Friday, February 18, 2005

Japanese snow festivals

To see the pictures of this adventure click on the photo album over there on your left.

I spent most of January in the house and it was lovely to have the opportunity to get out. We started our weekend of adventures at the Misawa Snow Festival on Saturday morning. It was right on the lake and the wind made it very cold. We toured the area, four snow sculptures, a couple of sledding hills, a bridge, some snow lanterns and the food tent. Lily had a blast running around through the crowd in her snowsuit. After a quick look-see, we had some food. It was so good. We tried some traditional hot fermented rice drink, not my favorite, we had some teriyaki marinated beef on a stick, some frankfurters, some fried rice with shrimp and quid and some fried wedges of sweet potatoes. Everything was delicious, except the rice drink. We did another quick tour and watched a game of snowball fighting. The game included two teams, lots of snowballs and the mission was to capture the other team’s flag. The kids were having a blast.

Later that night Jeff and I went on our first date since the baby was born, 19 months. We parked our car and walked the two blocks to Jeff’s favorite restaurant, Ram Tei. Ram Tei is a very small restaurant, about eight tables, where you cook your own pre-seasoned beef at the table. The meat is heavily seasoned and peppered and some people are sautéing onions and cabbage as well. We spent the time discussing our dream home, as we do on every occasion we eat at Ram Tei. The walls are paneled in wood and it gets Jeff to dreaming of the house we some day plan to build. By the time we left Ram Tei we were smelling very lovely. The smell of the grilling meat, smoke and spices stays with a person for days. On our stroll back to the car in our little town, in the snow we spotted a beautiful oil painting for about $10 in the window of a shop and went in to buy it. This of course was our babysitting money, but the paining was awesome. Once in the store we couldn’t find the shopkeeper, so we browsed for a while awaiting his return. Instead of the $10 painting we ended up buying a picture of Mount Fuji for $20, Jeff climbed Mt Fuji last summer and it was a must have. After paying for our purchase the shopkeeper was telling us something we couldn’t understand, in Japanese. Finally, he held his nose and waved his other hand in front of his nose. I guess we were stinking pretty bad to be told by the shopkeeper. We laughed the rest of the way to the car. That was so much fun. I am making such a good impression of America here in Japan. On the way home we stopped to get a movie and some ice cream for Mandy, along with some more money to pay her and we ran into a bunch of our friends. We knew how badly we stank, we kept trying to get away, how embarrassing. Jeff kept telling them we were at Ram Tei, it was hilarious. That was one of the best dates of my life. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.

The next day we got up early and went to the Morioka snow festival with our Japanese friends: Ristico (Mom), Yoshi (Dad) and Kotalo (son). I am sure I spelt all the names wrong! It was a three-hour drive; we stopped once on the way. The greatest invention of the modern age is here in Japan, warm toilet seats. Imagine a freezing cold rest stop in the mountains with the toilet seat warmed, lovely. It is interesting to note that the rest stops do not have warm running water, only cold, and don’t have paper towels or hand dryers, but the seats are warm and we take what we can get.

We arrived at the festival and it was very crowded we had to park far away and walk about 15 minutes to the festival. Ristico tells me that this is a dairy farm and the fields used for grazing the cattle in the summer are used for the festival in the winter. We arrived and set up our foods at a picnic table, used the restrooms and began our tour of the festival. Here there were about 25 sculptures. They were much bigger and more interactive than the Misawa Snow Festival. There was a JR train coming out of a tunnel, we walked through the tunnel and into the train, made of snow. There was a Disney area, Cinderella’s pumpkin coach pulled by a life size horse, Cinderella’s castle with some people dressed in dinosaur costumes on a stage out front singing and dancing. There was a maze made of snow, and much more, check out the photos. Lily was having a hard time walking on the snow here and fell a lot.

Once we got back to the picnic area and settled down for lunch we let Lily run around to get some energy out after three hours in her car seat and an hour being carried around. I gave Lily her lunch but let her run around the picnic table while she ate. She got mud on her hand, in her food and on her face. The she got mad threw a fit and threw herself to the ground in a big mud puddle. Her light pink outfit was covered in mud. I sat her on my lap, now I am covered in mud, fed her and put her in her carrier for the rest of the day. No more exercise, hoping she will sleep on the drive home, but knowing there was no chance of that. I had stayed up late the night before, after Ram Tei, to make a picnic to share with our friends. We ended up not eating a thing I brought, their food put ours to shame. We often go on adventures and camping trips with this family and I have never managed to make anything that is in the same league as Ristico. So, we had the best Japanese food and we were all stuffed.

After eating, we made another tour of the festival. Mandy rode a train pulled by a snowmobile that swung around and bounced in the air. Jeff and I had ice cream made fresh from the Dairy’s milk. We bought souvenirs and went home. Miss Lily cried a lot on the way home and I hurt my knee, and slammed my finder in the door. Jeff went on forever about what a great time we had. I think it was mediocre. Travel with a toddler is at best mediocre so I thought that was a good thing. Next time I am saying I had a fabulous time.

That was our weekend before Valentine’s Day. We spent this last week shoveling as it has snowed and snowed.

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