Okay, okay, okay, stop with all the photo pressure! I’m only in Japan, it’s covered in meters of snow, I’m with my best friend, more snow, animals, went skiing, yah know nothing much to share. Fine I see you’re point, it’s absolutely awesome and I’m having a blast! I’m so in love with snow.

Some poser after belting out a few karaoke numbers jumped in the snow!

That above sign says zoo, that’s right we went to the outdoor zoo, -3.4 degrees out, alriggghhht.
First stop, penguins, just chilling in their ‘natural’ habitat.

They move a lot of animals further south for the winter but there was a great array of animals still for show.

Meet the polar bears!

Introducing the Siberian tiger that was loving the snow! (Not sarcasm) just after I took this I looked down and saw a bunch of 4 year olds actin’ like they ain’t seen a white person before… They probably hadn’t and for that moment I was a more interesting exhibit than a tiger- compliment accepted!

Then they saw the lion (is it just me or should lions and snow not be together?)

Puma (not mentally well)

Ussuri Brown Bear

Drum roll please. It’s my all time favourite snow leopard!

Wolf pack, wolf pack! I by no way or form peer pressured Steve into chucking snow into this pen… Much to my amusement and not that of the staff. Tehe.

Animals.

Foreign animals:

The temperature had dropped a degree by the time we left, not outdoorsy weather, so we headed for the warm comforts of home for a nap before a night time excursion. This excursion required us to rise at 12am and break into the Onsen pools down the road after hours. By break in I mean walk through the doors and say hi to the reception man. By hi I mean some Japanese and code words as the place, Senshoen Japanese Onsen (public bathhouse), is owned by Ai’s (Evans wife’s) family. Why after hours you may ask? Firstly, to be generally rebellious and secondly so we don’t have to be in the nud and offensive as members of our group had tats. The baths were amazing though. The main pool was scorching hot like the tingling you get when you hop into a too hot bath all the time, the sauna was 75 degrees and they had a gel that exfoliated without having any beads it was crazy!

The following day we all needed a bit of a sleep in after gallivanting around for part of the night and the only way to complete a lazy morning is with a lazy Japanese lunch. Heck, we couldn’t even be bothered with chairs.

Post lunch visit to the Shinto Temple. This is actually where the Japanese version of Narnia was made. That previous statement may or may not be true.

The temple itself is a young one, only 30 years old but there’s others around that are thousands of years old. Personally I don’t think age should define beauty and I found this one stunning.

We were there during an old traditional service, they’re rare and don’t happen often (Ai had never seen one there before) so was a bit of a novelty. We also said a prayer. You throw a coin with a hole in it through the grates, bow twice, clap twice, bow, then prey. I’d like to think my prayer will come true, it’s happened to others on this site before..no photos soz.
I also got my lucky dip fortune for the year of the monkey, it’s good luck for me!

All I’ve got to do is carry this critter in my wallet.

This night being our last official night in Asahikawa we decided to paint the town red! Une problemo it was Thursday and they only paint the town red on Friday and Saturday..

The bar owner gave us free doughnuts, dough.

Deux problemo, I had one of these liver cleanse no hangover drinks and it made me sick so I didn’t actually party I just chilled, felt sorry for myself and tried not to throw up. They smoke inside here too so that didn’t help in the slightest.

All and all a pretty eventful night with some street wandering thrown in for good measure!

Nothing like a few hours sleep before a day skiing on a funky tummy.

Nothing like writing this post like it was yesterday when it was actually 3 or 4 days back and you’re sitting in a trendy apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Throw back Sunday anyone?

X

Ps mum I made it to NY
PPS our travel agent is no friend of mine, 26 hours of travel that could have been done in 15 plus forgetting my meal request, hangry.