Holidays in Japan

Although I spent years living in Japan, I had only been there once before on Christmas day. That was in 1998. I was living in Tokyo, and I had to work that day. I had dinner with a friend at a Taiwanese restaurant that night, and then I flew to France a couple of days later. I had never been in Japan on New Year's before. I had such a nice time this year, I wish I had stayed before. Maybe next year!

One of Sapporo's sister cities is Munich, and one result of this is the Munich Market, which is held each year in December. It's a German-style Christmas market, complete with vendors from Germany, German food, and gluwein!

Spending Christmas Eve snowboarding at Kiroro was also wonderful. Hokkaido has the best powder I've ever experienced--and I've also skied Tohoku, the Alps, and the Rockies. Plus, it's inexpensive, and there are usually no lines.

Dishes in my Christmas dinner with a friend and my Japanese teacher: a delicious assortment of Hokkaido sashimi, and potato mochi cheese butter yaki. Hokkaido is known for potatoes, cheese and butter, and this dish combines these specialities--with mochi and a tare sauce. So tasty!

New Year's decorations in Sapporo Station. This display is as tall as a person, and about as big as a Tokyo apartment.

Seeing this photos have made me wonder why I moved back to the States!

Finally!

After getting stranded in Chicago for 24 hours, I finally made it to Japan! While I know things could have been a lot worse--it was hard to tolerate being stuck in a crappy airport hotel, eating (or rather, trying and failing to) at an abysmal chain restaurant--when I knew I was supposed to be in Tokyo! But hey, I made it, and yesterday I got to Sapporo. I've already hit Uniqlo and Muji, and had some soup curry. I'm looking forward to a lovely tofu kaiseki lunch. I'm supposed to go snowboarding tomorrow, but seeing as my board arrived, but not my boots, gloves, googles, or thermal socks--it will be a bit expensive. But as long as there's snow...