A "Märchen" evening

I would have had no idea what "Märchen" was had it not been for the Japanese langauge's use of the word (pronounced "meruhen" in katagana). Funny what Western and foreign words Japan picks at to decide to use.

For those of you unaware of the meaning in either language, it means "fairytale". Yes, I had a very Cinderella-esque evening out in Sapporo last Friday. I met up with my mate who I learnt has a fancy for all things cute, sweet (both in terms of taste and metaphorically), and well, rather feminine, perhaps. He's male. And straight. But he's also Japanese. That could explain a lot.

The first place he took me to was this amazing bar which sold soft serve ice-cream and had over a hundred different liqueurs. You could choose up to 3 each, depending on what "set" you ordered on the menu, so we had a delicious selection of 7 liqueurs between us as they gave us an extra one free (hurrah amazing Japanese customer service). The liqueurs were brought to us in adorable tiny plastic wine cups with tiny little spoons, and you poured the liqueur over your spoonfuls of ice-cream. Then, for dessert, they brought coffee and hand-made just baked tiny cookies. Could a girl ask for more?! It was wonderful. And the shop itself was adorable with all it's décor. Most definitely will go there again. Either with my girl friends or other misleadingly gay-but-not-really guy friends.

"C'es tres froid ce matin."

I apologise profoundly in my awful use of French in this post title. It has been a tres long time since I last used it so I have big doubts on the accuracy of it.

Yes, it is le cold this morning. It always is in Hokkaido, but I especially felt it on my treacherous 5 minute walk to work. I take back my use of the word "treacherous" right there; we had a recording-breaking fall of heavy snow a few weeks ago. So much that we made it to Worldwide News. Our city even gets horribly pronounced by a BBC Weather forecaster, look! Whether it's something to be proud of is another question. Let's just say that I doubt my friends from the UK will be visiting me any time soon. However, the snow has calmed down these past few days, and we have been seeing sunlight, though we are still left with white monsters caving in at us from either side of the pavements. Sods law though that when it snows, the climate is warmer, and when it doesn't, it's colder. Either freeze to death or die in an avalanche. Take your pick.