Day Trip to the Snow

Tuesday was spent jumping on the Joetsu line Shinkansen for a day trip to Yuzawa, an easily accessible snow town north of Tokyo in the Niigata prefecture.

Stepping out of the station I was instantly greeted with piles of snow lining the sides of the streets.
I was back to being like a kid again. Quickly running up to the nearest pile and making a snow ball to throw at Fitzey.

I climbed up a pile stacked against a wall just because I could.

Walking through the streets to find food I was constantly picking up and making snow balls to throw through the air... I was no doubt grinning like an idiot the entire time!

I was keen to check out the Kogan Ropeway, a cable car to one of the ski resorts in Yuzawa. Fitzey didn't have waterproof shoes like I do and decided not to come up, but I wasn't missing out on that experience so went alone.

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful the sight was up there. The ropeway ascends 500m toward the heavens and the view is absolutely spectacular. I'll let the photos do the talking here!

After finding and trudging through the deepest snow I could find - deep enough to sink in just below my knee - and jumping off a little hill into it a few times, I went inside to grab a beer.

I sat my arse down in the best snow I could find and just stared off into the rolling snow-covered mountains. It was truly blissful.

The time came and I had to leave; Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

That night Fitzey and I had plans to check out Kubukicho in Shinjuku - Tokyo's biggest red light district.

We ended up getting in contact with and meeting up with Anthony and Mike from the j hoppers in Osaka, and a bunch of others from their latest hostel. A Japanese girl managed to get us into a private karaoke room with unlimited drinks for around $25 a head.

The group of ten or so danced, sang and drank well into the morning, catching the first train home after 5am.

Needless to say the next day was not the most productive.

Today we caught the Shinkansen back to Osaka from Tokyo. I think we got on the wrong train because this one stopped at every stop and took around 4 hours. Plenty of time to catch up on some reading though!

Last night in Japan tonight. Tomorrow at 11am we jump on a plane for our next stop, Bangkok, Thailand!