Of Ice and Ice bars

So, this weekend, we embraced all things Icy. Although the weather seems to be gracing us with an early spring (well, one can only hope), It's still cold enough for ice not to melt. Which is great for, you know, walking on the sidewalk and stuff. Mind you, I shouldn't complain, sine most of the snow is gone and you can actually see grass in a couple of places. Although it's pretty sad and yellow and dead at the moment. Hey, listen, last spring I was so desperate for a little colour that the dandelion invasion was a very welcome sight.

We started off on Friday night by loading ourselves with carbs at Viking Restaurant Taishokan (yes, they let us back in after that Halloween, and no, I still don't know why Japanese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurants are called Vikings.) . As usual, I pigged it. As you can see I had Sushi and potatoes and Gyoza and chicken fry thingys and Gengiskhan and Yakiniku and chocolate cake and melon soda.

I also had a couple of cappucinos. Oh and another slice of cake. Don't worry, I managed to work off all the calories with about of karaoke (did "walk like an Egyptian" again, there was also a rendition of "jailhouse rock", which is actually a dirty dirty song and Elvis should be ashamed). And some Pirikura, of course (they can send it to your cellphone now, which is fantastikku!

Then on Saturday evening we went to the Swan Matsuri on Tokachigawa Lake. Now, this was a misnomer on so many levels. Firstly it wasn't on the lake so much as near it (it was by the flower clock, which due to it being winter has no flowers, and thus, as Erin said: "a large weird clock"), and there were no swans. So basically it was a winter lights festival. It was bloody cold and there were no food stalls, and the only hot drinks on offer were hot milk (bleeeh) and some sort of sake-milk-rice thing that looked vile, but which Dan seemed to enjoy. It was bloody freezing and my Feet were doing that Achy-bone-pain-of Satan thing again, so I was glad to head over to the Onsen, the good one that costs Sen-En but is so worth it. We Onsened for two hours and then went to Alixe's where we annoyed her and her guest by mocking "coach Carter" which they were watching.

And then home to bed.

The next day, despite a valiant effort on Erin's part to convince me that justice would be better served by staying in bed all day and sleeping, we managed to get out the house, and after a healthy breakfast of Donuts, D-pops and Nikkuman (from Misdo, Natch), to head out on the road to Shikaribetsuko (Ko meaning Lake), where there is an Igloo Festival Out on the Ice. Erin tells me the Ice over the lake is at least 3 feet thick, and that you could walk from one side to the other no problem. This didn't really reassure me so I just maintained a steady state of denial. We visited the Icebar which was frickin' freezing, so we had some warming drinkies (me: Kahlua Milk, Erin: Hot Buttered Brandy). This worked well for about three minutes, so we headed over to the Ice onsen to try and warm up.

Where we encountered a problem. Mainly that it was a mixed onsen, and there were people in it. And we didn't really want middle aged Japanese men to see our boobies. Or, particularly, to see them naked either. Luckily as we were pondering our quandary (Erin Pondered by trying the Ice slide, which almost froze her bum and left her with cold pants for most of the rest of the day), they exited the onsen, leaving it empty, so we dashed in, undressed in the changing room (built out of ice and therefore not really conducive to nekkidity), and plunged into the sulphury, hothothot water. It was fantastic, until a middle-aged man saw our boobies.

Oh well.