その時、私は神戸市に住んでいました。やはり、その地方では雪は滅多に降らないので、十二月になってもどうしても「クリスマス」って感じが全くしませんでした。そう思って、突然「北海道へ遊びに行こうぜ」って友達に誘われて、あっと言う間に北海道行きの飛行機に乗り込んで、御伽話のような国に到着しました。雪が山ほど積もっていて、広い地域に蓄牛の牧草地や農場が多くて、まるで帰国したような気がしました。だが、ペンシルバニアとの共通点はそこまででした。北海道といえば、やはり海産物、特に蟹、そして温泉や露天風呂ですね。私達がその有名な北海道の温泉の代表とも言える登別温泉の旅館に泊まって、露天風呂に入って、星空を眺めながら、残された雲達からそっと降りだした粉雪の舞い降りる姿を観るのは、正に最高の一時でした。
その後、札幌へ足を運びました。サッポロビール醸造所を訪ね、そこで目一杯ジンギスカンを食べたり、黒ビールを飲んだりしてゆっくり楽しみました。その上に、ちょうどテレビタワーの近くの公園でドイツクリスマス祭りが行われたので、そこでドイツのグリューワイン（赤ワインに砂糖や香料を加えた暖かいお酒）を飲むことも出来ました。遂に「クリスマス」を日本で感じました。結局クリスマスというものには、雪、美味しい食べ物、美味い飲み物等も欠かせないものでもありますが、何よりも大切なのは、友達や家族との素敵な時間を過ごせることだと思いました。
Hello everyone! It’s become quite cold hasn’t it? Be careful not to get sick! Perhaps I’ve said this before, but in my home-state of Pennsylvania, snow falls quite often and then piles up. I don’t think it will fall that much in Hayakawa, but when speaking of Japanese winters, I recall the landscape of that pure white snow-covered wilderness. Yes, a long time ago I made a journey to that haven of Mother Nature known as Hokkaido.
At that time, I was living in Kobe. Since snowfall is quite seldom in that region, even when it became December I still just didn’t have the feeling that it was “Christmas.” Thinking this, I was suddenly invited by a friend to take a vacation to Hokkaido, and before I knew it I was on a plane and had arrived in that fairytale-like province. Snow was piled up in mounds, the wide land was full of cattle pastures and farmland, and I felt like I had just returned to my home country. However, the similarities to Pennsylvania ended there. When speaking of Hokkaido, one thinks of seafood, especially crab, onsen (hot-springs), and rotenburo (outdoor hot-springs). My friends and I stayed at a Japanese inn at that famous onsen which could even be called the representative of Hokkaido hot springs, Noboribetsu. Going into the rotenburo, looking up at the starry sky and watching the dancing snowflakes that softly fell from the few remaining clouds in the sky, it truly was an amazing time.
After that we traveled to Sapporo, where we visited the Sapporo Beer Brewery and ate and drank our fill of Ghengis Khan (lamb-meat barbecue) and black beer. In addition to that, during the time we where there a German Christmas festival was going on in a park near the Sapporo television tower, and we were able to enjoy some German glühwein (a hot alcoholic beverage made by adding sugar and spices to red wine). Finally it was feeling like Christmas. When all is said and done though, having snow, delicious food, and wonderful beverages are important things for Christmas, but the most important thing of all is to have friends and family with whom you can share a wonderful together.
