On our way to Hokkaido

December 23rd

For Christmas, we decided to go back to Hokkaido to try our new hobby, Snowboarding, again. We went to the same place last year and just barely got familiar with what to do. Actually, last year, I skied and Jeremy snowboarded. This year, we both did snowboarding. We also had a couple of friends go with us this time. Marta and Cody also enjoy snowboarding. In fact, Marta has been doing it for years, so she was really excited about going as well.

We got a really great package deal to go up to Hokkaido for 5 nights. We spent 3 nights, up at Niseko (a ski resort known for it's abundance of Australians), and 2 nights in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. The five nights, plus the bus to and from the Mountain, and airfare, were about 60,000 yen (less than $600) It was fan-friggen-tastic!

I'm going to back up just a bit to tell you a story about Jeremy. The night before we left for Hokkaido, I had invited my Japanese family over to make cookies with me. I teach the little girls and the dad and aunt, once a week. I wanted to share my family tradition of baking cookies with the little girls. They loved it. We made, Chocolate chip cookies (in the microwave/toaster oven), no bake cookies, and marshmallow treats (with corn flakes because I couldn't find rice crispies). Anyway, while we were making the cookies, Jeremy was entertaining the rest of the family, all while drinking some shyochu (Japanese rice liquor) that they had brought us. He didn't think that he drank as much as he must have because when we had to wake up the next morning at 6am to pack and get ready to go to the airport, Jeremy spent a fair amount of time hugging the John. You should have seen him on the train to the airport.

Because of Jeremy's morning hell of a hangover, and a mix up with trains from our friends, we ended up getting to the airport and having to run, and cut into lines, and run some more, to end up getting on the plane just in time for the doors to begin to close. (It wasn't quite that dramatic, but we really did have to run around the airport with our hearts pounding, thinking we were going to miss the damn thing)

Finally, we made it on the airplane, and by the time we got to the airport, had our first taste of the famous Sapporo ramen, and got on the bus to the Mountain, Jeremy's hangover had subsided and he was starting to get amped up for the powder that was to be on the mountain when we arrived. We all were excited.