So it's finally here! The long awaiting "Hokkaido Story" with pics and all!I know we went to Hokkaido in early Feb and I'm just getting this up there, but I was really busy in Japan during the last months and when I came back I was just too tired to organise anything. Even now, I'm tired and hence have separated the Hokkaido Story into different parts, of which Part 1 is being uploaded today, on my day off.
So, Lucy and I had talked about going to Hokkaido during Winter (Japan) for the Snow/Ice Fes
tival, which is held every year. Many times did this convo enter our midst only to waiver in the air for a bit and then be blown out as a mere particle of unwanted dust. I just didn't want to save money and go, I wanted to go to the snow festival but since I hadn't travelled anywhere in Japan by this time, I didn't want to go anywhere. I needed an extra push. I didn't want to organise, I didn't want to do anything. If someone handed everything to me on a platter, I would go, depending upon the price of course.
Low and behold during the Month of December, Damo came to Japan, and Polly and Damo had decided that they were going to go too. It was not until much later when they had booked the trip and told me how much it was that I started to consider it.
"Maybe we could all go together?" But I didn't want to interfere in their private holiday. Although I would try and get the same package. They decided against it and said we should go together. Now I originally only intended to go for the snow festival but their package included 3 days of Snowboarding in Niseko, of which I had no interest. So the package. 5 days in total, 4 nights accommodation. 3 days in Niseko, Snowboarding and 2 days in Sapporo for the Snow Festival. Ok. Let's do it.
Oh, how exciting! I was going to see proper snow! I was constantly asking my students about Hokkaido and all they would mention is the delicious food! The Seafood, the Potatoes, the Chocolate, the Milk, the Cheese, Oh, you're so lucky! The snow is soooo beautiful there! Powder snow! 3-4 meters of it everywhere!!! Depending upon where you go!
I told them that I was going Snow boarding too. I was excited about this now. Damo had given us a few tips/lesson on a rug, and how to turn etc. I wanted to try it. Snow boarding, so much better than Skiing. Skiing was so...yesterday. Geeze that sounded very gay. lol
So my students replied with:
"Snowboarding is dangerous!" "You will break something" I have broken many bones snowboarding" "My friend died snowboarding, someone lost control and hit him in the back of the head and he died." "Be very careful"
Nice I thought. I better get insurance. So I call up my insurance company in Australia, they had an option of Snowboarding insurance which I never including since I had no intention of ever snowboarding. "Oh I'm sorry, you can't add it on mid-term, you can cancel your policy and start a new one, with it?" Um no....I thought. Geeze for $30 AU extra! I should've just taken it out to begin with. Damn, so I had heard the stories and now was heading to the famous snow regions of Japan to snowboard without insurance. This was gonna be good!
Oh my God! I could rent snow gear. But everyone knows me better. I'm gonna go buy it! So I went with Damo to Xebio Sport Centre in Kurume Youme Town, and I bought the entire set! I limited the amount of how much I spent, but I thought, I might as well, I haven't had any proper snow gear since I was 10. It's not as if I'll outgrow them this time. So I bought:
*Pants
*Jacket
*Cheap Snow Boots (for walking; which I left in Japan)
*Thermals
*Snow Goggles (cheap considering; of which were no use to me, as I'll explain)
*Beanie
*Snow Scarf
*Snow Gloves
I will eventually buy proper snow goggles and snow boots and a snowboard.One of my students Susumu, who goes snowboarding all the time said. "Oh no! You bought cheap snow goggles? Big Mistake! You should buy expensive ones! These will fog up!"As if I thought to myself....they did! I couldn't use them. I had to snowboard without them while snow blew into my eyes, and I kept looking down, losing my balance and falling over all the time to start with.
But before we get into that...let's get on the plane! Arrive in Hokkaido.Freezing. Snow everywhere, I've never seen planes covered with snow before. This was exciting. We flew from one side of Japan to the other! Awesome!
On the previous post, which I dídn't get to explain, that sign right down the bottom was at Niseko Snow Resorts Main Desk, where all the buses came to pic people up and take them to their Pension Hotel. It was so funny! I couldn't stop laughing, but not in a mean way, but in a way that I thought it was so innocent. So cute, as the Japanese overly say.
We had arrived during the night time, after the flight and the long bus ride from Sapporo Airport/Station to Niseko. During that night, we had the most amazing snow fight, and walked past an onsen, which was steaming in the into the night sky. It was slightly snowing, we were all rugged up, except for Mark who had come out in just his shorts, since he was renting his gear. The snow was untouched and amazing! Metres of it everywhere. We went trying to pic it up unsuccessfully due to it's lightness you just couldn't make a ball out of it to throw it, so we just through handfuls of snow, kicked it everywhere, made the most amazing snow angles. God it was so much fun.
Then between houses, we saw this huge mound of snow, seriously the entire streets were so covered, you couldn't see the streets, the parking lots of homes, everything was just so high up, 3-4 metres EVERYWHERE! We decided to try and climb it, got to the top of the most amazing snow hill, and sank in, lay there, covered in its warmth and just didn't want to go. running up and down, and rolling in it. Was just so amazing. It felt like you couldn't get hurt. The next morning when we woke up, we woke up to these views from inside the pension hotel we were staying at. With our beautiful but crazy monkey of a host....Kako (which I told her meant "Bad" in Greek). lol 
