My Family, my team and I wish you Happy New Year, wherever you are on our beautiful planet. This time of year is always one of reflection and my mainland Japan Photo Tour Leaders, my Hokkaido Photo Tour staff, our Kyushu tour leaders take stock of what kind of year we’ve had with our commercial photography projects, our in the field shoots, and working with clients, so they have best possible experience photographing on our many upcoming photography workshop tours. This holiday season, I have chosen to spend at our 100-year+old traditional Japanse beach home in Niigata prefecture by the sea of Japan. At this home studio office, it seldom snows, about one or two times a winter, which is similar to Tokyo. But in the nearby mountains, there are several meters of snow, and just 10km inland, it's a winter wonderland paradise with a breathtaking winter landscape and an abundance of wildlife. A short jaunt from my home, Whopper Swans, winter over at a lake from October to early March, the flock number about 5000. The snow monkeys are 90 minutes drive; my Tokyo residents is 3.5hrs away by SUV. Living on the sea of Japan in a small hamlet has many advantages, such as no pollutants, no smog from traffic, or pollution from industry. Ecologically speaking, we eat locally grown food and cook with and drink spring water. Japanese village life is paradise, in the summer we walk 10min to the Ocean for swimming, in the opposite direction we have mountains for camping, hiking, bike riding, and there are numerous places where you can do just about anything that you want without traveling somewhere else to do it.