Yamanashi

At the start of March we were invited for a trip out by our friends Ritsuko and Dave, Ben was busy on the day so only I went and I am glad I did.

We went to Yamanashi prefecture which has lots of mountains and is famous for its beautiful nature. It took us about one hour and a half from Tokyo to get there. As soon as arrived I was surprised by the amount of “nature” being stuck in Tokyo and all :P.

We started with lunch which was “Hōtō” , which is “is a popular regional dish originating from Yamanashi, Japan made by stewing flat udon noodles and vegetables in miso soup.”(Thanks Wikipedia) It was really delicious and just the thing I needed to prepare me for the Hike around Yamanashi.

We thought we would take the “mid-range” hike which was about 6km and took you to most of the best sights, a waterfall and then to the cable car to take you to the top of the mountain.

Walking around was very pleasant thanks to the brilliantly sunny weather, and with it being early spring it wasn’t too hot.

Walking around allowed us to see such great scenery but a picture`s worth 1000 words so here is a whole lotta words:

See all of theese and more in full size on my photos page (click here)

Hakuba

Now this seems like it was an age ago (well it was in February) but as a kind of New Year trip we went to Hakuba for skiing and snowboarding. We being Me, Ben, Minami, Sven and Hina Sven`s girlfriend. We left late on a Friday night from Shinjuku, we were traveling on a sleeper bus so this meant a VERY uncomfortable night`s sleep. We all woke with stiff necks to see snow outside the bus which really lifted our spirits. By the time we arrived at Hakuba everyone was ready to get going on the piste but we just had to get our rentals out of the way…

Being the crazy giant that I am (Height 190cm and feet size 14ish,33cm) the Japanese assistant nearly cried when I told him my measurements. It seems that I got the only pair of boots my size in the whole resort; this was nice because they were hardly used so actually quite new. We then got out on the slopes, and wow, the mountain was one of the mountains used in the Nagano Olympics so it had some really nice runs and stunning views (check out the pics).

Our hotel had traditional Japanese rooms, which basically means a big tatami area with futons to sleep on, which was actually really nice. Meal times were communal with everyone eating together in a dining hall, we had traditional Japanese foods which were very delicious.

We had half of Saturday and all of Sunday skiing or boarding so we got some decent slope time in, we returned on Monday where I just slept through the very long bus ride to get back to lovely Oji. All in all it was a great trip, I really enjoyed another opportunity to get out skiing again.

The long awaited update

Just a boring day in Oji.






Stay put for real updates soon.