Sorry, that one picture posted a few times, I don`t know why. I`m not sure I can delete it without deleting them all so you`ll just have to look at me multiple times.

These pictures are of snow and ice sculptures, the snow maze, snow slide, penguins and me on a sleigh outside the chocolate factory. Enjoy! I`ll post more later.

So, I just got back from my trip to Hokkaido and the Yuki Matsuri(snow festival) and it was awesome! It was the coolest thing I`ve done in Japan so far. We left on Saturday for Sapporo and spent most of Saturday looking at the amazing ice and snow sculptures. I also took photos while my friend Joe video-taped it and narrated like a big dork. Then on the second day we went to another snow festival site called Sato Land where they had a snow maze, a giant snow slide and more snow sculptures. The maze was cool. It was made entirely out of snow and had chocolate advertisements sealed into the snow (only in Japan). So we went through the maze and then waited in line for an hour to go down the slide. It was freezing, but the slide was really awesome, so I think it was worth it. Then we went out for some all-you-can-eat crab at a wonderful restaurant. The crabs in Hokkaido are huge, really sweet and delicious. I ate the best crab I`ve ever eaten, it was so good. Then on Monday we went to Otaru(a nearby town) because they have an aquarium there where you can walk with penguins. So we got to walk next to these penguins and I got closer to penguins then I`ve ever been in my life. It was exciting, they were super cute. The fish there were interesting too, cause a lot of the species were really different from what I`ve seen in American aquariums. Then we went to a famous chocolate factory in Sapporo. Hokkaido is famous for their chocolate. The factory was closed by the time we got there because Joe got us lost, but we were still able to check the place out, take some good pictures and buy some delicious chocolate. Then we met up with some friends of mine who happened to be in Sapporo at the same time and went to the Sapporo beer garden where we had all-you-can-eat Ghengis Khan style lamb and all-you-can-drink beer. It was really delicous and fun. Sapporo beer is really good. Then Joe and I stumbled home, watched some olympics and passed out. Then on Tuesday, we just walked around, bought some omiyage(souveneirs) and ate some of Hokkaido`s famous delicious ramen. I also bought Joe some Valentine`s Day chocolate, because he was sad that he wasn`t going to get any. In Japan, women give chocolate to men on 2/14, not just to boyfriends or husbands, but to their bosses and friends too. Then on 3/14, they have something called White Day, where men give the women who gave them chocolate something white as a gift in return. It can be anything from a white scarf to a white gold necklace. That`s just the way they do it. All in all, it was a really fun time. The snow festival was amazing, the food was delicious, I got to walk with penguins and Joe`s hilarious so we had a great time together. I`ll try to post some pictures on here tonight and I`ll post more on my other page tomorrow. Love you all, Happy Valentine`s Day!

First of all, Kathleen, congratulations on the Steelers winning the Superbowl. Too bad you`re not in Pittsburgh right about now, cause I`m sure they`re having a big party. Now here are some pictures... the first ones(which actually might show up from the bottom up)are of the high-tech toilets in Japan, as requested by my family. The first one, is of a public toilet, that uses a motion detector to flush. The rest are of my family`s toilet(the pink one). They`re of the toilet, the many buttons, and the instructions for using the toilet which are located on the wall and on the toilet seat. The pictures at the top are of my kimono. Isn`t it pretty? The ones of me wearing it are thanks to my host mother. When I brought it down to show Minako this morning, she got out an obi and helped me put it on right. It`ll probably be the only time I wear a kimono correctly. Don`t I look like a totally dorky white girl though, standing in the kitchen wearing my glasses and a kimono?

So, I handed in my last paper and finished school on Tuesday. Since then, as you can probably imagine, things have been good. Tuesday night and went out with some friends to celebrate. We got Mexican food and I drank a very large kiwi margarita in celebration of my finishing the semester. Then Wednesday I went to the kindergarten. My 3 and 4 year old group was kind of bad, but I`m working on games and activities where they can move around and have fun while learning, so hopefully it`ll go better this week. All my other classes were fine. Then on Thursday I met up with some friends and we ate sushi, went to karaoke, a cafe and a bookstore. Karaoke was really fun. The friends I went with were German, Portuguese and Swedish, and my German friend, Thomas, kept picking random American songs and just assuming that I knew them. I ended up singing Sweet Home Alabama and rapping(sort of) Stan by Eminem, despite my not knowing the words. For the record, I cannot rap, it`s just like me talking, in rythym, with background music. It`s okay, though, we got him back by making him sing `I feel like a Woman` with us. Also, one of my friends is starting a band, and she really liked my voice during karaoke, so she asked me to sing for them. I really don`t think my voice is good enough to sing in a band and I think we`re gonna be really bad, but it should be fun. Can you imagine it? Me in a band. I wonder where we`ll play, most houses in Japan don`t have garages or basements and that`s where most crappy bands started by young people with nothing better to do play. Hmmm...Then on Friday, I bought a kimono. It`s really pretty, it`s pinkish/peach with a really pretty design and it`s all silk. Every once in a while, department stores sell used kimonos that they`ve been renting out, that`s the only reason why I could afford an all-silk one. But it`s really nice. I`ll post a picture when I get a chance. Then Friday night I went out for Yakiniku with some friends. It`s korean barbecue. There`s a barbecue in the middle of the table and you roast meat and vegetables over it. It was fun and tasty. Plus it was all you can eat and all you drink, so by the end I was extremely full of meat and kind of drunk. Then on Saturday I went with some friends to a Cold Stone that opened up in Tokyo a few months ago. The ice cream was really good, but the place was really busy so we had to wait outside in line for 45 minutes before getting our ice cream. Then we had to sit outside while we wait it cause there weren`t any tables, so I was pretty much freezing the whole time. But it was worth it. Interesting fact, since people don`t tip in Japan, the Cold Stone workers sing a song when you get the large size of ice cream. I was with four friends (all foreign) and we all got large ice creams so they had to sing 5 songs in a row. It was actually kind of embarassing...like hey, check out the foreigners eating the fatty ice creams. Oh well. Then today, I went to church, ate korean food, got introduced to Japanese music, watched Boondock Saints for the first time (good movie) and received a wonderful Valentine`s Day package from my parents. Thanks mom and dad, you`re the best!! So that`s my week, a pretty good one if I do say so myself. Thoroughly proving my theory that Japan would be totally awesome if not for the school.