A further comprehensive study of the cultural and societal differences between Canada and Japan (see Part 1) during my eight months here so far:

A few weeks ago (before I went snowshoeing) I made a trip to my local ski hill with a few good friends. We had originally planned on snowshoeing at a mountain called Kuro-dake that day but the winds at the peak there topped out at 100 km/hr. We had phoned ahead when they told us the gondola to the peak was shut down. We decided to head to another ski hill, Kita Taisetsu, instead. When we arrived, the wind was wreaking havoc there too so the upper chair lift (1 of 3) was closed. As the day progressed, the clouds lowered and the winds picked up so they closed the middle lift as well. At this point only the lower chair lift was working... for the bunny hill. We decided to head into the lodge and grab an early lunch to wait out the storm.

From the top of the 3rd chair lift there are a few more ski runs down a different face of the mountain. The lift had been closed all day and it had been dumping snow so we knew the powder over there would be untouched. We weighed our options and decided to take our chances. We decided to hike to the top of the 3rd chair lift to ski down the other side. What people do for powder! The four of us - Georgie, Eoghan, a Finnish friend, Tuomas, and I - took the 1st chair lift up 1/3 of the mountain, strapped or carried our boards, and proceeded to walk up the now-closed ski run in our boots. We got to the top in an hour and a half (whereas it would've taken ten minutes on the lift) while being buffeted the entire way by the insane 80km/hr wind and snow. The board strapped to my back acted like a wind-sail at some points, pushing me back down the hill! We rested at the top of the 2nd lift and at the peak before strapping in and dropping into the untouched runs. The wind that was in our faces on the way up was at our backs on the way down. Imagine snowboarding downhill with an 80km/hr wind at your back. It was insanely fun! I don't even know how fast I was going but the trees and bushes I did manage to see (through all the whipping snow) were moving past me pretty swiftly. I can't begin to describe how amazing the snow was! It sounds crazy to struggle up a mountain just to go down it in 1/10th of the time.. but the effort of getting up made going down all that much better!

By the time we got down to the lodge we noticed the lower lift wasn't moving. Back inside the lodge we learned that a blizzard passed over the mountain while we were climbing it so they shut down the mountain. Everyone was waiting in the lodge for the storm to pass while we were basically in it! We headed to an onsen afterwards for a much-deserved soak. Here's a video of our adventure that Georgie made and put on YouTube:

The unavoidable is coming... the snow is melting, the days are getting longer and wet drops of rain are falling from the sky. Spring is almost here. While I'm looking forward to more daylight hours and months of gorgeous weather, it also marks the end of the snowboard season :( Spring skiing, however, is still available in Japan just like anywhere else in the world. In order to get where the snow is during Spring, one has to travel to higher and higher altitudes where the rain refuses to melt and remains wonderful snow. While most ski resorts are usually at mid-mountain level where the snow has already turned to slush, one has to come up with a way of getting to this wonderful snow that's beyond the reach of chair lifts. Enter: snowshoeing!

I've only recently discovered the wonders of snowshoeing in the past month or so. Snowshoeing has essentially remained the same since its conception - strapping a webbed frame to your feet in order to walk more easily on snow. It's simple, yet amazing, and let's the summer hiker enjoy hiking even in the winter! Last weekend I went with a few friends to the mountain range in the center of Hokkaido for two days at an onsen on a mountain called Maetokachi-dake. The four-hour drive to the onsen was slushy and rainy but once we were above the 1000m mark, the rain magically turned into a light blanket of snow.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and when the weather called for heavy winds and snow. Our group of six planned on hiking to the peak of Maetokachi that day but we thought it would be best to put that on hold. Instead, we spent that afternoon snowshoeing only a kilometer up the mountain before we found a good spot. Two people in our group wanted to do avalanche beacon training that day so we settled down and unstrapped our snowshoes. While they were doing beacon training, the rest of us built a snow cave for the hell of it. After toiling away with two shovels for three hours , we had cave big enough to fit five people. It was like being a kid again :D Once the wind and snow started to pick up in the late afternoon, we headed back down to the onsen to chill for the rest of the evening.

