JA2340 16 Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 Travel Diary OK, it's long but as detailed as I can make it. Pics will be uploaded as and when I get them out of raw format for posting. Dec26 We left home around 0845, arriving at the motel we'd booked at South Tweed Heads by around 1700. Not rushing, but not crawling either! A short walk into town to buy dinner and something to wash it down with, and into bed for an early(ish) start in the morning. Dec 27 Up@ 0630 and @ airport by 0800 (NSW time = 0700 Qld time) ski bags etc booked through in time for a leisurely breakfast before boarding around 1000 (Qld time) for a 1030 departure. Off the ground on time and settled in for a long flight. Arrived @ Narita around 1855 local which would be 1955 Qld time. Collect bags (last off of course) thru all the rigmarole of customs, immigration etc and onto a train to city about 9. Several changes (not all planned and not all good ideas) arrived Asakasa & a lovely lady showed us the way to the hotel (and then wandered off home). Into hotel and almost straight to sleep - it being about 1am Aus time by then Dec 28 Up (after an alarm problem) and breakfasted in the hotel then onto train for Nikko. Station was just across the road from the hotel, which made for an easy transfer from room to train. Walked the "stone garden" walk along DaiyaGawa and to the "abyss" and then back to the station for shuttle to hotel. The Nikko Park Mountainside is a fair way from the town, made for a very quiet night. Dec 29 Snowed overnight and the place was transformed. Brekky was chaos, so we ate and got out of there. Walked to the temples, looked at a few and took some decent pics as we went. Walked back to the station, had a snack & then to JR station - just missed a train so an hour wait. Quick swap to Shinkansen which was full so standing for half trip. At Sendai we had trouble finding the hotel as they had no english signage outside at all. We'd walked past it a couple of times before we determined that we should ask inside – yep, this is the place, and yep, they have our room reservation! Dinner at yakitori place just around the corner was yum-oh! Watched some of video before bed, our Benq projector is the duck's gutz with the ipod and "backup" movies as well as itunes downloaded ones. Projecting onto a patterned wallpaper makes the image "interesting". Dec 30 Brekky = yoghurt n coffee. Yoghurt from the conbini last evening and coffee from the plunger we'd brought with us – local coffee is either really crap OR quite OK, it's a bit of a lottery, so we're better off to take what we know and make it in room (almost every place has a water heating system of some kind (from a hotplate and pan to a pump out device)). Train to Hon-Shiogama then caught the "sightseeing" boat around the islands. Saw some tsunami debris across the harbour from the boat terminal at Shiogama, but not much. We were landed at Matsushima managed to find a decent coffee at Shobiancafe. Wandered about and then to lunch at a seafood place equally yum. Caught the train back to Sendai. It had been a rainy day so not wonderful sightseeing, but the trip was interesting, Matsushima Bay seemed to have escaped a lot of the tsunami damage because of the small islands which must have broken up the flow of the wave. It was interesting to see the way the places were getting back to a normal way of life. Dec 31 Plan was Yamadera today (1000 steps temple) if fine. It was sort of fine, so we made the trip by train up into the mountains towards Yamagata. Overcast and light snow falling when we got there, but extremely icy on the steps. We made it to the top (the girls had a "death grip" on the handrails all the way up and back down again too, as they didn't have good grippy shoes) for a fantastic view down the snow covered valley. Just as we got to the bottom it began to snow so a walk to the station and a train back to Sendai. Went looking around the city, looking for ski jacket for Nikki - found one at Mont-Bell. Back to hotel, drop gear and head out to sushi restaurant for special New Year dinner! 9000 yen including drinks! And fabulous food too! Happy New Year! Jan01 Up early, packed ready to get the Shinkansen to Aomori. 