It's been so long since I posted last that I've decided to start doing smaller posts to stop me procrastinating! Here's some pictures from this month, including my snowboarding trip to Hakuba near Nagano, West of Tokyo:

We stayed in the 'Echoland' area of Hakuba, which seemed to be almost all foreigners, mostly Australians so it was great craic

The snow was incredible - all powder; it didn't stop snowing for our first three days, making the snowboarding bails a little less painful

Snow sculptures outside the office were a great novelty, until Tokyo was hit with the most snow in (apparently) 15 years a day later:

[From the office window]

New Year's, as in the first three days of January more than the 31st of December, is a really significant event in Japan. There's not much drinking going on unless you're a foreigner, as most people go to a Shrine to wish for good fortune.

I headed to Meiji Jingu, one of the most popular Shrines, on NYE for the countdown. There must have been tens of thousands of people, and we all queued up for a long time to reach the shrine itself, a good experience: