short trip, quick post

Just a quick post today. I just got back from a short trip up to Cairns / Palm Cove, and went back to work yesterday. I spent the whole time being very confused about what day of the week it was, and also what the date was. It being the end of July probably didn’t help, but also not having to keep track of dates/days for even half a week was enough to throw me off. 

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Mt Fuji & Aokigahara

When KF and I were planning our trip to Japan, I asked her if there was anywhere in particular she wanted to go, or anything she really wanted to see/do there. You’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m about to say Mt Fuji was top of the list (or on the list at all) but there was only one place she was set on going to, and that wasn’t it.

Well, not exactly. The place she wanted to visit is actually on Mt Fuji, so it inadvertently ended up at the top of the list.

Otaru pt 1 – daytime wanderings (mostly food)

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I have a bit of a soft spot for small towns. Not sure how I’d go living in one for a long time, but they sure are lovely places to visit. One of my most favourite places in Japan was a small rural town: Otaru is located somewhere west of Sapporo, in Hokkaido, and we visited on February 8th.

Otaru is only about half an hour from Sapporo by train. Things like this amaze me because sometimes it takes over half an hour to get from one part of Brisbane to another by train – on one train line, travelling through the same city!

Thursday Doors – the streets of Sapporo

I’m sad that this will probably be the last of my Sapporo posts, but I’m also pretty excited about sharing all these photos. Sapporo is a wonderful city (I think so, anyway), and it was delightful to explore and wander through the city’s streets (even if my snow boots were starting to give me a bit of pain…) 

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri – part 2 (Susukino)

I reckon I could’ve spent the entire day at Odori Park for the Sapporo Snow Festival – just eating, and watching random performances on the snow stages, and drinking hot sake and hot mojitos (yes, hot mojitos are a thing, and they are delicious; plus, with the lime and mint together in a hot beverage, it almost feels like it’s actually good for you) – but, of course, there was more to see, and time was limited!

Japan 2017: Prologue

I really want to get stuck into writing about the actual trip, but I also feel really compelled to document everything that happened beforehand – everything that led up to my going to Japan – so that’s basically what I’m going to do. Sorry, no actual details of what we did will be included in this post. I had started writing this as the Sapporo post, but then realised that my pre-amble was getting big enough to be a post on its own, so here it is… (Just a word of warning: this post is almost 1300 words long, and has no pictures. I will not be offended if you stop halfway, or even here.)