Pete survived the 4.5-hour crossing to get here and we decided to book a hotel near the port, not in the main hassle and bustle. It was lovely walking past the tricycle terminal refusing the set and inflated fare to Read more…
We took probably the most scenic flight ever from Bohol to El Nido with Air Swift. We flew over tropical islands galore with beautiful white sand beaches and coral reaching into the glistening aqua seas. Air Swift own the airport Read more…
At Momo Beach, we were unloaded from the ferry and asked to line up our hand luggage and then main luggage for the police to pass over their sniffer dog. He seemed much more interested in his ball but did eventually Read more…
To acclimatise we decided to spend a couple of days fairly close to the airport on Mactan Cebu Island, in a place known for independent travellers, called Maribago. It was a busy place with locals mixed in with Fillipino tourists, Read more…
Just a quick update !! The last post might have sounded a bit down on the Philippines??? Tired, heat shock etc. We’ve now got back into a more “Asia” backpacker mindset but, honestly, there hasn’t been much need to, people Read more…
Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone We hadn’t even left Japan and we were starting to lament about how lovely the Japanese people were. This was prompted from a 2 hour wait in a bag drop Read more…
And as the kids say these days “and just like that”, or “how did that happen?” the instructing season was over for us both 😭 The last couple of weeks seemed to be on fast forward ! Maybe it was Read more…
Last week, we had two consecutive days off, which coincided with the Snow Festival at Asahikawa (the nearest city to us only 1 hour 15 mins away by train). We planned to head off in the morning, but fresh snowfall Read more…
So in the small world that is ski instructing, 2 Japanese colleagues from last season at Club Med are in furano teaching for a different ski school !! We bumped into them on our 2nd day ! Not knowing they Read more…
Even though we normally live on a rock in the middle of the Irish sea, we started to get “cabin fever” and felt the need to escape Furano. It was kind of fuelled by colleagues getting cars and talking about Read more…
So now we are in full swing of the season. We have had a few warm days, 2 days of really baltic weather (minus 34 with wind chill with winds up to 70kmph), and everything in between. My Aussie kids Read more…
We think we picked well when we chose FISS over the other 2 job offers we received. Our decision was mainly down to having been to the resort for 4 days last year (even though we always like to explore Read more…
The start of the season was blighted by a cold/flu that was going around all the instructors 😷😷 It made me (Pete) doubt if I did still really enjoy teaching…….. but then suddenly I felt more human again, energy levels Read more…
So working for FISS has been great so far 😍 the 3 bosses are cool, all the instructors are a good laugh and the apartment they found us is great. The bosses put on a get to know each other Read more…
On Sunday we both had the day off and decided to go to the next nearest city, Asahikawa, for an explore. The train took 1 hour 20 mins to get there passing through lots of snow covered farmland. It was lunchtime Read more…
So how was the first week of work? Pretty damn awesome! The snow has been steadily falling, meaning that more slopes are getting ready to open. At the moment only the Furano Zone side of the mountain is open but, fingers Read more…
We have arrived in Furano. 3 days on still getting a bit of jet lag. Hopefully tonight I won’t see between 1am and 3am again. We have been to the Town Hall to register, got our 7 different coloured bags Read more…
So it is once again time to pack the skis and snowboards and make our way to the slopes. We took the opportunity to meet my cousin and her family in London and, luckily, my other cousin from the Wirral Read more…
Sorry its been a while……. travelling Japan was so incredible that we’ve kinda forgotten to post since being home…. The Isle of Man isn’t that boring honest 😳 It does seem to centre around bikes ( of all shapes and Read more…
No 1 – public toilets EVERYWHERE 😳😎 Normally with spa function 🤯 and even a button to play music as a “courtesy” flush The people, amazing, polite, friendly and yet very intriguing at the same time. From the ones dressed Read more…
They say a picture says a 1,000 words, so this post is a lot of photos. Our staff-accommodation for four months set the bar pretty low. It reminded us of our backpacking years when we met 25 years ago! For Read more…
Back in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo we met up with two ski instructors we worked with in Club Med, Yuko and Charlie. It was great to catch up and very easy having a Japanese guide to translate the Read more…
Tropical no less !!! We took a two hour flight South East from Fukuoka to one of the Okinawan Islands called Ishigaki. Although not a tiny island we hoped it would give an opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle Read more…
Pete had heard about an amazing road , famous among bikers ( from one of his snowboard students who was a biker) but it happened to be on Kyushu – the third huge island making up Japan. So we took Read more…
Before we left Osaka, we went to a place for okonomiyaki – pancakes with cabbage and different fillings. I chose scallops and Pete had bacon in his. It was amazing watching them make them on a massive griddle in the Read more…