Of all the things that you have heard about Hokkaido, they are probably all true, but really, Hokkaido is all about its winter. There might be delicious diary products and ice creams here, but nothing beats the powdery fluffy snow. To keep warm in this kind of weather, we have grown accustomed to long johns and toque hair. We have also learned to enjoy a nice warm Shōchū (焼酎) from time to time.
Things we do to try to keep warm and keep ourselves lively
- We drink and hang out. Did you know that Japanese bars sometime serve beers in Big, Medium, and small size?
The dark yebisu Japanese beer is almost a meal… (almost. I said.)
- We went on the local radio station FM G’Sky to be the foreigner guests. We later on went to Taichi’s house for a new year party. Did you know, Japanese people celebrate new year with families, so the new year party is usually sometime in January with friends. This is the “party” where people drink and eat and chitchat till the wee hour. If you prefer drunken chitchats, it’s also an option.
- Cathy enjoys kicking snow/ice behind the tires and around the bumpers on the car. A lot of ice builds up on the cars around here. Cathy kicks our car, sometimes also other people’s car.
- We run around in the snow with kids and play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60KE9V-jzu8. We love these kids.
- The Costco at Sapporo finally opened on Jan 25, 2008. It was the first costco in Hokkaido. We paid a visit on Jan 26. There was a line-up for the cars to go into the parking lot all the way around the block. (which we avoided by parking in another grocery store’s parking lot) We bought blue cheese, costco muffins, san pellegrino, jelly beans, and chai tea. Between the 4 of us, Kevin - Cathy - Matthew - Kaori, we each spent around 7000Yen - equivalent to 70 dollars CDN. None of us planned to buy anything before we went in. Costco just sucked us in. Membership here is slightly cheaper than I remembered. It was 4500 Yen, with the great exchange rate on Canadian dollar right now, that’s 42 CDN dollars. it’s a ripoff if you are paying $49 in Canada!
- Sometimes we visit random small town businesses, such as, bowling alley on a Sunday night. 
The place was literally empty. We felt cool and lively while the Japanese teenagers gather around behind us, playing video games and taking sticker photos.
- Cathy got to go to the Sunagawa Hospital for a tour around the surgical room. 
“How often do you get to meet a cardio surgeon who would take you to the hospital for a private tour?” She said. I am not sure about you, but we don’t all live in grey’s anatomy land.
There are much more things we would like to do around here during the winter, but it seems that time is flying and we will never have enough time to do them all. There hasn’t been any snowman-building yet this winter.
This weekend, we will escape the cold and fly to Taiwan for Chinese new year. Delicious food awaits. We will, however, unfortunately miss the tug-a-war competition in town and the Sapporo snow festival. But we are almost certain that the snow will be here waiting for us till we are back.
On a side note, it really isn’t that cold… - 5 is considerably warm and refreshing. The coldest day of this season to date was -24. It was not pleasant.
If you are reading this post from somewhere above 0 degree, that probably means, you are one of those people we miss dearly.
p.s. All pictures are from Cathy because Kevin has been slow on uploading
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