My faves from the trip

The lovely countryside peacefulness.. the snow.. the serenity..

The super clean, user friendly toilets.. with warmed toilet seats for comfort during the cold winter..

The feeling of snow falling on my head..

And the most romantic town in Japan (or so it is known), Otaru! Behind us is the canal used to transport cargo in the 1920s. The shops in that area were unique in their own ways.. one was a cafe, where u can keep the cup after u have finished ur coffee as a souvenir..

there was a huge toy shop, there was a huge shop with thousands of music boxes on sale..alot of shops selling handblown glassware..

And this was the place known for their many layer ice-cream.. up to 5 layers, the one we were at.. Lavendar, melon, vanilla, chocolate, green tea..

The Shiroi Koibito Park Choco Factory

A happy place we went during our trip to Hokkaido..

It was the factory that produces the most popular chocolate in Japan.. dunno what it is called in English.. The place was cute inside and outside.. but alot was covered with snow..

My home town..

Cute choco figurines that moved around the clock tower outside the choco factory..

And daddy ate an ice cream despite the cold...and we took 30 mins to finish it...without a single bit of it melting..

The inside.. where they produce the choco.. its actually a wafer, with white choco in the middle..

My best fwen..

They had paw prints inside the factory to guide visitors..soo cute!!

And there were many different rooms with different themes and things..mostly to do with chocolate

They also made sugar figurines to sell... there were damn expensive.. but they looked perfect!

All sugar..

There was a room full of toys... the factory was built out of a dream of the 1st owner of the choco business. He wished for enough money to be able to build a dream home.. hence the choco factory..

It was built according to how he wanted his home to look, and it was a pretty sight.

The 2nd and 3rd day..

We visited some bears the next morning... They were sooo cute! We threw huge apples at them and they caught it with one hand straight in their mouths, and started teasing cheekily at us to get our attention for food..

And my cute daddy pretends to be a bear..

The snow mobile place was darn cold.. I regret wearing those adidas.. I slipped and fell immediately the moment I stepped out of the bus..

It costs 10 000 yen per person for the ride.. which is $165..crazily expensive.. since I hate skiing, I thought I wldnt have enjoyed this anyway..plus it was freezing outside..

So we chose to hide in the shelter and I fell asleep in there while waiting for the rest to return.

Every morning, I woke up feeling refreshed and in great mood, despite it being 5am.. and I would take a pic every morning in the snow filled place..

There was an interesting place we went for lunch one day.. it was similar to our long beach where u get seafood live and they cook it for u..

Long lanky legged crab..

So much fresh seafood everywhere.. there were frozen ones and live ones.. especially crabs that were larger than my head.

You'll just have to pick out wad you want and place it in a basket like at the supermarket and hand it over to the pple there.. they will cook it and send it straight to your table..

They were hard at work. I admire how they put all effort into making every dish perfect..

And this super chunky sashimi can never be found like that in Singapore..

The restaurant had a breath-taking view! Too bad it couldnt be caught on camera.. We were actually facing the Pacific Ocean when eating at this restaurant.. the waves were strong and rough that day..

美しい北海道

Spent a wonderful 7 days with my family this Chinese New year on our trip to Japan.. I had always loved the country, been to Central Japan twice, but this time, the experience was sweeter cos it was spent mostly in the countryside in Northern Japan,Hokkaido.

But this meant it was much colder, and I saw much more snow than ever..but the tranquility and beautiful people made the coldness bearable and no matter now much snow there was, we were all in good spirits..

Everything about the trip was great,, except the long flights and waiting time at the airports.. luckily there were loads of shops at the airport..

Had to take a 7.5 hr flight to Narita Airport, and then a 1 hour bus ride to the Domestic Airport, where there was another 1.5 hour flight to Hokkaido..

We slept overight on the plane cos Narita airport operates up to 9pm only.. and I managed to capture some lovely shots of the rising sun and clouds along the way.

I always love the feeling of being on the plane.. cos I really work hard.. and I cherish such breaks when they come..

Those in the backgrd are Salted fish.. Hung by the Ainu pple at the Shiraoi Ainu Village..The Ainu pple are the aborigines of Hokkaido..supposedly with features of the Europeans.. I guess its cos it is located near Russia..

It started snowing in the late afternoon.. it was dark at 4pm cos of the season.. it was my 1st time experiencing snow falling down on me.. it was like an ice shaving machine above my head..

This was taken at Hell Valley, Jigokidani, a sulphourous Valley.. there was steaming streams and boiling ponds amidst the snow..

I love how the snow glow in my pictures. Was glad I managed to capture it on my camera.

Dinner was a feast..We were dressed in Yukata and seated on tatami.. dinner was fit for a king.. there was more than wad is pictured on that tray.. they kept bringing in more food, soup...

My brother is seen eyeing my food here.. cos I kept passing food over to him..

My Chinese New Year in Hokkaido

The Snow filled, peaceful Hokkaido country side

Every Chinese New Year, my family travels together to a destination of our choice.. and this year, we spent a very very cold, peaceful and relaxing Chinese New Year in Hokkaido, Japan.

I had to wear boots all the time.. It was slippery to walk on melting snow..

It was as cold as Korea last year, maybe even colder, with temperatrures hitting sub 5 degrees.. and we experienced very heavy snow on certain days. It was a great experience looking at how snow fell on our heads, on our faces, everywhere!! And I was glad I managed to catch the beautiful glow of the snow on camera..

Love this picture! The snow's glow look like firefles in the sky...

The 6 days spent in Japan made me forget that I had loads of work to do back at home...Had lots of pics taken and I cant wait to write about Japan when I have the time..