Every skier knows what I’m talking about. That moment when freezing levels go from 0 meters to 2000 meters can really put a damper on your ski plans, just like how bringing the wrong adaptor for your laptop can prevent you from backing up photos or blogging. Oh well…

Since Hakuba, we made the trek north to Hokkaido via ferry. The main island of Honshu hasn’t been seeing as much snow this year, so at the advice of some friends we made a big move north. It turned out to be a good move!

We’ve also been taking the time to really dive into the Japanese culture. On a night out, we managed to find our way into this izakaya on a side street. The owner didn’t speak English and we don’t speak much Japanese. However, we figured out how order two beers and some awesome “Japanese Pancakes” (imagine shredded potatoes, meat, bbq sauce, mayonnaise, and fish flakes mixed into a batter and then served up as a pancake).

Anyways, back to that “R” word. It’s not always a bad thing. After 4 straight days of skiing it forced us to go check out some sights. We’ve wandered around the “Venice Canal of the North”, sampled local whisky and beer, and even checked out the Sapporo Snow Festival (this will be a blog post on its own once I figure out how to revive my laptop). Eventually, freezing levels will come back down, and that “R” word will turn into powder.