Last day!

Our final day was to be spent in Toyko. We decided to see a few areas that we didn't make it to when we first arrived in Tokyo two weeks ago! Can't believe how the time has flown.

Our first trip of the morning was to Hachioji, where we went to look for a specific building. This was the view outside the train station, but the building we were looking for was somewhat different to these.

Here it is across the river on the right- it is the church that our friends Mary and Chris got married in, before it was transported to Japan!

Back then it was Higherford Methodist Chapel. Now it is a wedding venue at the New Grand hotel!

We suspect some of the interiors are new, but it definitely has some original features in there.

I look forward to asking Mary and Chris if it looks familiar!

We tried a few interesting bakery goods on the way back to the train station. Mostly good, though the lemon shaped ball on the left was a bit unusual, and we have a feeling it might have been octopus.... :-/ (this particular bakery had no English translations, so it was a complete lucky dip. We thought it was going to be a donut!)

We started to head back into the centre of Tokyo, but got off the train at Shinjuku, to explore the area. We visited the the Tokyo Government Metropolitan building, and took a trip up to the 45th floor.

I was trying not to think about how this would be my least favourite time in the trip for an earthquake to hit, when we were greeted out of the lift at the top with the message that there was to be an earthquake safety drill in five minutes time! Ahh! We had time to take a look at the view, and all of a sudden the staff were running around, herding us into the centre of the observation deck, and making us curl up on the floor with hands over our heads! For about ten minutes were were reminded to stay calm, and to stay put, as there might be aftershocks. We definitely weren't allowed to say 'no thanks, no earthquake drill for me thank you!'.

At last we were allowed to carry on, and a helpful volunteer lady pointed out various other buildings, and we found out that we were standing at 202metres up.

Anyway, I wasn't keen to be up there for ages (I can't say the drill was reassuring, though it was fun it a strange way!). So off we went back down to explore further.

At the bottom of the lift we met the Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascots.

And had a wander through a park that we had seen from the top of the building.

We found a street with all the crazy teenage fashions, and saw some very colourful outfits.

It was very busy, and we were getting achey feet, so we went off in search of food. I didn't want to put Tom through too many hours of shopping!

We found okonomiyaki again! Yay. This is my favourite meal in Japan- I want to have a go at making it at home. 

And then we discovered the joys of the Shibuya crossing- Japan's busiest road crossing apparently. It's the only place where you go to cross the road, and then decid to do it again because it was fun! As After a few goes, Tom said, you start to recognise people on the way across! Haha. It's a big junction, and people are released from all sides at the same time, so it's just a big scramble of people going everywhere!

Getting back on the train amongst all those people was less fun, but we hopped off to treat ourselves to our favourite fish from Akihabara.

Then we collected our luggage, and got the train to Narita, the closest town to the airport, so we didn't have to worry about travel in the morning. We had an evening leg stretch to the temple complex in Narita, and then had a surprisingly good sleep. 

Here we are now at the airport!

What an amazing holiday it has been, with such variety of sights, food and activities. Feeling a little sad to be leaving, but looking forward to seeing our family and friends again soon!

Thank you for reading to blog, we hope you have enjoyed sharing the adventure!

Katie and Tom

Xxxxx

Matsumoto and Nozawa Onsen.

Today we decided to head out on separate day trips, and meet back in the evening. I was very keen to sample one of the ski resorts for a day, whereas Tom was more interested in exploring some local sights such as Matsumoto castle.

I left the hotel first, getting an early train to Iiyama, and a bus from there to Nozawa Onsen. In Iiyama I found this cheerful piece of origami on the floor. I think it is one that someone had collected from the ticket desk, as they had them free for visitors to take on there.

The ski village, Nozawa Onsen, has Onsen in its name, as it is built on a hot spring, and there are Onsen baths dotted all over the village. This is the view looking up a quaint street, which I walked up to get the ski lift, after hiring some kit.

This little temple building was completely ensconced in snow!

Looking back down the street you can see huge swathes of snow drooping everywhere.

Looking up from the foot of the cable car (which goes up just behind the building on the left), you can see some of the ski pistes. It was quite snowy for the first few hours, but visibility was still acceptable, with the added bonus that the fresh snow made it a dream to ski on.

It was quite quiet, and the runs were long. There were plenty of easy and safe options to take, with the steeper runs being wide to give you lots of space to turn. All the runs were lined with picturesque snow covered trees. They made it sheltered, and magical!

This was the highest point in the resort.

A particularly quiet moment, I couldn't resist stopping for a photo before the next people came past. It was perfect skiing!

The clouds came and went, with different parts of the mountain at different times being the clearest. It meant the views were never the same, and each run felt different! This piste is the skyline course, taking a ridge line down the mountain.

A glimpse of the town below.

Glorious!

And some fabulous icicles!

Due to a mix up in tickets (I bought a ticket for the wrong bus!) I had an hour to wait before going back, but there was a tiny Onsen across the road from the bus stop. It was from a natural source, and had that slightly sulphurous smell of a hot mineral spring. It was really toasty, and was amazing to soak for ten minutes to rest the achey ski limbs. And best of all, it was free to go in! I chatted to an Australian lady who was getting in at the same time as me, and it was nice to have a post-ski debrief with another English speaker!

