Monbetsu no Yuki Matsuri (Monbetsu's Snow Festival)

Nearly every day now, my poor little boy asks me when the grass is going to come back. Ridge is desperate to ride his bike up and down the street. He can't understand my reasoning for him not being allowed to ride on the snow and ice. Go figure. The snow continues falling, the wind continues blowing, and we likely won't see the end of winter for yet another six weeks or so. I read somewhere that the cherry blossoms appear in Okinawa in February, but Hokkaido doesn't bloom until May.

Still, the snow has some good points. For example, this weekend was 'snow festival' weekend. Sapporo, the largest city on Hokkaido, has a mega-ice festival every year. In copy cat fashion, many other towns on the island celebrate winter with their own ice festivals. We chose to try out the festivities in Monbetsu, yesterday.

Upon leaving Nishiokoppe, the sky was clear and blue, and the weather some what "warm". Not thinking clearly, we didn't bring all of our cold weather gear as we set out. Forty-five minutes later, we arrived in Monbetsu to blowing wind and a major drop in temperature. The boys were comfortable in their coats, but Aaron hadn't brought his jacket and I neglected to bring gloves. Needless to say, we didn't stay long. It was unfortunate, as the sculptures were wonderful. The boys enjoyed looking at them and we snagged a few hot snacks from the food vendors, but the wind was truly icy. I did manage to get some photos, though, despite frozen fingers.

At one of the entrances

Ridge took this shot of Aaron and me in the 'ice chapel'

The main stage; designed to look like one of the big government buildings on the big island

This is "Year of the Dog", so this sculpture is a dog with a traditonal rope around his neck; it's a Shinto thing

Another shot of the main stage. There's little kids up there trying to score a goal past the giant monkey to win a prize.

Ridge and Holt going down an ice slide


It was actually quite the eventful weekend. Friday night, we invited the Kamaya family over for dinner. Having been to their house on three occasions, I felt it was time to have them to our house. I repeated my Italian meal from November: lasagna, fresh foccacia (courtesy of my awesome baker-husband), and other assorted goodies. I think the lasagna turned out really well this time. Instead of using jarred sauce (which I get from internet shopping), I made my own earlier in the week. Another ingredient that is consistently yummy is the ricotta that we use. About twenty minutes out of town is a dairy farm named, "North Plains Farm". They sell many of their own dairy products in addition to running a small restaurant. They have wonderfully fresh ricotta that I always use when making lasagna. I suspect that the package I bought had been made only two or three days before my purchase.

The evening was mellow. Mr. Kamaya came with his wife and grown daughter. The boys enjoy their company, and vice-versa. We set up the computer and sifted through five or so years of digital pictures. The Japanese people really seem to enjoy looking at other people's pictures. I think Mr. Kamaya, while looking at our Juneau photos, and began brainstorming the idea of Aaron doing a 20-minute slide presentation. When I began to second the idea, Aaron began to quietly, but energetically, waved his hand at me behind his back. I got the message. I think after the experience with having to give a speech on Coming of Age Day, Aaron would appreciate a break from public speaking. I can understand completely; it's stressful.

The next morning, I had a couple of moms come over with their kids. The original plan, formulated about three weeks ago, had been for two mothers, Chihiro and Tisuko, to come over and show me how to make a couple of dishes I mentioned I liked. I had to cancel the original date so we could go to Shibetsu and hang out with a couple of other English speakers. Then, because of a schedule conflict, it turned out the one of moms who speaks good English, couldn't come. I think Chihiro and Tisuko were nervous about coming over without Simono-san there to translate. However, I had told Ridge that Aiko and her brother were coming over on Saturday. Aiko's mother is Tisuko (Japanese names are hard to keep track of, aren't they?). I ended up asking them to come over anyway so the kids could play. Saturday morning, Chihiro came over with her daughter, Hibiki, and with Aiko. Turns out that Aiko's little brother had a fever, so Tisuko had to stay home. After a few confusing minutes, Chihiro managed to communicate to me that she had invited Mrs. Kurata and her son to come over (she is the wife of the English teacher that I work with at the middle school). Surprise! I guess Chihiro was nervous about being the only guest, and she figured it would be okay with me to invite another mom. Of course, she was right; I didn't mind a bit. I thought it was funny, though. We hung out for a bit and chatted and ate. The kids played pretty well. It was an interesting parenting experience, but that’s another blog post for another day.