So click on the following link and check it out. The album should be public and anyone should be able to see it, but I never take anything for granted.
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
Photos from Sapporo Snow Festival 2012
I'm interested to see how Google tying things together could make my life easier, so instead of rambling about another restaurant how about I try sharing some photos instead? I've put up an album of snaps of this year's snow festival on Google+ which I'm still kind of feeling out. STILL. I've been on there forever, or close to it.
So click on the following link and check it out. The album should be public and anyone should be able to see it, but I never take anything for granted.
So click on the following link and check it out. The album should be public and anyone should be able to see it, but I never take anything for granted.
Monday, 21 December 2009
The Good Stuff
Well, I wasn't going to gloat, but this was something I had pegged for a blog post for a while. We've had a lot of snow here:
That was like, over a week ago, and there's been a lot more since then. So while it's got dirtier, it's also got higher. And of course in Sapporo, nothing stops. Everything just carries on as normal - sorry England! This is my third winter here, and actually I think there's been a lot more snow this December than in the last two years, it just came very, very late. There was almost nothing for the first two weeks of December (which is unusual) and then... it's just been snowing every day since. Therefore this has been the whitest Christmas I've had here. It was pretty awesome.
That was like, over a week ago, and there's been a lot more since then. So while it's got dirtier, it's also got higher. And of course in Sapporo, nothing stops. Everything just carries on as normal - sorry England! This is my third winter here, and actually I think there's been a lot more snow this December than in the last two years, it just came very, very late. There was almost nothing for the first two weeks of December (which is unusual) and then... it's just been snowing every day since. Therefore this has been the whitest Christmas I've had here. It was pretty awesome.
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Snowboarding at Rusutsu
Rusutsu resort offers you a wonderful blend of pretty high-end facilities, many runs spread over three mountains, great snow and hideous, nightmarish animatronics and carnival rides.
That tree thing was right there in the lobby, and all I ever heard were people saying "kowaii!" (scary!) I felt kind of sorry for the resort for splashing out on it - and then I remembered Dogs and Demons, the book I finished recently, and then I got a little depressed.
That tree thing was right there in the lobby, and all I ever heard were people saying "kowaii!" (scary!) I felt kind of sorry for the resort for splashing out on it - and then I remembered Dogs and Demons, the book I finished recently, and then I got a little depressed.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Snowboarding at Kiroro Resort
Insured and semi-ready. Back on the mountain - back in the snow:
I was delighted to find that I hadn't forgotten much, and that I could pick things up again fairly easily. Today however, is a pretty painful day for me.
Excuse me if I don't get up. I'm sure you can see yourselves out.
I was delighted to find that I hadn't forgotten much, and that I could pick things up again fairly easily. Today however, is a pretty painful day for me.
Excuse me if I don't get up. I'm sure you can see yourselves out.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
1st Snow
Would you Adam and believe that it had the temerity to snow while I was back in England? I KNOW! Like it couldn't wait a couple of weeks for me to come back so that I could revel in it. Anyway I had my first blast of snowy weather that left the streets an icy death-trap, and the day after they took the scafolding off my building so I can actually see out of my window now!
Overall the weather here is really fucking cold and I dread to think what my heating bill is going to be like this year. I might have to start picking up bits of wood that I find on the street to light a fire in my living room if it gets really bad, but overall I'm happier with this than that hot weather business in the summer.
Overall the weather here is really fucking cold and I dread to think what my heating bill is going to be like this year. I might have to start picking up bits of wood that I find on the street to light a fire in my living room if it gets really bad, but overall I'm happier with this than that hot weather business in the summer.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Pain from Teine
Sunday, snowboarding at Teine.
Teine is divided into two sections, Olympia at the bottom of the mountain (so named because it was used for the Winter Olympics way back in the day, that's the Olympic flame platform up there at the top) and Highland, which is at the top of the mountain. Olympia was kinda short and boring, even for me and I suck, but Highland looked interesting. However this time I found the snow unforgiving. Bruisingly so. Possibly rib-crackingly so. Ow. So, I'm in a great deal of pain today in at least... wait let me count... five places. It's not fun, but really, snowboarding was pretty fun.
