We are in Niseko (Japan) at present.  I will only publish this after we return, however, given that it’s not a good idea to publish widely the fact that a family is away from home.

The skiing is fantastic, as usual.  Actually it is a poor season for Niseko, but this means 1- 2 metres of snow instead of 10 – 12m, so that’s not too bad really.  The two “boys” (183 and 193cm, of course) are having a really good time in the recently-fallen powder snow.  It really is powder-like, because the cold of Niseko prevents it melting at all.  Nick has hired special wider skis better to take advantage of the powder.

Long-gone are the days when Sue and I picked the boys up.  These days it is they who pick us up, when they ski with us, which is less than half the time, these days.  Actually it is I (David) who limits what we can do.  I guess that I am lucky to be skiing at all, given that I injured my left leg again recently.  Extensive micro-fractures at the top of my tibia/bottom of my femur.  Fortunately it was just over six weeks ago, and even the orthopaedic surgeon accepted that I could ski (green runs and gentle blue runs were the instructions – in Niseko?).

We came here via Taiwan.  As in previous years we broke the journey to or from Hokkaido somewhere which we had not seen before and were interested to visit – previous years were Seoul, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong.  It helps of course to have an airline which flies both there from Sydney, and on to Sapporo.

Taiwan was very interesting.  We only really saw Taipei,but that is a very interesting modern city, with a wonderful underground system and lots to see.  The National Palace Museum is a standout attraction.  It has much artwork and artefacts from the whole of China, brought there by the Nationalist forces during the civil war, as they retreated from mainland China.

The society is a modern example of Chinese culture, although Andrew had trouble reading the Chinese as it is written in “Traditional” script:so although Mandarin is spoken, the “Simplified Chinese” written language which he learned is not used.  Chang Kai-Chek still casts a long shadow in Taiwan, despite his less-than-perfect human rights record.  Outside the capital the countryside is beautiful, judged by our day trip to the North-East Coast.

Back to skiing, though: these holidays are a great time to spend with our “children” – we ski, play board games and card games, and go to really nice restaurants, of which Niseko has several.  If you haven’t played Seven Wonders or Love Letter, try them, because they are really good: Love Letter especially – a game with only 16 playing cards which is utterly absorbing and entertaining.  We mostly like to eat Japanese, but anything good will do!  It’s not that expensive here in Australian terms – it’s easy to eat well for about A$25 / £10 per person.