*Note: Yes I know I shouldn't be traveling during Covid. I have my Covid booster shot, wore KN95 or double masks, and didn't eat out. Cases are low but not zero so it's still important to be careful. At the time in Japan the focus was on safe travel and avoiding risky things when you get to your destination, which is different than the recent alerts*
So, Hokkaido. In winter. What was I thinking??? Now, I have a very good reason to go from somewhere cold and snowy to somewhere even more cold and snowy and that is I have some family in Hokkaido! Seven years ago, my cousin became an ALT in rural Hokkaido and has since gotten married and has two kids. Given that I'd spent Christmas alone in a snow storm under my kotatsu, I wanted to get some family time in for the big winter holiday here. Even if that meant going somewhere with a daily high temperature of -4C(25F) and every non-heated road being solid ice.
Every single person I mentioned I'm going to Hokkaido to told me I HAD to try the seafood, and luckily for me my cousin had exactly that in mind. We got sushi and he made sure I got to taste some local specialties: octopus, squid, and yellowtail. Oh, and of course Hokkaido milk ice cream. According to his wife, she doesn't trust anything that says Hokkaido milk unless she is actually in Hokkaido XD. She's a Hokkaido native, you see, and walks confidently on the ice much faster than us raised in decidedly less icy parts of America.
My Pacific Northwestern heart was also very pleased by the abundance of national parks. My cousin similarly likes the outdoors so he took me to the local (quasi) national park, Onuma Quasi-National Park. It's a good year round park, given that Hokkaido isn't insanely hot in the summer and you can still walk around the trails in 30cm(12in) of snow, which is exactly what we did. To get there you drive on the road along the lake where you can bike or run along a path but we went for the hiking trails around the lakes. You could barely tell it was water though, given that the water was covered in snow and ice. Fox tracks were visible in the snow and the road had many fox crossing signs, but alas I did not see any foxes.
Also, see that sign on the left pillar of the bridge? That's the name of the bridge. Fun fact about Japan: most roads aren't named, but every single bridge and tunnel is named, even this little walking bridge in a national park.
One of the last things you would expect to see in Japan is a giant taxidermy grizzly bear. Or taxidermy in general. And yet, at a shop in this national park there was exactly that. Two big grizzly bears (well, not quite grizzly bears but similar and big), some other smaller taxidermy, and a variety of animal pelts for sale. It very much reminded me of my home and rural living where seeing a taxidermy animal in someone's house wasn't that weird (yes I'm serious several times people were like "look at this deer/bear/cougar I shot!" and would point to a taxidermy or show me a picture of said taxidermy). This place also offered squid ink ice cream, so of course I had to try it. It tastes something like sesame ice cream, or somewhat salty mild savory taste mixed with smooth soft cream. Tasted fine, would recommend trying to say you have.
On the way back we stopped at a 道の駅(michi no eki, roadside station) because Japanese roadside stations are a destination on their own and while it was unfortunately closed, it had an interesting sculpture outside. Why is it there? I don't know but it's pretty hilarious. Apparently a hobby in Japan is visiting these stations, and you can get stamps from each to show you have been to them. Apparently one of my cousins coworkers has been to every 道の駅 in Hokkaido, which is pretty impressive considering how big Hokkaido is.
We also went to a candle making studio and made our own candles. I went with the flower option, where you can collect dried flowers from around the shop and place them artfully into your candle mold. Or just shove a bunch in like I did XD. It's actually way harder than it looks to place flowers in and I have so much respect for whoever made the pretty candles they had on display. It now sits in my bathroom where I will never burn it because it was really hard to make.
And finally onto the main event: New Years Eve dinner. In Japan, New Years is the big holiday that people spend with their families and there are many traditional foods that go along with that. The most classic is soba noodles, the longness of which represents long life. Now, soba noodles are made of buckwheat which isn't actually wheat (it's a seed) so I can eat it. However, like many things in Japan, they sneak wheat into things that shouldn't so many soba noodles use a mix of buckwheat and wheat flour. Luckily for me, it is possible to find 100% buckwheat soba, even in my local grocery store. It is advertised as 十割, which literally means ten tenths. As for other foods, we had kuromame (sweetened black beans), sauteed beef and onion, tempura (made with rice flour!), egg pastry, and a couple side dishes I couldn't eat but could still appreciate. This meal was consumed with my cousin's family while watching Japanese New Years specials (imagine normal Japanese tv but with more singing and confetti). This was very different than my normal American New Years, but I was really happy to experience New Years the Japanese way.
Comentários