December Welcomes us with a Smile

December 'One' in Hokkaido was extra special. The first snow of the winter season fell on Tsurui the night before and there was still snow on the ground in the morning.

The sun shone all day so we kayaked Shirarutoro Lake (a lake in the Kushiro March area), and watched it set.

Parts of the Lake have started to freeze so the sunny colours reflecting off the ice were amazing. Second by second the colours changed...I didn't want to blink for fear of missing them.


"Tam in Kayak -Photo courtesy of Wild-World Images"

As the sun went down, a sliver of crescent moon started to appear above us. It was getting pretty cold so we headed for shore.

By the time we unloaded our gear and popped the kayak atop our car, it was dark. As we drove home we saw such a wonderful site. There were two very bright stars above the tilted crescent moon. I said, "what does that look like to you, hon?" My husband responded, (as I nodded in agreement), "hey, it looks like a smiling face." Neither of us had ever seen anything like it before and we wondered if the two eyes above the moon were in fact planets.


"Photo from Yahoo Japan"

Today my husband translated some Yahoo Japan news which shed some light on our suspicions. What we saw last night actually was a rare phenomenon. A few hours after sunset Jupiter and Venus were in a position above the moon that made it look like the moon was smiling.

Well what do you know...


Happy December everyone!