This time, my Nikon decided to stay alive and stick with me throughout (good boy, good boy), though it did literally freeze for a few times in the cold.
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| 浅草 |
Tokyo experienced the heaviest snowfall in 20 years. Every time we went into a store, we were super reluctant to come back out again. It was cold and hard to walk on the slippery snow. Our feet were freezing in our tropical sport shoes, to the extend that we just had to buy a pair of winter shoes straightaway thinking we would experience frostbite a few days later when we reached Sapporo. How is it that February is colder than January?? It was frigging cold but all fine until an out-of-no-where gust of wind+snow nearly blew us away when we were approaching the train station. It was a freaking, extremely, crazy strong wind, all we could think was what da heck just happened? I conclude, that was the coldest ever personal experience for me. Not even Sapporo could beat that.
09.02: Shinkansen, missed.
Due to the heavy snow, the local subway line stopped its service. Naturally, we didn't think about that possibility and thus missed our train. But since we were the oh-so-mighty invincible where-also-can-go pass holders, we still smiled to the end.
Kyoto Station was so damn hella big that we couldn't find where we were supposed to go for like an hour. （"Fool, go to the tourist information counters, they exist for a reason, yeah." 京都駅如是说。）
Kiyomizu-dera temple (...at the back)
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| 清水寺 |
And then we found our new religion at the Fushimi Inari Taisha. *伏地*
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| 伏見稲荷大社 |
After walking non-stop for more than 2 hours and still had no idea when would we exit this red tori-maze, we thought it must be the foxes! The maps throughout the tori-walk were deceiving as they were over-simplified (foxes, why you so sly?), not only that the "You are here!" on the map pointed to the same spot even though it wasn't (foxes, why you so so sly?) But our perseverance paid off when we reached the high point. Never occurred to me we were climbing up a mount (foxes, you....).
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| It was two minutes past 5.00 p.m. |
After the "woah wow wiuuuu~", it was the "Err getting down...?" So we did a condensed version of the 2-hour walk back to where we started, no time to lose when you had a train to catch. It appears that we only did half the walk.
10.02: Suddenly we were at Sapporo.
Ever sang a birthday song until the guesthouse owner came and asked you to tone down? Yeah. It couldn't get any more embarrassing than that. But it actually could as proved later on on the journey.
11.02: We are yuki-onna.
Titbit: Birthday coincides with Japan's National Foundation Day. That means 1-day Sapporo subway pass is 500yen instead of 800yen. The Snow Festival consisted of 3 different sites, so we went to alll of them. 抵！If I were a Japanese citizen, I bet I will get some nice bonuses and benefits on this day (*dreaming*).
Snow here, snow there. Tokyo stopped snowing when we were at Sapporo. Then Sapporo snowed. Tokyo snowed again when we went back to Tokyo. You kidding? Must be the foxes.
Still, it didn't stop us from wanting to go to the Hokkaido Shrine (allllll the way to Sapporo, how can you leave without meeting the deity there?) Luckily we bought winter shoes as the snow in Sapporo was deep, deep, deep.
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| Ta. I ❤ Sapporo. |
I don't know, maybe we spent 30 minutes just to order.
13.02: We lost one day. Mr. Disney, no snow today.
I am feeling lazy already.
So it goes like this.
And then like this.
Then this.
Then byebye.
Conclusion: Tokyo Disneyland is for kids. Erm, spend your money elsewhere.
Anecdote: When we were in front of all those cute Disney hats in the souvenir shop, 2 high-school students approached and asked, "Which one a girl/woman will like?" (we guessed), then my friend pointed to a Minnie hat, and he was like, "This one? Oh." Without thinking twice he grabbed the hat and went to the counter. Wou, that was a fast decision for a, we guessed, Valentine's Day gift. Did he realise he actually asked foreigners for opinions? Aw, can I go back to high school?
14.02: Initially expected a romantic 14th, hey, it was Valentine's Day at Tokyo. But our yuki power came to play, it was basically raining with snow. Romantic much? I couldn't even remember what we did. I think we were 'wow-ing' at the kawaii-much new-season clothing at Harajuku. Looking back at our local taste in fashion (casual, slippers, easy, hassle-free, make-up-less), we have many miles to go.
15.02: Heavy snow = shinkansen delayed indefinitely = shinkansen canceled =
whatever wherever whichever
Highlight of the day: We saw a "Pratform Information" at one of the stations. It was a sheet mounted in a frame displayed for the public. Man, sorry but I laughed for so long, especially when it was pronounced out loud.
16.02: Acting-like-a-billionaire day.
We ate a year worth of pastas that day. We also ate a mountain of broccoli.
17.02: I would not leave without a jigsaw puzzle and a few pens.
Will I go back?
Hell yes.
My, writing a long post is tiring.
