Snow Festival.
Couch Surfing guests.
Friend's parents and guest and a sushi birthday party.
Taking people places in my car. Hotels, suitcases, clean sheets for people.
HUGE melt of 2 days, and then the whole city refroze into an ice rink.
New students.
Potential new students.
Choose a text book for a class from April.
Work.
Shop.
Computer still broken - because he doesn't have time to fix it...
ALL my 2011-12 school accounts are IN the computer....and tax season is now.
This
That
More of this
And that.
TGIF.
Sapporo is REALLY icy now, after 2 days of April-level temperatures. Followed by freeze.
I stopped Okaasan going out on Wednesday, she really can't judge weather conditions and road surface.
But yesterday I got home and her little pink flowery slippers were in the hall and she was out in the ice.
I called Yujiro at work to tell him and he agreed to use the telephone GPS to find her downtown and bring her back safely.
He found her in the Seicomart coffee shop in the underground station area and took her for dinner, and then brought her home by taxi.
Funny - Okaasan was apparently surprised to know there WAS a Sapporo Snow Festival happening in the park above the coffee shop.....of course the city subway posters, the local TV, the newspapers have been full of nothing but Snow Festival news for days now, we've talked about it endlessly - but somehow none of that had actually stayed in her mind as a fact: There is a festival in the city center park right now.
I wonder if we should take her...or not?
I'd rather not. Just go and enjoy it all myself, or with a Couch Surf guest. If Okaasan doesn't really realize it is happening anyway....I guess she wouldn't feel disappointment in missing it !!!
I have always wanted to go to the Sapporo Snow Festival! You are so lucky. I hear that it is almost impossible to book hotels in Sapporo around the festival and it has to be done very far in advance.... :( .... Anyway, looking forward to lots of pictures!!
ReplyDeleteWow. You do that couch surfing deal. Cool. I met a Turkish guy on the border with Iran who offered up his place to couch surfers.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea.
I'll do the same with bunks on my boat in the end.
SMENITA
Yes, getting a hotel is hard during festival - and in fact many tours now come here a few days before it opens - because there are hotels available and in fact it is interesting to see the statues being made.
ReplyDeleteBut don't worry - if you use the Couch Surfing website you can contact me and come and stay for free!!! I have Couch Surf guests all year, but festival time is crazy - the American woman who stayed 4 nights this week first contacted me in September 2011!
I saw on tv they had to um remodel some of the sculptures because they were dangerous. Best if okaasan doesn't go, although I'd be quite keen to take Granny K and chance my luck...
ReplyDeleteIf you bring her up here I'll hide behind a giant anime character with a hairdryer.....totoro? doraemon? maybe godzilla would be best.....
ReplyDeleteI posted a comment but it didn't get posted.
ReplyDeleteBoo hoo.
Will just say, for what it might be worth, couch surfing must make living here less lonely, more interesting, and so on.
It does! Of course I live in a big city in Japan, with loads of foreigners around...and I have many good friends of all nationalities...but it IS fun to welcome someone to your city and see it all thru their eyes...and remember travelling. I came to Japan as a backpacker for 3 weeks originally - 17 years later here I am washing an old lady's underpants - but I love being able to hear backpackers experiences and sharing their sense of adventure in the world...Couch Surfing is a great system.
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