Hokkaido part 2

The majority of Sunday was spent at Sato Land. It’s basically a huge playground made of snow with kids running around everywhere. There were huge slides, sledding areas, snowman making areas, a snow mobile ride, and a giant snow maze. Brita, Emma, Jay and myself wondered about a bit contemplating what lines to wait in (but most of them were going to be almost 2 hours), we finally decided on the snow maze because the line was only about 15 minutes.

lots of little snowmen


me in pain looking into the sun


typical Japanese concession stands


The thing was amazing we actually really didn't realize how big it was before we went in. Some place the walls were probably about 20 feet high



others were a lot lower, and I could totally cheat and see over them


view from the top of the maze (it had levels!)


Once inside we spent a ridiculous amount of time playing around and taking cheesy pics. It was a lot of fun!

Brita, Jay, myself, and Emma




And while taking this photos, a press photographer came up and wanted to take pictures of our pose (so we are probably some kind of celebrities in Hokkaido now! ha).


After our day in the snow playground, everyone was headed back to the hotel to get ready for the Enkai (all you can eat lamb party) that I had opted out of. So I headed to the art museum. It was nothing spectacular, but there was actually a Japanese architecture exhibit going on, and I happened to choose the time and day when all of the architects themselves were there doing different things. Which was pretty interesting. Too bad I didn't really know who they were, or really able to understand that much of it all (too much kanji!). Also meandered around the main snow sculpture area some more.







ramen for dinner! yum


Eventually I made my way back to meet up with the group after their dinner. Met them at a ferris wheel on top of a building in the middle of the city. It had been decided that this would be a nice way to see the city at night. We all enjoyed and appreciated the sight of city lights, compared to our normal inaka homes (country).

unfortunatly these didn't turn out all that great



After this a group of about 5 of us decided to stay out and see what night life there was to be found in the city (a bunch of the others had decided they were going to go snowboarding again on Monday, so they wanted to make it an early night). It was a great night, lots of random Japanese places were discovered.

Ramen breakfast


and then after checking out of our hotel, Joel, Nate, Emma, Katie and myself decided to check out the chocolate factory, on the outskirts of town at the base of mountains, that is famous for producing shirokoibito chocolate (white lovers chocolate, not sure why the name). This factory was kind of a strange European building with Japanese quirks. But you did kind of feel like you were headed into Wonka’s chocolate factory, because songs would play and all of the things in the garden area outside would sing and dance (including the trash can!) not to mention the overwhelming smell of chocolate as you approached the building.

















After going through the tour, indulging in a chocolaty snack, and stocking up on omiyagi (obligatory edible gifts for coworkers) we headed back to the center of the snow festival.

We ventured up the clock tower at the center of the main park to get a great view of all of the snow sculptures and city in general. Walked around a bit more.

These pics aren't too wonderful, it was snowing, freezing and really windy at the top of the tower! but you can see the main park where all the sculptures were.






We were all pretty tired by this time, so we were in search of a restaurant we could sit in until our train headed for the ferry left. We found a tiny little curry shop, that served the infamous Hokkaido Soup Curry. And all I can say is amazing! It could have been because we were freezing, hungry and tired but this meal was great, and really wish there was somewhere around here I could get some soup curry. It was a curry broth with veggies, tandoor chicken, and cheese. We were all skeptical but all in awe by the end.

Yum!


Finally we met the rest of the group at the train station, to begin our journey home.

It was pretty sad, I don't think that any of us wanted to go home!


But once again we enjoyed our ferry home, and arrived home after a pretty exhausting weekend, pretty well rested and refreshed from our onboard onsen!

All in all, a pretty great trip. Time to start planning my next excursion!