8.13 depart Sendai - arrive Shin-Aomori and then on local train to Aomori. A-shop centre was interesting bought lunch and some juice and then walked around the shoreline in the snow. Noted a "Hakkoda Maru memorial ship" – a one-time train ferry from Aomori to Hokkaido. Now a bar/restaurant. (Thank you Mr Google!) Lunched on pastries and applejuice from A-shop then limited express for Akita. Jan02 Walking around Akita, looking in shops. Lunch at what looked like a decent place, ended up being sweets! Barb's back gave her problems mainly due to sitting on train too long yesterday so she went back to the hotel after lunch while Nikki and I went in search of the "local crafts shop" - eventually found it - somewhere we had walked past at least 10 times. It was very impressive and VERY expensive! Some beautiful pieces there though, including local hand woven silk materials. Jan03 Up early for a 8.12 train to Sakata via Shinjo. The plan was to train to Furumachi, catch the scenic boat ride down river towards Shinjo and train from the end of the ride to Shinjo and thence to Sakata. This ended up being a less than wonderful boat ride – it was quite windy and snowing so the boat ride was cut short, returning after about half the journey to the start point! So we settled for a shuttle bus back to Furumachi station and train to Sakata. A longish walk to the ryokan. Beautiful place nice room and good restaurant for dinner. Onsen bath afterwards and a good night's sleep. Jan04 Morning was snowing and blowing a gale! We had planned a day's sightseeing around Sakata and a late train for Niigata. We set out for a walk to the historic rice warehouses but gave up on any more in favour of a taxi to the station and an early train to Niigata because of the wind. At 1044 we caught a limited express with few seats together, so we were separated by a seat or two – not a drama, but not as nice as being together. The rail line traveled down the coast with some big seas and very windy! Into Niigata, we found the hotel with help from the very helpful young lass at the Tourist information office. Wow! Very swish! Nice room and big(ish) bathroom module, free cat5 connection to net so emails etc can be checked. Bought me a pair of gumboots as the hiking boots are tight and have given me a blister on left little toe – not very easy to walk in, the gummies are a vast improvement and have the added advantage of better grip in snow/ice. Wandered around to look along Furumachi dori and thereabouts. We are endlessly fascinated by the variety and yet sameness of these covered shopping precincts. They all have their fresh food stalls, fish/veges/etc and yet they also have upmarket clothing stores and the obligatory Pachinko place (very noisy when the doors open!) Jan05 We wandered down to the station to buy a day pass for the sightseeing shuttle (hop on - hop off) bus and went around the world. Visits to the park, water tower ( with revolving viewing platform giving 360 degree views), Next21 tower (where Nikki managed to look out without too much difficulty) and the dockside markets. Walked home with yoghurt for breakfast and a sixpack of Yebisu black to have while we watch a movie on the projector. (The wallpaper here was a floral pattern, giving the movie a rather strange effect!) Jan06 Up for breakfast of yogurt and a coffee with a dash of JW Black label scotch (just to use uo the last of the bottle, you know!). Walked to the station, booked seats, found our way to the platform and onto "Max Toki" Shinkansen for Nagaoka. Change trains at Nagaoka (10 min gap) onto a local = slow/all stops train for Naoetsu, and there (with about 4 minutes gap) for Myoko Kogen. We saw a "Book-off" store and alongside was a "Hard-off" store, caused some hilarity! Have to hope it was a hardware store. We walked out of Myoko station straight onto a shuttle bus for Akakura, talk about organised! A 25 minute bus ride and a few minutes walk to the Hotel Alp, Satomi-san there to greet us and our ski gear was there too! Satomi located the picture she'd taken of Barb and I last time we were here. Rooms together on 3F and a welcome dinner at 1800. Off to lunch at Pomodoro, finished by about 1530 so not much time before dinner! Set up room ready for movie and sleep, downloaded Barb's photos from today, mine are all on iPod - must work out how to get them off for viewing! Also downloaded igor's track for the day. (igor is the name we'd given to our GPS tracker – it's i-got-u, hence igor) Jan07 Breakfast and then get ready for ski. Unpacking skis, getting into boots and off to a beautiful day! Perfect sunny weather until around lunchtime when it closed in a bit. Igor's track will be interesting! Back to the hotel by about 1630 for an onsen bath (too hot for me to stay long) and a read until dinner. Jan08 Out early for ski in sunshine. Barb took her Canon SLR camera and I took the Olympus point and shoot. The weather closed in around