Teine is divided into two sections, Olympia at the bottom of the mountain (so named because it was used for the Winter Olympics way back in the day, that's the Olympic flame platform up there at the top) and Highland, which is at the top of the mountain. Olympia was kinda short and boring, even for me and I suck, but Highland looked interesting. However this time I found the snow unforgiving. Bruisingly so. Possibly rib-crackingly so. Ow. So, I'm in a great deal of pain today in at least... wait let me count... five places. It's not fun, but really, snowboarding was pretty fun.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Mountain Snow
Luckily I have the common sense to realise that I should favour my actual-walking-around-breathing-life over posting in a timely manner here. So I've been too busy to post for - woah! - the first four days of March. Good grief!
All I can say is that it was snowing a lot in the mountains.
As you can see.
All I can say is that it was snowing a lot in the mountains.
As you can see.
Monday, 23 February 2009
Good Snow and Minor Disappointments
We're having good snow at the moment and lots of it. One hundred and fifty flights or so were cancelled over the weekend, and last week a friend of mine got stuck in Tokyo because of it. Today I tried to go snowboarding at one place but the bus I wanted didn't exist, so I went someplace else. It was fun either way. The second gig of the weekend though, last night, was cancelled. They asked us "Didn't you see on the homepage?", which is just a ridiculous question. I was actually looking at the homepage earlier in the day and of course I don't try and read anything I don't have to in Japanese. One of those little pot holes you come across. Instead we went and drank in a bar where it was just us drinking and the staff playing Othello. Really good fried chicken.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Big Weather and Beat Crusaders
On Friday night we had howling winds and a terrific dump of snow. Some poor guy went missing in Niseko after leaving a bar, which is scary, and when I opened my curtains on Saturday morning I saw this:
Vertical surface snow build up? Hell yes.
Saturday night I went to a rock show. Beat Crusaders, who are a popular pop-punk Japanese band playing at Zepp, the kinda commercial Academy-esque chain venue in town. We were there just before doors opened and we had to queue. Y'know, in the cold. Next to a frozen river:
There were people who had come dressed and prepared for the gig, that is, only in t-shirts. Here, Matt and Yuki look fairly warm, while next to Matt a girl in only a t-shirt vibrates with cold:
It got hellishly hot in the venue, but I didn't regret dressing for the weather outside. BeCru were good and it was a lot of fun. I'll post more about them for Sunday when I can track down some of their awesome videos online, but it was a tour for a new best of and at two hours for a pop-punk show where the songs clock in at 3 minutes or under it was a bit long. It was nicely structured: a blast of four or five songs keeping the momentum up, then some banter for a while, then another block of songs. But I only knew one album and a handful of other tracks, so it got a bit tiring to be honest. And while they're good at what they do, unless you're pulling out earth shattering hooks on every single song, with pop-punk there's only so much you can do. Beat Crusaders have some stunning hooks, but not on every single song.
Vertical surface snow build up? Hell yes.
Saturday night I went to a rock show. Beat Crusaders, who are a popular pop-punk Japanese band playing at Zepp, the kinda commercial Academy-esque chain venue in town. We were there just before doors opened and we had to queue. Y'know, in the cold. Next to a frozen river:
There were people who had come dressed and prepared for the gig, that is, only in t-shirts. Here, Matt and Yuki look fairly warm, while next to Matt a girl in only a t-shirt vibrates with cold:
It got hellishly hot in the venue, but I didn't regret dressing for the weather outside. BeCru were good and it was a lot of fun. I'll post more about them for Sunday when I can track down some of their awesome videos online, but it was a tour for a new best of and at two hours for a pop-punk show where the songs clock in at 3 minutes or under it was a bit long. It was nicely structured: a blast of four or five songs keeping the momentum up, then some banter for a while, then another block of songs. But I only knew one album and a handful of other tracks, so it got a bit tiring to be honest. And while they're good at what they do, unless you're pulling out earth shattering hooks on every single song, with pop-punk there's only so much you can do. Beat Crusaders have some stunning hooks, but not on every single song.
Monday, 9 February 2009
Ski-lift Self-portrait
And then today I went snowboarding and got really tired. So this is what you get.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Sapporo Snow Festival 2009
Of course I went down to the 60th annual Sapporo Snow Festival before work today. It was the first day and we were stopped four times by elementary school kids wanting to ask us questions for their English assignments. This happened last year too and it's awful cute, but this year came with the bonus of gifts from the kids. I got some letters (in Japanese), some origami cranes and some... frankly odd maps of Chitose that I'll write about some other time. I've never actually been to Chitose (just south of Sapporo, home of the airport and the outlet mall) so I reckon I'll probably use them sometime. There were indeed a lot of foreigners, so they had rich pickings.
