Tiffany Lukk shares her experiences as participant of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, which is administered through the collaboration of Japan's local and national government authorities and promotes grass-roots internationalisation at the local level.
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Have you ever seen a picture of a car slowly and carefully driving on a road between perfectly cut walls of snow three times the height of the car? I've heard that such a picture was taken in my city of Iwamizawa, Hokkaido.
Despite being from Minnesota, I enjoy winter by staying inside with a cup of hot chocolate, a fluffy blanket, and endless Netflix shows. During the start of my first winter in Hokkaido, I did just that. However, a few weeks into my hibernation, I quickly came to the realization that that's not how I want to spend my limited, precious time in Japan.
Within an hour of that decision, I sent a flurry of texts to a few Japanese acquaintances I had made during the warmer weather asking them to get together sometime soon. I didn't want to get my hopes up in case they didn't want to leave their homes for someone they didn't know well who didn't speak the same language. My pessimism was completely misplaced. All of them replied and I no longer had the choice to spend every weekend buried in a mountain of blankets on my couch.
Instead of only doing things to avoid the cold, which we did do on occasion, we embraced the winter season. If there's one thing you should know about Hokkaido, it's that its winter is filled with festivals. It's not just the famous Sapporo Snow Festival; you can find a snow festival of sorts in almost every town in the prefecture.
One friend drove me and another one of her friends to the Hyoutou Matsuri, filled with ice castles and surrounded by fireworks and lake water. Kairo packs kept our hands and feet toasty as we walked from castle to castle. We only went inside the rest area once to warm up with ramen and amazake.
There were a few days during the year when it snowed too much for me to even hope to make it to school. My coworkers called to check if I had enough food for the rest of the day. Thankfully, I did. However, their kindness, and my kotatsu, kept me warm through the rest of the snow days.
I've always thought of winter as a bit of a quiet, slightly solitary time, but my time in Hokkaido changed that. Instead of thinking of blankets and endless Netflix movies, I think of sharing kairo packs and eating nabe with new friends. The warmth of a community during a blizzard was more than enough to make me find joy in Hokkaido's winter.
--Tiffany Lukk, who is from Minneapolis, Minesota, graduated from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities where she majored in Asian languages and literatures, and professional journalism. She was an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) on the JET Programme and taught in Hokkaido for one year. Currently, she is a freelance writer and editor.
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