Sapporo Snow Festival

The Sea of Japan - adversity brings the group together

So on the Friday we got a lift to the ferry terminal, said goodbye to our kind hosts, met the other four (Kim, Peter, Chris K-W and Ian B) who had caught the train that morning, checked in and got our tickets.  Everything seemed to be going smoothly... almost too smoothly.

But things were to change.  We boarded the ferry and left port.  As soon as we hit open sea, the open sea really began to hit our not too large ferry with four to five meter waves.  The boat was rolling about all over the place.  I'm used to rough crossings, but the sea combined with the 40C temperature they'd heated the ferry up to made even me feel a bit queasy.  Both Alysha and Kim felt more than a bit queasy and spent the first couple of puke-tastic hours in the bathroom until it calmed down a bit and we learnt that the front of the ship is the worst place to be because it moves the most.

Once that was all over we were able to get on with enjoying our 17 hour trip.  By way of entertainment the ferry had one small and not very interesting games room and two air hockey tables.  We soon got bored of them.  One of the most fun things on the ferry was the bath, because it was like a mini version of outside, complete with big waves and splashing, but warmer.  There was also a food court where we bought stuff to nibble since no one dared to down a full meal.  So we settled at a big table and started to play games and discuss our favourite kanji.  The highlight of the evening was Peter's new world record score in Yahtzee, though Ed took first prize in the shouting and enthusiasm stakes even though he kept losing to people who had never played before.  I liked this game because I kept winning.  (But then there's little or no skill involved...)

After a while we all went to bed early because the ferry was going to dock at about 4am.