It snowed heavily for most of the day too, and certainly while we were walking around. It makes for a nice Snow Festival atmosphere, but after a while you're getting wetter and wetter and it starts obscuring the statues. I guess they clean them up a bit at night? I certainly wasn't dressed for it as I was heading to work straight after, but it was worth it.
The big statue which was in this place last year, and which was in a similar style so I guess it was by the same team, was my favourite. This year it was probably my favourite again, I like the accuracy and the clean lines. Owls and Eagles - together at last.
Here are the pros going to work on the official competition blocks. These are the same two blocks I posted a picture of the other day, and I'll go back and check in a few days when they're done.
And this is the - frankly underdressed - Miss Hong Kong posing in front of the Hong Kong entry. Don't worry, she put her coat back on straight after the photo op.
And finally the humble offering I helped Jesi to make. I'm gonna go again!
It snowed heavily for most of the day too, and certainly while we were walking around. It makes for a nice Snow Festival atmosphere, but after a while you're getting wetter and wetter and it starts obscuring the statues. I guess they clean them up a bit at night? I certainly wasn't dressed for it as I was heading to work straight after, but it was worth it.
The big statue which was in this place last year, and which was in a similar style so I guess it was by the same team, was my favourite. This year it was probably my favourite again, I like the accuracy and the clean lines. Owls and Eagles - together at last.
Here are the pros going to work on the official competition blocks. These are the same two blocks I posted a picture of the other day, and I'll go back and check in a few days when they're done.
And this is the - frankly underdressed - Miss Hong Kong posing in front of the Hong Kong entry. Don't worry, she put her coat back on straight after the photo op.
And finally the humble offering I helped Jesi to make. I'm gonna go again!
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Sapporo Snow Fesitval 2009 - Pre-Game
The 60th Sapporo Snow Festival kicks off tomorrow, and well, I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl. Here's some pre-festival snaps I took last weekend before I lent Jesi a hand.
Citizens statues by people from Sapporo
These big-ass blocks will be the international snow sculpture competitors' blocks.
The big statue in this spot was my favourite one last year.
Ah industrious people, freezing their fingers off.
Monday, 2 February 2009
Sapporo Snow Fesitval 2009 - Pitching In
Snow Festival starts on Thursday! Yeah! And just like last year Jesi managed to get a space for a small snow statue, and I went along to help out.
The small "citizens statues" are open to Sapporo residents but you have to enter a lottery to get a place. Jesi entered and got one of the 150 small blocks for the second time in two years! Way to go Jesi! This year she's making a tribute to the trash-ninjas of Sapporo. The trash-ninjas (as we call them) are a bunch of guys who dress up in old-fashioned clothes and go around town picking up litter and tossing it into bags on their backs and doing backflips and singing and dancing and stuff. They're on about the 11th level of awesome, so someone needed to pay tribute to them. In Jesi's statue there's a ninja and two samurai (what's the plural of samurai? samurais? samuraises?) around Sapporo's iconic TV Tower and bin at the bottom. She's still got one day to go, but it's looking good so far.
This year I worked on it a lot more than I did last year, meaning that I froze my ass off for longer than last year. It was really satisfying and rewarding though, and getting all bundled up and hacking away at a big lump of ice and snow with an axe seems like a great way to spend a weekend anyway. Jesi had a plan, and hers is looking way better than a lot of them, but some people - even though they're just regular Sapporo citizens - take it very seriously:
I think I saw those guys making a similarly perfect castle last year too. There are arsenals of tools laid out around some of them, and huge teams of people all chipping in all over the place. And when it comes to the big ones:
There are lots and lots of soldiers.
