It\u2019s been long overdue, a personal getaway from Singapore, a real and true holiday for myself and not anybody else. Initially, I wanted to take a short break, recover and pick myself up after I was dealt with a blow that knocked me to the rock bottom. Sometimes, many things in life never goes according to plan, they can go off track in the most unusual un-forseen circumstances.<\/p>\n

In April 2016 when I was thinking of taking a break, I read on the news that Scoot will be flying to Hokkaido starting in the month of October and they were offering promotions. I really wanted to visit Hokkaido again thus I pushed back my personal getaway, (psychological, mental and emotional) rest and recovery holiday in October 2016, with a theme to capture the autumn colours.<\/p>\n

Somehow sometimes, when you might think things are not working well or as fast, over the past 6 months, starting from picking myself up and standing again, to climbing myself out of the bottom.<\/p>\n

This was a slow journey, nobody will ever understand, never ever.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n

Then, the bits and pieces, the small and tiny building lego blocks that I collect, consolidate and built, a small foundation was formed. Some things started to take shape, everything behind the scenes. Life at times are very superficial, we only see results, status, money, appearances, not the blood, sweat, tears, efforts, time, brain juice drain etc etc that goes into the journey behind it, people don\u2019t want to know, they are also not willing to listen, learn and understand.<\/p>\n

Before I left for Hokkaido, I was planning to write a personal post, however, my planning and preparation was slow thus I decided not to rush and write, instead to use my Hokkaido travel photography trip as a (psychological, mental and emotional) rest and recovery holiday along with my photography adventures.<\/p>\n

During my Hokkaido trip, there were days when I was alone, traveling around, taking photographs of city, landscapes, people, autumn colours. Alone in the night inside my hotel room, away from Singapore\u2019s rat race life, it was very relaxing, quiet and therapeutic. Going to the onsen, it relaxes the mind and body a lot.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t seek to think a lot and overthink on some matters. I just wanted to get away from all the stress and pressure inside me, getting away from Singapore helps. Although I was there to lay some groundwork for future collaborations.<\/p>\n

This particular Hokkaido trip was something very special and unique, it\u2019s also like a showering of blessings. When I arrived in the evening, snow came down and welcomed me to Hokkaido while my photo guide friend Kato-san picked me up and drove me to my hotel. For this particular autumn season, it was accompanied by snow fall, thus I am able to get a mix of autumn and winter season together in a photo. During my own personal photography exploration, I visited Hokkaido Jingu Shrine in Sapporo, the weather was cold, wet and windy. After making a prayer, I took more photos before proceeding to get an amulet from the shrine for myself. I was planning to get the Prosperity in business amulet and I can\u2019t find any there among them (probably out of stock), I looked around and saw the Victory amulet, that was it! The Victory amulet is now going to accompany me in my new journey, like a divine direction and blessing.<\/p>\n

On one of the day of my photography adventure itinerary, my photo guide brought me up to Mt. Tokachi observatory and we were blessed with some amazing weather, clear blue sky with no clouds above the mountain range. This was something very special because it was very difficult to get this \u201cperfect\u201d weather condition when visitors trek up there, explained by Kato-san.<\/p>\n

This was indeed one of the few key moments and omens in my trip to Hokkaido.<\/p>\n

Now back in Singapore, feeling more refreshed in my mind and soul, I am ready for the huge (and getting even bigger) challenges ahead of me.<\/p>\n

Oh, by the way, my Hokkaido photography adventures will be shared in separate articles on my photography site soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been long overdue, a personal getaway from Singapore, a real and true holiday for myself and not anybody else. Initially, I wanted to take a short break, recover and pick myself up after I was dealt with a blow that knocked me to the rock bottom. Sometimes, many things in life never goes according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10,19,15,24,13,7,11,12,16,14,9,1,274,86],"tags":[102,1343,1348,43,1346,37,1352,185,38,1345,1349,1347,186,39,1342,1339,29,1355,110,63],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n