Lost in Ogawa

Has your mind ever wanted one thing and the rest of your body wanted something else? This was the case with me last weekend. An opportunity came up where I could go snowboarding in Nagano with a bunch of new Japanese friends. After snowboarding in Hokkaido, I was still itching to go snowboarding again and this time it was Nagano, the site of the Winter Olympics in 1998! There had to be great snow right?! We would leave Friday night and sleep on the bus over night and get to Nagano (north of where I live) by early morning. During the day on Friday, I started to feel weak, tired, and coughing and runny nose had started. I knew I was coming down with something but I was reluctant to stay home for the weekend and miss out on Nagano. SO…I went and boy did I pay the price! Literally and figuratively speaking!

Unfortunately, my mind had won the battle and forced my body to go snowboarding. Sometimes I think I have this problem where my mind wants something and it’s not in the best interest for my entire well-being. The bus ride there was “extremely” painful for me. We were in a chartered bus and one of my new Japanese friends that organized the event had seating chart for everybody! A seating chart! The youngest person there was 19 and the oldest was 35, was it really necessary? I guess it showed the event was well organized since there were 48 of us. I didn’t mind the seating chart all that much except it sucked to have my seat along with maybe 7 or 8 other poor souls. Unfortunately, the bus was short 8 to 9 seats but there were fold out seats into the middle aisle of the bus. These seats were thinner and not very well padded. The worst part was, the back of the seat only goes up to the middle of my back and not all the way to my head. I was supposed to sleep 6 hours or so sitting on that crap while I was feeling sick! And it doesn’t get any better when my seat was at the front of the bus. Every two hours when we took a bathroom break, I needed to fold up my chair and get off the bus to let everybody off and then be the last one to sit back down before we take off again!

Snowboarding wasn’t a pleasurable experience for me but the surrounding scenery was beautiful and the snow was decent. It was two days of snowboarding in pain and I forced myself to do it because I already paid for it. It was also an added bonus Saturday night when I had a fever. I didn’t have a thermometer with me but my body doesn’t lie. With the limited medical knowledge I have, I assessed all the symptoms I had and I was 90% sure I had the flu. Nobody in Japan knows what you’re talking about if you just say I have the “flu”. You have to say I have “Influenza” and then they’ll get it. Sure and behold, the doctor confirmed I had Influenza Strain A. I don’t recall the last time I had the flu!! I couldn’t go to work for 4 days, quite obvious for the nature of my work, and the fact I could not do ANYTHING for two straight days except drug myself to sleep. The flu really sucks! I hate how it makes you feel so weak and all shivery but isn’t it amazing how a degree or two increase in your body temperature can practically debilitate you?! It also sucks when you know too much about your condition and what your body is going through and you can’t do anything about it except to wait for your immune system to fight it off. I seem to be using the word “suck” very much ……because it does!!

Pics from Nagano (not many)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=/ea55

This past weekend had been one of my most favorite weekends since I’ve started living in Japan. It was also the coldest weekend I have ever experienced. Since Friday was a holiday (thank you Japan for a holiday once a month), I decided to leave Ogawa and for once, take a break from Tokyo and go somewhere a little farther. Along with 7 other ALT friends, we headed to Hokkaido, what I like to call snow country! Japan is primarily made up of 4 main islands. Hokkaido is the northern most island right on top of the banana shaped island where all the major Japanese cities that you’ve heard of are located: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, etc. To get a better association of Hokkaido, anybody ever drank Sapporo Beer? Well, Sapporo is the biggest, and the main city in Hokkaido. Seems quite obvious Sapporo beer is made there huh?! Sapporo is not as large as Tokyo of course but it’s the largest city there. From what I’ve heard, the rest of Hokkaido is mainly countryside but I’ve also heard from friends, family, and (believe it or not) Chinese soap operas, Hokkaido is famous for its beautiful sceneries. During the winter time when it snows, Hokkaido is a piece of white carpet that stretches endlessly in all directions. Survey from my Taiwanese family members and family friends tells me Hokkaido is one of the most popular destinations for Taiwanese tourist.

So why would I venture out to Sapporo to freeze my butt off when I can do that right in my apartment? Once a year, Sapporo is host to one of the most popular and widely attended festival in Japan. It is called the “Snow Festival” or “Yuki Matsuri” in Japanese. This year was the 56th annual Snow Festival in Sapporo. Tons of Japanese people come from all over Japan and not to mention different parts of the world to see this festival. It was estimated that over the course of the festival, 2 million people will have came to the festival. That means, hotels prices are high and hard to find, and airfare was double the usual price. However, if there was a reason to go to Hokkaido, the snow festival was the best reason to go. It’s not worth discussing how much the trip cost because it’ll just make me cry! It’s disgustingly outrageous for 2 nights and maybe 2 full days. From Tokyo to Sapporo, the flight was about 1.5 hours. I couldn’t believe my eyes how much snow there was, it was everywhere! I can safely say I have never seen so much snow in my life. Part of me was excited to see the snow, the other part of me was going numb from the cold! On the news, I would always see the temperature to be in the minuses but you really don’t’ know what that means until you experience it for yourself. When we were there, the high was maybe -5 degree Celsius for the day and at night, minuses in the double digits. Ouch! So what’s so special about the snow festival? These amazingly carved snow sculptures and ice sculptures of ridiculous sizes. Most of them are bigger than me and some of them are as big as my house or bigger. Everything was so beautiful, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. At night it’s even prettier with the different colored lights giving life to the sculptures. The only problem with viewing at night was that it was freaking FREEZING outside. Every 30 mins. or so, I would loose feeling in my toes and fingers and we would have to enter rest stations to warm up by the portable gas heaters.

The main site for the snow sculpture was located at Sapporo’s Odori Park. It was a pretty big park, lengthwise. There had to be at least 100 or more snow sculptures. There were Japanese anime characters, Disney characters, Korean drama stars, you name it, they’ve got it. Being in Hokkaido with all that snow, it would be such a shame if I didn’t go snowboarding and snowboarding I did!! The snow was amazing! It was beautiful with the soft powder snow. I crashed and burned quite a few times but it didn’t really hurt…….at first =) I haven’t touched a snowboard in almost two years and once I got on the board once more, it all came back like riding a bike. It was bliss! From my research and what my Japanese friends and teachers have told me, the best snow is February in Hokkaido. I just couldn’t miss it no matter how hung over I was from the night before x) All my friends out there who enjoy skiing or snowboarding, you should ski/snowboard in Hokkaido at least once in your lifetime, if not more. Ok that’s all I’m going to say about Hokkaido, you’ll just have to see it for yourself or just look at my pictures and use your imagination!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=/ea5a

Remember back in the day when we were Junior High, High School or even College students, anything that associated with embarrassing bodily function made us giggle and chuckle? You know what I’m talking about! May it be farting, constipation ... [Continue reading this entry]