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this long weekend myself and mrs Beaver decided to escape the city and head for the hills to enjoy some fresh air, peace and quiet and some beautiful autumn colours. While the trees aren't at their autumnal peak just yet, the colours on view are certainly impressive.......

 

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I had never been to Tomamu in any season before but I had heard good things about the snow, lack of crowds and liberal attitude to riding unpisted snow. I was a little surprised to see that the runs, whilst not particularly long, seemed to be fairly steep.....perhaps its just a trick of the eye looking at the hills without snow. I had heard about the "stylish" tower hotel buildings and I was happy when I found that I would be staying in a room on the 32nd floor of Tower 1.......perhaps they don't quite fit in with the surroundings but they do give up some terrific views

 

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The hotel itself was very comfortable and clean, its a little rough round the edges as most resort hotels tend to be in Japan. The food was actually very good, if not a little expensive. there isn't anything else in the area so you are stuck with one of the restaurants (of which there are quite a few) from the hotel. The Ghengis Khan nomi-tabehodai was excellent. We also went to the buffet restaurant, Ninipuuri and the food on offer was fantastic. The nomihodai is only an extra 800¥ and while it stated its only for 90 mins, the staff are very busy in a huge restaurant and continued to re-fill our glass for an extra hour! :D

 

The facilities on offer were somewhat reduced as they moved into the transitional period between green and white season.......the swimming pool was open and looked excellent.....at 2500¥ to get in, we passed on the chance of a dip. That said, we did make use of the excellent onsen. The rotunburo at night is fantastic, the air temp was below 10 and it was awesome to sit in the hot bath and gaze up at the stars and clouds. It started to rain, which is 2nd only to it snowing whilst enjoying an outdoor bath IMO.

 

There was a cool outdoor wine bar, that had set up small bonfires to keep ourselves warm as we supped a few glasses/bottles of wine...a big hit with Mrs Beaver...

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The Tubby Beaver out n about......

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3 out of the 4 towers.......very easy on the eye ;)

 

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All in all we had a great weekend, relaxing and not doing very much.....it was actually quite depressing to come back into the city after being in such beautiful surroundings for a few days. Of course my camera doesn't really do it justice, but I definitely would like to return in winter and ride the trees here. I gather the off-piste official area is the trees behind the 2 towers and Alpine hotel that I took a photo of from my room (6th one posted). Looks like some damned good terrain and if the crowds are as low as people say....mmmm...mmmm!!

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Thanks TB - nice nature pics and i see you even managed to snap a pic of the extremely rare and elusive Tomamu Beaver.

 

Seems to be a slimmed down version of the Tubby Beaver commonly spotted on Honshu and usually seen raiding school kids lunch boxes.

 

 

:friend:

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Those towers are not horrid at all. Amazing views from them and if you're passing through, they are a spectacle from the landscape.

 

A really interesting contrast. And once you're out of the valley, it all goes back to being countryside after countryside.

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they are awesome for a view.......thats the only reason I can think to build them......else it'd be much better to build a lower but more spread out building IMO like the wing of the hotel next to it that is visible in my photos

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