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Our trip to Japan

Sciclone
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Sciclone

Sciclone 2

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Hello all,

 

After a year or so of planning, my family and I decided to go to Japan. It started out as just my brother and I wanting to go snowboarding in somewhere that didn't have snow made from snow machines, and seeing as we had always wanted to go to Japan, we thought it would be a good time. Then we realised we'd be killed by our little japanese-obsessed sister if we didn't take her. We also took our mum as well, because she's done so much for us, we can only give back a little to her.

 

After a lot of drama with getting passports (Australian gov. departments are hopeless), and lack of time to book (We booked 1 week from departure because of the pp dramas and on the Chinese New Year, Tokyo Marathon and Monday pub. hol. Weekend), we were on our way from Brisbane to Narita, courtesy of JAL and there gorgeous air hostesses.

 

We spent 3 nights and 2.5 awesome days in Tokyo before getting a bus to Haneda airport for a plane to the New Chitose Airport. We got there collected our luggage, and headed for a bus desk. We had got there just as the last bus to Furano was leaving. We beat a quick path to the train station downstairs. After asking one of the pleasant JR ladies how we could get to Furano, they sold us the tickets and we made our way to the platform, carrying nearly 90kgs or luggage.

 

After an exhausting train trip (it took 2.5hrs with a transfer at a provincial train station with no lift from platform to top of stairs), we got in cabs (we had to get 2 because our luggage wouldn't fit in 1) and headed for our hotel. We couldn't find anything, so we had a liquid meal and headed for bed.

 

We woke up then next morning to a sight we had missed the night before, the snow. Not just a little snow, but huge banks of it. After getting breakfast at our hotel, we walked down to the 7-Eleven. This walk took us over half an hour, as we were already in our snow gear, so we had fun pushing each other into the massive snow banks that had built up on the side of the road. After we had got to the shop, my brother and I decided to ditch our mother and sister and headed back up to the ski area to hire our boards. To say that we were rusty would be an understatement. We hadn't been snowboarding since August 06 (I absolutely wrecked my knee at that time and was too sore to get better/go hard) so we started off going slowly and getting the hang of falling down. The first thing we realised was the snow was much better, we still hurt ourselves a little when we fell down, but not anywhere near as badly when we hit death nuggets at Blue Cow (NSW, Aust). We went to a local Korean-style Lamb BBQ for dinner, and after getting double helpings (we had a massive hankering for meat) we headed back to our hotel for beer and sleep.

 

On Tuesday we woke up and mum had been out already. It had been snowing all night, so as soon as we had a decent feed, my brother and I headed out. It was a new thing getting used to lots of powdery snow sitting on top of you board. We went down a black run by mistake, and in some of the sections (it wasn't a heavily used run) we were up to our knees in snow. Up until late afternoon, we were still going through patches where no lines had been carved, and after getting in some awesome runs with no stacks, we headed back to the hotel. Had a pizza for dinner that had everything on it, including corn, but after nearly 5 days of noodles, rice and vegetables, I didn't care.

 

On Wednesday, we had a late start after seeing some of the local things, like the Cheese factory and the local artisans area (called Ningle (ninguru) terrace), it is right outside the New Furano Prince Hotel). Still, even with the wind blowing up powder and the temperature reaching about -23*C (with wind chill) we headed out and had a few good runs, before deciding that we were to wrecked to stand up, so we headed back to the hotel. We ended up going back to the BBQ lamb place and getting the all you can eat and drink special. We ate til we couldn't fit any more in. (This being despite the fact that I'm not the biggest lamb fan.) A local old man shouted us a glass of wine each as well, which was pretty good.

 

On Thursday, we looked out and it looked even worse. The wind was blowing a gale, and the snow was getting swept up in the wind making visibility less than normal. My brother and I headed out anyway, because we didn't want to waste our last day on the snow dilly-dallying. We had an awesome say where we explored the Furano ski area (we had stayed in the Kitanomine ski area up til this point). The Ropeway is awesome. The carriage holds up to 101 people and goes from the bottom of the mountain to the top in under 5 mins. Also being enclosed with everyone else, you don't get cold like you do when you are on an open slow chair lift. We made some massive progress and because of the new/shifted snow, we were often going through areas that still hadn't been fully tracked. After getting back to the hotel, our mum informed us that it had reached -27.5*C (with windchill).

 

On the Friday, we woke up early and got a taxi to the train station. We wanted to go on a bus after having to lug 90kgs between platforms on the Sunday night. We got the bus at 7am. We were supposed to arrive at the Sapporo Train Station in time to catch a train to connect witho out flight to Tokyo, but on the way we got caught in a blizzard and stuck behind a couple of snow plows which caused us to be over half an hour late for the train and to arrive at the airport just as our plane was leaving. We had to get the next flight, which meant waiting for over an hour, but after skipping breakfast, we were famished, so we got stuff to eat before getting a plane back to Tokyo.

 

After getting back to Haneda airport, we decided we wouldn't worry about any sight-seeing and just jumped on the nearest bus that would take us to Narita airport. We did this, arriving with plenty of time to spare, which meant we could spend some time looking for gifts in the shops in the airport.

