Spring is in the Air!

I found out on Tuesday that there was yet another national holiday occuring the next day (March 20th), this one marking the spring equinox. which is the midpoint of the week long Japanese celebration of "Higan". It is traditional for Japanese to visit family tombs on this day to polish the plaques and leave offerings. However with snow still on the ground in Hokkaido, this one isn't really observed up here. Still it's a day off work for a lot of people (Nova staff not included).

Spring still seemed pretty distant the next day with the snow and sleet coming down, however on Thursday I walked to work in bright sunshine with an accompaniment of birds twittering away. Was quite odd as the park is still covered in a blanket of snow and wil be for the next month or so. The next thing to look forward to (after Tokyo of course) is hanami - when the cherry blossoms come out. I'm hoping they will come a bit early and hit on my birthday (quite possible as its been an exceptionally warm winter and Tokyo has already bloomed ahead of schedule) - fingers crossed!

Dog House

This Sapporo club is held the last Sunday of the month from 10pm-10am. The room is tiny - 20 people feels like a good crowd, and the atmosphere is great....

A typical Nova leaving party...

This one was for Justin. Most parties are held in large izekayahs such as this one. There are 5 nova schools inSapporo so there's usually a pretty good crowd. Each party is sat in their own private booth ranging in size from a table for 4 up to this. For a set price you get an all you can drink deal called "nomi-hodai" then just order food from the menu. The guy in the navy t-shirt at the front is the only other Scottish nova tacher in Sapporo.

Japaese Hillbilly, Bessie Hall, Sapporo

OK, not really hillbilly, but they preceded a hillbilly band. Check out the hairdo's - brylcreamtastic!

Snowboarding

I first went up Teine Mountain before Christmas last year and on my third visit last Wednesday I finally got it! In getting it, I mean being able to turn both ways and travel in an approximate direction of my choice and start developing slowing and stopping techniques beyond flinging myself to the ground.

Teine is pretty accessible from Sapporo - from my apartment it's a subway ride to Sapporo Station then a train to Teine where a courtesy minibus takes riders up the mountain to the lodge. However I fear that with the season looking like its coming to a premarture end, that I've not really made the most of it. Sapporo, like the rest of Japan (and the world?) has had an uncommonly warm winter and nowhere near the amount of snow that should be falling. There's been no big dumps for ages and the foot thick ice blanketing the road outside my apartment has melted away to nothing. On Wednesday the slopes at Teine had had no fresh snow for a while, and ice paches were begining to be exposed. On my first ride down, I tried turning in and when I landed on my knees I felt like I'd kneecapped myself. There was a whole lot of pain to follow, mainly to the knees and bum, but I persevered so am pretty impressed with myself for progressing under such shit conditions.

I have been told that as the spring progresses and the ice start to melts, Teine will turn into slush mountain, which actually sounds kinda fun, but oh, just one more big dump so I can get the feel of riding on real snow - I'm starting to see how this business can get adictive.....