Hakuba & Tokyo, Japan

Hey All! So I'm only about a month late...but I wanted to share pics from the Duvall men's trip to Japan last month. Michael and I have been to the Tokyo airport en route back to the States more times then we'd like to remember, but unfortunately haven't had the opportunity to venture into the city. Well, the guys cleared their schedules about a year in advance and made the trip to Japan finally happen. 

They spent the week splitting their time between skiing in Nagano and eating their way around Tokyo. I was bummed to miss out, but they had a brilliant time on their guys-only holiday. 

Michael's been slammed at work so I'm going to take the reigns on the recap here. A sweet and simple summary below... 

Happy face! Since the guys were in town for spring skiing, the weather was a little hit and miss. The first day was absolutely horrendous with thick fog and heavy snow making it nearly impossible to see, but they still had a good time - on and off the slopes. They had much, much better skiing conditions the second day. 

Posing in front of the ski jump from the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. 

Johnny ready to hit the slopes. 

Off the slopes there was a lot of ramen, sake and onsens (hot spring spa - not photoed ;)) to warm their bones. 

An apres-ski cafe with the biggest goldens you've ever seen roaming around? Sobbing on my keyboard. 

Cheers

The guys stayed in a chalet that was part of the Phoenix Hotel in Hakuba. 

Off to Tokyo... 

Getting to and from Hakuba from Singapore was quite the adventure of planes, trains and automobiles. 

"Enjoy Japanese Vending Machine Culture" 

Waiting for the famed bullet train (Shinkansen) back to Tokyo. 

Tokyo! The view from the Shangri-La. 

What's a night out in Tokyo without a show at the Robot Restaurant (as seen in Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown). 

No one's really sure what's going on... but I'm told it was a good time. 

The other main highlight of their time in Tokyo was a food tour around the city via Culture Bites Food Tours. The company was started by a friend of a friend of ours here in Singapore. 

Now THAT is some fresh fish. You need to check out this video below... (sorry, for some reason I can only see it from my computer and not my iPhone)

I'm told plenty of noodles, fish, sake and good times were had during the tour :)

The boys all agreed the trip was a great time and life-long memories were made along the way. The men were thrilled this trip came together and everyone had such a wonderful time. The Duvall women on the other hand were ecstatic no one was mortally injured while skiing ;)

It's always a brilliant time when our families come all the way out to Asia to visit us. Lots of love... 

XO,

CD on behalf of MD