off to the land of snow...

So I’m headed out this afternoon for a weekend in Hokkaido!! I’m really pretty excited about this. Hokkaido is the northern most island of the Japanese Islands (translation: very cold). Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido and is home to the famous Yuki Matsuri (Yuki=snow, matsuri=festival). My family had always wanted to make it to the Yuki Matsuri while we were living in Guam, but it wasn’t quite possible because of the timing. The Yuki Matsuri takes over a huge park in the middle of the city, and groups and individuals build large ice sculptures (some as large as houses, that you can actually move through). So I’m expecting a magical winter wonderland, which is really quite exciting for a girl who is still truly an island girl at heart and has never been around that much snow at once in her life. Hopefully I won’t freeze!

Another interesting part to this trip is that we are taking a ferry. Its about a 12 hour ferry ride! Yikes! Should be an interesting story if nothing else. I have lots of layer, some sickness medicine and camera think I’m good to go. Many pictures to come I’m sure.