Snowfest 2012

In February George and I flew north to the island of Hokkaido with 7 other friends. It was a blast. I'm a slacker and haven't quite kept up with this blog lately, so here's more of a visual blog than a written blog for me to chronicle this trip!

We stayed in Niseko and skied for a few days. It was a blast. I particularly loved the 'beer tent' at the bottom of the slope with happy hour and the hot onsen in the hotel. The only pictures I have from that part of the trip is when we met about a dozen preteen/teenage girls with a ski school who were obsessed with us westerners. I think we were truly the first white people they had ever seen in real person. They were very impressed by my blond hair and the hot white guys which brought them to insist we take pictures with them in the hotel lobby. I don't hate feeling like a celebrity. 

 Here's a pic of my good friend Natalie and I on the ski lift. We liked those beginner courses while everyone else rocked the steep and scary slopes. 

After about 3 days of skiing and enjoying ourselves there we headed down to Sapporo. Well... Kate and I headed out and the others stayed behind for one more afternoon of skiing. We chose to hop a train to the sweet and precious little town of Otaru. We were there in time to do some walking around and shopping. It also is famous for their lantern festival where they light candles and string them across the canal. It was like being in an Asian Venice. We debated holding hands a few times just because it was so romantic. :) (Thanks for the romance Kate-o!) 

It was also freezing. Literally!

The next few days we spent wandering around the Snow Fest. It was very impressive. People from all over the world come and enter their snow and ice sculptures. They are incredible. Seriously!

I think this one was done by Thailand. (?)

 Maybe from China? I used to know. Sorry. 

I really shouldn't wait 3.5 months to blog. 

I forget way too much!

 They even had carved out a slide that children could climb up the stairs to and slide back down. Sounds fun, right? 

 Yeah, that's what our friends Brad and T-dub thought too. Check 'em out! 

T-dub, Will and I also got roped into a (non-televised) Japanese game show! Luckily it wasn't Chris Farley/Mike Myers SNL style. We did not die. We actually received small cartons of milk as a door prize. Our team lost because it turns out the directions were in Japanese and 3 of the 5 team members (that's us) didn't speak much of the language. 

While the rest of us got hot mulled wine or hot chocolate my crazy husband opted for an ice cream cone. Weirdo. 

 We also visited a fish market. We (met and then) ate a crab. He was delicious. He did not have a name. 

We also ate the most delicious (and expensive) sushi I've ever had in my whole entire life!

 Nom. Nom. Nom.

 The big highlight of the trip was our all you can eat and drink for 3 hours dinner. I'm sure I gained 5 pounds in that dinner alone! 

 The Sapporo Beer Factory

 Beer Tasting!

 Oh my word that food was good!

 Inside joke. Love ya KB! 

 I insisted on getting grips to wear on the bottom of my feet for the trip so I wouldn't slip and bust my behind on this trip. George thought it was silly. Wanna know how many times I fell? Zero. Wanna know how many times George fell? I lost count. But here's an example. :)  

 The day we left we split up and the guys took off to see a BMX or motorcycle show or something equally manly us chicks took off the to the chocolate factory. None of us fell into a chocolate river (unfortunately) but we did have some fantastic fondue. 

For lunch on the last day we hit up Ramen Alley (for the second time) and ate at a restaurant endorsed by Anthony Bourdain and his crew. There ain't nothin' like a hot bowl of ramen to warm you up on a freezing winter day! 

One last pic of us at the entrance to Ramen Alley.