In Short:
flew into Haneda Airport Tokyo for 3 days
Myoko (ski trip) for 2 days
Kyoto for 2 days
Lake Kawaguchika for 2 days, returned to Tokyo to catch train to,
Nozawaonsen (ski tip) for 3 days, returned to,
Tokyo for 1 day
flew out of Haneda Airport
In Long:Tokyo:
I spent my first 3 days in Tokyo, and I wrote soo much detail including where we stayed, ate, and sights we saw in here in another post!
Myoko:
After our first few days in Tokyo, it was time to meet the tour company for our first ski trip.
The ski trips we booked run on the weekends, through a company called Tokyo Gaijins (gaijin is Japanese for foreigner, ha). After booking onto the trip, you meet at the designated area in Tokyo and ride the few hours to your ski location. Our first one was Myoko. I had arranged through the tour company to rent all my ski-wear (goggles, gloves, jacket, pants) and ski-gear (skis, boots, poles, helmet) through them, it depends place-by-place where you will get your gear from but it all works out easily TG helps you with this.
There are many Pros to booking a trip this way:
It's hosted by English speakers and everyone who books speaks English as well. They take care of just about everything, transportation to the ski city, accommodation, transportation from hotel to hill and back, you can rent gear through them or through the hill, your choice, food (breakfast and dinner) is provided, and they even arrange a night out with the group (they provide the transportation if necessary and you pay your way for drinks). The second weekend, our hotel was RIGHT at the bottom of the mountain. We could walk five minutes to the chairlift. Everyone is super nice, it's an easy way to meet people to ski with, but it's also skiing so you can easily go your own way if you'd rather. No presh. It is fun to have a group of people to hangout with and the accommodations give you that nice solidarity- feeling of camping. I was booking for convenience, so I truly have no idea if this is the cheapest way to do it, but with a chartered bus, shared hotels, transportation and most food provided, it's hard to see how you could beat the cost by enough to be more worth it over the convenience.
Cons:
You will be sharing a room with 4-5 other people and you will be sleeping on a mat on the floor. This isn't luxury skiing but it's well worth it. There are extra mats, extra blankets, and heaters in the rooms. I had no problem sleeping like this after a full day of skiing. If you have super specific dietary requirements there is no guarantee they will be met. In Myoko the lovely man running the hotel made one of the best vegan Japanese meals I had on my whole trip. The place in Nozawa was less accommodating and I ended up just eating the regular meals here, which included fish and egg. My friend Georgie, who is vegan, only ate the rice, salad (lettuce), and some snacks she brought herself this trip.
Myoko SKI: On Saturday, we went to the Suginohara hill. I'll preface my take on the mountains with this: I'm from Florida. I've skied in Colorado and Canada. I can ski, I'm decent. I'll fly down a green and maybe a blue. I'll do a lil spin or a hop. I'm not a black diamonder or off-pister by any means. We didn't get any of Japan's famous powder this first weekend, which others on the trip were disappointed by, but I was excited to be on a slope at all. This mountain had a very local feel to it, we ate lunch on the slope and dinner back at the hotel with the group.
On Sunday, we went to the ski slope at Lotte Arai. We decided to go to both places because the tour group was offering it and we figured we we were curious to try another mountain. Lotte Arai had a much more built-up, touristy feel. The onsen here was most like a high end spa than a local village onsen, the slope was more manicured, and the gear to rent was brand-new. It was well worth it to see both places, but it was un-seasonally warm this weekend, so neither were as special as the last place we skied, which I'll get to later. While I was happy with these ski experiences, they don't at all compare to the charm of Nozawa, so when I return to Japan that one will be my must-do ski trip.
From Myoko, we bussed with Gaijins back to Tokyo and immediately got onto a night bus we had booked previously to Kyoto. Places to be and saving money on accommodation for a night, am I right?!
Kyoto:
Well, sleeping on a night bus always sounds like a good plan. While we DID sleep, it wasn't as restful as we'd hoped. After the night bus, we took another local Kyoto bus to a stop that was a short walk to our next stay. (TIP: if you're using trains and busses in Japan, get a PASMO card! You can top it up and use the same card on most of the local trains/local busses in each city). Luckily, when we got checked into our cute little guest-house, they let us into the room early, where we ended up taking a nap before exploring Kyoto.
We headed to Shinkyogoku Shopping Street not necessarily because it was our first pick of sights, but because the street is covered and it was raining outside. I tasted my way up and down the street, snacks from macarons to matcha lattes. There were vintage stops to peep and when we were hungry researched ramen with vegan options and found Engine Ramen to eat. Here we ordered food from a vending machine that spat out a ticket, which was then passed on to our server. This was some of the best ramen we had all trip, and we even returned here the following day. PLUS. If you have sake with your meal, it comes in a cute little glass which is yours to keep. This is now one of my favorite souvenirs from the trip! and it's honestly a miracle it made it from Japan, to Hong Kong, and back to Florida without breaking.
Branching off of the main shopping street there are smaller roads and back alleys that are a must-do explore spot. There are endless izakayas (a type of informal Japanese bar that serves alcoholic drinks and snacks, like tapas!) to escape into. Each one looks more inviting than the last. We found an empty bar with sharpie-writing all over the walls that probably fit a max of 6 people inside. We were the first ones in and drinking sake as the bartender started cutting up a whole fish and some other bits to give us as a snack. I can't say I loved the snack itself, but I did love the experience of it. It had that familiar local feeling that Spain does and when you're the only ones in a bar that small, and you're offered food by a proud local who's excited to introduce you to a bit of their world, you just eat it. You gotta.
