With twinges of sadness, but wonderful memories we left the beautiful Hakuba village. Bob kindly drove us to Hakuba Station and James and Jennifer collected their town stamp. Our train soon arrived so we farewelled Hakuba and started our journey towards Osaka. We quickly disembarked at what we thought was Matsumoto, we were ready for the rush of a 3 minute changeover to catch the Nagoya train. One problem, we didn’t jump off at Matsumoto, we were one station early. »
Another magical morning in Hakuba as we awoke to find the incredible snowfall this village experiences. Apparently it can snow these beautiful fluffy flakes for two weeks straight. We marvelled at the variety of snow machines that came out this morning. We saw enormous machines designed to clear the roads, small motorised ones to clear a path around houses and one that the driver sits in and drives about. We just had to go out and play! »
An early morning rise was necessary today to catch the 7:46 train from Hakuba to Matsumoto. We awoke to find a huge carpet of snow which had completely covered the roads, roofs, cars and trees in the thickest layer of snow we have seen since we arrived. It was a delight to walk through the sprinkling, soft, powdery snow to Hakuba station. The train was delayed about 14 minutes due to the heavy snowfall. »
When we woke up this morning it was snowing. Hooray!! There is something extraordinarily peaceful about watching snow flakes fall, we the novice to snow, could do it for hours, second only to playing in the snow. There are lots of snow resorts here in Hakuba. Today we thought we would visit Happo. We caught the bus from the train station to the ski resort. We were told that Nakiyama would be a good place to go, so we bought a snow board and made our way over to there. »
We could literally just admire the view here all day! It is exceptional and rivals anything we have ever seen before. A heavy snowfall overnight has left the carpet of snow as a sight to behold. It is raining today and the apartment manager Bob said a couple of degrees lower and it will snow. The rain stopped after lunch so we ventured out to play in the snow. James and Jennifer are both very good snow ball shots and the resulting giggle is very infectious. »
Big excitement this morning as we set off for Tokyo station to catch the Shinkansen Asama 517 to Nagano. The trip was very comfortable and smooth. Our excitement levels rose when we saw snow topped mountains just outside of Ueda. We changed trains at Nagano to the Shinano No. 14 headed for Matsumoto. The temperature at Nagano was noticeably colder! This train is called a limited express and the ride was about 50 minutes. »
We made our way on the metro to Otemachi station and walked to the Kikyomon gate of the Tokyo Imperial Palace, ready for our 10am tour. We presented our permit and made our way to a briefing session. The first building we saw was the Fujimi-yagura, a watch tower. It is one of the oldest parts of Edo Castle. We were amazed at the stone wall constructed around it which was 14.5 metres high. »
We met Saori from the Tokyo Volunteer Guide Service at Suitengae station and decided to visit Ueno, Nezu shrine and Asakura. At Ueno we saw a beautiful autumn tree. Saori told us the Japanese word for wood is - Ki and this is a traditional Japanese Ginko tree which is called icho. We traveled by bus from Ueno to visit a shrine on a cute 14 seat bus. We soon learnt why it was so small, the streets are very narrow. »
Our first bus ride of the trip took us from Mozen-nakacho to Nippon which is the home of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. This amazing facility has many engaging displays that educated us about the solar system and our future. We enjoyed seeing a human android read the news, learning about our impact on the environment and what life may be like in 2050 as a citizen in a “future designed” city called Itookashi, exploring the International Space station module and the Shinkai 6500 which is one of the world’s deepest manned research submersibles. »
The expedition through immigration and customs was quick and efficient. Our passports proudly bear the official sticker stating we are in fact, in Japan. Our first train ride was on the very impressive, Narita Express to Tokyo. On our journey we were excited to see snow topped mountains and some names we recognised from home like Toyota, ToysRUs and Mazda. We arrived at Tokyo Central station and soon got a sense of the size of the station after we walked for 20 minutes following well signed boards to find our connecting line! »