Welcome to Hokkaido

My alarm went off at 4.15 this morning. I'm over these extremely early starts.
And I did the unthinkable… because we were going to be shooting without going to the hotel first, my camera pack had to be ready to go. Unfortunately I completely forgot about airport regulations and had included a leather-man type tool (which also has a pocket knife) to tighten
the tripod spikes if needed. Of course the x-ray machine picked it up… Air NZ would have just thrown it out, but the ANA staff were much more accommodating. They offered me a small box to put it in, I was issued with a luggage label for it and the box was checked in as its own little piece of luggage.  Amazing.
On arrival at Asahikawa it was snowing lightly & we spent the rest of the day shooting in a mix of  snow & sunshine, the temperature a mild -5.The trees here look amazing, like someone has decorated them with cotton wool balls. The snow just sits there - no wind to make it fall off. It’s a snowy wonderland.
I'm off to  enjoy my first mineral onsen as soon as I've finished this.

My own little carry box

This is right outside my window