(no longer) LOST IN JAPAN

This one's for you, Angie!

So I've been receiving death threats recently because I haven't been updating... Not true but several people have indeed been hinting that I should update... I meant to do it last Wednesday after I got back from Hokkaido but I haven't had internet access at Kashiba recently for some reason... Must remedy that situation...
Anyway, Hokkaido was fun. Sapporo may be a big city in the middle of nowhere, but it is a great city to be in. The shopping is great, the food is AMAZING! I love Japanese food but I don't think I've ever eaten so well as I did the 4 days in Hokkaido. Ramen, seafood, mutton, chocolate... It was excellent! Now I love ramen. It is quite possibly my favorite food in Japan even though it is not traditionally Japanese. The Japanese adopted it from China and over the years, have made it their own. Sapporo ramen (called Kani ramen in Sapporo) is quite possibly the best ramen I've ever had, and I know my ramen... Crab, asparagus, corn, bean sprouts, green onion... It was delicious. And the crab in Hokkaido is in season in the winter so it was even better.

Getting to Hokkaido was an interesting experience though. First of all, I almost missed my train to the airport... which in retrospect wouldn't have mattered... We show up at the counter to pick up the tickets and the woman behind the counter tells us that our flight is cancelled because there is a snowstorm in Hokkaido... GREAT! She then tells me that there will only be one plane flying out and it will be at 3PM... even better... 5 hours to kill at the lamest airport in the world... So I bought Bleach volume 7 and started practicing my Japanese reading....
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5 hours later... We check in and the ANA woman behind the counter says that the plane will fly but if it can't land in Sapporo, it will either land in Hakodate (in Hokkaido but far from Sapporo) or fly back to Osaka, Itami...
Here is a map to make things easier to understand... See Osaka? That's where we started. Our destination was Hokkaido, the giant island in the north, right under Russia...


Now let's zoom in on Hokkaido...

See Sapporo in the brown? That's where we were supposed to be. See Hakodate in the dark purple? That's where they planned to divert us... Very, very worrisome considering that if we did indeed land there, we'd have to take a 5+ hours train ride from Hakodate to Sapporo... not very comforting since we had hotels and stuff booked...
We board the plane. The captain announces again that there is still no change in the weather and that our flight could be diverted to Hakodate or return to Osaka. We take off. 2 hours later, we are circling above Sapporo. The captain comes on again and says that there is still no change in the weather. He says that he'll hold the position and hope for clearance... crossing fingers... 75 minutes later, the captain comes on again... says something in Japanese and the whole plane cheers and applauds... WE CAN LAND!!! Thank God! So we landed at around 6:00PM... 5.5 hours behind schedule.

Andy and Mamie were not so lucky. Their 9:30AM flight was cancelled but their travel agent never booked them on another flight. So JAL sent them to Tokyo saying that they'd have better luck there. In Tokyo, JAL says that there are no flights going in to Sapporo and that the next one would be Sunday at 2PM. Unacceptable since they also had hotel reservations. Meanwhile, I let A&M know that we are getting on a plane but that it might be diverted to Hakodate. They ask JAL if they can also do the same thing. JAL says that all the Hakodate flights are booked... so JAL suggests Kushiro. Now remember where Hakodate was (in the dark purple)? Kushiro (in lavender) is worse... But that's where they end up... in Kushiro... And then, after landing in BFE, they have to take a very long, very expensive overnight train to Sapporo. They make it to Sapporo... after 26 hours of traveling...

The Snow Festival was fun. The giant snow sculptures were really cool but I think my favorite part of it, besides the food, was the country competition. 14 countries from around the world were competing in a snow sculpting contest. We got to watch the progress because they started sculpting the day we got there. The finished products were phenomenal (well everyone's except for the US... which was quite nice seeing as I was the only non-American in a group of five...) And not only did the American sculpture look like it could have been made by elementary school children, the icing on the cake... TEAM CANADA WON!!!! The sculptors were really nice too. We were talking to them for quite awhile on Day 3. This is their take on Japan on their website.

I'll post pics when I've chosen the good ones.... Until then, I've gotta sign off because my battery is dying...

posted by Samantha @ 7:23 PM