lunchtime so we headed back to the hotel after a pizza lunch and a coffee in the room ( with additive ). Jan09 FIRST LIFT, and first on the lift! First tracks on beautiful snow! Still finding untracked bits of corduroy at lunchtime! We went over to the west side and back to Akakan for coffee then back over west! Glorious runs all morning! While we were sat down for lunch, the weather closed in completely and we did a quite tentative run back to the hotel. Visibility was not great (down to about 5metres at times) and there was little contrast so seeing where you were going was awkward. Still some people, who must have known the place fairly well, were sliding past fairly quickly! It snowed quite a bit during the afternoon and into the evening. Jan10 Lots of new snow this morning. Grey day though- not a good one for Suginohara maybe tomorrow? Train to Nagano for retail therapy. Nikki bought a book on origami and some papers for her girls and we looked for a usb cable to charge the translator with - not successful, also failed to find a two core power cord for camera and computer. Both are OK with the converter plug, but nicer to have just one connector, rather than 3! We got the late train home - hope taxi is available when we get to Myoko. Straight off train and into taxi - quick trip home and dinner of sushi we'd got in TOKYU food hall. Might get the same for the trip to Tokyo on Sunday. Jan11 Still snowing at brekky time, predicted to clear later, so a wash seems in order so we're clean to go home. Clearing up after lunch, so a half day ticket (1200 - 1630) but by my mistake only the onsen side and not the Kanko. (OOPS! little man not happy! Did the bump run again, much easier than yesterday, to get back.) Plenty of knee deep powder still to be found on the run from top of Yodel super quad - lots of runs down there to finish off the afternoon! Heaven! An onsen seemed in order when we got home, i used the outside one (lots cooler than inside!) and it felt good! Just one day to go - looking good to clear up for us to make the trip to Suginohara tomorrow if it is fine, else just more of today will do! Dinner was yakiniku at Shibata - 2750 yen for the lot plus beers. Jan12 (last day) Up earlyish, brekky done and down to the bus for Suginohara. Long trip to god knows where and back to Akakura bus stop, then off to Ikenotaira and finally to Suginohara. BIG line for tickets, got big 4 tix so we could ski home rather than walk up the hill. Then a long line for gondola. From starting in the line to back in the line after the first run took us 40 minutes. We did quite a few runs, one from very top to very bottom! Vertical from 1855m to 731m and 900, 900, 2500, 1200, 1300, 350, 400 m total run. About 7,5km in 1124m vertical! Bus back at 1300, lunch at akakan gondola restaurant and then a run to get crepes for desert. One more gondola run at akakan and then head home for an onsen soak and a rest before dinner. Legs were starting to complain about the workout they'd had, so the onsen was wonderful. Jan13 Early brekky then packing for trip to Nagano, Satomi's hubby drove is to Myoko Kogen station, left hotel around 1030. A few minutes wait for train - a bad coffee from the vending machine while we waited! Train trip to Nagano was uneventful, lots of other ski bags loaded at Myoko Kogen station, and others on the way down. We had a 2 hour changeover at Nagano, so used the lockers for the bags, and locked the skis together on top of the lockers. We booked our seats on the Shinkansen to Tokyo before a wander up the street again, looking and "shopping". Back to the station, collect bags etc, then down to the platform and onto the train, found seats and got comfortable. After the couple hours on the train, we made the transfer to the Airport Express (NEX) and out to the airport in plenty of time. Jan14 Arrived GoldCoast airport around 0655 local, spent an unexciting hour or so traipsing through Customs, Immigration and finally out into the steamy atmosphere and on the road home by around 0845. Wishing I was back in the coolth of Japan, I am! Link to post Share on other sites
seemore 66 Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 Wow JA seems full on a few photos may have broken it up a bit seems like you had fun though Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 I didn't get past 'Tavel Diary OK...' Show us pics or it didn't happen. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 i read it, it was nice. Did you literally ride the train from tokyo to sendai to aomori to akita to myoko? Thats dedication to culture tour. If you were my dad id have been climbing the walls though Link to post Share on other sites
