Let the festivities continue!!

Well folks, I am back from my vacation and boy, was it a long one. I'd decided that since I'm gonna take a good holiday once a year I might as well make it an extended trip. Taking 10 days from my annual quota seem excessive, but it was worth it.

Sapporo is so full of it. Snow that is. The night I reached the town area and got off the airport bus with 2 large check in luggage and 2 hand carry, there was a blizzard hitting town. Snow was coming down hard, and blowing at a 45 degree angle! By the time I made it to the hotel I had seen enough snow to last me for a week and more...

I was blessed with good weather the next 2 days though, enough to enjoy the 58th Sapporo Snow Festival and the ice festival happening at nearby Susukino. Food and drinks were aplenty during the festivals and ramen is especially happening here. Plenty of souveniers were picked up along the way. Too bad I couldn't haul them Hokkaido crabs back home, they are freaking monsters I tell ya!

Flying off to Tokyo city, we headed straight for Harajuku, and nearby Yoyogi Park to see what the fashionably attuned youth of Japan were into. I indulged in some retail therapy and bought a few items to add to the CNY wardrobe. Then we headed to Ueno where I picked up some munchies to tide over the Lunar New Year.

The last 2 days in of my Japan trip we visited DisneyLand and DisneySea. I becamed a child again and was walking around with my mouth agape most times, especially at DisneySea. Though I didn't spend much on the merchandise, I felt like a kid in a candy store for a while...

What most impressed me during the whole trip was how orderly everything was organised. It's impressive to see how people queue up for everything, without too many large signs asking them to. There wasn't any pushing or shoving, with the elderly, children and families with toddlers are always accorded priority wherever they go. Everyone was patient with each other despite the long lines for food, tickets, photo shoots, in fact pretty much everything else.

Like in DisneyLand. Almost everyone offers to help take photos for you instead of us having to take solo shots of each other. This definitely warmed my heart in the low temperatures.

I have time off still for the coming Lunar festival to catch up with family, friends, and football. I've doing some perfunctory cleaning around my small flat. My best bet is to keep visiting friends and/or hang out at Mum's so no one has to see my less than enthusiatic housekeeping effort. Worked well for me for the past few years that I've lived here.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!