Hokkaido 2012

Flag of Hokkaido Prefecture

As we approach the end of another year, I’ve been seriously considering the destination that I would like to travel to in 2012.  Earlier this year I visited central Japan and had a fantastic time, but I thought that a change was in order.  I had settled on a short list of a few places, but each has been eliminated in sequence, starting with Egypt’s civil unrest and Italy’s economic breakdown.  I had considered Fiji, but the information I had read on the SmartTraveller website soon squashed that idea.  Recently I have been talking with a few acquaintences online and have decided that my destination this time  next year will be Hokkaido and northern Honshu, Japan.

There are a number of reasons behind this decision.  For one, it is a place I wanted to get to this year, but the earthquake and tsunami put an end to that idea, and for another it’s a fantastic skiing destination and I haven’t had the opportunity to ski in a very long time.  Add to this the relative affordability of traveling in Japan (I’m hearing a thousand voices cry “surely not!”) and the motivation for me to continue my linguistic education and it’s an easy decision to make.

 In order to pull this trip off though, I’m going to need to sort out a few things, all centred around my lifestyle – specifically the areas of fitness, diet and money.  The plan is to take care of this with a series of 30 day challenges.

I’m kicking off challenge number 1 tonight.  The challenge is to be in bed by 9:30PM at the absolute latest each night and to wake up in the morning at 5:30AM.  With the additional time in the mornings, I will be able to head down to the beach for a walk to start each day and make it back home with time to prepare a healthy breakfast and lunch before work each day.

I have 5 minutes to spare tonight, so I will wrap up here, but expect a basic trip plan and some accountability posts in the next 48 hours!

As we approach the end of another year, I\'ve been seriously considering the destination that I would like to travel to in 2012.  Earlier this year I visited central Japan and had a fantastic time, but I thought that a change was in order.  I had settled on a short list of a few ...