Andie Abroad: Yuki, yuki, yuki!!!

Wow! I don't think I've ever gone two months without posting a blog. It's been a long, cold winter, and while it's nice and convenient that Lana, Kim, and I have each other in Fukushima, it has also made us really lazy. Instead of travelling every weekend and walking in the cold outside, we chose to spend our money staying in our hometowns; eating in restaurants, drinking in bars, shopping in malls, bowling, and singing karaoke...Note, everything is INDOORS, but nothing blog worthy.

There was one big event this winter, and that was our trip to Sapporo for Yuki Matsuri!!! It was probably the most money spent in one weekend in my entire time being in Japan, but it was well worth it, and I'm glad I got the chance to go. Sorry, I know everyone has been waiting to see the pictures, I promise no more slacking!

Here are some pictures of Koriyama, Lana got a lot of snowfall this season (ha ha).

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Inawashiro Ski Resort - Kim's first time snowboarding...good times!

View from Lana's apartment

Slippery sidewalks

Goofing around

Pretending to ice skate

Snow angels!

Eating at a kaiten sushi restaurant, when you make a special order the shinkansen quickly delivers it right to you!! Kakoii!

Okay, feeling cold yet?? Here come the Hokkaido pictures!

We flew from Sendai to Sapporo, this is the view from the plane somewhere between the two. Samusoo!!!

Welcome to Sapporo!! We were really lucky that Lana's friend Jenna (from Hawaii) was in Sapporo for the festival with her "hanai" Japanese parents from her town. Jenna is a JET and she's living on a TEENY TINY island called Kikai-jima. She can bike around her entire island in two hours. Jenna's parents had rented a car, so they picked us up and we were off to Otaru. Otaru is about an hour outside of Sapporo, and is famous for their really old canal. The canal was lit-up in celebration of Yuki Matsuri, so we decided to check it out.

Later that night we went to go eat at a popular kaiten sushi restaurant. There is a HUGE difference between this kaiten sushi restaurant, and most others in Japan. Hokkaido has some of the BEST seafood in the country, so it was like Tsukiji quality fish on a rotating belt! I ate like 10 plates!!! (Lana too)

We stayed at the cutest little guesthouse called Maki's hotel. Japanese style breakfast was served every morning, it was soooo good!!!

Our guesthouse was in Susukino. Susukino didn't have any large snow sculptures on display, but the main street was lined with tiny ice sculptures. It was pretty cool.

Bailey's bar

Ice karaoke!

Nippon Ham Fighters!

Hina Matsuri

After Susukino, it was off to Odori Koen (the main site) for an entire day of walking, eating, and picture taking :)

Theme: Chronicles of Narnia 2

Theme: A Better Future for our Children

Theme: Consadore-Sapporo's soccer team

Food!

Theme: Egypt

Lucky! Watashitachi mo yaritai! Kodomo dake, zannen deshita.

That's some pricey crab

View from Sapporo TV Tower

Odori Koen

Sapporo Dept. of Education

Hong Kong's contribution

China

Hawaii

Thailand

Singapore

Kitty Chan

Space Invader

Totoro!

That night, we decided to go all out and eat at a fancy crab kaiseki restaurant. Sapporo crab is probably the best in the country, and there are these fancy crab restaurants all over the city. Because it was Yuki Matsuri, everywhere was booked so we got lucky and got a spot at 5:30. It was about 80 dollars a person, but it was an awesome experience, and so good!

We're gonna eat you!

Inside the restaurant

Kani miso

Sapporo Beer

Shabu shabu crab! Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Starbucks!

We went to this cool bar, where the bartenders juggled bottles that were lit on fire.

The next day we met up with Joh, and we all went up to Sapporo Beer Museum and factory. There were all these very old school German style buildings, I felt like we weren't in Japan anymore.