January 1-January 11
I spent a lot of the first few days of 2011 sleeping, eating, drinking, and watching anime. It was gloriously slothful! On the 4th my friends came back and picked up their cat. I was sad to say goodbye but it was necessary, not just because he wasn’t my cat but because that night was the start of my rather impromptu winter trip. In short, I went to Hokkaido and Miyagi Prefectures and visited Jenni, Jeannie, and Diane and saw the cities they live in. In reality, it was not that simple, I took just about every form of transportation that is readily available and actually had to take a lot of indirect routes to get where I wanted to go. But it was soooooo worth it!!!
To start, I hopped on a night bus headed to Ikebukuro in Tokyo and met up with Jenni early the next morning at the hostel she was staying at after having seen her family off to America. We then took the train straight to Haneda Airport to fly into Sapporo in Hokkaido (Japan’s northernmost island). We took another train to Diane’s town of Iwamizawa. Of all four of us, she lives in the biggest city and, surprisingly enough, I live in the second biggest.
View of Mt. Fuji from the airport!
When she picked us up at the station we were starving after all our traveling, so we drove to drop off our luggage and then went straight to a restaurant called Seize the Day. It featured Soup Curry which is a specialty of Hokkaido. It’s exactly what it sounds like: soup with curry seasoning and ingredients. I loved it! It warmed us up and was delicious at a good price! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and that night we went to karaoke. Needless to say, fun times were had by all :D
Soup curry. I got the sausage soup curry which apparently means just throwing a sausage right into the soup. Regardless, it was delicious!
The soup curry restaurant.
The next day Jenni and I braved the snow and met Jeannie in Sapporo. We saw some of the famous places including the Sapporo TV Tower, Clock Tower, Odori Park, and Tanukikoji Street. Those were cool to see but we spent the most time and had the most fun at a factory for a famous Hokkaido cookie called Shiroi Koibito (白い恋人is literally white lover). In the factory you could tour the building and learn about the history behind the cookie and about chocolate in general.
Sapporo Clock Tower
Sapporo TV Tower
Odori Park where you can see some of the preparations for the Snow Festival that would be happening later in the year which features huge snow and ice sculptures.
BTW it was really cold. It was the middle of the day and that sign says -6.2C which is about 20F.
On Tanuki Koji Street. That guy I'm posing with is supposed to be a tanuki or a raccoon dog.
Most of the street featured shops and gaming centers but we came across this monk just standing in the middle of the walkway for no apparent reason.
Jenni walking into the first door in the Shiroi Koibito factory walk through. We were trying to make it like walking into Narnia.
Jenni, Jeannie, and I posed with a giant version of the packaged cookie.
The chocolate time tunnel was particularly fun. Jenni is rather good at taking creepy photos.
The production. Those real people on the floor (not the walls though) making actual cookies.
Not only did we do the walkthrough of the building and see the production line, but we also got to decorate our own cookies. And even better than that, was eating the cookie with the amazing hot chocolate and chocolate fondue we ordered at the café. After a brief walk through the very cold and snowy park we went to the next building to buy omiyage and walk through the displays there. I really have no idea what theme they were going for in this second building or why they had some of the stuff they did. More than anything it was like walking through an eclectic antique store. You can be sure we had fun taking pictures with all the strange things.
Can't you just feel the skill radiating from this picture.
My cookie right before I packaged it. I wrote Hokkaido, the date, the initials of the three of us there, and Himi in kanji. Yes, I know, you are blown away by my creativity.
Heavenly chocolate fondue. I actually tried a banana piece but Jeannie ate all the rest since neither Jenni or I likes them.
The even more heavenly hot chocolate.
The sign for the Shiroi Koibito Park. Needless to say we did not stay outside to enjoy the park for very long.
More winter decorations at the park.
Inside the next building over.
One of many strange pictures we took inside. I don't know why a velvet suit wearing Abe Lincoln was sitting bench, perhaps we wanted some hot chocolate.
That night I went to Jeannie’s town of Kuriyama and Jenni went back to Diane’s. Jeannie and I picked up some food to cook dinner and, more importantly, we bought a bottle of wine. I was delighted with how enjoyable our bottle of Swagaroo turned out to be! The next day, I saw some of Kuriyama but mostly I just bummed around with Jeannie, watching TV, talking, etc. It was a nice relaxing day!
Sake from Jeannie's town of Kuriyama along with the awesome Serentity sake glass she gave me.
We totally painted our toes Christmas colors even though it was already 2011.
Swagaroo, the delicious and hilariously named wine that Jeannie and I enjoyed.
In case you forgot, it was really snowy outside.
For the rest of my exciting adventure you will have to read the sequel, coming soon to a blog near you.
Before the boat departed we took a couple pictures up on deck and then ran inside to defrost.
This is the room we stayed in. It was women and children only and those little futons were surprisingly comfortable.
Walking around Sendai.
Melon bear stuffed animals. Jenni and I each won one from a UFO catcher!
