“I’ve spent two full days traveling halfway around the world, its cold, and I’m homesick but its ok ‘cause I’m barefoot and disoriented.”

This was my first jet-lagged and culture shock induced external monologue I spouted as I stood shivering and looking around the small cubicle that was my best friends apartment in Izumi, Sendai. Shocking element number one: They don’t believe in insulation or central heating in Japan. I had taken two weeks off from my grueling job in entertainment to immerse myself in the cultural climate of Japan to spend quality time with my best friend, take pictures for an upcoming show, and maybe even learn a thing or two about a completely foreign culture.

Part One: Sapporo, Hokkaido

The nomi-hodais & tabe-hodais (translation: all you can drink & all you can eat) are quite possibly some of my favorite cultural aspects of Japan. My first experience with this celebrated tradition was at none other than the Sapporo Beer garden. (Writers note: don’t buy the beer flavored caramels at the gift shop, they taste like socks). Upon entry you are handed a plastic bag to shield your coat from the scent of the meat and vegetables cooking on the open grills on each table, and are ushered in and waited on consistently.

Typically you are given a set time within to drink and/or eat as much as you can and the attentive waiters keep the overflowing pitchers of Sapporo beer coming.

The beer garden was followed by another well known tradition: Karaoke! Unfortunately the concept of mixed drinks have been lost in translation in Japan, as is the concept of cosmopolitans and other cherished cocktails. I took full advantage of our time constraint and drank as many Moscow mules as I could while singing myself hoarse. The drinks however, did not seem to have much effect.
Over the next couple of days my friend Courtney and I would set out every morning to fully explore Sapporo.

Many of our compatriots headed for the slopes- Sapporo has fantastic skiing. We began each day with a trip to the Starbucks we had fortuitously discovered. Yes, I politically and incorrectly adored the fact that there was Starbucks in Japan. When you are in a country as foreign and different as Japan, you cling to the familiar things. After full caffinating we could move on to the things that actually drew us all the way out to Hokkaido: the snow festival the chocolate factory and the numerous other highlights.

The Sapporo Snow Festival is a yearly event in which groups of people carve large snow and ice sculptures in a competition. They are primarily centralized in Idori Park, but in walking around the city you will find other whimsical sculptures that pay tribute to the tradition, such as the large Snowman in front of the former Hokkaido Government Office Building complete with advertisements around the perimeter of the base saying things like “Hokkaido, delicious & safety.” The sculptures in the actual park were amazing, many of them life-sized buildings, larger than life Buddha’s, and castles that were lit up at night with all sorts of colors. I found one that was shaped like Darth Vader’s head, which made me quite happy. When our feet were cold, and we needed refuge, we headed underground for the immense Aurora Mall – an attraction of its own with hundreds of shops & boutiques that spans the distance between two of the main subway stations.

I found it amusing that I flew all the way to Japan and did not eat much Japanese food at all. Our Americanized version of their cuisine is a lot more personally appetizing. In Sapporo I garnered my food mainly from the convenience stores, who also keep basins of floating fish balls and various croquets at the checkout counter, allowing the scent to wash over the entire store. When going out to eat I ate at an Indian restaurant, the common language between the wait staff and my friend and I being Japanese of all things; and at a Chinese restaurant. Both were surprisingly good.

Hokkaido, despite the immense amount of time I spent traveling and getting motion sickness on the ferry was a lot of fun. It snowed every day, making the whole city look blue, and the idea that the television tower in Idori park was the icon for the festival still makes me chuckle. Stay tuned for parts two and three of Shani Frymer’s Adventures in Japan!