2/7/13: Sapporo- Susukino, Tsu Dome, and Odori Park

Since we only had one full day in Sapporo, we had to make the most of it.  We started the day early and ended up eating (of all places) McDonald's.  Not sure how we landed there, but I must say that their McDonald's breakfasts were pretty darn good.  I guess everything is better in Japan.  Even their coffee is full of beans... what?

This is what we saw on our way to McDonalds!  It snowed so much, you couldn't even see the bicycle!

McDonald's was near the Susukino area, which is where they have all the ice scupltures.  Since nothing else was open yet, we decided to check out this area.  It was pretty neat-o.

It's famous for having fish and other sea creatures in the ice sculpture!

At night, they close down the street so you can get closer to the scupltures. We went back that night, so I'll post some of those too.. Here's more fishies..

I thought these were cute.  The middle guy is the On mascot.  Don't ask me what On is.... but if you look at his eyes, one is a "o" and one is an "n".  He's normally yellow.

Paul liked this sculpture.  It was a Suntory Whisky ice bar.

After Susukino, we got some winter necessities from one of the convenience stores.  Someone told us to get spikes that can slip on over your shoes so that you don't slip in the ice.  They really helped when things got slippery.

Then we went back to the hotel for what reason I can't remember.  But it allowed me the chance to ask the hotel staff how to find the shuttle stop for the Tsu Dome site.  You can only get there by shuttle or subway, but the subway was about a 15 min walk away from the site.  It was snowing, so I really wanted to find that shuttle!  It turns out the shuttle stop was very close by- just a hop skip and jump across the park. Yay!

The shuttle was very reasonable.  A round trip ticket per adult was 800 yen and Akemi was free.  Yay! The bus ride was a bit long and made me sleepy, but it was nice not having to worry about what stop to get off of.

Look who was there to greet us at the Tsu Dome!

Love these small snowmen!!

The first thing Akemi wanted to do was the tube slide.  You had to take your inner tube up to the top and then slide down the ice ramp.  I decided to sit this out while they stood in line so I could look around.

Sorry.. photos are really dark and I can't figure out how to brighten them up on Paul's mac.  They had some snow sculptures there too. I liked a lot of them- most were kawaii... I guess because it was more geared to children (and me!).  Cute yah?

I liked the Maneki Neko... for sentimental reasons.  See I'm beckoning like him...

And one for Year of the Snake!  Even their snake is cute!

After walking around a bit, I decided to go back to the snow tube ride so as not to miss them.  They were still in line at the time..  Then the temperature dropped and the wind picked up and it started snowing pretty hard.  I was FREEEEEEEEZING!!!  OMG.. totally thought I was going to freeze to death!  I was amazed that all the little kids were still having so much fun on the ride.  Every single one of them that came off the ride said "Yokatta!"  Now I wanted to go too.  Too late for this round as Akemi and Paul were almost at the front of the line.  They then told me to go up the stairs where I could get a better shot of them sliding down.  I went up the steps to a deck and froze my buns off!  I did get good video though.  I'll have to figure out how to post that  later.

Paul said it was so much fun and said I had to go too.  For now, I wanted to thaw a bit, so we headed inside the Tsu Dome to warm up.

Inside, we found Yuki Daruma!  I think that's his name.  He's kawaii no?  I think he's the Tsu Dome mascot- for the Yuki Matsuri at least.

We sat and thawed for awhile. I ate a really good dessert but have no idea what it was!  Paul ended up eating a tako yaki and Akemi had some hot chocolate.

After our short break, Akemi wanted to head back outside.   Akemi had fun trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.  I think we all did that after watching Charlie Brown!

I told Akemi that there was an ice slide that she might want to try.. She went once and didn't want to stop!  Good thing she had on her ski pants!

 After a few times on the ice slide, we decided to try the tube slide again and this time I went with them!  No photos though since we were all on board.  The guy was laughing at me because I was laughing and screaming at the same time.  I'm glad I went.. it was really fun but kinda scary. I thought I was going to flip over!

After the ice slide, that was enough excitement for me.... we wandered over to the kiddie area or waku-waku Tappy Land.  It ended up being too small for Akemi.. I guess she's getting to be old now!  She really wanted to make a snowman, so we went to the Yukidaruman Republic area...

