Hutte Mokumoku Hakuba-mura

Sorry about the Mega-post below. Be warned!

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We had to wake up very early the next morning after Nozawa... getting about 3.5 to 4 hours sleep. I had a ski lesson starting at 9am, but we had to have breakfast then go to the ski hire place to get our skis and clothes.

Evergreen Outdoor Centre (The Ski School)

When...

Due to our skiing tickets being all used up, we decided to use our day off on a more cultural experience by visiting the national park in Nagano, home to around 200 snow monkeys. Although technically called something different, the snow monkeys get their name from the behavior they exhibit in the winter months when the snow falls - that is, taki...

Arriving in Nagano at just after midnight we looking for a way to kill 9 hours until our bus for Nozawa Ski resort came. We found a 24hr maccas and had feast there. We attempted to sleep in the restaurant but clarky had found a manga cafe were you can sleep/watch movies/internet/free drinks and take a shower for around 20 bucks for 5 hours. We h...

Although the weather was not good, my colleague and I went to "Tateyama Sanroku Ski Resort". The purpose of going there was to see snowshoeing. My colleague had to write a report about snowshoeing so he invited me to come along. Snowshoeing is a kind of sports anyone can enjoy without difficulty. I have never tried it before, but I didn't try it...

A beach of Mizuhashi (the northern part of Toyama City) is a nice & cozy place to relax. There is a marina, and in the same area they are planning to build a park with a miniture golf park. The sea water is clean & clear, so it must be nice to walk around the beach.

There is a small Japanese Inn called "Hisanoya". This is an in...

For our third day of the rail pass, we zoomed off to Obuse, near the Japanese alps, north west of Tokyo. This involved first getting the bullet train to Nagano, then getting a local train to Obuse, the smallest town in that area. It was a very attractive little place, with pretty houses and well kept flowerbeds. So, you might be wondering why we...

Nagano... ici Nagano. Apres la moiteur du sud, c'est un vent frais qui nous accueille dans cette ville de l'est des Alpes Japonaises. A Nagano il y a le temple Zenko-ji et les jeux olympiques d'il y a 11 ans, mais pas grand chose d'autre. Le temple renferme une icone de Bouddha vieille de plus de 1500 ans, mais personne ne l'aurait vue depuis pl...

Busy day today because all my sightseeing has been put off by the weather. But today is sunny, sunny and sunny. Started way early, and was actually the 2nd tourist inside Matsumoto castle today. The castle is very different than Himeji (which looks more majestic but it's apples v. oranges here); not only in color but it's set up as a completely ...

After Spencer sleeping all day in the TV room nursing a hangover and then me booking a hotel in the completely wrong area of Japan (although very very luxourious resulted in a 7.15am wake up call to get to Nagano) we made our way to the snow monkeys!

After getting our bus to literally the middle of nowhere, we then walked for 40 minutes a...

We took the Shinkansen to Nagano using our rail pass and after arriving found out which bus to catch out to M-Wave, the ice skating rink used in the winter Olympics. We had never been ice skating so were willing to give it a try.

Took an old wooden floored bus out to M-Wave and walked past a sign in Japanese then paid for our ticket to ...