Month: February 2025

And we are back in Tokyo. We explored the Hama-rikyū Gardens and saw the blooming plum blossoms.

The gift of lots of snow gave us an extra day to explore Chitose before returning to Tokyo (and eventually home). So we went to the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival. Lake Shikotsu is a wonder and the ice sculptures created from the lake’s waters were a beautiful blue hue.

Today, we said our goodbyes to Sapporo, expecting to be on a Qantas flight back to heat and humidity this evening. Sapporo had other plans – heavy snow caused our flight out to be cancelled.

Tak is devastated, as you might imagine.

12:08pm – As we awaited the train bound for Shin-Chitose Airport, I noted a distinct bite to the air. I started recording a video, intending to capture the arrival of our transport.

Turns out I was facing the wrong direction, but what I did manage to capture was the first specks of what would soon become a barrage of holiday-extending snow.

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1:17pm – By the time we got to the airport, the precipitation had increased, dramatically. Consider the below my application for all available weather reporter jobs:

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1:41pm – It only got heavier as time passed.

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2:43pm – The same plane:

3pm – just 15 minutes later:

3:21pm – And finally, after we were informed of the forced extension to our holiday:

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Seems you all know me quite well. I caught something, but thanks to some fantastic off the shelf drugs available from any 24 hour chemist or Donki, I was functional throughout. Japan’s great.

Abashiri, Memanbetsu and arriving in Sapporo:

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Snow, onsen, snow, reading, snow, bears, snow. Abashiri to Noboribetsu.

A easy start to the day followed by an afternoon of travel. First flight from Nagoya to Sapporo. Landing on a runway surrounded by snow in Sapporo was pretty great. Second flight from Sapporo to Memanbetsu. And finally a train trip from Memanbetsu to Abashiri. We have arrived in Hokkaido.