 Next to this huge Yukidaruma, we saw all his minions!

These are all the snowmen that visitors made and left there.  Akemi really wanted to make one, so she started working on it, but the guy stopped us and told us to come back at 1:30... so we headed back to the Tsu Dome again because I was freezing again and needed to warm up...  Around 1:30, we headed back to the Yukidaruman Republic area and were able to make our own snowman!  Here's ours.  I think he kinda looks like a cuter version of the scary doll in Nigthmare Before Christmas.

After a few more slides down the ice slide, Akemi made snow angles.  I think every kid wants to do that!  After she made a few, we saw other kids doing the same.

Then it was time to head back to the hotel.  We took the shuttle back to Odori and went back to the hotel to clean up a bit and get ready to check out the ice sculptures.  By the time we got back, it was getting dark.  And because it had snowed so much, many of the details on the sculptures were hard to see...  Here's some of my faves...

It's Totoro!!!!

And we found the Hawaii team!  I think their's was some kind of hunting sculpture. I recognized the wild boar...

This is the Kabuki-za which is currently under re-construction and will be re-opening sometime in 2013.

And this is Maruko-chan  She is so Kawaii!  This sculpture is of her in Hawaii!  We also found the Hawaiian Airlines booth nearby.

Then we went to go get some dinner.  Rahmen to warm us up!!

The Rahmen shop was in a shopping arcade, so we ended up doing some shopping...  Funny how there  were a lot of stores and which one do we go in?  Don K! (For you Hawaii folks, that's like Don Quiote).  We found this pet shop too and stopped in to see all the cute doggies... Japanese seem to like Daschunds too!  We saw several waiting to be bought. This one was playing with Akemi through the glass.

The shops started to close up, so we headed back to Susukino to see the ice sculptures illuminated...

When we got there, we realized they closed the street, so we could get closer to the scupltures!  The kids were all riding on the sculptures, so I made Akemi go on the car...

Don't these look like huge beers?

I'm not sure what the significance of the tunnel is, but everyone was taking photos by it, so we did too!

This was taken inside the tunnel.. much better lighting....

On our way back to the hotel, Paul noticed that we lost our Don K! package.  After Don K, we had gone to McDonalds so Akemi could use the western toilet (no squats for her), so he thought he left it there.  We headed for the hotel and would meet him there...  In the meantime, Akemi was trying to make a huge snowball...  She carried it all around Sapporo.

When we got back to the hotel, she put the snowball in front and made another snowman, who she named Bob.  Bob will make an appearance in my next post.

After we met back up with Paul, we found out what happened at McDonalds.  He attempted to ask them if anyone turned in his Don K! bag which was left on the 2nd floor, but the guy gave him a weird look and found someone else who spoke more English. That guy figured out what Paul was talking about and gave him his bag!  Yay!  Japanese people are so honest! They rock!

After Akemi finished another homework assignment (junk yah?), we headed back out one more time.  I wanted to get a few more gifts before the stands closed up for the night.  I didn't know if they would be open the next day before we left, so I wanted to pick stuff up that night.  Paul decided to hang back with Akemi in the park and found an area where they could have another snowball fight without hitting bystanders.  We separated while I walked a few blocks to find my omiyage.  While on my walk, I caught one of the light shows that is projected on the Hoheikan (Historical Guest House).  It's pretty awesome. I'll try to get a video up that I took of it.

Just before I found my family, I spotted the cutest felt snowmen ever!  I got one snow bunny and one snowman.   The girl was happy I bought both of them!  

By the time I found Paul and Akemi, they were pretty much covered in snow.  What a long but fun day!  Next up is travel back to Tokyo.

2/6/13: Travel to Sapporo- Part 2

We just got back to the hotel in Asakusa after our travel day back to Tokyo and dinner at an awesome tempura restaurant!  We are tired, so taking it easy this evening.  Good time for me to catch up on my posts...

I guess I didn't see these pix, but wanted to add them into my trip report since they were blog-worthy... After we arrived at our hotel, we wanted to check out the snow sculptures... as I mentioned before... Akemi was more excited about playing in the snow...  She and Paul made this cute snowman...

