Well I am now writing in our second week as bonified travellers of the world. some exciting news to report first however, this is all coming from our new little toy: a Mac book air!! Decided to get one for a number of reasons: internet costs were killing us, it was about 250 quid cheaper than UK, we were struggling to research accommodation etc and most aptly of all Micki insisted on it!

We left Niseko last Sunday, which was really sad as we made some great travel/boarding buddies and it was like one big family in the Shizenkan Lodge. Obviously full of aussies and kiwis but always interesting banter when it came to them slagging each others customs and accents off! We just treated them to a bit of cockney rhyming slang interspersed with our native 'Ketterin' lingo 'init'!

Daily life in Niseko consisted of waking about 3am (cheers Jacob) and then about 7am, eating our staple breakfast of eggs on toast and then hitting the slopes all day before getting back to the lodge to eat seico-mart noodles and drink wine guised as balsamic vinegar until our cheap english wit ran dry and we could no longer hold our heads high (usually about 9pm!!)

If you love skiing or boarding then Niseko has to be the place that everyone should visit maybe just once in their lifetime. By Wednesday 4th January there hadn't been much snow by their standards (just 1.5m i'm afraid, they were gobsmacked at how little), although we were loving the conditions. By Thursday night Niseko's real winter had arrived as unbelieveably 2 metres had been dumped on us which made for some unreal powder boarding. At points it was waist height on the groomed pistes and over our chests just off piste and through the tree runs, crazy! Apparently that was normal and by the time we left for Tokyo on Sunday night it had not stopped and was still snowing incessantly. Niseko got 15m last year and they were hopeful of beating that this year. We had some great boarding and plenty of good stacks, however it didn't hurt too much on that snow. Although we did have to dig ourselves out a few times which of course micki loved, she now has bulging biceps and triceps!!

So we left Niseko heavy hearted but extremely excited about our current location, Tokyo. We wanted to fly from Sapporo to Tokyo but we left it too late and the prices were mega. So we booked an overnight train which meant a few changes and midnight hangouts in the lonely wilderness of some japanese train stations but ended with an amazing journey on the 200mph Shikansen bullet train. We did 1000km in a little over 3 hours! We are loving Tokyo at the mo, got a really cool hostel (Sakura) in the north of Tokyo (Asakusa District). Tokyo is exactly as we imagined it with loads of culture, temples and huge areas of the city being a vast metropolis of skyscrapers, business and shopping districts. After stomping about 15 miles in three days, ticked off the tourist list so far: Shinjuku (shopping district, neon lights etc), Ginza (uber expensive Beverly Hills esque shopping neighbourhood), Tsujiki fish market (japans largest trading area - tuna the size of micki and king crabs a metre wide!), Sensoji Temple (Tokyo's oldest temple 660ad), Observatory tower at 220m high and Akihabara (massive electronics district). proper tourists ay, at least we don't stick out too much with camera round neck, map open in hand whilst sporting a clueless demeanour!

We are off to Kyoto on Saturday on a night bus (look forward to that leg room). Suppose to be amazing. Also getting very hungry now as Micki is sitting next to me reading about all the cheap food in china; duck, hoi sin sauce, dumplings etc You all know we love our food, actually dropped a few pounds as food is so expensive here and beer is 3 pound a pint minimum! Got to cut back somewhere ay!

Hope i haven't bored the pants off you yet, be writing the next blog from China!

Tom and Michelle x x