 

After all this, we flew back to Sydney (I slept a couple of hours, but not much) and connected with a flight going to Brisbane, very weary and craving a good steak.

 

As soon as we got home, my mother (who we thought would be the most bored) immediately was ready to go again, so we decided to start saving for next year.

 

After all this I can whole-heartedly recommend Furano as a ski area. It wasn't our first choice, but we had an awesome time none-the-less.

 

Things we have learned:

 

NAB (Austr) customers can use their ATM card at any 7-11 atm to get cash out in Yen. This saves carrying a lot of money on you, and getting raped by Travelex.

 

If Travelling to Furano, make sure you don't get a late flight into Chitose (arrive before 4.30pm), so you can make the connecting bus.

 

Don't worry about not speaking much Japanese. Even if you try a little (even if its to say "Wakarimasen - Don't understand) they will like you and you can point and gesture enough to get by.

 

Make sure you have a decent sized coin area in your wallet/purse. This comes in handy for all the cheap food and vending machines.

 

The crepes in Harajuku are awesome.

 

The food in Furano/Kitanomine ski is cheap, despite being for the tourists. The people are friendly and are willing to help if you don't understand or know the way.

 

When buying ordinary clothes, by the next size up from what you are normally. eg. I'm a medium, but had to buy Large.

 

Try going to the snow first then heading back to Tokyo for shopping. That way you don't have to cart around all your presents/new clothes everywhere on trains and such.

 

If you are looking for cultural gifts (Kimonos, Yukatas, Sake/Shochu sets etc) go to the Oriental Bazaar on Omote-Sando Ave in Harajuku/Omote-Sando. Its next door to the Dior store.

 

 

So there is our ski trip. If anyone wants read about our time in Tokyo leading up to our time in Furano including places we ate/visited and would recommend and stuff, I'd be more than happy to post it up.

 

Also, I have added quite a bit of information about Furano to the wikitravel page. This includes some of the restaurants and hotel information as well as local cultural things, that you can take back for friends/family.

 

Hope you enjoy reading this. I had fun living it.

 

Sven

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Rag-Doll

Rag-Doll 0

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That was a good read - thanks for sharing. It's nice to read about people's first experiences of enjoying the Japanese snow and being in Japan. The TR's from the old hands are good but the enthusiasm from the first timers is probably more infectious. I think we sometimes get caught up in trying to get to the powder and stressing about things when having fun in the snow is what it's really all about.

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Sciclone

Sciclone 2

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Ok, I thought I'd add my experiences from Tokyo..

 

This was meant to go in between leaving Brisbane and going to the snow, but I wasn't sure if people wanted to read it, because its not all about snow..

 

One of the uncertainties we knew of, was that we didn't have any accomodation for the 3 nights we'd be in Tokyo. After being shafted by a few internet booking companies (2 weeks to put a money block back on you CC is ridiculous!!) we arrived into Narita. You can see the Japanese efficiency and hospitality as soon as you get there. It took us 25mins to get our luggage, go through customs and immigration (very polite), go to the accomodation counter, book a hotel and book tickets onto a airport limousine bus, and get on. How fast/good is that?!

 

The accomodation that the airport counter found us (we needed 2 Twin rooms on a very busy weekend) was the Royal Park Hotel. Located right next door to the TCAT (Tokyo City Air Terminal) in Chuo-ku suburb/area, we hopped off the bus and walked across the lane and into the front driveway (It has one of those semi-circular hotel driveways) where a friendly bell-hop took our baggage. After going through the double doors, we walk in and are pleasantly surprised. It was very swish, which kind of made us stick out like sore thumbs, because we had just arrived off a 8.5hr flight (first time I've flown so I was very excited) and an hour bus ride and looked very bedraggled.

 

After checking in very quickly, Monkey Boy (as we later called the very courteous bell hop), took our bags up to our rooms and it was done. We did the usual thing and looked around our room and marvelled at the electronic toilet (heated, shower and bidet?!), we also noticed that they had 2 prewrapped toothbrush and paste sets, soap, shavers, hair tonic (?don't know what it was for, but it smelt nice and made my hair shiny), and Yukata's. I really got into them while I was there, as they are comfortable.

 

We quickly changed into some warmer clothes, we braved the cold outside and walked down the street. Within one block (it is a business district) we found a ramen place. Being ready to eat the arse end out of a low flying duck, we stepped inside. After ordering a bowl of ramen each, we also ordered some Gyouza (the steamed then lightly fried dumplings). Best Gyouza ever... After a rather enjoyable and cheap, we walked away from the old man's shop 3500Yen lighter (We couldn't fit anymore in and there were 4 of us!).

 

We then walked across the road to the AM:PM, a convenience store chain and marvelled at next good thing about Japan. The 24-hour shops sell alcohol... and cheap. My brother and I loaded up on some Kirin cans and we all headed back for a quick watch of TV and a well deserved sleep.

