I recently traveled to Hirafu which is about 3 hours away from Sapporo in Hokkaido, the most northern island of Japan. It is interesting because Hokkaido is also known as Dekkaido and Hokkaido is the only part of Japan that has more natural space then human inhabitated space. It was rather wide for a change as oppose to the city life in Osaka with crapped streets and such. I went with my two big sisters in Japan, Chie and Nahoko and Nahoko brought two of her guy friends Morishin and Hirose. We went there by plane and it took 4 hours from Osaka to Hokkaido which we have a transfer in Tokyo. We went to go snowboarding because it is March in Japan it is rather hard to find snow but it is still rather cold. It was a weekend trip in which we went Friday to Sunday and I had to ruin some fun by twisting my ankle the first day, hey what can I say I am from Miami and I am a beginner. But we still enjoyed the delicious food that Hokkaido had to offer with all the seafood and beer you could eat!
From the airplane the island looked alot like Alaska with all the snow and mountains. It was a surprise to find this island that was convered by pure snow and it was powdered compared to the normal pictures of Tokyo that many take of the thousands of people crossing the street. And in movies the hussle and bussle of city life of Tokyo. Many don't stop to take in the atmosphere of Hokkaido. However, it is a prime spot for Austiralians for a winter get away. At least Hirafu was the get away.
During the plane flight the Japanese entertain themselves with games and with making fun of their friends if the friend falls asleep.
I caught this shot by admiring the view of Hirafu and this Japanese snowbroader was admiring it as well until he went down the steap pass on a beautiful Friday and the sunset in the less inhabited Hokkiado.
