Sapporo Snow Festival - Susukino Site

The Susukino Site is in the middle of the young entertainment/shopping area of Sapporo. There had some amazing ice sculptures in this area. This one had crab and fish frozen inside ice blocks.
Chase and Cole in front of the ice Salmon.
So Chase and Cole are standing in the famous Ramen Alley. There are about 20 different Ramen noodle restaurants inside this alley and each restaurant can only hold about 6 to 15 people. It is a great way to warm up from the cold.

I can't say I am a huge potsticker fan, but these just melted in my mouth. So so good.

Cole had crab noodle soup (king crab in the shell, scallops, and clams with a miso broth) and I had a corn noodle soup that were SO good (Cole said it was the best ramen he has ever had). Chase even loved the ramen. He was so cute. We would wrap a noodle for him around a chopstick and he would put it in his mouth and slurp the noodle down. The Japanese consider slurping a sign of good food(which drives me crazy) and a compliment to the chef. Sapporo is also known for their wonderful crab and shellfish dishes.
Ice mermaid and an almost finished ice transformer. We visited this site the day before the festival and they were still working on a lot of the sculptures. Chainsaws and jackhammers.

Sapporo Snow Festival - Tseudome Site

Chase and I inside an igloo sitting on heart shaped stools.
Chase liked crawling through these snow tunnels and it was hilarious when he was trying to push himself through.
Baby snow slides that were perfect for Chase.
Ice Slides. So Cool. So Chase and I are at the first slide getting ready to go down. I thought I could put Chase on my lap but they told me at the last second that I couldn't go down. So the Japanese worker tried to put Chase on the slide but he got scared, so I was going to bring him back down. But Cole was yelling at me to just push him down. So I felt horrible, but I pushed Chase and he ended up sliding on his belly all the way down. When Cole picked him up he was laughing, so luckily he loved it and I didn't feel so terrible.
Inside a big sports dome next to this snow festival site they had a bunch of activities for the kids as well. Chase loved the stuffed characters walking around. They must be Japanese cartoon characters cause we didn't recognize them.

Sapporo Snow Festival 2010

Most people have heard of Sapporo. It is Japan's 5th biggest city, with just under 2 million people living there. Sapporo is the capital of Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture. Most people are familiar with Sapporo as the home of the 1972 Winter Olympics or as the home of the Sapporo Brewery. We learned that Sapporo was also famous for their Snow Festival, one of Japan's largest festivals. In fact, approximately 2 million people visit the Snow Festival each year. The Snow Festival began in 1950, when 6 high school students built 6 snow statues in Odori Park.

The city is distinctly different from Misawa. The roads are very wide and the population seemed young and vibrant. It was also very cold. Misawa is not as cold as most people think. In Misawa, the temp rarely drops below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a lot warmer than Omaha. But Sapporo was much colder than Misawa! The first night we were there the temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit with a brisk wind.

Ok, on with the pictures! We took a lot of photos, so we will have to break it up into multiple posts again. Enjoy!

Bundle up, it's cold!

Shirokuma Time Square reminded me of New York's Time Square

One of the few places you don't have to walk on snow or ice. This is one of the many indoor malls hidden beneath the streets.

I told you it was cold. This was a designated smoking area made entirely of large ice blocks. This had me chuckling for some reason.

In the background, you can see the Sapporo TV Tower (kind of looks like a miniature Eiffel Tower)

Odori Park

A tribute to the zoo (pics from there later). This massive scene was carved out of snow.

Snow Temple

For those of you familiar with Hideki Matsui. He is a Japanese baseball player who has played for the Yankees in recent years. His nickname is Godzilla. They carved Matsui's face inside of a Godzilla head.

They built a giant snowboard jump in the middle of Odori Park. Cool!

Cole's Mogul Masher Trip & Appi Onsen

A week and half ago Cole went with the Mogul Mashers(base ski group) to Getou Kogen Ski resort which is about 3 hours from here. The group goes every weekend, but Cole has been working the weekends lately but had one off to squeeze in for the trip. Cole said they built this ice sculpture that day while he was up on the mountain. We are excited to head to the ice festival tomorrow which will be filled with huge ice sculptures. Pictured (Cole, Nate, Josh, and 3 random Japanese guys that jumped in.)

So here are two pictures of the onsen at Appi Ski Resort that we went to after a day of snowboarding. We forgot our camera that day which was too bad cause we had a fun day at Appi Ski Resort with some great powder and no crowds and some beautiful views. And we enjoyed a nice warm lunch of wantan noodle soup and a Korean dish Cole cooked himself at our table. The food choices at a ski lodge are really different than what we are use to.
So the Japanese love their onsens and go on a weekly basis, and I finally know why. The men and women baths are seperate. The protocol to go into an onsen is you first enter this room completely in the buff and you walk over to the row of faucets. You sit on a little stool and wash yourself with soap and water so you are clean before entering the bath. This one is really hot, and the outside one is not quite as hot. And they also have a cold bath. It is truly relaxing, and the goal is too only look at faces and not look down. It is so weird how this is normal in Japan, but would be so weird in America. I actually only thought this sort of thing existed back in the Roman times.

ANANA

Chase's first word is Banana. He has been saying dada and nono for awhile, but his first official word is banana. But he will only say it one time for me in the mornings when I go to get him a banana from the shelf.
Chase and his friend Becca attempting to wash their hands while on a stool together.

Turn up your volume and listen close to hear Chase's first word:)

Snow, Snow, and More Snow

Our landlord comes and snowplows our driveway and yard. Not as frequent as we would like, but this last week the plows could not keep up with all the snow. I feel like I am living on top of a mountain. The plows here create ice roads instead of completely removing the snow off to the side. So you drive on layers of packed snow. So driving around has been much slower, but extremely beautiful.
Cole taking a jump at the snowpark at Appi ski resort last Friday.
Brad, Doug, and Cole enjoyed a fun powder day at Appi. I am pretty sure they had a blast on the mountain with no kids, no wives, and no work to worry about.

Looking good, Cole. Nice air.

Brad and Doug looking good in the powder.
Night Boarding at Schichnohe this last Wed. We were some of the first boarders there that night so we enjoyed making the first tracks down the mountain. We had a great time and you can't beat skiing for $10.
On the chair lift.
View from our kitchen window.
This was after our first snow storm, we had two more big storms this last week. We have a couple feet of snow outside right now.

Chase and I with his puke bowl. Poor little guy got a little stomach bug. I now understand the meaning behind projectile vomiting. I have been doing laundry nonstop this past week, but thankfully Chase is all better now.

Powder Day at Hachimantai-Shimokura Resort

Nice Edge-Here was a double black diamond we hit at the end of the day. I pretty much back edged it the first half down to keep from going too fast.
Valerie(UCC Doc), Randy(Husband to UCC doc), and Tig's Butt. As you can see we pretty much had the whole mountain too ourselves. It was great. Especially since we were creating our own tracks in the couple feet of new powder that was on the mountain. It was sick, fresh, narley, wicked, awesome..I think I did a good job of describing how much fun we had.
Tig pushed me into the powder right when Monica took the picture. I should have known. I somehow maintained a graceful fall into the powder while smiling the whole time and looking at the camera.
Love the new board outfit Cole. Cole and I were also loving our new boa board boots and flo bindings. As Cole always says, When you look good, you board good. Or you at least look good when you fall. No Chase today, he stayed home with our mamasan Hayo.
Crystal (UCC nurse) and I getting off the lift, hoping not to crash into each other. We made it that time.
Sporting the Utah beanie, of course.
Our friends Crystal and Josh looking good on the slopes.