Snow festival in Sapporo
Apologies for the disappearance. I've come out of the witness protection program and am now able to blog about Tokyo/Japan again. Also, I've decided to change the name of my blog from "Kam Pai" which is "Cheers" in Japanese to "Undercover Gaijin". I first heard this phrase hanging out with a bunch of friends who are English teachers and the title was given to us Asians who could pass for Japanese. FYI: Gaijin means foreigner or outside person.
I went to the Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival) in Sapporo last weekend which was awesome. Tim, Melissa, and Phuong traveled with me to brave the freezing temperatures. Yes, they make Sapporo beer there but to be honest with you, I think Asahi is better. Actually, if it was up to me, I wouldn't drink Japanese beer. Their sake and shu's (like a Japanese vodka) are much better. While in Sapporo, I saw ice/snow sculptures which was the main delight of the Snow festival. It's not everyday you get to visit a house entirely out of snow or an Ice Bar serving Kahlua. I think my friends and I witnessed a "wedding" in front of one huge ice temple. One ice sculpture actually had fish and sea life frozen inside. I do have to say the funniest snow sculpture I saw was Canada's. In the International Snow Sculpture competition, Canada submitted a Klondike couple in a very skanky/interesting dance pose. My Canadian friends imitated them and it was very omoshiroi.
The other favorite part of Sapporo was going to Sato Land-o, a kids theme park which had a snow/ice maze. The boys won in a boys v. girls race. We rule!
The food is also pretty good. Soup curry was my favorite which is basically curry in a soup form and you pour it over a plate of rice. The hairy Crab mini kai seki (traditional Japanese gourmet set) also was oishii but was too much for me to handle. You can see pictures of us passed out after the 11-course meal of crab: crab sashimi, crab gratin, crab salad, crab hot pot, crab guts, steam crab, crab tempura...you get the point.
added after posting: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2095363952
I got an idea from a friend of mine about the things she's keeping a track of while in Japan. She's a Chinese citizen who's assimilated well into American culture and proposed several categories to list her experiences in Japan: things she likes, things she hates, and things she doesn't understand. In the spirit of that, I'd like to introduce you to my first thought about Japan.
Things I don't understand:
I get obituary emails at work from anyone who's relative died. Not someone at the company who's passed away but their mother or their father or their grandfather. It is a mass email sent to everyone and about 1x/week, I know someone has died close to GSK. The only condolence I get is that our President and the director will send the family flowers in our name.
