yehey! yuki matsuri @ minami uonuma shi

we slept around 1am this morning. it's really fun to be playing Nintendo wii.

today, we decided to go to minami uonuma shi, to see their snow festival. i checked nagaoka weather forecast for today. in nagaoka shi, there is no snow. i checked ojiya, tokamachi, and minami uonuma. the forecast is snow the whole day. so, we decided to go to the festival. all we know from the pamphlet i took from echigo yuzawa eki yesterday was that we should go to muikamachi eki. there is a bus from there that goes to the festival site. so, we had to catch again the 1032am train. lloyd didn't want to get ready in a hurry, so he asked if there is still another bus schedule we can take. since we didn't need to buy train tickets (remember, we have a 2-day pass), it was ok to take the 1006am bus to eki. so, we did just that. when we went out, it was snowing! lily ann was happy because it was her first time to see snow.

at muikamachi eki, we looked again for the information office to ask for directions to the festival site. we also asked where we can find an outdoor onsen in the area. the staff were very helpful. lily ann and i took some free mini-cards.

we waited for the bus to take us to the festival site. there, saw some people dancing on a stage. we were hungry then, so we tried to look for food. there were many food stalls and other stalls selling some stuff. jay and i ate pork steak, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba. further on, we saw several snow domes. when we arrived in that area, we saw some stalls with foreigners. the first one was kyrgystan. the next one had a philippine flag! they were students from kokusai daigaku, selling banana cue, chippy, royal, and some other filipino foods. the next one had posters of malaysia and thailand. the filipinos had a tv, where they played the music vide, "byahe tayo". we took pictures of each other. to those filipinos, thanks for the karaoke invitation, but we're sorry we couldn't join 'coz we had dinner plans already. further on were the snow domes. others served as shops, others contained display items. next was the area for sliding. i don't know how to describe it, but the slide was made of snow. i'll just post pictures somewhere. it was fun looking at the children sliding, and having fun. that was the last of the attraction there. we went back, snowing, and facing the wind. it was like a snowstorm. we took shelter in one of their waiting tent, to look at the map with the onsen marked. i bought first a choco banana, then we went on our way. on the way, we asked someone for directions, just to be sure. we went back past the snow domes, crossed a bridge (the festival was near a river) and went to the onsen place. it was actually a hotel, but we can take a bath in their onsen even if we wouldn't stay overnight. lily ann and i also decided to try their onsen. it was hot inside, of course. but it was better than the hot bath we tried in nikko. they have several bath. there was one outside. and several others inside. we tried only 3 (i think there were 3 more). i liked the outdoor one. we bathed there twice. after bathing, i checked the train schedule while jay and lloyd asked for directions to muikamachi eki. we either had to take the 442pm bus or the 530pm. it was almost 420pm. the receptionists said that it would take about 20minutes to walk to the station. we can take the bus we took to the festival site, but if we hoped to catch the 442pm bus, it's better to walk. so, we walked, taking pictures on the way. we had to rush when it was about 435pm, afraid that we won't make it in time. we did, still had time to take a few pictures at the station.

when we arrived at nagaoka eki, we took the 6pm bus that passes chousei bashi. jay suggested we get off at chousei bashi west end bus stop, and walk near the river to mae's apartment. it was very cold, but we walked for about 10 or 15 minutes. when we arrived at mae's apartment, we immediately had dinner. it was very delicious. we ate beef and ramen (pancit-style). we talked a lot. it was so much fun. we ate a lot, too. after dinner and talking, i invited mae and wawang to go to my apartment to check out jay's nintendo wii. since we won't fit in the car, jay and i decided to just walk home. it was cold, but just a few minutes walk.

at home, we played wii. we let mae and wawang try it out, too. dana was very noisy in their apartment. but in my apartment, she was very behaved. it's because my room is small. she has no place to run, unlike in their apartment, they have 2 bedrooms. anyway, we all had fun playing wii games. they just left a few minutes ago. dana's eyes were already watery, although they said that it's usually like that, but she actually sleeps late.

i almost forgot..i called makino-san after dinner and asked him to bring us to echigo hillside park tomorrow. we want to see what's there. he agreed and said he will just go directly to mae's apartment at 10am. so, our plan for tomorrow is echigo hillside park and whatever we can do before 3pm. lloyd and lily ann will go back to tokyo at 305pm. now, i'm sleepy. but jay and lloyd are still playing. i think i'll sleep earlier than them. but, i will still play for a few minutes before sleeping... today was very fun. i'm glad it snowed and agreed to go to the snow festival. next week, jay and i will be going to another snow festival. i just hope the snow will not be as strong as it was earlier today.