Some of the best moments in this Trip Report will have to be written up without photos...
On this trip, I spent a lot of time in Japanese onsens (hot springs) and public baths, where you take in the waters in your birthday suit...naturally no photos allowed. While I have tried these in the past, both in Japan and in their Singapore equivalents, it was only on this trip that I began to fully appreciate, enjoy, and even crave, the whole bathing ritual in a Japanese onsen. We went to many of these during our trip, with our last being the onsen within Chitose Airport (CTS), Sapporo's main airport, which must be one of the few airports, if not the only airport, with an onsen right in the terminal building.
Apart from Hokkaido, I also spent time in Tokyo and Nagoya. In Tokyo, I attended a concert at the reknown Suntory Hall, where the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played as part of their Japan tour. This was a stunning venue, but once again, they had a strict no photo, no video policy. The music making that evening was superb, and the atmosphere at the concert electric. I will have to try to convey it all in words.
Fortunately, for the rest of the trip, I was able to snap away, and have a full set of pics to share!

My holiday with Mrs yflyer and Miss yflyer no.2 began in early November. This trip would take me first to Nagoya, then to Takayama and Tokyo, where we visited DisneySea, before flying to Hakodate, in the south of Hokkaido, to begin our exploration of Hokkaido.
From Hakodate, we rented a car and explored Lake Toya, Noboribetsu and Asahikawa before heading to our final stop, Sapporo, where we made side trips to Yoichi, home of the Nikka Whisky Distillery, and Otaru. We were advised to ask for snow tires for the Toyota Prius we rented, and this turned out to be quite fortuitous as we did experience a couple of days of autumn snow while in Asahikawa.
In Singapore, they don't cover driving in the snow in our local driving school syllabus, and it was nervewracking on the days that I had to drive on slick roads, covered in ice and snow. More on that later. Suffice to say, I found driving in the snow more terrifying than any ride I took at DisneySea.
We flew there and back on ANA, on 787 Dreamliners to and from Singapore via Tokyo Haneda, but we also had the opportunity to check out ANA's domestic service from Haneda to Hakodate, and an Air Do 767 from Chitose back to Haneda. We travelled via Shinkansen from Nagoya to Tokyo, and were very impressed by the whole bullet train experience.
While we had been to Japan in the past, this was our first ever trip to Hokkaido. While many Singaporeans head to Hokkaido in winter to ski, there is actually a lot to see and do in Hokkaido during the rest of the year. It was late autumn while we were there, and it was wonderful.
Many folks in Singapore are headed to Japan for their end-of-year break, and your social media feeds are all probably flooded with pics and stories from holidays in Japan. If you don't mind yet more content on this subject, read on!
On this trip, I spent a lot of time in Japanese onsens (hot springs) and public baths, where you take in the waters in your birthday suit...naturally no photos allowed. While I have tried these in the past, both in Japan and in their Singapore equivalents, it was only on this trip that I began to fully appreciate, enjoy, and even crave, the whole bathing ritual in a Japanese onsen. We went to many of these during our trip, with our last being the onsen within Chitose Airport (CTS), Sapporo's main airport, which must be one of the few airports, if not the only airport, with an onsen right in the terminal building.
Apart from Hokkaido, I also spent time in Tokyo and Nagoya. In Tokyo, I attended a concert at the reknown Suntory Hall, where the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra played as part of their Japan tour. This was a stunning venue, but once again, they had a strict no photo, no video policy. The music making that evening was superb, and the atmosphere at the concert electric. I will have to try to convey it all in words.
Fortunately, for the rest of the trip, I was able to snap away, and have a full set of pics to share!

My holiday with Mrs yflyer and Miss yflyer no.2 began in early November. This trip would take me first to Nagoya, then to Takayama and Tokyo, where we visited DisneySea, before flying to Hakodate, in the south of Hokkaido, to begin our exploration of Hokkaido.
From Hakodate, we rented a car and explored Lake Toya, Noboribetsu and Asahikawa before heading to our final stop, Sapporo, where we made side trips to Yoichi, home of the Nikka Whisky Distillery, and Otaru. We were advised to ask for snow tires for the Toyota Prius we rented, and this turned out to be quite fortuitous as we did experience a couple of days of autumn snow while in Asahikawa.
In Singapore, they don't cover driving in the snow in our local driving school syllabus, and it was nervewracking on the days that I had to drive on slick roads, covered in ice and snow. More on that later. Suffice to say, I found driving in the snow more terrifying than any ride I took at DisneySea.
We flew there and back on ANA, on 787 Dreamliners to and from Singapore via Tokyo Haneda, but we also had the opportunity to check out ANA's domestic service from Haneda to Hakodate, and an Air Do 767 from Chitose back to Haneda. We travelled via Shinkansen from Nagoya to Tokyo, and were very impressed by the whole bullet train experience.
While we had been to Japan in the past, this was our first ever trip to Hokkaido. While many Singaporeans head to Hokkaido in winter to ski, there is actually a lot to see and do in Hokkaido during the rest of the year. It was late autumn while we were there, and it was wonderful.
Many folks in Singapore are headed to Japan for their end-of-year break, and your social media feeds are all probably flooded with pics and stories from holidays in Japan. If you don't mind yet more content on this subject, read on!
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