what do you see?

Well, I hope everyone had a very peaceful and relaxing Christmas. We definitely did here. It seems today has been dubbed "Christmas Tuesday" this year - another Bank Holiday. And the sales started at 5:00am (we weren't at them).

Other news: snow! A few centimetres, but enough to create "treacherous" driving conditions, weather warnings and an excuse for weather forecasters to use expressions like "plummeting temperatures", "bitterly cold", "blizzard conditions"...everyone in Sapporo: don't laugh - we're really not used to it down here in southern England.

Just to let you all know that we're now safely ensconced somewhere in the UK, and ready for Christmas.

Apparently Sapporo streetcars/trams have been decked out for Christmas! Well, in our opinion, one of them has. And I finally got to go on it today, yay! And that's the news... (sorry, I was going to give a link to the story from Hokkaido Broadcasting Corp, but it's been removed :-( )

Well we've had some snow here, and cold weather, but nothing more than normal. I think the main island, Honshu, has had a lot but we escaped it somehow.

Well, it's officially cold here now - Japan Today says that it is, so it must be true! Penguin-walking is back. And, er, that's it.

It's later than last year, but it seems that the subtle build up of snowy weather has started now. We've had a few small snowfalls recently. Most of the snow has melted away, but the snowstorms are getting more frequent, so not long until we have permanent cover...and it's only -4.4C at the moment.

Well the test is over for another year. I'm not going to analyse it all now, let's just wait until mid-February for the results...