I guess the professionals can't have all the fun right?

And at the end of the street was the Sapporo TV Tower.  I think you can go up the tower like the Tokyo Tower, but we didn't have time.  It's still pretty lit up!

The crowd was not that bad.... I guess since it was a Wednesday?  I imagine the weekend must be CRAZY!  Thought this was so cute!  Many parents pulled their little ones along on this small sled.

Just looked up what this is... It's listed as the Hokkaido Winter Food Park!  No wonder I liked this sculpture a lot!  It looked so pretty illuminated!

OK I think that's all the ones I wanted to add for that day.  Be back soon with more posts on our Yuki Matsuri adventure...

2/6/13: Travel Day to Sapporo

Oh my goodness. I'm behind already!  Yesterday was quite busy... we started off the day pretty early, had breakfast, and then headed to Miyamoto Unosuke (Taiko shop) so that Paul could place his order.  We decided to tag along so that we could have Mr. Donut again.  On our way to the store, it started snowing!!

We got to meet Ai, who works at Miyamoto and plays Taiko.  She used to live in Hawaii, so she can speak good English  She was very nice to translate for Paul when he took his taiko classes.  Thank you Ai!

After Mr. Donut, we headed back to the hotel to check out.  Look what we spotted!  A Panda bus!

When we got back to the hotel, we found out we were late in checking out!  Darn it!  Now we were rushing to pack up our last minute stuff and leave our luggage with the hotel.  Yay!  Thank you Toyoko Inn for letting us leave our stuff there till we return from Sapporo.

We decided to leave early for the airport since flying domestic wasn't our norm.  We only had one suitcase and our backpacks, so it made traveling much easier.  Aaaahhh.  We took the subway to the monorail, and then monorail to Haneda Airport.  Check in at Skymark Airlines was not that bad.  We went to the kiosk and it had English, so that made it easier.  Loved that you could print your bag tags straight from the kiosk.  Get with it Hawaiian Airlines!!

Now we had awhile before our flight, so I walked around to see what you could buy.  I was going to try the Tokyo Banana, but ended up just getting their version of the Baumkuchen.  It tasted like banana cake.  I liked the other one we had earlier better.  I think I still need to try Tokyo banana- the original version.  I also dragged Paul and Akemi to a small restaurant to have lunch.  They didn't want to eat, so I had a katsu curry,  Yum!

Our flight was delayed, so we didn't leave until about 1/2 hour later.  Once we got on the plane, I found it quite nice.  It was spacious and clean, and even had a power source under your chair! The only thing I didn't care for was the temp.  I guess because we were dressed for cold and it was really warm.  I fell asleep for most of the flight, but once I woke up I was very hot.  The flight wasn't too long, so I just got through it.  Here's the view from our window.  Love it!!

Here's Paul and Akemi on our flight.

After a the flight, we grabbed our bag and headed for the train.  Little did we know that we got on the wrong car- it was reserved, so a Japanese man started asking me what seat number I had.  We panicked and got off the train in case all of the seats were reserved.  Turns out we were on the correct train, wrong car.  Then we got off the train and transferred to the subway.  Here's where Akemi got stuck.  I guess she didn't walk through the gate fast enough, so the gate closed on her.  We had to call someone to help us.  In the meantime, we lost Paul.  Luckily we texted each other and eventually found each other.  If you follow us on facebook, you probably saw a weird post by me, I was messaging him, but for some reason it kept posting  Go figure!

After the subway, we found our hotel pretty quickly.  We had ended up switching to a different hotel at the last minute, but I think it was worth it, even though we had to forefit some of the cost.  The new hotel is right across the street from Odori park, which is the main site for the sculptures!  Yay! That made me really happy.

After we checked in, we went to check out some of the sculptures and ended up watching some extreme snowboarding.  Then we decided it was time to eat, so we wandered around and found an open rahmen restaurant up the road.  It was really good!  I got the crab rahmen.. can you tell how happy I am?

As soon as Akemi saw the snow, she was determined to play.  To the point where it was hard to walk with her.  Finally, Paul agreed to let her play in the snow to get some of it out of her system.  They found the Sapporo Clock Tower right next to the restaurant and started a snowball fight,

 OK it's really late... I need to go to bed since we are traveling back to Tokyo tomorrow.  I'll post more once we get back to the hotel.  Stay tuned till next time!

