Frost bitten.

In February we had the opportunity to travel to Northern Japan with some good friends to ski and attend the famous "Sapporo Ice Festival." We also had the opportunity to be the coldest I have ever been in my entire life. This Texas girl had to buy quite a few articles of clothing, including my first real winter jacket. :)

May I just say Niseko was the most amazing skiing we have ever done (now coming from a Texas girl that may not be impressive, but even Tdub agreed and he's been around. with skiing that is.) Because we were stuck in a perfect blizzard every day on the mountain and knee deep in powpow, pictures were not the priority so we only got a few. :) Our legs were burning, our little piggies frozen and bodies were sore after 3 days of shredding the gnar gnar.

view from our hotel room

The team then headed to Sapporro for a few days to the Ice Festival. Over 2 million people from all over the world attend this festival every year. It started in 1950 and has continued every year since. The park is full of about 400 ice/snow sculpted structures. Teams from all over the world come for a couple weeks before the festival and start to build and sculpt the structures. Each team/country makes theirs so unique and different. It was really incredible to see and I found myself in disbelief that this was ice and snow shaped before me. It was so "warm" this past winter (i beg to differ, would have hated to be there during a normal winter) that several of the structures melted and one actually fell on an older lady and broke both of her legs. It was the first time that anyone had been injured by a snow structure in the history of the festival. We got out safe, just a little frozen on the buns.

that's S.N.O.W. people!!

the whole gang at the Taj!

my favorite one i think, the detail was ridic!

the children, i mean our very mature husbands decided to race on the ice slides. The Japanese workers weren't sure what to do with them when they got in line because it seemed to be just a children's attraction up to that point. But as you will see by the time they are sliding down there are other adults in line. gosh, those Gaijin's have great ideas! haha! What I love about this picture is that the top workers are holding them back like they will slip and hurt themselves and the bottom workers were creating a snow drift to help slow them at the end. haha! Japanese people were getting in my way to take pictures of them sliding down. awe-some.

and the f-u-n just keeps coming...a few of our people got chosen to participate in a game that was totally lost in translation. still not sure what they were supposed to do, but raise their flag when a certain thing was called out. Thank goodness everyone (even if you don't know Japanese) was a winner and got a goodie baggie. :)

Tdub and his prize, a milk box.

I am realizing this is a long blog and there is still a few more treats to share, join me for part two on the next post...

make a wish.

If I've mentioned it once I've mentioned it twice (or maybe 3,000 times) that Japanese peeps love their festivals. They have them for everything. EV-ER-Y-Thing. In conjunction with the beginning of the year being all about good luck, every January they have a festival centered around a little doll called Daruma.

Now this little doll is not your average baby doll soft with stuffing and blond hair, it's round, red, eyeless and made out of paper mache, kind of creepy, but cute, ok maybe just creepy.

The idea is you come to the festival at the beginning of the year and buy yourself a doll. You make a wish and fill in one of the eyeballs. Throughout the next year, when your wish comes true, you fill in the other eye ball and then return to the festival the coming year to throw your doll into the fire. If your wish didn't come true that year you jump into the fire. kidding! you just throw your one eyed monster into the fire and hope it turns out better next year. :) then you buy a new one and start all over. I'm sure there is more mumbo-jumbo with the gods and wishes and thanking them, but this is about all I understand. :) I have been the past two years and this last January got to throw my (and Tdub's because it was a school day) doll into the fire. i was kinda sad to part with the doll, to be honest. ridiculous, i know. I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if our wishes came true this last year, and here's the answer...
before:

after:

all of us about to throw our dolls into the fire from last year

verrrry strategically placing my guys on the pile. :)

now on to make a new wish for 2012, how will I ever choose?

another NY's celebration.

I am a member of an amazing culture club! It is a group (even ratio) of American and Japanese ladies that meet together once a month to exchange cultures. We take turns hosting each month so we each get a bit of culture throughout the year. It has been going for like 50ish years and it such a neat and invaluable experience for us while stationed here in Japan. We air force wives are not only able to meet Japanese women that speak English, but also to experience things we would not normally get to. I have been with the same group of Japanese ladies for the last 3 years and they have become very sweet and dear friends. They hosted the New Years function for us and brought in some very traditional entertainment with puppetry, singing (which is a little more like repetitive chanting, not good "put you to sleep music") and dancing. These puppets are not your average Kermie and Miss Piggy, they are life size, kinda scary looking (i think we have a trend with the scary, Japan) and they tell a story to music. our bento box lunch, a few questionables.

the entertainment...

get on your feet, get up and make it happen!!

i love these sweet ladies!

the whole group dressed up!