We’re all set!  The group has assembled at the La Vista Hakodate Bay Hotel after journeying to Hokkaidō from various points in Australia via Tokyo.

There are still blossoms on the cherry trees around town and the double ones (yaezakura) — see below — are beginning to bloom, so we should be in luck for tomorrow’s first day of painting in the Goryōkaku Park.

After a relaxing soak in the roof top onsen (hot spring bath), we enjoyed a welcome to Hokkaidō Horizons group dinner at the hotel and are now all ready to attack the serious task of watercolour painting tomorrow.

But not before an obligatory soft cream cone (ubiquitous in Hokkaidō, home to Japan’s dairy industry).

おやすみなさい😴 Good night.