Hi friends!

Thanks for your comments on Chris' last blog and our Japan photos! My Mum's hit the nail on the head with her comment - 'every new country is a new experience.' That's totally true! Japan is the 7th country of our travels so far, and I think the people here are my favourite. I am in awe of them and their gentle kindness, respect and politeness. I suppose I should have had some indication from my Japanese phrase book, which has 8 various ways to say thank you! Let me explain the point; we asked for directions in a grocery shop where neither our Japanese nor the shop assistant's English was sufficient. So in answer to our problem, the Japanese lady drew us a map, hunted in her office for an additional road map, but then decided she would leave her shop and take us directly to the restaurant we were after herself and stay with us to translate the Japanese signs outside the restaurant, telling us the opening times. Incredible! Definitely worthy of at least 4 of the variations of "thank-you" that I could bring to the forefront of my memory at the time! Another heart-warming moment was when we asked for some painkillers in a pharmacy; the pharmacist patiently and without any sense of a rush to get back to serving other customers, helped us translate every one of the painkillers in the veritable selection and furthermore insisted on fetching us a glass of water or tea so we could take some tablets then and there. A further 3 of my "Thank you" phrases were enlisted!

Along with the wonderful people, Japan has some amazing sites ofhistorical and artistic interest. Following on from Chris' blog, we visited Hiroshima and the War Memorial Park. It was a disconcerting journey through the effects of nuclear warfare, short and long term radiation poisoning and a Nation's discovery of humility, self depreciating honesty and ongoing reminders of the need for peace. From here we took a day trip to Miyajima to see the floating shrine gate - 'floating torii'. In search of baboons we climbed up the Misen, the mountain near the shrines. No baboons, unfortunately, but there were some incredible seascapes and views of neighbouring islands. Our journey then moved onto Matsuyama to experience the Dogo Onsen, one of the most famous hot springs in Japan, and a very unique experience. Indeed, I don't think I've before witnessed so many naked middle-aged women scrubbing their every crevice with such vigour! Freshly scrubbed and wilting slightly with the effects of the steam and heat we took the bus to Okayama, our base for exploring the art house projects at Naoshima. Personally, I love a bit of gallery or museum visiting, especially if it's with either of the Rees sisters - as zoology and art experts their insights really enhance any trip; however, I have never before spent a whole day looking around museums or galleries. Naoshima is incredibly special. Chris and I happily whiled away the whole day looking around the various contemporary projects, exhibitions and artworks. In fact, the main deciding factor for ending our day was the dwindling daylight! Our appetites whet for culture, we travelled to Takayama, established as a "castle town" in the 16th century. It has retained beautiful little cobbled streets with many traditional inns, tea houses and sake breweries; and every year they have the Takayama festival with incredibly ornate and grand floats complete with gold leaf and lacquered design. At this point, Chris decided he hadn't eaten nearly enough sushi, so we headed to the coastal town of Kanazawa, where the Japanese recognise some of the best and freshest sushi is to be found. Here there's also, probably my favourite Japanese garden, Kenroku-en.

The island of Hokkaido, where they make the famous Sapporo beer and have the widely critically acclaimed ski resort of Niseko, was to be our next stop via a short flight; which we managed to catch... just! At check-in in Tokyo the clerk struggles to find Chris' name in the booking after successfully finding mine. Thinking this rather odd, we gather our paperwork to prove that we do indeed have 2 flights booked, when it suddenly comes to light that our second flight is booked under the name of Banzu Martin(!??!) Despite the hiccup and unfortunate extra expenditure, we make it to Niseko where the snow is falling in huge clumpy flakes! The resort is actually famous for its reliable powder and in fact, we only had a break from the relentlessly falling snow for 1 of our 6 days here. The Japanese ski resort, following the trend we have discovered on mainland Japan, is exceedingly efficient! The lifts are quick and there are assistants helping you get skis in the appropriate racks and wiping the snow off the chairlift seats. All this attention, and for a resort where we had to queue for a lift perhaps only the once. Every other time we skied straight from the slope onto a lift, a total unheard of anywhere in Europe! I'm not sure exactly why the resort appeared to be so quiet; maybe we came early in the season, or maybe Niseko is still one of those relatively unknown jewels? In any case, we frequently found ourselves to be the sole punters of a given slope! Absolute heaven! I worked on several turns, jumps and techniques with Chris' expert guidance. Funnily enough, for someone who mentioned about making me cry by pushing me too far down a mogully black; he's actually doing much too good a job of teaching me how to ski! I'm happily at the point now where I feel confident tackling any grade of piste'd run and quite a few off-piste too! No tears this time, darling, just lots and lots of fun! It has to be said though, and we both agree, nothing yet has come close to the atmosphere and après-ski we found in Austria - the Japanese are just too polite and well-behaved to get drunk and dance on the tables outside an après-ski bar!

Next we're off to Hong Kong to share Christmas with some wonderful friends - Kurt and Heather! Thanks for reading the blog and making your comments on the pictures!

Lots of love, Emma and Chris xxxxx