I have been in Japan for 7 months.

I've been mentioning my snowboarding trips every once in a while but I haven't really talked about them, so I'm dedicating this post to my absolute favorite hobby in the world. If you've ever felt the exhilaration of flying down a mountainside at break-neck speeds or wound your way through a snowy slope of trees, you'll understand what I'm talking about.. and why it's so addicting.
I'm just going to compare my experiences snowboarding in the only two places I've ever been: Hokkaido and the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. Now, the Rocky Mountains, in terms of size, wins hands down over Hokkaido. Its highest peaks are over a lofty 4,000m while Hokkaido's Daisetsuzan mountain range tops out around 2,000m. While the sheer size of a mountain is one of the aspects that makes skiing and snowboarding so enjoyable (like Kicking Horse in Golden, B.C. with its 10km run), you get to a certain point and you realize it's less about how long the runs are and more about the quality of the snow. The holy grail for every skier and snowboarder in the world is light, fluffy, knee-deep powder. For those of you who've been fortunate enough to both surf and snowboard, it's an amazing sensation. I tried surfing once but didn't like the whole paddling out and swallowing salt-water part. I definitely prefer the cold and the snow, but snowboarding through powder is literally like surfing on water, relying only on your stance and balance. In my 10 years of skiing in the Rocky Mountains, I've only ever had two times where I experienced knee-deep powder. Once was on my 22nd birthday where it had been snowing so hard at the ski hill I went to that it caused an avalanche the week before. In my short three Winter months in Hokkaido, I've had amazing powder almost every single time I've went!

The difference between the Rockies and Hokkaido is simple geography. It boils down to the fact that Hokkaido is an island surrounded by water. More humidity = more snow, and it just happens to have the right amount of moisture that the snow is light and fluffy when it falls.. and falls.. and falls.. It's been one of the warmest winters on record, but its already dropped more snow than an average snowfall in an entire Albertan Winter (and its supposed to dump 40cm here in the next three days alone!). Simply put, if your a fan of skiing or snowboarding, Hokkaido is the place to be. The mountains aren't as large, but the quality of the snow more than make up for its size. The entire island is dotted with ski resorts (you can find one within 45 minutes in any direction), the lift passes are cheap, there are never lineups and the best way to end a day of riding is in a nice, warm onsen. Ahhh! It's the fact the Japanese have embraced downhill sports so openly and enthusiastically which makes Winter here so enjoyable. Japan definitely gives you one of the best skiing experiences in the world. I'm doing my best to take advantage of this magic powder wonderland in my time here because I know I will miss it when I leave. Here's to another three months of snow!

Edit: Here's that 40cm of snow I was talking about!

To celebrate my birthday, I took a few days off work and spent last, last weekend in Sapporo to see the biggest winter festival in Japan, Yuki Matsuri. A few of Callie's friends, Leah and Coleen, were up from Gifu-ken so Justin, the two of them and I spent most of the weekend exploring around Sapporo. On the Friday we took a bus out to an onsen town called Jozankei to soak in its rheumatoid arthritis-fighting mineral waters. We weren't in a rush so we took our time in the onsen and wandering around the town for a bit. By the time we got back into Sapporo, our quick jaunt to the onsen turned into an entire day trip. That night the girls went off salsa-dancing while me and Justin walked around the Susukino red-light district looking for the infamous maid cafe. We couldn't read any of the signs and came across soap bars, love hotels, nurse cafes, an entire block dedicated to gays & lesbians, and men standing in the streets promoting "blonde" haired Japanese "models" instead. We've heard of certain places charging a seating fee when you leave so, deciding it would be safer if we knew where we were going next time, we ended our search to find a normal bar instead. We went to the "500 Yen" bar (where everything from lamb ribs to a glass of pop is 500 yen) for a few hours before meeting up with other JETs and heading to another bar, not getting home until early in the morning.

We all woke up the next day around noon and got a late start to the day exploring the city. The four of us started off our morning (in the afternoon) by going to a cafe where we discovered the joys of Tim Tam Slams. It was 3 o'clock when we got out of there and realized there wasn't enough time to go to the Sapporo Brewery Museum, so we headed down to Odori Park to look at all the snow sculptures instead. Sapporo prepared for the Snow Festival by building snow sculptures on all 13 blocks (1.5 km) of Odori Park. Some of the snow and ice sculptures were massive undertakings, taking weeks and 50+ people to build (one was built by the military) while others were smaller team-built sculptures. After freezing our fingers and toes off for an hour, we headed to another indoor cafe to warm up before heading to Kraps Hall where Callie was performing in a Hip hop performance that night. Word spread about the show so a bunch of JETs showed up to give her support. Our big circle of gaijin in the middle of the crowd got the attention of the MC (Callie's dance teacher) who made english jokes all night. A bunch of different groups performed, some good some not so good (including one brave girl dancing to "Milkshake"), and was capped off by an amazing 8 or 9-man breakbeat showcase. After the show, the 15 or so of us wandered the streets looking for somewhere to eat but, being a large group of people, it was almost impossible for us to all come to a decision. China already knows this lesson. While we waited, the five of us ate delicious, delicious street corn and solved that problem ourselves. Inevitably, everyone broke off and went their own way.

