Family Vacation to Japan over Chinese New Year

We spent Chinese New Year this year in Kyushuu, Japan.  Steve's parents met us over there, and we spent a week travelling around the southern most island of Japan (mostly by train and bus).  We travelled around on our own and not with a tour, which meant it was more expensive and had to rely on my so-so Japanese.  But it also meant that we had more time to do some exploring in each of the four towns/cities we visited.  

It snowed on our second day there, enough snow so that Tyler got to experience making his first snowball and do some tobogganing.  I haven't seen snow in four years, so it was a real treat for me too.  Kurogawa and Yufuin are towns famous for their hotsprings so we spent quite a lot of time soaking in their mineral baths.  Some of them were outdoors so you can actually look up and see the stars.

We had a wonderful time-- Steve said that this was probably one of the vacations in a long time where he was a bit sad to leave.  

On not such a positive note, Tyler developed a cold towards the end of the trip.  When we took him to the pediatrician back home, she said he had developed a ear infection-- I really hope the antibiotics will do the trick this time.  Otherwise we will need to reinsert the tubes all over again!!  Wish us luck...

 

Greetings from Hokkaido, Japan!

This is my first and probably last posting from Japan. For the past week, we've been travelling around the beautiful island of Hokkaido (western part). We've been of course enjoying the freshest sashimi / seafood ever, and soaking in the oh-so relaxing japanese baths. There's something quite nice and liberating having a soak outdoors. It's also been fun practicing my Japanese whｉｃｈ　Ｉhaven't used in ten years!!!


We'll be spending our last day tomorrow in Sapporo, and planning to visit the Sapporo Beer Factory which should be interesting. It's been a nice family vacation, something fun for everyone... of course at the moment is probably not the best time to visit Japan with the yen at a high of 95 yen to a dollar!!! Anyhow, will post some pictures when I get home.



Ja, Mata ato de.... ( until later....)