The next morning the weather turned out to be a bit more mild than the day before, so we decided to gear up and hike to the peak of the mountain. It had snowed the night before and laid down a couple inches of snow so it was perfect. We strapped our snowboards to our backs, our snowshoes to our feet and started up the trail to the mountain. We hiked through a forest, up and down valley walls, across avalanche gullies and eventually made it to the half-way point amongst sparsely stunted trees in wind-scoured snow. With no trees to provide cover, we were buffeted by the blowing wind and snow, limiting our vision to 10-15 meters. We stopped in the chilling wind to put on more layers then decided to traverse the mountain in order to get out of the wind. We continued on for another hour when the wind suddenly picked up and blew harder, limiting our vision to only a few meters. Our impeccable guide, Matt, decided it wasn't worth reaching the peak in this weather as we were only 3/4 up and it was hard going as it is. We found a spot to sit down, unstrapped our boards, strapped up our snowshoes and prepared to head back down the mountain. Four hours of hiking up the mountain would soon amount to less than thirty minutes back down! Despite the blowing wind (which was now in our faces), the absolute pristine and untouched powder was absolute heaven! Gliding past rock boulders on either side, down avalanche gullies and through stunted forests was an experience beyond amazing. I could only imagine what it would have been like on a clear day! We made it back to the onsen to warm up before high-tailing it out of there for the four-hour journey home. It was a busy and compact weekend, but an unforgettable one that's infused me with a love of snowshoeing and back-country skiing.

A lot of my friends go snowshoeing all throughout the winter just to reach spots that ski lifts and tourists don't go. My only regret is discovering snowshoeing at the end of the season! Ah well, I'll wait until next winter. In the non-snow parts of the year I can hike normally again and finally tackle those mountains that have been waiting for me all Winter. Rishiri and Shari, here I come!

If you drive down a highway in Hokkaido or anywhere in Japan you'll inevitably come across the large road sign telling drivers to "Speed down". Clearly it's a safety message telling us to be more cautious on the road and not drive 20 km/hr above the speed limit (...don't look at me, everyone here does it!) The first time I saw the sign I chuckled to myself at the very obvious display of Engrish in public and thought, "Don't they mean 'Slow down'?". The more I thought about it, though, the more the term "Speed down" actually made sense.

Think about it: What's the meaning of "Slow down"?

If you want to decrease the speed of your car, then shouldn't it technically be "Slow up"? You do in fact want to increase how slow you are going, no? Also, wouldn't the opposite of "Speed up" be "Speed down"?! In order to capture the meaning of lowering the speed of an 80 km/hr car down to 60 km/hr, then "Speed down" actually does makes more sense. Engrish and poor translation may still be rampant throughout the country, but I think in this case, the Japanese got it right!

The Eastern Hokkaido curling season is officially over for the year :( We had a total of 8 or 9 games throughout the season and ended up with 3-4 wins, 1 tie and losses for the rest.Apparently we did better than last year's team (with their sole win) but we had our good and bad days and just need to play more consistently (..well, that is). This year we got red curling hoodies made that Caroline printed and brought back from Canada. With input from the team, I designed the team logo and motto. We initially had "We R Stoned" but ended up with a more appropriate "We Rock The House". Each of us had individual curling names printed on each of our hoodies, mine being "'Nam Man". The rest of the team consisted of: "El Capitaine", "Rock Horror", "Curly Mo", "Stone Cold Sean Holland", and "Made of Stoghan". Next winter we're going to start another curling team and we've decided to change the name from "Team English" to something more exotic like "The Democratic People's Republic of Gaikoku"(外国民主共和国). We're losing a team member this year so come next winter we'll be recruiting new members for the curling team.. hopefully more Canadians!

In the land of festivals and never ending things to see, there is always something going on. In Hokkaido - Japan's winter playground - we celebrate all things snow related by holding the country's largest and most famous snow festival (which is Yuki Matsuri, by the way), dog sled races, lantern festivals, snowball fight tournaments, cardboard sled competitions, and one other lesser known pastime - watching the 流氷, or Drift Ice. Who would've thought that looking at giant chunks of floating ice from Russia would be so enchanting? Apparently the Japanese do. I decided to see what the fuss was all about so, a few weekends ago, I headed out to Abashiri to view the Drift Ice for myself.

A group of ALTs in the area (and some from the other side of the Hokkaido) came out to celebrate the wonder that is drift ice. We started off the day by partaking in various Winter activities including checking out ice sculptures, snowmobiling on a frozen lake and a few hours of snowboarding. The highlight of the day was the sunset boat ride on "Aurora" out to the drift ice. When the weather is cold enough the drift ice comes right up to the coast and you can literally walk out onto the ice, but on this day the ice was a few hundred meters out to sea. The hour long boat trip took us on a big loop through the drifting sheets of ice that looked like mini icebergs trying to stay afloat. When the sun started to set and the temperature dropped, the beauty of the drift ice became apparent. We had great views of the coastline with the sun silhouetting the mountains and Mt. Rausu towering in the background. The boat continued through the drift ice that stretched out to the horizon and pushed its way relentlessly through the chunks of ice, lurching occasionally on the sheet that refused to break. Once the sun set and the boat returned to land, we immediately headed to an onsen to warm up our frozen fingers and toes. We left the onsen feeling warm and refreshed and finished off the day with dinner at an authentic Nepalese restaurant. After dinner we all headed to Caroline's house in Tokoro for a night of drinking and games. The theme of the night was "Queens of the Drift Ice" (now in its 2nd year) so costumes had to have anything "Queen" or "Drift Ice" related. I turned a black long-sleeve shirt and a ¥105 roll of yellow tape into a "Queen Bee" costume. It was a good end to a good day and I'm looking forward to it again next year!

"Golden Week", or what's known as five straight days of national holidays, is the biggest time of the year in Japan for traveling. It's at the beginning of May and consists of the Emperor's Birthday, Constitution Memorial Day, Greenery Day and Children's day. Flights are expensive, hotels are booked, and tourist destinations all over Japan are crowded with eager, camera-toting Japanese tourists. Some even venture overseas to the US, Hawaii, Australia and SE Asia in their easily recognizable tour groups. It's not only a good time for the Japanese to travel but also for the JET Programme English teachers with disposable income!

This year I'll be joining the flock and traveling for Golden Week. I was originally going to visit Kyoto and Osaka but then I realized my next two-week vacation won't come again until next Christmas. Until then, Golden Week was one of my my last big chances to see Asia while I'm in Japan so I'm deciding to take advantage of it. My spring break and summer holidays will consist of sitting at my Board of Education to prepare lessons and any vacation days I want to take will have to be at the expense of my previous nenkyuu (3 weeks paid holiday per year). I took six nenkyuu days for Golden Week for a total of 16 days off and decided on heading, solo, to China.

I learned that Golden Week actually originated in China before Japan adopted it during the same time. It was a seven-day national holiday in China and the entire country basically shut down for it. A few years ago the government realized that this holiday was causing a huge strain on the economy (as the country stopped while the rest of the world moved on), trains, airlines, and tourist spots flooded with people moving in different directions. At the beginning of 2008, the Chinese government abolished Golden Week and spread the holidays to different times throughout the year. It ended up being better for the country and also good for me because it means I won't be swamped with people while I'm there!

I bought my flight from Sapporo to Hong Kong (real cheaply!) a few weeks ago and am planning my itinerary right now. I haven't ironed out the details yet but I know I'm spending a few days in Hong Kong and Guangzhou before spending 5-6 days in Beijing to explore the city and hike the Great Wall of China. On the way back I'll stop in Xian (and maybe hike up Mt. Huashan) before flying out of Hong Kong. I want to go with the flow so nothing is set in stone yet. I've been preparing for my trip by looking up where I'm planning to go, getting my Visa, figuring out what to pack and picking up some gear like my new toy - a Nikon D40 DSLR camera. Now I look like a proper tourist!

I decided on this trip because everything for me up until now has been pretty structured (12 years of school, University, and moving to Japan on a teaching contract) and I think it'll be good for me to break out of that mold and see how flexible I can be in a completely new enviroment. I've never traveled solo before so I'm super excited about it. The freedom to go wherever I want, to see whatever I want, to sleep whenever I want and to decide on my own is intoxicating! Only seven weeks and counting..

Exactly one month after the devil, peanut-throwing Japanese holiday is another one, the Doll Festival. Today is Hina Matsuri, a holiday dedicated solely to girls and is intended to bring them happiness throughout their lives. I had an Eikaiwa class tonight and got my nine students (all older women) to explain it to me. First thing they explained (and which all Japanese holidays have) was about the food. For Hina Matsuri a sweet sushi roll called Chirashizushi, a biscuit candy called arare, and clams are eaten. Since all clams have unique shapes but two perfectly symmetric shells, eating them is symbolic of the girl finding her perfect mate (and a good source of iron). Also on this holiday, a display of ornamental dolls are set up on a large, stepped platform. The dolls are thought to contain evil spirits in them (which is true.. dolls are scary). There are seven layers and the two dolls on the highest layer represent the emperor and empress. Each successive layer contains servants with sake, musicians, courtesans, their wardrobe and so on. I had heard that the dolls were expensive so I asked my Eikaiwa class how much they normally cost. One of my student's said her daughter just got the two courtesan dolls on the 4th level for 280,000 yen ($2800!) and said the emperor and empress dolls on the 1st level can cost up to 1,800,000 yen ($18,000!?!!). I said that was the cost of a car! Traditionally, if a family has a daughter then the mother's mother (grandmother on the mother's side) has to buy the dolls for the daughter. Yikes, there goes her RRSP.