The next morning Leah and Coleen headed off to the airport and Justin and I went and got some shopping done before we returned back to The East. It was fun to be in the big city again and to see the famous Snow Festival. There isn't much going on in Sapporo in the next few months so it'll be a while before I'm back there. My next big adventure will be during Golden week (end of April) where I'll be heading down to Kyoto for two weeks! Stay tuned.

Once we arrived back in Saigon we had to wait until that night for the sleeper bus taking us to Nha Trang. We spent the time we hung around down Saigon eating Pho, visiting the depressing War Remnants Museum, walking the streets in the pouring rain, having ice cream and visiting the Ben Thanh market. When the bus came, we left Saigon at 9:00pm and arrived in Nha Trang at 6:00am the next morning. We killed a few more hours at an internet cafe and exploring Nha Trang before our shuttle took us to Whale Island, a resort on an island 90km outside of Nha Trang. It's a deserted island so once the bus arrived there we still had to take a fifteen minute boat to get to the resort.

We spent the next three days relaxing and doing absolutely nothing. It was raining off and on the entire time so it forced us to stay under the shelter of our beach-side hut or the public lounge. It was a nice little resort where they don't use cash on the island because food is included and everything else is charged to your room. We were fed amazing seafood three times a day and the time in between meals consisted of sleeping, reading, hanging out, running into the ocean at night, playing pool and watching a poorly-translated-from-German subtitled version of Bee Movie. During a rare sunny period, we went for a hike to the middle of the island to get a beautiful 360 view of the entire bay and island. We also spent New Year's Eve on the island with the twenty other tourists. There were no fireworks or much celebration, just a nice, quiet passing into 2009.

After our time on the island we went back to Nha Trang to meet up with my family for a few hours. We had a quick lunch and exchanged more presents before my sister and brother-in-law had to go to catch a flight. We spent the rest of the day wandering Nha Trang, feeding monkeys, walking on the beach and chilling at a beach-side bar with my mom, brother and niece. Later that evening we said our goodbyes and caught another overnight bus to take us back to Saigon.

We got back into Saigon early the next morning while everything was still closed, so we checked into a hotel we booked a few days earlier to freshen up and get some more sleep. Right next to our hotel was the "Go Go Go" bar that was still open at 5:00am and conspicuously full of scantily dressed Vietnamese women and drunken foreigners. Yup. Anyways, it was our last day in Saigon so we did the things we didn't have time to do earlier like check out more museums, eat Pho soup for the last time, walk around the posh parts of downtown, visit a few markets to buy omiyage (presents to give to Japanese co-workers) and lastly check out the amazing Vietnamese Water Puppet show (which we had been meaning to do on the last three times we were in Saigon). Right after the show we grabbed our bags at the hotel and caught a cab to the airport to catch our midnight flight.

It was a little surreal to be leaving Vietnam after spending so much time there but it was bound to happen. We re-packed our packs at the airport, put on our warmest, smelly clothes to prepare for the re-entry into cold Hokkaido and said goodbye to Vietnam. It was an overnight flight back with a three hour layover in Seoul (two of which were spent sleeping on a lounge bench) before we arrived back at noon in snowy Sapporo. Back at Callie's place her pipes were frozen and her heater fought to start up but eventually we were able to warm up again. It wasn't long before I had to venture back outside to catch my three-hour train home and find my car under a meter of snow. I was really missing the 30 degree weather right about then. It was sad to come back to my cold, lonely apartment in my little inaka town after having so much fun in the Vietnamese sun. I've promised myself I'll be back there again one day. Until then it's back to work, running around with sick children, snowboarding and waiting for spring to come.

I got these from some of my senior high school students today! I'd finished teaching all of my classes when my JTE asked me to stay a little while longer. I waited in the staffroom for a bit longer when suddenly half of the ichinensei (Gr. 10) class came in and gave me these cards for my birthday! They had made them complete complete with tinsel, hearts (I'm guessing for Valentine's?.. maybe?) and a pop-out cake! It definitely made my day.

There are two great reasons worth celebrating today. Most importantly, it's my 23rd birthday! I celebrated today by teaching my normal classes and then... teaching an Eikaiwa (adult conversation) class in the evening. Yay! Luckily I'm headed to Sapporo tomorrow to check out the world-famous Yuki Matsuri for the weekend. Me and Justin are planning to head to a maid cafe to check it out (for my birthday.. of course..) and there are a bunch of other things going down in Sapporo this weekend.

The other great reason to celebrate is because today is also the Setsubun holiday here in Japan. The custom is to throw beans at someone dressed up as an Oni (demon or ogre) and say "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (Demons get out! Fortune come in!) in order to purify a home by driving away evil spirits. It's more of a kids holiday, but today at my Junior High School my JTE bought bags of peanuts (they use peanuts here in Hokkaido instead of beans), put on an Oni mask and let the kids pelt him with peanuts to celebrate Setsubun. Hilarious! They also have to eat an "Eho-maki" (which is basically a huge sushi roll) all at once, without speaking, while pointing North-Northwest (and the direction changes every year). I love Japanese holidays :D