JAPAN~TOKYO X SAPPORO X FURANO!!!

Helloooo!!! Today marks my 4th month here in awesome Korea~ week 20 in the Land of the Morning Calm (said in that guy's voice from Big Brother)!!! Time is flying by!!! 
So earlier this month I returned from a dreamy Summer holiday in beautiful Japan!!! I'd been counting down the days as I had a jam packed mini adventure planned!!!I flew into Tokyo, which will ALWAYS AND FOREVER be one of my all time favourite cities in the world!! WAHHHH was so excited to arrive!! I stayed in the same teeny, tiny, traditional ryokan in Asakusa that I've stayed in a few times over the years...and strangely ended up in the same room yet again! I'd missed the smell of tatami as you go to sleep, it reminded me instantly of my little bedroom during my time living with the Takahashi Family in beautiful Mino!!!

It was evening when I arrived so I was greeted by the awesome sight of Sensoji Temple all lit up and twinkling~ Asakusa is my favourite neighbourhood in Tokyo....totally magical...so much old school charm and character!!!
I was only spending a couple of days in Tokyo before jetting far up north which gave me enough time to do some HARDCORE shopping, catch up with a couple of old friends, do spot of temple hopping, drink buckets of matcha, go on a 

mega yukata mission and pick up some glorious craft supplies and fabrics!!!!
It was a mega whistlestop-neighbourhood hop but, managed to take in a bit of Akihabara and Shibiya and of course a major Harajuku session followed by an after-shopping unwind in pretty Yoyogi Park!!! Had time also for a rain soaked evening out in twinkling Shinjuku as well as a mince around Ueno and plenty of midnight hours wandering the streets and temples of Asakusa!!

My time in Tokyo whizzed by and before I knew it I was hotfooting it back to Narita airport, filling up my bags with a mega stash of these AMAZING Matcha- Sakura KitKats!!! Eeeep what a JUICY find!!! And it was onto phase 2 of my Japanese Jaunt!! It's been my dream to visit Hokkaido since I was about 15...when my Japan obsession first kicked in by way of endless books and I have been desperate ever since to check out Japan's north island FOREVER...eekers and the time was finally here!!!! Wooo!

I flew up to Sapporo which I would be using as my base whilst exploring a bit more of Hokkaido island! Sapporo felt totally different to anywhere else I've been in Japan...in fact it felt more like Europe with it's wide avenues and general architecture...it kind of reminded me of Budapest but, with signs in Japanese and the occasional bit of neon... strange! My main reason for heading so far north was to go and visit the towns of Furano and Biei which lies a couple of hours drive away from Sapporo......

So this was my reason for wanting to go to beautiful Furano and Biei .... to see the phantasmagorical, striped flower fields of Farm Tomita and Shikisai No Oka...OMGGG it was amazing...and so worth the million year wait to get to see it in real life!! Neverending rainbow coloured flowers, rows and rows of fields full of the most glorious smelling lavender EVER!!

One of the highlights of 'Farm Tomita' was their gourmet Lavender ice cream whipped up with crops fresh from their rainbow fields!!! I also had a cheeky slice of lavender cheese cake washed down with lavender lemonade...total lavender fest!! My Grandma would have loved it if she was still around as she was always obsessed with Yardley's Lavender!!! AMAZINGGGGG!!!!!
Shikisai No Oka was particularly magical as the colours of the fields were super vivid and the stripes went on for miles over the hill so it was a really impressive sight!!! They also had some glorious sunflower fields and cute characters made from bales of hay!!!
Really fun~ so glad I made the haul so far up north as was beyond worth it to see these magical little towns!!!!!
The rest of the time I spent checking out Sapporo and also popped to the Hokkaido Shrine...did a spot more shopping (of course!!!) and before I knew it, time was up and it was time to head back to Sunny Seoul....!!!!
Such a fun trip, a one I will never forget...got to see so many lovely things, take a break from work...collect some new ideas....and with all that travelling and sitting on various modes of transport I had time to catch up on some reading and write some Tolstoy length journal entries....!!! It was so good that the ridiculous amount of miles I racked up ended up killing my shoes and I had to leave the hologram beauties shimmering in a collapsed pile by the trash en route to Chitose Airport!!! The amount of souvenirs and lavender flavoured candy also caused my bag to break?!?!
Anyway, I shall leave you with a few more snaps from the trip of dreamzzzz!!! For now it's back into the swing of things with life here in lovely Seoul...so I shall be updating on other happenings soon!!!!
Ok... so a few more photos for you whilst I crack on with my homework for my Korean class in the morning!!!!
Sayonara Japan~ Until next time!!!!!
Love Emma xxxxx