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First: Did you know that you can buy one stalk of celery in Japan. The two stores near my house don't sell entire bunches of celery. I can buy one piece at a time. So last week I went to Sapporo for the Snow Festival. I was there from Thurs night through Mon morning. It was a great weekend at a reasonable price. Fri and Sat I stayed in the Christian Center. All meals and lodging (including an all you can eat shabu shabu night) for only 15,000 yen (a bit under $140). There are three sights for the sculptures. The main drag is at Odori park. Tons of snow sculptures from Pikachu (the cartoon that caused "epilepsy") to Darth Vader to Hello Kitty to European buildings to a sumo's butt. Pretty cool. One of the other sights had only a few snow sculptures, and they were geared for children. The third sight was only ice sculptures. The Odori sight was the largest and most popular. It was cool to see sculptures over 2 storeys high. (Entry to see the stuff is free.) I went to Sapporo not only for the snow fest, but for a Christian conference. It was pretty exciting. People from all over Japan came for the 2 day retreat. We sang lots of songs, had a guest pastor, had Bible study, ate tacos, and stayed up really late. Probably the best time I've had thus far. Three of us decided that we had to eat crab before we left. Sapporo or Hokkaido is famous for its sushi, ramen, and crab. So, we wandered to the Sapporo Tower where there were many tourist shops. Every store was giving out samples, so headed for the cab stall (though we could have sampled beer). All sorts of crab of various sizes, shapes, colors, and prices. We tried the king crab and a spiny, furry-like crab. The king crab was far superior, with a butter flavour. So after about 10 samples, we felt bad and decided to buy 4 legs for 5,500 yen (quite pricey). Some of the whole crabs sold for as much as 19,000 yen (that's as much as a one-way plane ticket to Sapporo from Tokyo). The salespeople were so nice. We waited by the heater while they cut up the crab. We were given hot sweet potatoes, crab miso soup, and chocolate. It was great. Saturday was absolutely gorgeous. It was sunny, not wind, and -5 Celsius. A big group of us went to a park where we cross country skied. The best part about this is that is was free. I guess it is a service to residents of Sapporo and their friends. So 30 of us skied for free! My overall thoughts about Sapporo is that it is a wonderful place. I recommend that everyone should go there if given the opportunity. It wasn't that cold either. The nights could be a bit nippy, but nothing I haven't experienced in Illinois. I was just amazed at the amount of snow. It was piled high when I got there. Of the 5 days I was there, Sat was the only day when no snow fell. I've heard people say that Hokkaido is a lot different from the rest of Japan, and I would agree. The streets are ice and wide. The architecture is a lot more western. When I rode the train to the airport, I actually saw area of land with no buildings! It was a lot more like the midwest of America than like the Japan I live in. So on to the Olympics. I must confess that I never really watched Olympic coverage before, but I displeased with what I see in Japan. There are a lot of sports going on, but all I see is speed skating and ski events. Now I know that Japan won medals in these competitions, but I want to see hockey! Instead, I keep seeing the same races and highlights again and again. Maybe it was the same in the states, but this is the 1st time I've noticed. Valerie Straayer |