Meanwhile!!!

Tom found a lovely drain cover in Matsumoto...

...and a friendly regional mascot!

There was evidence of an Olympic torch! (I just asked Tom if he stood on the podium- he says until now he didn't notice that bit! Oops, hehe).

Tom had a sunny walk through a park, and found pigeons!

Look how different the weather was for him! At this point I was still in foggy snow.

Here is the view from the top of Matsumoto castle.

And a view of the spectacular castle, along with another friendly mascot. It seems everywhere in Japan has its own smiley character. You are able to climb all the way to the top of the main building, and visit the side buildings on your way up. 

This is one of the castle's three moats.

Here's an interesting egg sculpture, captured by Tom at 4 minutes past 3. It plays a fun tune, as music-playing creatures spin around inside. Tom was just ready to take a photo when the egg decided to close. Seeing as he didn't want to wait an hour for (when he presumed) the next show would be, the rest of us must imagine how they look!

Tom hit the jackpot, and found another fish supplier, whilst having another look around Nagano. He also bought me one, which was a nice surprise when we met up :-)

I got on the train in Iiyama, and Tom got on the same train ten minutes later in Nagano. We continued together on to Tokyo, as we decided it would be a good idea to travel tonight, ready to have our last full day in Tokyo. Can't believe it's our penultimate sleep in Japan already! 

Exploring from Nagano

Today was the day we decided to go see the snow monkeys up in the mountains. This meant a bus ride out of Nagano city, and up towards a ski resort.

On the way there we drove past one of the old Olympic buildings from 1998.

The snow began to lie thicker on the ground as we headed slowly uphill.

         

After about 40 mins on the bus, we got out at snow monkey park! There was a 30 minute walk along a very well trodden and slippy path, but it was a snowy winter wonderland, so that didn't put us off too much!

At one point before we got to the monkeys, we saw an animal down to the left of the path, that a group of people were observing. It was partly hidden by a tree, and was far enough away that it was a little difficult to see. Whatever it was, it wasn't a monkey, and we were fairly sure it wasn't a deer either, as the Americans beside us summised. We reckon it was a wild boar- we have read a few signs dotted around saying not to approach them, if seen, so they definitely exist around Japan. Whatever it was, it wasn't at all interested in the stream of tourists flowing by uphill, so we left it to its snuffling and continued.

Then we reached the hot springs, where the monkeys spend their days lazing around in the hot water. They are absolutely surrounded by tourists with cameras, but they don't give them the slightest bit of attention. It was like we weren't really there, and they got on about their business as normal.

There's definitely a pecking order- several scraps broke out as we watched, mostly involving a bit of screeching or chasing. One rather violent 'top dog' seemingly threatened to drown another in the river, as an audible gasp went up from the onlookers! We were pleased when that monkey got safely away!

    

There must be thousands and thousands of pictures taken at this place every day, some photographers had obscenely big camera lenses that were rattling off constant streams of photos, like a machine gun. Snap snap snap snap snap snap snap! Show offs! I bet they have some fabulous photos though. The monkeys didn't make it difficult!

     

Some of them walked right through the groups of humans, even the baby monkeys weren't phased.

Just to show how much snow there has been here, look at the digger on the left with it's huge snow hat!

I thought this was an amusing notion, though we weren't really ready for a meal at this point!

And one of my favourite signs so far! :-D even though we like to laugh at funny translations, we are hugely grateful for all of the signs in English, whether well translated or not. We would struggle to get by without them, and you (almost) always know what they mean! Thank you translators!

We still had most of the afternoon before us, having had an early start to the day, so got back on the bus to view the ski resort up the road. The upper half of the piste coming down on the right is where the Olympic slalom course was! There wasn't really time for it to be worth paying for ski hire and lift passes, as the lifts closed at 4. So we sat with a meal and looked at the fine view.

Look at the huge swab of snow protruding from this hotel roof! The diggers below seem to be making way for its imminent downfall!

Beside our lunch spot, you could step out on to the platform of an old lift station. The cables have been taken down, but you can have a picnic in the old cable cars!

There was a nature museum where (among other things) you could put an egg into a nest, and it played the song of different birds.

And of course there was another of these!

We couldn't both be in it together, so you just have to imagine that we were!

   

They also had an Olympic display room, which had a gold medal!

Back on the bus down the hill, we saw continued lovely snowy sights.

As evening approached, we went to find igloos at Iiyama train station, one stop up from Nagano.

And took a short bus ride to visit an igloo village! It's there over winter, and you can cook a meal inside (though we just went for a stroll around, still full from our ski-viewing meal).

Now we are back at hotel unicorn for the night, I thought I'd share a few more pictures. Look at the swanky head board, with built in shelf and switchboard for the lights! There are also sliding paper doors onto a pretend garden with bamboo.

A short and deep bath, with wet room, wash basin and buffet.

And painted glass screen by the door.