The small "citizens statues" are open to Sapporo residents but you have to enter a lottery to get a place. Jesi entered and got one of the 150 small blocks for the second time in two years! Way to go Jesi! This year she's making a tribute to the trash-ninjas of Sapporo. The trash-ninjas (as we call them) are a bunch of guys who dress up in old-fashioned clothes and go around town picking up litter and tossing it into bags on their backs and doing backflips and singing and dancing and stuff. They're on about the 11th level of awesome, so someone needed to pay tribute to them. In Jesi's statue there's a ninja and two samurai (what's the plural of samurai? samurais? samuraises?) around Sapporo's iconic TV Tower and bin at the bottom. She's still got one day to go, but it's looking good so far.
This year I worked on it a lot more than I did last year, meaning that I froze my ass off for longer than last year. It was really satisfying and rewarding though, and getting all bundled up and hacking away at a big lump of ice and snow with an axe seems like a great way to spend a weekend anyway. Jesi had a plan, and hers is looking way better than a lot of them, but some people - even though they're just regular Sapporo citizens - take it very seriously:
I think I saw those guys making a similarly perfect castle last year too. There are arsenals of tools laid out around some of them, and huge teams of people all chipping in all over the place. And when it comes to the big ones:
There are lots and lots of soldiers.
Monday, 26 January 2009
Three Trees
Three trees at Kiroro Ski Resort:
Not much in the way of brainwork for these last two days because I went snowboarding all day, both days. I wasn't sure I could hack it but... I'm not dead or anything yet. As it was incredibly cold and snowed all day, the snow out in Kiroro was unbelievable by the end of the day. Light and fluffy and like cotton wool or clouds maybe. That's why I started snowboarding.
Not much in the way of brainwork for these last two days because I went snowboarding all day, both days. I wasn't sure I could hack it but... I'm not dead or anything yet. As it was incredibly cold and snowed all day, the snow out in Kiroro was unbelievable by the end of the day. Light and fluffy and like cotton wool or clouds maybe. That's why I started snowboarding.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Massive Screaming Metal Beasts!
Tonight on the way home I was witness to a vertiable clash of titans - a tete-a-tete of horrific technological monsters. They were breaking up and taking away the snow on the road near my appartment.
.jpg)
They have two big fuck-off machines. One has a blade hanging down from what looks like a horizontal crane arm and it goes along smashing up the packed snow into pieces. Then it reverses out of the street and a regular, albeit huge, bulldozer scoops all the broken bits of snow up and clears them away. Then the bulldozer reverses - really fast actually! - and the snow-breaker-upper comes forwards again. It's quick, efficient and looks really well drilled.
The sound that the bulldozer made scraping away the broken snow was bone rattling though. It drags its huge metal scoop along the asphalt as it goes and I was right next to it, wincing when I snapped that picture above. But this just serves to highlight something that should be remarked upon more - people work really hard in Sapporo just to make it through the winter.
.jpg)
They have two big fuck-off machines. One has a blade hanging down from what looks like a horizontal crane arm and it goes along smashing up the packed snow into pieces. Then it reverses out of the street and a regular, albeit huge, bulldozer scoops all the broken bits of snow up and clears them away. Then the bulldozer reverses - really fast actually! - and the snow-breaker-upper comes forwards again. It's quick, efficient and looks really well drilled.
The sound that the bulldozer made scraping away the broken snow was bone rattling though. It drags its huge metal scoop along the asphalt as it goes and I was right next to it, wincing when I snapped that picture above. But this just serves to highlight something that should be remarked upon more - people work really hard in Sapporo just to make it through the winter.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
The Return of... SNOW!
So it snowed today... pretty much all day. It wasn't good quality snow, it was very wet, but it sure as hell stuck around.
That last one is windscreen wipers of course. I'm pretty happy with this development as you can imagine.
That last one is windscreen wipers of course. I'm pretty happy with this development as you can imagine.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Little bits of Geijutsu no Mori in the snow.
Taken with Yuki's new camera that dishes out a resolution so large you could probably carpet your lounge with the originals of these images.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
James vs. The Snowy Apocalypse
James was like fuckin' king of the mountain when he went to Niseko last week, but even he could fall afoul of the deep powder snow. Tara took this incredible video of him dragging himself out, and I immediately pictured it as some epic journey, or perhaps the soundtrack to the end of the world:
That was ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead soundtracking that one, and next:
Danny Elfman's score to Nightbreed. Seriously, I could fill up about 2 and a half years of this here blog with these, there's just so much to work with: the lighting, the pacing, the human struggle... It's epic.
Sunday, 4 January 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)