White Christmas

We booked our flights for the Christmas holiday this week with hopes of enjoying some snowy weather for a change. We are making our first trip to Japan where we will spend a few days in Kyoto before flying up to Sapporo in Northern Japan for skiing. If you're like me and not familiar with Japan's geography, this should help:

Should we cruise across the Sea of Japan to visit North Korea? ;)

Initially we planned to see Tokyo but from what I have been reading, coupled with friends' opinions, Kyoto was too attractive to miss. Also, we can always stopover in Tokyo when traveling back to Dallas, so we can hit that city at a later date. Our itinerary puts us in Sapporo on Christmas Eve and we'll have four full days of winter fun before we return to Singapore just in time for the new year.

As I begin to look at accommodations during our vacation, it's apparent that we'll struggle more with a language barrier while in Japan. I had to laugh when calling hotels because they all put me on hold while transferring me to the English-speaking person on the property. I'm sure we'll have some stories to tell after this trip...

I'm not sure how to work around Santa's schedule while we're away but I suspect he will be okay with delivering our presents as usual and we can open them when we return to Singapore. We hope extended family will want to meet us for some skiing as that would be the best Christmas gift of all!

I'm excited to see another country in the region and experience drastically different weather and scenery than we will have had for two full years at that point. And I can hardly wait for our girls to see real snow for the first time! In the meantime, perhaps I should begin learning a few key Japanese phrases...