We're Baaaaack!

We had choke good fun.  It was cold cold cold, but I actually loved it and am already missing the snow.  I'll be slowly posting pictures as I get to um.   In the meantime here's a story that I wrote on my sister's iPad while in Japan. I thought that maybe I could post it while there but  I ended up not being able to.  It involves slick ice.  You can see what's coming already, right?



One funny thing happened today. We decided to break from the tour group and go out on our own.  We had a busy day planned for ourselves.  Right after breakfast we walked to the Sapporo Snow Festival which is a few blocks south of our hotel. After catching all the haps at the Festival, we walked a few more blocks further south to Tokyu Hands store to do some shopping. Then we went to Tanukikoji Shopping Arcade which is about 8 blocks long. After more shopping we took a break and had a HUGE lunch there. Our final destination was Nijo Fish Market, an open market with about 60 venders.  We walked the whole way and when we were finally ready to go home about seven hours later we were really tired and loaded with plenty packages. 

We hailed a cab. He stopped for us but we were on the wrong side of the street. When the light turned for us we rushed to cross the street. That's when it happened. 

Geri slipped and fell right in front of the cab. She managed to hold on to all of her packages but her $30 can of uni came flying out of one of her bags and slid across the street ala hockey puck style.  Didi bent to help Geri up while I went to retrieve the uni. I slipped a little, but managed to stay upright.  Then I heard a gasp.  I turned in time to see Sweetie fall too.  Geri said that she glanced up at the taxi driver and saw that he was stretching his neck waaaay over the steering wheel trying to see what had happened to his four passengers. She said that his eyes and mouth were opened really wide. I'm sure that the many onlookers held similar expressions.

It took us awhile, but after dusting off all the snow from our coats, we squeezed ourselves and all of our packages into the taxi.  The ride back to the hotel took around 15 minutes. We laughed and laughed the whole drive back, recounting what had just happened. We couldn't stop talking about it. We went on and on until we were practically crying.  Sweetie sat in the front seat. I don't know if the driver could understand what we were saying, but she said that he was desperately struggling not to laugh himself. She said that she could hear his muffled chuckles. Poor guy. It musta been torture for him to remain properly behaved. 

When we got to our destination, we gave him a good tip and some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts but I think that the entertainment that we provided probably would've sufficed.