Sun 1 Mar

MORNING

Phoebe and I skied together and Henry went off on search of faster runs. 

HAPPY HOUR

AFTERNOON 

I skied with Henry and Phoebe went on her own. 

DINNER

After dinner we had crepes from a hole in the wall.  It's very popular. 

Sat28 evening

After returning from the monkeys.

Shower and the ritual of washing snot rags. 

Onsen - the first at this hotel.  Whereas the Hakuba hotel had a sanitised Onsen the Myoko Kogan hotel had one fed artesian hot water. The Hakuba one smelt strongly of Chlorine and the Myoko one reeks of sulphur and has lots of little floaties. 

Sat in the lounge / common room with H & P. Cocktails.

SAT28 Snow Monkies

SAT28 Snow Monkies

I'm still only running at half power. I have a cold. Saps energy. Nose producing gunk.

[Not so] Fun fact: you can't buy panadol at the local shop or Japanese 711.

The weather is very foggy and as discussion turned to considering other activities, I was quite OK with forgoing skiing.

At breakfast Phoebe asked the hotel owner about buses to the Snow Monkies. The lady advised a bus at 10 from the bus stop near the information place. 

Phoebe and I did a reconnoiter and established:

1 bus per day. 

Departs 10:02 

¥50000 AU$50 pp return. 

Return leaves at 2pm

Back at M Kogan 3:15pm

Monkey Park entry $8.

So we decided to visit the monkeys. That was something Phoebe had really wanted to do. Box ticked. 

Quite a long walk. 6km return. 

Nice forest with Japanese Cedar trees on the down hill side and for some of the way Oak trees on the upper side. 

MONKEY FACTS:

Males leave the tribe in search of females in a different tribe. 

The males in the potential new tribe attempt to dissuade them but some females do mate and then it seems that the males can stay in the new tribe. 

Mothers and children stay together. 

THREATS AND PREDATORS 

Loss of forest. 

Hepatitis B virus.

Rabies

WALK DOWN

roadside shop - I bought chips and an apple pie and Phoebe bought chicken nuggets and apple pie.

Bought a fresh apple. Gee that was nice. The freshness of it. 

BUS HOME

Popped a Codral. 

Leaned the seat back.

Bit of a doze. 

Tourists looking at the monkeys in the hot tub.  Web cam on the left. 

Tue 24 Matsumoto

Train to Matsumoto. 

Walk around. 

711

Coffee

Matsumoto Castle.

Meat bar

TRAIN

Typically 120kmh.  Not a shenkenzen. Just a regional train. 

COFFEE

CASTLE 

Mon 13 Hakuba - Nagano

The day started as every day - rise at 7,  dress, breakfast at 7:30.

Packing went smoothly. 

Henry had previously arranged Mountain Watch Travel to collect us at 9:40.  The same young Aussie lady driving as we'd met at drinks. She snow boards.

At the bus station,  a big queue and an enthusiastic fellow guiding us to line up on the footpath not the road.  Phoebe and I looked after the bags and held our place while Henry ventured inside and returned with tickets ¥10500 $105 for the three of us. 

Second back row had extra legroom. A very comfortable ride.  About an hour. 

LUNCH

TEMPLE

No photos allowed inside the temple.  It's Buddhist. Lots of gold.

I ponder the effect of religion. Some people argue theirs is the right way and will even kill for it. Others will kill because of it. Fear of difference.  Yet religion is blamed when in my view its people all the way. 

Looking back down the street.  Temple behind me. 

Silent reminders of a "great " moment in time.  When was that again?

just looked interesting 

DINNER

don't be fooled, it could be Keto but the glass is not water. It's Shochu.

¥201.84. $183.83

We had teppanyaki. The meat was amazingly tender. 

We didn't really know how to order. 

A bit of google translate but still we only got meat and had to order salad separately. 

SHOCHU

Shochu is a traditional Japanese distilled spirit, similar to vodka or brandy, made from ingredients like rice, barley, sweet potatoes, or brown sugar, using koji mold for saccharification before fermentation and distillation. It differs from sake (which is fermented, not distilled) and comes in two main types: honkaku (single-distilled, traditional) and continuous-distilled, with alcohol content typically ranging from 20-45% ABV.

Sun 22 Tsugaike Phoebe

Today was the first opportunity for Phoebe and I to ski together.

One run at the base.  Huge queues.  After queuing for the second time and closely consulting the map, we made our way sideways and arrived at the gondola mid station.  

https://youtu.be/Ee9RfvOpFb4?si=YUqqqp5-d17N6N_P

Sat 21

Phoebe crook.  She stayed home to give her body a chance to rest and recover.

TSUGIKE

Henry and I walked down the hill caught a T2 bus to Tsugike. A very long and high gondola ride.  Lots of great runs. 

11:30am An early lunch.  I really just wanted soup but although soup was available,  it wasn't on the menu as an individual item. I had too buy a pork and rice meal in order to get the soup. As with many cafes, chips water was free. 

This was the lunch venue. 

A lot of the infrastructure looks rusty.

We then took a bus to Iwatke.

IWATKE

Henry warned me that I might get the wrong idea and Iwatke because it was afternoon and a hot suny day and so the snow was likely to be slushy. 

Iwatke is very tourist focused. A gondola takes people to a location that includes multiple activities.  It also allows non skiers to engage in the activities and then ride the gondola back down. 

Activities:

Dog petting,

Swing out from a platform.

Cafe with cantilever verandah. 

We went to the above mentioned Cafe but the queue to buy a coffee was huge so we availed ourselves of free iced water and sat and looked at the view. 

Pointing to a Cafe in the distance at Hoppo where we had a less than Stella coffee a few days earlier. 

Bus home. 

The buses seem confusing.  These signs provide route and time info and are way clearer than the paper schedule. 

EVENING 

Walked down the street to an Italian place.  Aperol Spitz, Pizza, water & Tiramisu.

As we walked back up the hill the sound of rushing water signalled that winter was over.