Hokkaido (Niseko and Sapporo)

I took a trip with 14 other JET’s from Kobe to Hokkaido (the North Island of Japan). It’s almost on the same latitude as parts of Russia and as such it’s freezing in Winter -10C to -20C is common.The flight was about an hour from Kobe airport… I think. I didn’t sleep the night before, I stayed awake drinking all night and all morning so once on the plane I slept like a baby!

When we arrived we took a bus to Niseko which is a mountain resort and I snowboarded that night from 6pm – 9pm on floodlit pists with the most amazing powder! It was great and the off piste was even better. Unfortunatly I was pretty "Piste" myself and kept on wiping out everywhere…

apparently!

I have no recollection!

The next two days were spent hardcore boarding before we took a coach back into Sapporo and stayed in an amazing hotel while we checked out Sapporo and the building of Ice and Snow sculptures for the imminent Snow Festival. Here’s the pics… and a well funny video of me wiping out while trying to film and board on the second day.

Photo's are in reverse order...

Snow Festival in Sapporo - truly amazing detail

My favourite sculpture

Ice sculpture road

Hiro Kobayashi - Legend. Asked him in the street for directions to a bar and ended up drinking with him till 3 or 4am! He had to work at a mobile phone shop at 6am!

(L) Reni (Leni) - cute girl with her mates we met in Sapporo and again here... She lives in Osaka, Andy thought they were Hostesses from their confidence and they way they dressed.... we'll see....

Chingis Kahn Tabehodai! Basically as much Lamb and Beer as you could cook and drink in 90 mins! So delicious!

Outside Sapporo Beer Garten

Inside

Batting Center - first go at Baseball

Spider Crabs - loads of big ones in Sapporo (called Kani)

Bears too...

Nabe in a Sapporo Izakaya

Sapporo

Niseko

Andy and Jay

(R) Chi and her pal

Lunch on the mountain

Girls we met in Niseko, Chi, Pinky and One-Piece (Peg-leg was at the hotel with a sore leg - hence the nickname)

First meeting Japanese girls (Peg-leg is at the front)

MOUNTAIN

Wha'ddya mean I'm doin' it wrong!?!

Some of the skiers...

Ossu!

In the bus - Suki tucking into some sushi bento

Upon hearing my request for Ponyo in Sapporo...

My wipeout - hilariously caught on a camera that isn't broken! That says something for the powder in Niseko!

Dodgeball

My school is in a transitory period between ending one year and beginning another so there is lot’s of fun things happening now such as watching The Goonies in class and playing football and dodgeball tournaments with the 2^nd year (ninensei) and 1^st year (ichinensei) respectively.Here are some pictures and videos from the Ichinensei dodgeball tournament last week. They take it very seriously…

Saki (R) and another student who are both really sweet.

Who doesn't love seeing a kid in pain? Especially a blow to the crown jewels!

Here's another one who hurt his leg. See, it brings a smile to your face dunnit?

They love it!

Awesome Ichinensei girls. Reina (L) Harugu (R) the middle two's names escape me.

Reina (pronounced Leina) gave me a Betty Boop mechanical pencil, some handmade chocolates on valentines day and a note when I gave her a Toblerone on White Day* saying;

"Bobu ne Thank-you for chocolate. Good taste! I love you !

Haruga on the other hand gave me massive attitude when I first joined the table tennis club but after a lot of persistence on my part I finally made her laugh and then we were buddies. She's like the black sheep of Ichinensei, but I admire her spirit. lol

Bowing before the big game

One of my favourite students

Another one - his English is amazing (for a Maru Chu Ninensei Student). The tape is for grip, dodgeball is taken SERIOUSLY!

Wee kinda strange kid, cheeky chappie but again LOVES dodgeball

Before the matches, at the start of school, before anything really - kids always sit like this, heads down and quiet. It's kinda weird and very submissive but you get used to it.

Dodgeball in action!

Ouch! - Notice the girls are not a fan of being on camera unless they look their best ha ha. The first girl Ibu is well naughty - she's always in trouble and disrupts classes all the time. She is a strong personality to say the least! Hitomi is really sweet and friendly, we chat most lunchtimes and she teaches me Japanese tongue twisters. Today she's not interested though... :P

*White Day is the 14th of March. Boys give girls chocolate or marshmallows. Usually some kind of white sweet. On Valentines day only girls give boys chocolates (any kind). Everyone is kinda obliged to dole them out, so I got from all my female teachers and I gave them all white chocolate a month later.

The weird and wonderful world of Japan

Yesterday I was walking home from school and passed this little stall that is often there after about 5pm with this old woman sitting behind it. It sells Oden – it’s a traditional Japanese food where they fill a bain-marie with a broth type liquid made from water, soy-sauce and I dunno what else. Then they put in loads of items to cook, for example; boiled eggs, fried tofu, daikon (Japanese turnip), bundles of noodles, fish sticks etc and you basically grab a bowl or plate and help yourself. It’s quite good and very healthy but I wouldn’t eat it often. Anyway yesterday one of my students was sitting there with this woman. He’s a Judo boy and looks a bit like a pit-bull, he’s also marginally crazy but he’s always really pleased to see me and friendly. So he invited me over and asked if I wanted Oden. I was pushed for time but needed to eat something before my Japanese lesson and 2 hours of football so I stopped and grabbed a bite – free of charge – and chatted to him and this old lady in my terrible Japanese for about 15 mins. All the while different characters came and went and stared at the weird Gaikokojin (lit. outsider) sitting with the young kid and old Japanese lady. It was an interesting and fun experience though and just goes to show how nice most Japanese people are, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds like most of the kids at my school and surrounding area.

Anyway here's some recent random pics for your perusal:

My love of Sushi is increasing massively

The Instant Ramen Museum

So many flavours!

Plus you can design and choose the fillings for your very own Cup Noodle!