Shortly after our 2nd sake, we were joined by some friendly locals who immediately started smoking cigarettes because, well, that's what they do in bars there.
The next morning we hit the Kyoto classics like the Arashiyama Bamboo Forrest, the Shinto Shrine, and then trained to Nara, the town that is run by sacred deer. All three are really fun unique to Japan experiences, and I would recommend doing them in this order because: if you get to the bamboo forrest early enough (think just after sunrise), there will be no one else there and you can take fun pictures, which let's be real, is probably the only reason you're going. It WILL fill up with people quickly. The Shinto Shrine also fills up with people quickly, however, the further you walk up the pathways into the shrine, the less people there are. So, there's a good chance if you're patient enough, and don't mind spending the time walking, you can still get to an area that isn't bombarded with people. Neither of these places really close, so you can technically get there as early in the morning as you want to avoid crowds if you just want a serene experience and to get better photos.
Kawaguchika:
Leaving Kyoto we took (my first ever!) fast train to Mishima. The trains were definitely impressive, extremely clean and comfortable. Here was the crazy thing, these trains are known for being extremely punctual. The average high speed bullet train arrives at its final stop just 54 seconds behind schedule!! Did your jaw hit the floor yet. I can't remember why now, but out train arrived to Mishima 20 minutes late. Twenty whole minutes! I think police had to enter the train for some reason. Anyways, we were supposed to be catching a bus in Mishima, we booked it close to the train's arrival time because of how punctual they are. We missed the bus, but since this NEVER happens in Japan, the bus company was super accommodating and moved us to the next bus, no problem. People we talked to the rest of the trip couldn't believe it when we said out train was delayed at all! Mishima was just a little town, we walked around here until the next bus arrived which took us to Lake Kawaguchi (one of the towns with famous views of Mt. Fuji) and we had some incredible views of Mt. Fuji to get us hyped for our destination.
We were only here in Kawaguchika for one night, but we wasted no time. We walked all the way around the lake to make sure we got all the iconic views of Mt. Fuji. We found a perfect spot just across the lake for sunset and set up camp here to take photos. After the sunset ended, was finished the walk around the lake, not much was open late at night in late January here, the busy season would be cherry blossom season, and while we were here there was still snow on the ground. It was awe inspiring even in the middle of winter, with twigs framing the mountain in my pics, so I can only imagine how beautiful the blossom season is. We did find a little Indian place to eat dinner and stocked up on some snacks at the convenience store for the morning.
We got up and out early in the morning to get to beat the crowds (just barely!) to the Chureito Pagoda, a few train stops away from the local station. And by just barely, I mean we saw the tours getting off at the same stop (we all took the first train of the morning) and just forced ourselves to walk quickly! The good part about beating guided tours is that they have to go the pace of their slowest members. The guides are often talking too, which slows them down. Georgie and I were the first to the top (there's a lot of steps to climb) and we had a super peaceful 10-15 mins to take all the photos we wanted before hoards of rude French people showed up. It was definitely worth it, but, be prepared to share the space with a ton of people if you're not the first there.
Nozawaonsen:
(ski weekend #2)
Leaving Lake Kawaguchika, we took another fast train to Tokyo, where we got right back on another train headed to Nozawaonsen for our second ski trip. We did book this through Tokyo Gaijins, however we wanted an extra day skiing, so we got our own train there instead of taking the bus they had organized and booked the accommodation for an additional night. This ended up being my absolute, without a doubt, hands down favorite of the 3 mountains/towns skied in. Not only did we get massive powder-dumps all three nights (waking up to this was like Christmas morning), the runs on this mountain were the most fun, most diverse, and most beautiful.
There were bars and cafes at the bottom of the hill, so we finished each day with some hot sake, boots and gear still on and everything. We then walked another two minutes to our hotel to change and get ready for dinner. The town was small and easy to walk around, there were multiple local style onsens (bath houses) that you're free to bathe in. At one point, Georgie and I had one all to ourselves which is the only reason I have photos of the inside. By this point, I was a pro at the onsen protocol, but to hear more about my slightly embarrassing first time, click here.
Nozawa was the ideal winter wonderland. Post-onsen was the best time to stroll around the snow covered little village. The heat from the onsen really sustained me as I wandered around in search of snacks and sake while collecting snowflakes on my hat and coat. One of our dinners here we ate a pizza I'll never forget (which surprised me in such a little town) but it's true and definitely worth a spot in this post.
last day in Tokyo:
After we finished our last run on Sunday in Nozawa, I had just enough time to return my gear, shower, and get back on the bus returning to Tokyo. I booked a night at the APA Hotel in the Ginza-Kyobashi area mostly because I could book with credit card points and it was in a location that I knew had a walking area with restaurants. The room was SO tiny, but had everything I needed, I ended up loving it because it was super cozy. This was the only night I stayed by myself and it felt like absolute luxury at the end of a long trip. I didn't fly out until evening time, so I spent the day wandering aimlessly and buying gifts for my family until it was time to head to the airport.
