7 Days Hokkaido Winter Wonderland, Day 1 & 2

Yippie, it's time for another family vacation!!  This time, slightly different and more fun  because we are going with Amanda's friend and her family!!... and yes, we are going on a guided tour to HOKKAIDO!!!  Yeah, my dream place....  We decided not to bring our DSLR for this trip as I wasn't too familiar with it yet and couldn't take sharp pictures with it.  Moreover, with the 18-200mm lens, the camera was a little heavy to lug around especially when we are already wearing such thick winter clothings.. so I bought a new semi-pro compact (dummy) camera instead...  but somehow, it seems not all the photos were clear and well taken... haiz...  I must have expected DSLR effects out of a dummy cam...  haha... 

By the way, I will only upload some photos in the blog (which is already very difficult for me to decide which NOT to put)...  Facebook will have the complete sorted out albums... however, only a few privileged ones will have access to these albums...  :))

Ok enough said...   北海道はここでは来る！

we parked our car at changi airport terminal 3 throughout the 7 days...

as usual, a family photo before departure... and if you realise, daddy always makes it a point to wear the same top during every family holiday...  haha....

coffee for mummy and half-boiled eggs for daddy and amanda before departure...

our flight... sq672...

(left) the usual xmas decor on sq.. can't they do something different?  (right) amanda's child meal which she didn't get to eat...

amanda slept throught the entire flight (after medication)...  plane was landing soon so daddy was on standby in case she vomits when she wakes up.... 

i hardly take pictures from the plane... but the view today was so beautiful i couldn't resist... plus maybe because i was in an exceptionally relaxed mood... the last time i took pictures from the plane was in 1993...  hahaha....

collecting our luggages upon arrival at nagoya airport...

amanda with our tickets for transit to chitose airport at sapporo, via ANA.... and congratulations to amanda!!!  she didn't vomit!!!  yeah!!!

our domestic flight from nagoya to sapporo... ana 705

the kids playing snake and ladder while waiting for gate to open...

our plane...

hokkaido golf course...

arrival at chitose airport...  collected luggages and put on our full gear to brave the cold weather... but we were in for a disappointment as it wasn't that cold when we arrived... around 7 deg cel...  we expected between minus 4 to 2 deg cel...

first stop from airport....  lunch!!

the famous hokkaido crab!!!

all of us feeling jetlagged and slightly zombied....

delicious japanese food which we didn't get to try here since the tour had already prepared steamboat for us...

amanda holding the crab we chose for our steamboat...  we were told not to simply hold the crabs here...  the moment you touch it, it's considered sold...  hahaha!!!

daddy's turn...

and mummy's turn!  we took turns to take pictures with the crab...  can you imagine there were 8 of us?!....  poor crab!!

unique bowls

kids meal which the tour provided upon arrival... the kids didn't like kids meal and prefered to eat what we were eating, so from that meal onwards, the kids ate the same food as us....

ingredients for our steamboat...

our crab to add on...  oh yes, a crab costs 13,500 yen...  there were 3 sizes and we took the medium size...

must take more photos of the crab before we ate it...  haha...

After lunch, we proceeded to Shiraoi Ainu Village (below)

dried salmons

one of my favourite family photo taken during this trip....  :))

watching native performance

group photo...

smoked salmon above daddy's head...

i was fascinated by their vending machine.. so decided to buy 2 bottles of drinks to try out...

our hotel for the night which has one of the largest and nicest onsen with great view...

at the lobby

amanda removing her boots...  yippie...  tatame style...  love love!!!

next...  removing her snow pants...

daddy was orientating the room and thinking where to place the luggages etc...

view from our room...  taken through the glass window...

hotel staff came over and "presented" amanda's yukata to her... oohh... she felt like a little japanese princess...  hahaha....

and now trying out the glass slippers....  by the way, there were many cinderellas among the kids...  if you know what i mean...  haha...  yes, they kept running around and ended up leaving a slipper along the corrider...

(left) our room number   (right) japanese mochi which we got in almost every hotel...

trying on her yukata....

daddy and mummy...

tea making ceremony??

looking out of the window...

can you see the word "amanda" on the glass?...

getting ready to leave the room for our buffet dinner...

cute kids in yukata...

what a feast!  free flow of hokkaido crabs, sashimi, scallops, beef etc etc...

this guy was very kind...  he helped amanda scoop the ice cream as it was quite hard....

amanda's ice-cream creation...  doesn't it look like sunny side up?...  lol!!!

walked to 7-11 after dinner....

little girls in pink boots...  sooo cute...

streets of noboribetsu by night....

last shot of amanda in her favourite guess jacket, as it was flaking so badly that we decided to throw it away...  it was only flaking at the sleeves when maid packed it into the luggage.... we thought of wearing it for the last trip but unfortunately, it didn't get to survive the entire trip...  goodbye our beloved guess jacket...  it had accompanied amanda to the eastern triangle (new york, washinton, buffalo, philadelphia etc) and central europe...  so it had served her well....  :))

yummy drinks we bought from 7-11...

ice cream for amanda...  the weather was around 0 deg cel at night, so can you imagine we left the ice cream for 1 hour by the window without it evne melting?...  how nice...  back in singapore, it would have melted in 5 minutes...

daddy watching tv and relaxing...

an oily-faced amanda after she applied an overdose of nivea on her face....

ready for bed...

goodnight peeps!!!

グッドナイト

Better start packing and have an early night!  Got to check out of this hotel tomorrow and morning call is at 6am the next day!!!