We went to Hokkaido again (northern island of Japan) for the Yuki Matsuri. It’s the once a year snow festival with snow sculptures, snow activities, ice sculptures etc. We also saw a snowboarding competition and was snowed on constantly. I think the lowest temperature that we felt was -12C (10.4 F).
Some of the snow sculptures were sponsored by other countries. This one was created by Korea. They definitely spent time and money on this one.
More sculptures
There was an interesting section of smaller sculptures. We like the cartoon ones the best.
Getting snowed on…
Sapporo tower is in the background.
Some ice sculptures had fish and crab frozen in them.
“Gundum in Odaiba”. We saw the non-ice version in Odaiba also!
Lastly we rode the Pokemon painted ANA 777 back to Tokyo. Crazy huh?
I’m guessing that people want to see more food! And actually, we’ve been eating pretty well these last few weeks. We stopped by Ippudo the ramen shop that made news for opening a branch in NYC. Definitely order the spicy miso if you go. We also ordered (kinda on accident, kinda just cuz they were cheap) extra noodles (and meat) for $0.25! This is one of those ramen shops where you can customize your noodles, soft, firm, regular.
Then, the next night we went to a Portuguese restaurant very near our place with some friends. We tried some “green wine” ie “vino verde” as well as the set menu of yummy braised octopus, pork, a kind of Portuguese style paella. It was fun and filling night.
We went to a French bistro in Kagurazaka, the Franco-phile area of Tokyo, for a nice casual Sunday night dinner. Our appetizers included a terrine and foie gras. It was a huge piece of foie gras, very creamy and delicious. Main dishes included fish and boudin sausage.
Next up, Sapporo for the Snow Festival and lots of ramen and seafood!
One of the most interesting things which people don’t notice about Angkor Wat, IMHO, is the incredibly tall trees everywhere. Angkor Wat is very tall, and the palm trees are almost at the same height. It gives you a sense of the age of the place, and the wow factor.
The same sunrise same angle, not the same position…
Diana came across an opportunity to work in Japan for 2 years in a secondment.
Henry is the trailing spouse who got lucky with his job, and is able to work remotely for his US job during the same period of time.
