I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

...and this year it might actually come true!!

Living in the UK, there has only ever been 1 white christmas in my lifetime...last year, when I was in Cambodia! So it's still a dream to have a white Christmas. So, to be on the safe side, we've headed to Sapporo, in North Japan for Christmas! It snows here on average 25 days out of 31 in December, so, as their tourism website says, they can guarantee a White Christmas!!!

We got the boat here from Sendai. It took 15 hours, but was overnight and we had beds (sort of) and I actually really enjoyed the trip! Spending half my life on a boat (thanks Dad!) has made me almost immune to seasickness, and there was a lot of enjoy! Drunk Japanese teenagers, my first public bath experience (it's compulsory to go in naked, but it was a female only bath and not nearly as cringy as expected!), shops, arcades and kareoke rooms! I enjoyed sleeping, sewing, studying Japanese and learning to play Daifugo, a popular Japanese card game a little like sh*thead.

Our boat

Not exactly the same as Andromeda, hey?

Seaworthy sailors!

A Japanese man was very overly happy to take this photo of us!

When we arrived in Tomokomai, the nearby port, we got the bus here, it was a little cold waiting for it but very easy! We met Eric (friend from training, and (since he lived in Sapporo for nearly a year before) tour guide extrondinare!) and went to our apartment, aka Eric's old apartment that his very lovely landlady is letting us have for very cheap <3

As Christmassy as home lights get in Japan.

Lots of snow!

We had Japanese style burger type things for lunch, obviously had some snowball fights on the way and spent the afternoon relaxing and wrapping Christmas presents (not that poor John has any exciting birthday or Christmas presents from me!).

We then went out for the evening, had yakitori (skewered meat - tasty, but a little expensive, and not one of my personal favourite Japanese meals), and then had some drinks. We met a lot of other people at the bar, mostly foreign, through various different connections, but everyone was very friendly and we had a good night! Being the lightweight I am, I left to get the last subway home and have left the others partying the night away! On the plus side, on the walk to the subway I saw the Sapporo illuminations, which were very pretty!

Random.

This random man told me I was beautiful, and then danced with John!

Sapporo illuminations

It's already the 25th here, so MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!! Have a lovely day everyone, whether it's a traditional family and turkey dinner kind of day, or a random day like mine!