 

The next day we had a friend who is a local come and show us around. It took some getting used to the late (10-11am) opening times, but it gave us a bit of time to get breakfast and make ourselves pretty. We got our hotels special subway card, and headed downstairs to the subway on Level B2. After a 15 min subway ride, we got off in Shibuya and started looking around. We quickly used our friends mobile and found the way to UniQlo. This is an awesome shop, although I could only find easy-fit jeans to fit my cumbersome backside (I'm actually about a 36, but Japanese are smaller). I picked up 2 pairs for 6990Y (About $70) which included free take-up service. My brother is a lot skinnier than I am and picked up multiple jeans, shirts and belts. We then headed for lunch? at Denny's (a restaurant chain run by 7-11) while my jeans were getting taken up. After picking up my jeans, we walked to the much-famed area of Harajuku, where we went to another Uni-qlo store and picked up shirts in cans... very cool. We then walked around the area near Yoyogi park.

 

After walking across Omote-Sando Dori (I had no idea it was..) we started walking down some side streets. What I was looking for was actually the Oriental Bazaar, as I had read that it was good for some cheap but good cultural gifts. I knew it was on a main street, but didn't remember any names. Unfortunately, my friend hadn't ever heard of it either (Tokyo-ites have no need for Tokyo/Japanese gifts) and because they didn't have a webpage, he couldn't find it on his uber-cool, 5 years ahead of Australia, mobile phone.

 

After walking down a side alley (actually it was reminiscent of Nice or somewhere in Italy), we got to Takeshita-Dori where a lot of the second-hand clothes and less mainstream shops are. We decided to look on our own, as my japanophile sister was wanting to make a B-line for all the Goth-Loli and street cool clothes shops that dotted the place. We walked down a bit through some back alleys til we finally came back got back to Omote-Sando Ave. We found it rather quickly after that, but we went back to found my mum and sister because we didn't want to leave them to get lost. We made it back to the Oriental Bazaar, and bought up. Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel, and decided to look for something to eat.

 

We ended up going to a sushi restaurant in the TCAT terminal, that wasn't that good, but it did provide some amusement. My brother order a sushi platter after looking at the pictures. He chose one with salmon and tuna and what he thought to be some sort of crab mix. My friend started peeing himself laughing and when we asked him, he couldn't translate it properly. So after using his phone we figured out what he had ordered. Shirako - Boiled fish sperm. Then he dared my brother to eat it, and my brother is never one to back down. Problem was my friend filmed his response on his phone, and is probably showing all his friends at the momemt "Ohh look at the silly gaijin". (so if you ever see a group of japanese laughing at someone's phone, it could be him.

 

On the Saturday, we were a little worse for wear, after walking around all day, so we decided to have an all you can eat breakfast at our hotel... ate plenty of waffles, bacon, eggs, etc. My friend came at 10 again and we headed to Kanda to buy some gear (on the recommendation of Sandy). We ended up getting some 30000mm pants for about 18000Y each, so we were happy with that and headed for the nearest 7-11. After walking back to Akihabara, we were running short of funds, and my brother had a really bad neck, so we raced around, without getting a good look at many stores. My friend did drag us to Yotabashi-Akihabara, a nine level monolith of a store. We decided to grab something for lunch and after walking around the 8th Floor for a couple of minutes, the youngest of us, my sister, put her foot down and and chose the sushi place. We walked in and after the standard welcome (shop assistants yelling Irashaimase) we sat down at the back of the restaurant. The chefs seemed very excitable and after a second we found out why. They pulled a live fish out of the fish tank, and were auctioning of the nigiri made from it. My friend also pointed to the wall, where a menu written in Japanese hung. He gestured to one and asked me if I knew what it was... wasn't sure but after the night before, I guessed Shirako (which was correct). Then he asked if I could read the one next to it.. It was minke.. as in whale...

 

We looked at a couple of floors before deciding that we were all buggered, and after walking Yoshi around for 2 days, he decided to head home. After having a shower and getting rugged up again, we decided to brave the Tokyo Subway system back to Harajuku. What happened next just blew our mind and made the stay in Tokyo special.

 

After getting out of the subway on Omote-Sando station, we couldn't get our bearings and it was showering heavily. The swanky shops were just about to close, and I poked my head in a boutique and asked where Yoyogi Park was in broken japanese. The shop attendant said that (I think) we should go back down to the station and walk up to the other end of the station... I didn't understand her at the time so we scurried from shop awninng to shop awning til we got to Kiddy Land, a 7? level toy store, but they selling umbrellas for 525Y. We then made our way back to Takeshita Ave, as my younger brother wanted to get more clothes. It was nearly 8pm, and we were cold and a little damp from the rain, when unnoticably, the noise went. My brother looked up and what had been rain had given way to snow. After we got there we decided to grab something eat with my mum and my sister grabbing takoyaki from a little stand down a side street, while my brother and I grabbed midget burgers from Lotteria.

 

We then decided to grabbed a crepe from the stand on the corner. This made the trip. Standing under an awning, eating crepes filled with chocolate cream and sauce, while its snowing in Harajuku. Then a troop of 7 girls dressed in victorian style coats and parasols walked passed and that just made it extra special \:D

 

After heading back to the hotel, we got a good nights sleep and were already making mental plans to return again, eager to experience more of this wonderful city and its people

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