Ohayo. Ohayo. New Jersey.

This past weekend we held the annual Queens of the Drift Ice event out in Tokoro and Abashiri.  If you didn’t know, the northern and eastern coasts of Hokkaido are famous for the drift ice phenomenon that occurs at this time of year.  Tons of Asian tourists from Korea, China, and Taiwan make their way to our little cities to check out the fantastic 流氷 (pronounced ryu-hyo…it’s tricky because you have to flick the ‘r’ while still producing the ‘y’ sound in the back of your mouth).  Back in Alaska, I was used to seeing frozen ocean, but the ice didn’t move so much with the currents.  Here in Hokkaido, the ice can come and go over the course of a night, so there’s always some mystery as to whether it’ll be there the next day or not.  Many of the businesses go drift ice crazy this time of year producing all sorts of related marketable items ranging from blue drift ice beer to drift ice curry (dyed blue with white drift ice scallops floating around). 

We packed our epic weekend with myriad winter activities.  Who knew that snowmachining (“snowmobiling” to all you other people) could be so much fun?  Being from Alaska, it’s rather shocking that I’ve never been snowmachining (although the culture around it is a bit of a turn off, but I digress).  I expected us to be riding tandem but I started getting a little giddy when I saw individual machines lined up for us.  After a quick tutorial (“this is brake”—“this is go”), they had us make a lap around a track.  Then a guide broke off and we followed suit across a frozen lake.  Man alive!  It was a blast.  I did get a little headache from the fumes but flying across the powdery snow was exhilarating.  We certainly pulled in our machismo quotient for the weekend.  After our butch jaunt out on the frozen lake we embarked to a small soba shop nestled in the woods of a quiet mountain.  This place had so much zen about it that it was the perfect foil to our previous noisy adventure.  Speaking of zen and such, Hokkaido is a relatively new settlement compared to the rest of Japan and doesn’t have the ancient temples and shrines that are primary hallmarks of serenity in Japan.  Instead, Hokkaido offers it’s rugged and natural beauty to induce the same wonder.  Out here in the more remote parts of the island, all that beauty isn’t in short supply. Later, as we took a chair lift up the local ski hill, the weather couldn’t have been better and we could see for miles—frozen lakes, small forests, distant mountains, and then the ocean.

Following our short play time on the Abashiri ski-jō we set off for the main event of our weekend: the Abashiri Ice-Breaker Drift Ice Cruise.  We were taking the sunset cruise (how romantic!) and were herded on to the boat with the throngs of tourists…although, per usual, I couldn’t help but run into some Japanese folks I knew.  After breaking several rules (standing on the smoke stack, standing on benches, poking at strangers with sticks…) before the comprehendible (ie: English) announcements came on, we were off into the icy sea.  Oh, and I have to mention that the entire time we were out at sea, there was always something on over the loud speakers.  It was either an announcer’s voice or some grainy enka music.  The peaceful and quiet icy ocean, and then here comes the humans, on their loud boat, piddling through the ice.  We had an interesting discussion about how the Japanese seem to have an aversion to silence (with the exception of office settings, because as I type this, my clickity clack on the key board is the prevailing noise).  The boat tour is a good example, but also if you visit homes there’s always a tv on, or if you go skiing, that same grainy enka music is blasted from speakers on the lifts.  Ok, let’s back away from that tangent before I make dig myself further into the grandiose generalizations hole.  It was remarkable to cut through all the ice on the boat and watch huge sheets of ice break apart.  It was a bit like watching plate tectonics in action.  Needless to say, it certainly satisfied my taste for destruction (I used to take small sheets of ice when I was young and smash them on my head because it sounded like glass.  The things we do for fun in Alaska…).  The views were glorious and the skies amazing.  Two mountains made an appearance for us, one of which—Shari-dake—a couple friends and I will be climbing come summer. 

 All that time in the ocean surrounded by drift ice made us all a bit chilly, so once we docked, we high-tailed it to an onsen.  I could go on for hours about onsens and how fantastic they are, but I’ll spare you.  It’s just a shame we don’t have them back home…so relaxing!  Post-onsen, we got our grub on at my favorite restaurant in Abashiri—Bistarai.  I may have mentioned this Nepalese gem previously, but it bears repeating.  There were various naan, curries (made spicy just for us!), Nepalese-d fried rice and stir fry noodles, chickpea samosas, and lassi for miles.  It was quite the royal feast to cap off such a Queen-y event.