Snow Fest, Part 2

Is it bad that I want to stay in bed and read all day? Every day? I’m such a slug.

Also, despite my mothers frantic fears, there was no tsunami action in Tokyo. Should you have been worried, let me quell that by saying that we’re just fine. We spent the day in Tokyo (shinjuku and shibuya, mostly) eating ramen, wandering about, and drinking in the streets. With the exception of some rain showers in the morning, it was a very water-free day.

Part two of our Yuzawa trip, coming at you. In this episode, Jon and Michelle find a place to sleep and look at snow sculptures!

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You’ll remember that we came out to the mountain town of Yuzawa without a hotel booked for the night. (scroll down if this doesn’t sound familiar. you probably missed part one!) We stopped in to the tourist association and found someone that spoke a small amount of English. Boy, what a help!

We really, really didn’t want to spend 300$ / night on a hotel (which seemed to be the going rate for most of the places we had found, and was also the reason why we didn’t book something BEFORE getting on the train). Other than that financial limitation, we tried to communicate to the guy that we didn’t really care about much else. Remember, I was okay with sleeping in the train station if it came to that!

A few phone calls later, he circles something on the map and tells us that it would be $50. … okay? okay! well. we still have no idea what we’re going to, but at least he circled it on the map. That will probably come in handy later.

We’re in the mountains this weekend to visit the Tokamachi snow festival, which is a 30-minute train ride away from where we were at. I think a lot of people were in town for this snow fest, because the trains were crazy packed.

The japanese need very little encouragement when it comes to having full-costume mascots. This is the suica (train pass) mascot! I hugged Suica the Penguin! Isaiah, are you hearing this!!?

We wander out to the streets and follow the crowd into a snow-walled off area filled with tents and sculptures. Speaking of trains, look at the level of detail!

This area is known for growing rice, so there’s a lot of sake makers around too. (remember, sake is basically rice wine) $1 for sake? count us in!

I love that this culture embraces drinking in public so wholeheartedly.

SUMO snow man! This isn’t the kind of stuff we made in our backyard. Tokamachi’ans really don’t mess around with their snowmen!

Just look at the level of detail!

But you know, not everyone… got the hint. Shouldn’t there at least be snow in the snowmen? Nice try, folks.

Boy. All this walking around in the snow is making me hungry. If only there was a guy selling meat on a stick around here somewhere…..

Did I mention how cold it was yet? And wet? Cold and wet!

Unlike jon’s (much more practical shoes), my tennis shoes aren’t waterproof. My toes were angry with me, and so when the opportunity came to warm myself with a beer around a trash-can-fire, like a hobo, my toes simply wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

They do this crazy thing all over Tokamachi & Yuzawa. Having lived in both Wisconsin and Colorado for some time, it struck me as odd that I’ve never seen anything like this before. It appears that the snow melt runoff is piped into the streets to keep them from freezing. Neat, huh? Neat that is, until you accidentally step in it and get your (already angry) toes more wet.

but you know, it’s okay. We’re having a good time and we’re together. And we did come for the snow, after all.

Dinner in Shibuya

The plan for the evening: Head over to Shibuya to meet up with some of Emi’s friends for dinner.

The restaurant that Emi picked was on the 15th floor of a building in central Shibuya. The exterior walls of the elevator were clear, so we had a fantastic view on the way! On the walk over, as we passed through the busiest intersection in the world, I thought aloud: We live here. Life is fantastic.

While it looked normal enough from the outside, once you poked in through the curtains you enter into a *giant* restaurant. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a restaurant so big in Japan. The window seats were reserved for large groups, with tables set into various sized cubby holes. The interior of the restaurant had about 20 tables – and they were jam-packed when we arrived. The vibe seemed to be both young and international.

Emi’s friends thought we should alternate and mix up a bit, so we weren’t just talking to the people that we came with. I think our side of the table was a little hesitant at first, but I’m glad we ended up doing it. Emi’s friends are so nice! I remember saying the same thing about Sayo’s friends last year – I wonder if we just run into the best that a country has to offer, or if all Japanese people really are this fantastic.

We left ordering dinner up to the people who knew the food best, so we were plesantly surprised every time the waitress brought a few thigns out. Overall, the food was really light – lots of things set on different types of lettuces. Some one ordered orange chicken (the kind you get at chinese restaurants), and I was utterly dismayed to find out the Japanese word for it is “orangey chickenu”. Seriously?

But mostly, we drank. A lot. For two hours, the waiters plied us with monster-sized pitchers of Kirin:

We stopped for a picture on the way out. Too bad you can’t see the backdrop of the city that we were standing in front of.

At the end of the night, we say goodbye to our friends and hurry to grab one of the last trains home. The train is standing room only, and I’m happy to have a finagled a corner spot where I can lean against the walls.

Are you ready for some SUMO?!

It’s nice to know what’s going on, when you’re watching a sport. Also, it’s nice when that sport has cute mascots that you can take your picture with.

Also, it’s nice to have goods seats. (Even better when you had not-so-nice seats the first time you came, so you can really appreciate the awesomeness of your über-expensive floor mat.)

These, by the way, were the chairs:

Did I mention yet that our seats were the traditional masu, or box seats, that fit 4 Japanese-sized people really well? We were cozy. It’s a really good thing that we were all friends…

…and that you’re allowed to drink your body weight in beer that you bought at the 7-11. Although in retrospect, Will is probably right. Chu-Hai Strong Zero might not be the best beverage choice for me. An 8% beverage that tastes like fizzy grapefruit juice is toxic to my judgment. (Seriously, was this stuff made for high schoolers? it doesn’t taste like alcohol at all!)

I’m sure I’m not alone in the camp of girls who tagged along for the ride, but somewhere along the way became genuinely interested in the sport they were pretending to like. Before the maku-uchi (upper division) bouts begins, the younger rikishi (sumo wrestlers) have their moment of starshine. Because not many people get there to see these young wrestlers, we were able to sneak down and steal a few shots!

Here you can see the wrestlers, lined up and waiting for their turn. In front, you can see the ceremonial salt. The salt is thrown by upper division wrestlers before the bout, to both purify the ring and to protect them from injury.

You’ll remember that the sumo dohyō where the bouts happen, is held under the roof of a Shinto Shrine, dating back to Sumo’s history of taking place in sacred places. Kind of neat. I love how traditions and history are carried through and modernized.

Before the big bouts of the day, the four of us headed out to have a traditional Sumo feast – Chanka Nabe. In traditional style, we sat on the floor of a little cubicle. As lunch started, the boys began to get used to the idea of sitting on the floor cross-legged for multiple hours. Hah.

I love how many menus have pictures here. It makes ordering super easy.

This is lunch:

Ready for more restaurant pictures? Thought so. Last year, we tried to go to a place called Popeyes, known for it’s 70 beers on tap.

…but, it was closed on sundays. We made a point to come back on a Saturday this year. Among other things, I had an imperial coffee stout aged in bourbon barrels. They only gave you about 8oz, which is less than awesome. I thought it was really neat to see how many of their 70 beers were from the northwest. We live in good a good part of the world for beer, wine, and food.