Monico Family Travels

Our next destination was the snow festival of Sapporo.  Since spring school term started this week, James and I spent the morning running errands, and we enjoyed getting out to explore as a family in the afternoons.

There were 3 main sites to the festival: the snow site, the ice site, and the family site.  All were beautifully managed and mannered, and peppered with delicious street food to delight the senses further whilst admiring the beautiful frozen art works.  

Highlights from the snow festival

And we couldn’t forget this little chappie!

Highlights from the ice site

Highlights from the family site

James’s errands mostly involved getting replacement cables and electronics.  He decided to wait till Tokyo for a haircut, but I braved Sapporo for a wax. The Japanese wax service was as precise and intricately performed as the Latin American ones had been flamboyant and fast.  It took over 2 hours(!) for a leg wax…..

…..and that was with 2 of them going at it at the same time!

I could have managed it faster on my own with a pair of tweezers and a blindfold!  Other applicable cultural details of note included the ‘waxing dress’ (a kind of pinafore worn over knickers and top) required put to protect my modesty (while they waxed up to my inner thigh…….and strictly no further), and the slippers I was required to wear to walk across the 2 foot corridor from the changing room to the cubicle, which would have been too small for Emily about 4 years ago.

As the week progressed we encountered interesting new gastronomic opportunities:

At a yakitori restaurant the girls discovered that chicken was no longer the safe option!

At a seafood restaurant we (regretfully) passed on the squid guts and the spicy cod innards in favour of a plate of chips, which the Japanese take to a whole new level – battered and deep fried (still probably a better option than the squid guts)!

Squid guts: photo courtesy of Google images

But imagine the delight when we allowed the girls to tuck into (safe) cup noodles!

Only surpassed when we discovered that not only is it polite to slurp the soba or udon noodles in your ramen, but that for ultimate politeness the slurp should be followed by a burp!

And the hot chestnuts at the snow festival were the best!

Overall we are starting to feel acclimatised to life in Japan, at the same time as knowing we have barely scratched the surface and there are so many exciting discoveries and adventures to be had.  Next stop more snow!