Day 4: Sengaku-Ji, Odaiba & Tokyo Tower

Konbanwa!  Yes, I'm still up for once and waiting for my laundry to finish so we can pack.  We are off to Sapporo tomorrow and need to finish packing our stuff.  Luckily, the hotel will let us leave our stuff here while we go to Sapporo and back.  Yay!  A few less luggage on the train will be such a relief!  Thank you Toyoko Inn!

So today, we decided to venture to new ground.  Paul heard about the 47 Ronin shrine and researched it for the trip.  After a late start, we headed to Sengaku-Ji to find the shrine.  We didn't get lost at all!  Yay!

Here's a shot at some of their graves.

I coudn't resist picking up these Hello Kitty 47 Ronin items from the souvenior shop nearby the shrine.

After the shrine, we made our way to Odaiba.  We've never gone there before either and wanted to check out a few things we've read about.  While going to Aqua City, we stumbled on the Statue of Liberty!  Very cool....

The view was amazing on the rooftop.  Here's a shot of the Rainbow Bridge.

This was in front of Aqua City.  You had to hold hands and touch these two metal things and then the gazebo lit up and made music.  I think it's supposed to be for Valentine's Day.  Akemi got a kick out of it and kept wanting to do it with me or Paul.

I think its cool when we find Hawaii stuff outside of the US!

 We found the Daiso store right away...  yay!  I found my Natchan!  Daiso Rocks!

I guess even shopping malls have shrines!  We found this one on the roof top.  It's supposed to be for a god that grants 7 wishes?  

After that we decided to go get some grub, so we tried to find the Rahmen Festival located in the mall.  After searching several floors, we got a little lost and stumbled on this weird store...  They had this poster up and some Japanese girls were sticking their head in and taking photos.  We couldn't resist...

I think Paul had the best face...  It still cracks me up everytime I look at it!!

At last!  We found the Rahmen Festival, which was more like a food court with just Rahmen from all over Japan!  Here's the entrance...

And further down was this huge taiko!  Paul wished he had his sticks.  I'm sure he would've started playing if he did!

He was happy to also find some geocashes in Odaiba!

This was taken at the Fuji TV building... Paul made Akemi pose like this...

And on our way to DiverCity, we found this... I think it was called the golden torch?

The coolest thing in Odaiba was the Gundam Robot fronting DiverCity!  Every so often he would light up and move his head.

While looking for a bathroom in DiverCity, I found this!  Yay Hawaii!

We were going to head home early, but since that was out the door, we decided to just finish up our day by going to the Tokyo Tower, which is pretty near to Odaiba.  It looks WAAAAYYY better at night.  During the day it is red and white, but at night you just see the lights.  Oooohhh, Aaaaaahhhh!

Here's the ant's eye view.

We bought tickets to the observation deck where you can look out on Tokyo.  It's beautiful at night!  Here's my 2nd attempt at a panoramic with my iphone.  Yay!

They also had a shrine there (go figure!).  So we bought one of the good luck wish things and let Akemi write on it...

Here's what she wrote...

And we left it there with everyone else's...

We thought this was neat... apparently they found a mystery ball in the Tokyo Tower!  We think it was a baseball...

Then we went down one level to find those blocks of clear flooring where you can look down to the street.  Paul and I got nervous just looking down.  He is totally afraid of heights but "dared" to step on the clear floor.  What a dare devil.. NOT!

After we had a snack, we decided it was time to go... but when we got off the elevator, they took us here...

It was called Grand Hearts 2013.  I guess it's a special event for Valentine's Day.  I'm sure Tokyo Tower will be very popular on 2/14.  I thought it was cute.  They had each tower form the shape of a heart!

And finally, I got a shot of the Tokyo Tower sign in the gift shop.  What the heck are those pink guys? You can find out here...

OK It's past my bedtime.  Akemi and Paul are already sleeping.  In between writing this post I was helping Paul pack and check the laundry.  Thank goodness we just need to pack the last minute stuff now.   Oyasuminasai!