounding they took the night before.
The snow sculptures must be seen. Pictures don't do it justice seeing just gigantic they are. These are two storey beasts made entirely out of snow. The detail is incredible, especially the one of the Thai Palace. The sculptors come from all around the world to compete. All week there were cultural performances as well. We got absolutely lucky with the weather as it dumped snow every day, probably about 2 feet in 5 days. Was magical!
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