Roger and Stephen in Singapore

Saturday, 2 March 2013

Sapporo, Japan

Work commitments took us to Sapporo in Japan. Sapporo is located on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and is the fourth-largest city in Japan. Arriving at the airport we were greeted by large amounts of snow. Sapporo city is a gateway to many people taking skiing holidays in Japan as some of the best snowfields are about 40 minutes from Sapporo. Sapporo is a young city and is laid out in a grid pattern making it easy to navigate and has a underground railway network to take you to all areas of the city. Sapporo is well known for its annual snow festival in which huge sculptures are carved out of the snow. Singapore had a team this year which came 5th in the competition. We were unfortunate to miss the festival by a week.
Temperatures during the day were around -3 to -7 degrees Celsius and clear blue skies. As there was fresh snow falls it was easy to walk around and it was harder in areas where snow had been cleared and the snow turned to ice which made it quite slippery.
Sapporo was gearing up for the Japanese Doll Festival or "Hinamatsuri", which is celebrated on the 3 of March. Tiered platforms are set up in homes and hotels covered with a red carpet and are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress. It is a day to pray for a young girls health and happiness. Many of the department stores had complete sets for sale and they started around $2000.

Sapporo from the JR Tower

Nakajima Park

Sapporo Clock tower

Former Hokkaido Government Office Building

Plenty of snow in the city centre

Snowfall in the afternoon

Sapporo Beer Garden & Museum

Wooden beer barrels outside the Beer Museum

Vending machine of gravel for pedestrians to spread on slippery surfaces

Shin Hongo sculpture at Sapporo station

Nakajima Park

Protection for the street trees from the snow

Temple in Sapporo

Sapporo Beer Garden & Museum at night

Otaru canal about 1/2 hour from Sapporo

Otaru canal (snowing at the time we went )

Many of the footpaths were like this

Hinamatsuri display for sale

Tuesday, 19 February 2013

Boracay and Manila

We decided to spend the Chinese New Year in the Philippines and chose Boracay as the ideal place to have a relaxing holiday. The island of Boracay is about 300 km south of Manila and can be reached from flying from Manila to Caticlan and then catching a ferry across to the island. Caticlan airport is a small airport so we had to board a 72 seater plane from Manila. After checking in our bags which were extremely restricted in weight, we then both had to proceed to a counter so we both could step on the scales to be weighed!
Boracay is known for its lovely beaches with white sand and crystal blue water. Also at the end of the day there were some fantastic sunsets . Boracay certainly did not disappoint in terms of relaxation. The island was extremely busy with tourists from Japan escaping the cold as well as Chinese enjoying the extra long weekend.
The main beach is called White Beach and this area contains many restaurants that are on the beach and was extremely busy at night. The weather was about 28 degrees each day and was not humid like Singapore.
Many of the hotels had fireworks and special buffets for the Chinese New Year adding a real festive spirit to the island .

We had a couple of days in Manila on the way home for work commitments. Manila is certainly not city with many tourist highlights and many of the tourist spots are located quite a distance from the city centre. Traffic in Manila is very chaotic and to travel a short distance can take forever. A 5 lane highway can suddenly become 6 or 7 lanes as cars, buses and trucks don't seen to take notice of the road markings. The taxis had seat-belts in the back but no buckles for you to clip into. Certainly a few times I was convinced we were going to be sideswiped from the constant weaving in and out of lanes.
Security was extremely tight in hotels and shopping centres with bag searches as well as pat downs by security staff. Also the invasion of your personal space in markets and the constant reminders of pickpockets made you very careful to guard your belongings.