Holiday snaps - Japan 2009

Just figured its time for me to upload some of my favourite snaps from last months snow bound trip in Japan.

We opted out of Tokyo this time around, seeing that we spent the yr before in the city. Moreover, some of our mates kept raving about the excellent ski conditions in Japan and BF was simply itching to try it out esp as the snow conditions here are rather more icy than powdery most times.

As we only had a week to spare, we decided to stick to the main island of Honshu rather than go up to Hokkaido which would have mean at least another wasted day. After weighing our options, the destination was Hakuba which was in the location of the 1998 Winter Olympics.

I'll get into the details of how and what we did over there but in the meantime - my snaps are below!

Me doing my "thang"

After a bruising week, we decided to take a day trip to relax and we went to Matsumoto. This is the main tourist attraction and the Matsumoto Castle also known as "Crow Castle" due to its dark exterior.



Snow all around seeing that we had a gala choice of 12 ski resorts to pick!

Imagine waking up to this every morning.Yes - this was the view from our bedroom - we stayed in a B & B which was a lot more personal.

Mt Fuji - that towers over Tokyo scape - as taken from the bullet train (shinkansen) on the way to Nagano.

How is it going?

There has been lots of new going on's and I have not been updating as regularly as I should. Call it a writers block, or perhaps I have just been plain uninspired. The bottom line is, I have not really been in an update blog mood and it shows.

To start it all, am in a midst of a very difficult project. The clients are very demanding and to top it all off, I am having to deal with some internal red tape which entails having a "Project Manager" who doesn't know what she's doing. Most projects are taxing as it is but compounded by the fact that the PM is making the consultant do her job, well - any time I have for other client related work really becomes non-existent time. I have thankfully managed to get this under control after I had a meeting with my manager but still, the project is still ongoing and I have 3 or so months to go.

Work aside, the situation in VIC is rather dire with the bush fires making it all the more depressing. A death toll which currently stands at 180, total demolition of country towns - it is true what they say, it is during bad times that we can see human courage and empathy. I must say this about the Aussies tho, they really are generous - first during the tsunami appeal and now with this. I am amazed - for I know that it would never happen in Malaysia where ppl open up their already thin purses to help other ppl who are very much more in need than oneself.

As for Valentine's Day - seeing that BF and I were never were romantics anyways, we decided to donate to the Victorian Bush Fire appeal. The amount might be small, but it is our way of helping out to those who are less fortunate than us.