Good afternoon folks!

I'm back from Hokkaido(since last sunday morning) and i'm as round as ever. I would like to do a very brief write-up of my holiday because my brain cant recall so much details. Ok, so here it goes...

Touched down at Hokkaido on Monday(20/12/2010) morning about 9am(Japan's time, which is an hour faster than Sg if you don know). Waited at the airport for quite some time for everyone in the tour to clear the customs and to also change into their long john etc. Then we set off from the airport to several shopping places. and it was mostly shopping and shopping for the first 2 days. And we also went to the Ishiya chocolate factory on the 2nd day. we didnt get to look at the production process for some reasons i don know why but we have lots of time to take pictures at the park right outside.

3rd day, we had our first try at the snow activities that is included in our tour and they are snow rafting and snow tubing. Both was fun and i think snow rafting will be a better choice out of the two. after snow activities, we went to the bear ranch to look at some huge black bears. we bought like two packs of apples to feed them and upon seeing apples in your hands, those bears will start doing stuns to attract your attention so that you will feed them. Very cute!

And after watching the bears, we went to have our lunch! This lunch is also the most memorable lunch ever throughout the trip because we were having BBQ in the SNOW(open space)!!! It was snowing freaking heavily and the wind was blowing every second which meant that it was very cold! My hands went all numb due to the cold and even putting my hands on top of the fire didnt help very much. But i managed to survive through because I started eating and my body starts burning energy and it gets less cold. Nevertheless, it was one good experience!

As for the 4th day, we had another snow activity which is known as snow mobil. This was an optional activity which is not included in our package so we have to pay for it if we wanna participate. It's like driving this snow vehicle(more like a motorbike) up to a peak on the mountain and total duration is about an hour. The thing is that it's very expensive! it cost about S$240 for the two of us! but we have already paid like $3000 to get there so it will be a pity if we didnt get to play the snow mobil so we just went ahead! My bf was controlling it and i was the passenger. it gets scary at some point because it feels as if the vehicle is about to topple over and there are also some sharp turns here and there. But overall, it was good except that the engine smell was really bad. It's like inhaling some sort of poisonous gas for that one hour. After that, we had our lunch then moved on to take a look at the Hell valley which is still an active volcano. It's full of sulphur and it's smelly like SHIT(literally).

5th day. Went to the village which house the ninja shows etc. went to walk the slanted ninja house which i almost fell cos wasnt quite used to it initially but it gets better as you walk more. Also went to Rera Factory Outlet for more shopping! but we only had an hour for that day and the place was so huge and one hour is definitely not enough. we had to rush to check into the hotel in the airport as we will be flying off the next day!

6th day. it was a free and easy day for everyone, our flight was at night so we have like the whole morning and afternoon to ourselves. So we took the shuttle bus from the airport to the Rera factory outlet again to start our shopping spree. helped my sis bought her make-up stuffs and i bought a shirt for my nephew. my bf bought me a pair of puma shoes which is relatively cheap compared to Spore and he bought himself a pair of adidas shoes one watch. after that, took the bus back to the hotel again and went shopping again at the airport. lots of stuffs to buy! and finally, board the plane and bid goodbye to the land of the rising Sun!

This trip has been fantastic. this is the first time i'm participating in this kind of group tour with a tour agency. by the way, the agency for this trip was CTC. and i'm pretty satisfied with the accommodation and food they have arranged for us. Most of the meals were buffet-style so we can eat as much as we like. as for the hotels, every hotel we stayed in has fantastic views from the room! The thing i like was that the prices for every similar product found is of the same price! Every shop you enter sells similar/same products and their prices are ALWAYS the same and there's no room for bargaining. I LIKE THIS! No need to bargain, just buy anything that you like. anyway, we wont be able to bargain because of the language barrier, they really dont nderstand english very much.

Besides that, the weather has been very cold of course. the first 2 days were still alright. from the 3rd day onwards, it keeps snowing quite heavily and it gets very cold especially when the wind starts blowing. And to be honest, i would prefer the weather in Singapore because it's really a chore to have to wear few layers of clothes each day etc. ALL IN ALL, the trip has been a very memorable and enjoyable one for me! Especially so when this is the first overseas trip with my bf. And we also spend our 11th month-versary together in Hokkaido! What a memorable trip!

OK! This is really a lengthy post. Will update again tmr or something cos i wanna SUM UP my 2010! BYE!