Hokkaido

Winter break in Japan has been an absolute blast! During this time, my brother had visited me for a short amount of time and we decided to take a five day trip to Hokkaido which had been an absolutely magical experience. Since I was born and raised in Hawaii, I had never experienced a “proper” Christmas before, the kind where there’s piles of snow, Christmas trees, and drinking hot cocoa as you warm up from the winter cold. Instead, the Christmas seasons in Hawaii consisted of warm weather and a santa that surfs with slides and shorts. Thus, I have always longed to live in a cold environment to fulfill my fantasies and that exact place happened to be Hokkaido this year.

I had never held a proper concept of what is considered cold and I finally understood when I reached my destination. The temperatures reached -10°C (14°F) which is quite literally colder than a walk-in freezer. The lands were covered in absolutely pure white snow, the ground was frozen solid with ice, and to top it all off flakes of snow would slowly drop atop of you. The sheer feeling of joy and ecstasy is simply indescribable for those who have never witnessed snow. While it most likely felt like a normal occurrence to the residents of Hokkaido, to me it appeared as a scene straight out of fairy-tale.

One of my favorite winter-exclusive activities that I was finally able to try was snowboarding. The concept of freely sliding down a hill through the snow with elegance has to be a dream that human beings have thought of at least once. While contrary to my expectations, I did indeed manage to slide down the snow, just minus the elegant part. During my time learning I definitely fell tons of times, and quite painfully I must say. But while I was nowhere near being proficient, it was one heck of a fun time being on top of the mountain while peacefully residing in nature.

But above all else, the food was absolutely delicious. Although part of it may be due to the fact that I was eating warm foods in the cold, it felt as if every restaurant we found was a Michelin star restaurant. Foods such as Genghis Khan (Mongolian barbecue consisting mainly of lamb and vegetables, a stable dish of Hokkaido), shabu-shabu, ramen, pastries, etc. We never actively sought a restaurant either, we just simply wandered around the streets and entered whatever seemed appetizing in which every single time we were delightfully surprised without failure.

Hokkaido has been an absolutely wonderful trip and I really hope I can travel there with my friends another time. I would recommend anyone traveling Japan in the winter to also stop by Hokkaido if possible although it may be inconvenient considering it is all the way north of Japan.