Of all the things that you have heard about Hokkaido, they are probably all true, but really, Hokkaido is all about its winter. There might be delicious diary products and ice creams here, but nothing beats the powdery fluffy snow. To keep warm in this kind of weather, we have grown accustomed to long johns and toque hair. We have also learned to enjoy a nice warm Shōchū (焼酎) from time to time.
Things we do to try to keep warm and keep ourselves lively

- We drink and hang out. …

After waking up in a strange McDonalds in Ueno and finding it much busier than when we had decided to nap quietly in the corner, we headed to Asakusa to drop our bags off at the hotel. Cathy had found us a series of great hotels over the next 5 nights in all the best spots in the City. It was a decision, in part, due to the fact that most hotels were almost fully booked, and we could only find one availability here and there, but it …

16.

Cathy and I had been tossing around the idea of where to go for Christmas / New Years for a few weeks. We had considered going down to the tropical southern part of Japan, Okinawa, or maybe driving around Hokkaido, soaking in the wintery goodness. We ended up deciding on something very much in the middle (both on the map and the thermometer), Tokyo! Seeing how we live in Japan, it’s almost necessary to visit Tokyo.

Looking into our travel options, we found a hidden jewel of the Japanese …