2019 Japan Part 3 - Togakushi, Kyoto

Day 5. Imagine the delight when we woke up, the area of snowed-over!

the ski slopes finally look like they are ski slopes! Alas we were leaving!!

A post on #hakuba / IG lead us to Togakushi shrine, around an hr drive from Tsugaike in a very icy conditions (as it snowed over the night before), and it was time to utilise the snow tires!). The Togakushi consisted of 3 shrines and the holy grail was the path en-route to the upper shrine. Google maps didn't showed clearly and here it was the middle shrine. Almost devoid of tourist/people, it was really serene and chill. Temperatures must have been 0 degrees but with proper gear, we never really felt cold the entire trip!

These are just mobile phone snaps without filters, it was the best sight-seeing spot of our entire trip!

The 1km path leading to the shrine had ~6cm snow on most parts and it was a nice leisurely walk.

Sorry can't remember the location but this was good.

This was my 'broth' of the trip. Clear soup but the umami...#OMG

After this was ~25min drive to Nagano station, return the car, took a train to Nagoya (so tempted to get out to eat Unagi), then another train to Kyoto, there was no express train and it was several stops involved to get to Kyoto, then a local MRT with a change over to Higashiyama station. Overall took almost 5.5 hours to get to the Hotel at Kyoto.

Settled dinner at  a nearby pub...very good beer but average food. Yawn.

A super highlight day trip and a long travelling day to Kyoto. Bamboo and other things await!

2019 Japan - Hakuba, snow and the lack of

it was to the slopes the on day 2, and boy ..was there sNOw. 

a sad slop of ice spewed by an overworked slurpee machine.

There is a magic carpet on the right and this area shld be over-flowing with snow!?

Check about and we were at ~700m above sea level and above at ~1500m, there are lines open and we went up in a Gondola and hoped for the best.

the conditions were decent actually but very limited runs open. It was our first day too and we took it slow.

i can't remember this meal. 

day 2 and we went back to Hakuba 47 and it was super icy, as if morale wasn't low enough with the sad hot state of the world affairs, it was difficult and dangerous to ride on ice. We decided to ditch 47 and drive over to Goyru, on the map , only one run was open but when we got there, many more runs were open high up and the snow was really good!

The weather didn't show up till the sun almost set at 4pm+,....

Just missed a very nice moment on the top of the mountain before calling it a day.

At the base you can see all the brown grass.  A very good 2nd day.

I chose to have Sukiyaki with Nagano-shi beef.

Trying to eat local, the beef was below average...

costing ~SGD$55, it wasn't really expensive for sukiyaki , but taste was really meh.

It was day 3 on the mountain, and we check out of Marriot as the price jumped but more than double towards the xmas week.

Self-drive means we can stop at anytime, to admire the blue skies, winter-scape with brown scenery..wtf! I was yearning for a WHITE Xmas.

Day3 on the slopes was a saturday, as we were driving to the slopes, we knew it was going to be crowded, there were easily 3-4x more cars...but i reckon easily 6-7 times the no. of pple on the saturday compared to friday. It was likely compounded that amongst hakuba's 10 ski resorts, only 2-3 were open, and of these, very limited runs too. This caused huge jams ad the lifts and at closing time (we stayed till the last moment on all days ..heh),...it was a long wait to the gondola to head down.

Having the slopes close at 430pm means a good amount of time to go supermarket raiding! Here a very delicious 'newspaper sake', from Nagano at only ~SGD$20 was so delicious, and the bottle was like ~900ml!

Yes you can see the pre-dinner snacks! My fav time of the day!

We were in Tsugaike, around 25mins from Hakuba Goyru, and dinner options were very limited and we ended up in a very meh restaurant (recommended by locals but...) Here's my favourite comic book, in original japanese!

Damn lousy spicy sesame ramen. Any $3 instant noodle can beat this. !

This was right outside our BnB, literally walk 20steps, but ...the disappointment continues with only 1 run open at Tsugaike and other runs all brown.....

We braved the crowds again, it was a tad better than saturday... at Goyru.

No super nice skies on this day and this was at the bottom of another run, less crowded too.

Bye bye snow mountain!

Special shout to the Nissan Leaf?, with superb reverse parking capabilities, somehow a 'top down' view presents itself!

Yes more raid of another atas supermarket....ICE SCREAM you said?

pre-dinner again! woot! Yes, bought soyu and wasabi!

It was winter soltices and the chinese owners/chef of the bnb made one for best ever dumplings I've ever had. (and yes you pay 'mountain price' too!)

Shiga kogen, both IPA and Pale Ale rocks!!!

Soo yummy!! the matcha mua-chi omg. The Pumpkin is also plump and wholesome!

that's the end of our 4 full days on the mountains.....

2019 Japan part 1 - of Snow Monkeys

It's been a way too long since we've been to Japan in winter season. Hokkaido is our pick as the snowfall is earlier and more reliable, but by June 2019, the air tickets (direct flights) were crazily priced and very few seats are left. It was to the host of the 1988 winter olympics, Nagano! With Hakuba as the most famous region, we decided to head to Tokyo and to Hakuba. And here the usual routine while at the best airport in the world!!

Rare and exquisite! 

A wefie before a gruelling flight.

Book the chef had has the Como-partnered meals, wholesome pancakes here very yummy. Not heavy and full of flavours!

The flight departed around midnight in Singapore, after meal service it was 1am+, and the cabin lights were on at 4am (I thought there was a mistake, as the flight was to arrive at ~7ish). Having to lose an hour due to time difference, it turned out to be right, and 4am breakfast time it was....leading to a very tiring first day.

It was clouds all over as we were landing and I saw a 'chimney' spewing 'clouds' and thought I was hallucinating and within 20 seconds we touched down. And the clouds were heavy FOG instead, and the chimney was a real chimney!!! It was clear blue skies by the time we get to Narita's terminal. The terminals are huge and it took a very long time to get our bags. It was off to Tokyo station via Narita express, and a ride to Nagano via JR. 

Le wife found this place online at Nagano station, the region is famous for Soba and this was so so despite us being very hungry.

Should have ordered zaru soba (cold soba) but it was winter, how leh??

We went to pick up our car ~6mins walk away from the Nagano station from Times Car Rental, and onwards it was to our first stop of the trip!

The Jigokudai snow monkey are legendary, it's on the bucket list of almost everyone visiting Japan. I was expecting snow and an all-white snowcape. The drive took ~45mins and a 40min uneventful walk through the forest led us to the mother of all smells. It hit us before we saw them, yes monkey fecal matter was plentiful, and this park was man-made, to attract monkeys to the area, an onsen was created for them to dip in.

Yes they're cute, have red faces (especially after a long dip in the hot waters), they do not snatch anything from tourists, as we're strictly not allowed to feed. They feed on soba corns in winter, and apples in summer attract them back to the park for the summer visitors. 

Yes they are very patient models!

bye smelly monkeys!

I left something at the lunch place and we had dinner right net to it, another soba session and a less than ideal tonkatsu. 

A happy post-dinner shopping of Amera tomatoes and other 'atas' items left us happy.

Another 45min drive to Marriot at Hakuba was rather uneventful, we expect to see/reach snowy conditions (hey..we had snow tyres!) as we wind up higher in the mountains but NO, zero snow! It was rather late and a very nice room awaited us.

Japan + winter = onsen! A perfect combination! Can perfection be improved? Yes, if you have the Onsen IN YOUR ROOM!!!  

the yield from the supermarket, really love supermarkets raids!

And yes, sake can be drunk IN THE ONSEN, (cos I say so!)