hellyer 216 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Sounds interesting JA though speaking for me, myself, personaly, I could not go to japan between December and April and not spend 95% of my time sliding down hill. I am sure you built up the brownie points with the womenfolk though JA - happy wife, happy life. I will take Mrs SJ (nonskier) over in Autumn Link to post Share on other sites
kokodoko 67 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 thanks JA. just did a quick skim and will read properly later.. cheers.. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 Photos are all in RAW format at the moment, so not viewable here. Needs moar editing before they are posted - Will (promise!) get to do them next week or so - @GN @ippy - YES, we did the trip Tokyo, Nikko, Sendai, Aomori, Akita, Niigata, Myoko by train. Was well worth the effort! And, I am sooo glad I'm not your father, too! @ snowjunky - intendng an Autumn trip sometime not too far distant. The travelling was necessary because of the timing of airfare discounts and on-snow accom availability. Still, gave the takkyubin time to get the gear to our skijo! Link to post Share on other sites
Alexander L 80 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 wow you can remember everyting you did. What did you eat? Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 I had a notebook (actually an iPod touch, and recorded the most salient parts of the day at around dinner time. Not too difficult a thing to do. Some notes were done in the train (hence I had to "fix" the spelling etc a bit!). We ate 3 meals a day, I could give you a summary if you are really interested, but I suspect that you are taking the pss. Link to post Share on other sites
Alexander L 80 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 attention to detail. Arrived at station, waited for train, got onto train, sat on the train. Lovely photos. You want to add them in. Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Busy trip! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 18, 2013 Author Share Posted January 18, 2013 Yeah, busy indeed! Photos are in the album on here, not really interested in putting them up here in the thread, too. Link to post Share on other sites
hellyer 216 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Nice Pic this one JA - that's actually Tangram Ski Circus you are looking at with Madarao on the other side of the peaK and ridge. While Tangram is a bit anal about off piste the black run down off the top shown in the middle is great with 2 feet or more or two of fresh on top. - No freshies = bumps Link to post Share on other sites
charlotte 0 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Interesting JA, thanks Link to post Share on other sites
seemore 66 Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 Saw the album JA great photos cheers mate the story is now complete. Great to see a trip in someone elses eyes Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 Thanks JA, interesting. Nice pics too Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Nice Pic this one JA - that's actually Tangram Ski Circus you are looking at with Madarao on the other side of the peaK and ridge. While Tangram is a bit anal about off piste the black run down off the top shown in the middle is great with 2 feet or more or two of fresh on top. - No freshies = bumps Yes I like that one too Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 wow!! Thats a cracking photo Link to post Share on other sites
Alexander L 80 Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Theres more where that came from. People don't go looking for albums to butch, if it's not in a TR it'll get missed. Shame really. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 24, 2013 Author Share Posted January 24, 2013 Thanks, Tubby - feel free to use it if you want (just acknowledge myself as photographer) For anyone with a technical bent - The camera was a Canon EOS 60D with a 70-200 lens @ 70mm, f4, 1/2700 and ISO 400 Oh, just a little post processing - some exposure adjustment is about all. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 24, 2013 Share Posted January 24, 2013 Cheers JA. Any use by me would be personal anyway....desktop picture etc Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted January 24, 2013 Author Share Posted January 24, 2013 Help yourself! Link to post Share on other sites
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