Spindle: Snow! Lots of snow!

Parcly Taxel: Our surroundings came straight out of a dream. Trees growing snow where their leaves once were, frosted windows, overall a striking pattern of colour and white. We had some fun in the garden, building a snowpony before decomposing it into snowballs and throwing them at targets. Looking up to the mountains, they were even more beautiful – enveloped in mist, they exuded an aura so characteristic of the windigos.

Spindle: This is not to say there weren’t problems. Though this was not a whiteout, visibility was of course limited and the streets had slickened from passing carriages melting whatever snow had fallen there. Besides, when we had finished playing we noticed there were only four hours left until sunset. Surely we would be exploring some small town in Hokkaido, right?

Parcly: That small town was Otaru, a port lying northwest of Sapporo which still has its row of warehouses lining one of its canals. They look vaguely Russian and there are tourist guides available in Russian, which doesn’t come as a surprise because of Hokkaido’s proximity to the Russian Far East. Seafood is naturally one of the local specialties, and we ate a mixed seafood bowl including crab and salmon for lunch.

Spindle: Near Otaru lies a part of the northern shore of Hokkaido where nature is dominant. Shaped by chilling winds, high waves advance and then break on a line of rocks, while grass patches isolated by the snow sway helplessly. The sky is featureless; the earth is barren.

“A scene from the future presented to Snowfall Frost?” I ask myself. Then I look back, and see the owners of another seafood restaurant chatting away amicably. “No, it’s nature and ponies living in harmony.”

Parcly: Yet the night was fast approaching, accompanied as always by a decrease in temperature, and snowfall had resumed after a brief respite in the afternoon. Smaller shops were already closing and we were in need of shelter and dinner, so we flew back to Sapporo Sta-

Lunala: Maira Vaira!

Princess Luna: Stop interfering with my moon, cosmic bat!

Lunala: But… Parcly found me at Sapporo Station beside a portal that only opened yesterday!

Luna: That’s good to know, now go back to Alola.

Parcly: After filling my stomach with a burger I returned to our house. Without anything else to do for the day, I amused myself with some magic tricks.