In such an early song?
Japan has some really good mountains for winter sports, and I was keen to go on another snowboarding trip. Nozomi was not quite as keen as me. I think it was partly down to her not enjoying it as much as I do (although once she _is_ on the slopes she does say she’s having a good time), and partly down to her thinking we might end up spending too much this year.
When we made the plan to come to Japan I fully expected that we would end up spending more on travel than we would in a normal year in the UK. I mean, travelling and seeing more of the country was part of the reason to come here. So I made it clear to Nozomi that even if she wouldn’t come along, I would be going by myself. She eventually came around to joining me although she did talk some sense in to me and reduced the trip from 7 days down to 5 days.
In the hopes of getting more powder than we did at Nagano, we decided to head to Zao in Yamagata prefecture. Zao is much further North than Nagano so we thought it best not to drive this time, and got the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Yamagata. This also gave me the chance to have my first eki-ben! That’s a Japanese ready lunch (bento) that you can buy at the station (eki). The Japanese love to shorten and combine words. I’ve been on the trains before but never bought an eki-ben. Of course, it being Shinjuku station around 11:00 am, the store was really busy. Still, managed to pick up something that looked good, and enjoyed tucking in on the ride to Yamagata. And I even got a postcard included with my lunch. Beats a soggy sandwich from a UK train station any day.
So a few hours on the train, and a short bus ride later we were in Zao. I was quite surprised to find it was a warm day when we got there. Warm enough to walk around in a t-shirt. In a ski resort! We did get some snow the next night but sadly no powder. Zao is also famous for something a called the Juhyo - tree monsters created by a combination of heavy snow and cold wind at the mountain top which completely covers all the trees at the top in snow. Unfortunately when we went the weather hadn’t been cold enough so we could see most of the uncovered trees. Still, we had a good time on the slopes.
Not just on the slopes either. We enjoyed good food and drink every evening. We found a really nice restaurant in Zao that had a great collection of Nihon-shu - what most of the world knows as “sake”. Undoubtedly some of the best sake I have ever had. We went back to the restaurant on the last night as well, and between us over the two nights we tried all the sake on the menu! My favourite was one called “Masamune” - I tried to find a bottle in the shops but no luck. Will have to look online to see if I can find it.
As often happens to me, I fell one too many times and bashed up my elbow a bit. Our original plan was to check out on Thursday, spend the day on the slopes, and then get a night bus home that would have us back early Friday. I hurt my elbow on Wednesday, and Nozomi got a new commission job as well. I couldn’t ride on Thursday and Nozomi had time pressure for the commission so we decided to head home early. So Wednesday evening after getting back from the doctor we managed to cancel the bus ticket, booked a shinkansen and got back home late on Thursday afternoon.
Got back from snowboarding, a couple of weeks passed and before we knew it cherry blossom season was upon us. We had made plans a few weeks ago to meet up with Nozomi’s friend to go and see the cherry blossoms in Tokyo. The plan happened to be over the Easter holiday weekend so we thought we’d make a longer trip of it and spend a couple of days in Tokyo. We also had an anniversary gift from Nozomi’s parents that we had to use by April - a dinner cruise around Yokohama bay. Booked it all and then the weather decided to scupper our plan a little bit. Unseasonably warm weather meant Tokyo had it’s third earliest cherry blossoms ever the weekend before we were planning to go. Oh well, never mind. We thought about going to another place nearby that also has cherry trees but the pictures online seemed like they hadn’t hit full bloom yet. So we made a rather delayed plan to go and climb a mountain that is about a 45 minute drive away.
We weren’t expecting to be greeted by a path covered in snow. Luckily we’d worn our hiking boots and not just regular trainers. But we hadn’t brought any jackets, just some light jumpers. Hopefully the climb itself would keep us warm. The climb did keep us warm, but we were slipping quite a bit despite the hiking boots. They were not really made for snow. Still, at least they were waterproof! The map at the start of the climb listed it as being about 75 minutes. With all slipping in the snow, it took us near enough two hours. We had set ourselves a limit of 3pm to turn back so that we could make it down with daylight, and without the snow freezing in to ice. Luckily for us we made it to the summit with about 10 minutes to spare. We had a nice view of Mt Fuji from the top but not too long to enjoy the view. We’ll definitely make another trip up Mt Kintoki in the summer. Both of us had picked up fallen branches to use as walking poles and they proved mighty useful on the way back. If we thought we were slipping a lot on the way up, it was worse on the way back. Things were made worse for me by the fact that my right arm had still not recovered from the fall when snowboarding. I couldn’t put much weight on it, so had to rely on the left arm only. Nearly another two hours later we made it back. Exhausted but happy.
After all our exertions on Saturday we had another look at the cherry blossom pictures and it looked increasingly unlikely that we would get to see them in Tokyo next weekend. The pictures from the town near us that we’d thought about going to seemed to suggest that maybe most of the trees were in bloom so we thought we’d head out on Sunday and have a look. Neither of us had been to this place and we were surprised to find it was a hill. Another climb! This one was a lot less taxing the Mt Kintoki but more exertion than we were expecting. The flowers were in bloom but had still only hit about 50%. Nonetheless it was a beautiful place with a wide open area at the top. The weather was fantastic and we were disappointed that we hadn’t thought to take a packed lunch with us.
In all the wandering around, I should mention that almost every town probably has a few rows of cherry trees planted, and our town is no different. There’s a row of trees just near the station and they looked beautiful in full bloom.
Easter weekend came around and our cruise for Friday evening was booked. Nozomi still had some work she was trying to finish off but I had the whole day free. I thought I might as well head in to Tokyo early and see if I can go and see some cherry blossoms. I’m not really as obsessed with them as I might seem to be but we don’t come here often in the Spring so I thought I might as well make the most of it. A bit of online research later I picked a place called Chidorigafuchi - it’s a walk around the old palace moat. There are cherry trees all around, and if you are so inclined you can also hire a boat to look at the blossoms from the water. As expected the blossoms were slightly past their peak, and the leaves were starting to come through, but it was still an amazing sight. And it was busy! Walking along a fairly narrow path with lots of people, Japanese as well as tourists. As I walked past I happened to see the queue for the boats and there’s no chance I would wait that long. If you’re planning to go there and hire a boat during sakura season, get there early.
Nozomi eventually made it to Tokyo and we made our way to the accommodation for the weekend. Unpacked, and headed to Yokohama for our cruise. We’ve been to Yokohama once before but that was around New Year and it was really quiet. It was a lot more lively this time around even though it was evening by the time we got there. The food on the cruise was OK, but it was nice to be out and see the lights from the sea. Cruise over, we headed back to Tokyo to get some sleep.
We spent the next day wandering around Tokyo - went to Tsukiji market, the science museum, and met up with Nozomi’s friend for a coffee. At the end of the day, since Nozomi hadn’t gone to see any cherry blossoms we decided to head to a place called Naka-meguro. They have rows of trees by the riverside, and they are lit up at night. Once again it was absolutely heaving. It is a very popular place for cherry blossom viewing and we had to again walk along massive crowds along a one-way path.
We spent some more time wandering around Tokyo on Sunday and then headed back home. Monday was spent just chilling at home enjoying the extra day off.
A few more pictures below from this month.
