Happy new year everyone!
Christmas was pretty good fun! I went to the Christmas Eve service at Sapporo International Church, then on Christmas Day had dinner with friends at the Pain’s apartment and headed out with Alex to meet some students and watched About a Boy on DVD, had chocolate fondue and just about caught the last train home!
One disappointment on Christmas morning was the lack of snow, it had snowed on and off for a couple of weeks, but had rained just before Christmas Day. The day went through in relative dampness. I called home and talked to family lamenting the lack of snow for Christmas, no sooner had I put the phone down, got my coat and headed out to meet Alex and the students from the university than I was met by thick heavy snow falling. The snow kept going all night and Boxing day morning was spent knee deep clearing my pathway and car space! The winter truely began on boxing day, the tarmac has barely been seen since!
So on the 27th I packed up and headed south! I caught the train to Aomori where I met with Emiri and stayed a few nights in Itayanagi Church, enjoyed fellowship on Sunday and some snowboarding on Monday. Then Emiri and I caught the overnight bus to further south, escaping the snow and entering the (slightly) warmer climes of Kanto! Eventually arriving at Emiri’s parent’s house in Ibaraki prefecture. Where I got to have a traditional(ish) Japanese 正月 (New Year).
The really interesting thing is that Emiri’s family own and run a soba noodle restaurant. At New Years it is tradition in Japan to eat soba noodles if you want to have a long life (cos noodles are long y’see! simple really…) and so for soba noodle restaurants everywhere it is a busy day! So everyone helped in the restaurant, including me! I didn’t go near the vital parts of the kitchen, opting instead to dish out the sliced leeks and sauce etc that you eat with your soba, wiping trays and other more mundane, but safe, tasks. The night was great fun though and was followed by staying up til midnight to see the New Year in!
Other hightlights of the trip were the Oarai Aquarium, a huge dinner on New Years day, a barbecue in January (it wasn’t much colder than normal Northern Irish barbecue season weather!!), making tako-yaki and a lot of relaxing and taking it easy in between times!
Here are some photos from the trip!
On another note, I have put an interesting picture in the “recent pics” section on the right. In Japan when you go to the loo, you remove your normal slippers (shoes are left at the door of the house, slippers may be worn thenceforth) and slip into a sleek pair of special toilet slippers. If you ever happen to require the facitilies in my flat here in Sapporo, these are the very slippers you’ll find waiting for you just inside the door.
