Mar 7, 2023

Japan 2023 - Day 17

One of the best memories I have from our first trip to Nozawa Onsen was finding the Akari Swiss Bakery. It was open early, in time for a quick swing by for some beautiful fresh bread or the like for breakfast ahead of a day on the slopes. During the planning for this trip, I’d selected accommodation near where we’d been last time for both its proximity to the bakery and relatively easy access to the snow.

So today, Monday morning, day 18, I was excited to go find out what the bakery had to offer first thing. We’d checked the night before and it said they opened at 8am, but I got a message from Jason at 7:40 telling me that they weren’t open Mondays. Noooooooooooo!

The start to the day was incredibly frustrating for me. It was slow. I hate the chopped up snow at the end of the day and so really prefer to be out there early after the groomers have tidied it all up for me and today was one of those days where things weren’t going to my plan. I quite possibly got a little angry about it. When I was finally on my way up to the mountain I took these photos because it reminded me that as frustrated as I was and as bad as I thought the start to my day was, it can always be worse. 



At least it wasn’t raining. It was snowing which was a good thing for the planned day of skiing. It just didn’t happen to stop. At all. All day. Fortunately conditions weren’t terrible and we were happy to ski, though it limited where I was prepared to go because I was still concerned that my aging and fragile body wouldn’t hold up if I pushed myself too hard. I’ve become a lot more cautious than the rest of the family, but at least I’m still skiing.

We explored our way around the easier parts of the mountain while the nuts (mostly Thomas) went and found their own fun amongst trees and on steep slopes that this little black duck wasn’t about to engage in.

Nozawa Onsen is an interesting mountain and I hadn’t explored a lot of it last trip due to being a little lame from our time at Madarao. One of the differences at Madarao, is that you can go to the top and find a really long, green, easy run along the ridge line, but to get down from there, your only easy option is a long winding road (which is at least in most parts wide and easy to navigate). Your other option to get down either involves going to the top and taking an alternate long road that is significantly narrower and rated intermediate rather than beginner.

With the mixed ability we had skiing together at the time, we decided the green road down was the best way to go. And we nearly made it all the way down without incident. There was just one corner where everyone pulled up ahead of a somewhat steep bit and waited while Bel decided to maybe forget how to turn or stop or something? Not quite sure exactly what happened other than a sudden exclamation and an almost slow-motion plough into the group, seizing hold of Caroline briefly before her momentum took her past her, leaving her to seize hold of Rhianna and take her out as well. It was entirely comical and fortunately didn’t result in any injuries.

The road down was long. Like seven kilometres or so long but about two thirds of the way down there was an option to take a short intermediate run to cut the corner. We stopped at the top and everyone assessed it as not too steep and so down we went. Happy days.

I ended up at the back of the pack after that, deliberately waiting to make sure everyone was good ahead of me. Those at the front came upon another option to take an intermediate run to cut out some more of the green run. The only problem was, by the time you could assess how steep it was, you’d well and truly passed the point of continuing down the green run that I’d been wondering why everyone had opted out.

Unfortunately, it was significantly steeper than the other little red run. That’s okay, we were sure we’d all manage. Most of us skied our way down within our limits and left Thomas to help Aimee who certainly wasn’t feeling confident enough to tackle it on her own. So we waited at the bottom, watching and sending positive vibes.

It wasn’t to be though. The confidence wasn’t there, so Thomas kindly took Aimee’s skis for her and she opted for the direct, butt-slide down the mountain way out of trouble!

We skied at the bottom of the mountain for a bit, biding our time until lunch. On one of my runs I found Aimee taking off her skis at the bottom. I checked she was okay and she advised she was but was taking a break.

I didn’t realise that she’d had a fall ahead of taking her skis off. I headed back up for another run ahead of lunch only to come back down and find that Aimee appeared to be faring a fair bit worse than the okay she’d thought she’d been at when I’d checked. She was clearly in pain and struggling to get around. She’d been checked by ski patrol who’d advised that if needed the hospital was a possibility.  It was time for lunch though and no-one (except a Rowland *cough* Cameron *cough*) really likes going to a hospital in a foreign country, so the idea was to take some time for her to rest up and assess where things were at. She was struggling enough that even getting inside was looking tricky, so Sam and Thomas grabbed a chair from inside, sat her in it, and then carried her into the restaurant.

By the time lunch had been consumed, it was clear Aimee wasn’t going anywhere without assistance and so she and Bel called it a day and departed the scene in style.

Emily, Thomas and Sam were kind enough to ski back to deliver Bel and Aimee’s skis and poles back to our accommodation.

It was still snowing, and the rest of us skied on with half our minds wondering how Laimee was getting on.

Caroline, Emily and I were skiing up near the top of the mountain during the afternoon and I decided I needed a break and suggested we stop for a hot chocolate. While Caroline was taking advantage of the facilities on offer, Emily opted for a vending machine delivered hot chocolate, while I noticed a number of young people walking around with delicious looking ice-creams and decided that I was definitely up for getting intimate with one in the immediate future. I lined up with the kids and eagerly awaited delivery. I watched the young girl before me walk away with a luscious looking treat, ordered mine and watched eagerly as the kindly old gent serving me pulled the lever to deliver the icy creamy goodness. He swirled it around once, twice and pfft. There was no more. 

"So sorry, sold out," he declared, looking genuinely disappointed that he had to deliver that news to me. Devastated, I moped away, consoling myself with an icy cold can of coke while I waited for Caroline. She had just appeared when the old dude excitedly found me to announce that he'd refilled the machine and that I could get my ice cream. I gleefully followed him back to his little stall and watched as he pulled the lever.

And nothing happened. 

It was like being told you get a second chance at Christmas only to have it yanked from under your feet! He was extraordinarily sorry but I was still icecreamless. 

Caroline was finally sorted with her hot chocolate and so I sat with her, sipping my coke, lamenting the ice-cream that never was when for a second time I was hunted down and beckoned back to the ice-cream stand. I almost didn't go. Could I survive further disappointment? Was my day to be as bad as the person that had parked their car in someone's front-yard ditch? Warily I followed him. 

He pulled the lever.

Ice cream appeared.

He swirled ... and swirled ... and swirled ... and with great joy, I accepted the treasure and enjoyed every last bit of it! It may just have been the best ice cream I've ever had.

There’s a physio in Nozawa Onsen and Jason and Bel had found that there was an Australian-trained (and as it turned out, Australian) physio working there and so rather than commit to hospital, arranged for Aimee to go there for assessment before considering other options.

The rest of us headed out for a delicious ramen dinner at Deesuke with steamed apple buns for dessert.

Aimee reappeared eventually with a brace that was at least enabling her to stand and possibly even walk a bit but with an unknown amount of damage to her knee. We all hoped it would be minimal.

Oh and it was still snowing.



Mar 5, 2023

Japan 2023 - Days 15.5 and 16

 Sure, day 15.5 sounds a bit weird, but that's what happens when you forget something blogworthy!

Day 15.5

There was one minor hiccup in our travel to Shiga Kogen that I neglected to mention as my mind becomes befuddled by time and distance. One of the best things you can do if you’re travelling around Japan is buy a Japan Rail Pass. However, when you buy one, its quite alarming to realise that the money you’ve dropped (in the hundreds of dollars) is now represented by a rather flimsy looking ticket. A ticket that if you lose it, will not be replaced. And you have to put it through the ticket machine every time you enter and exit a relevant train station. That's a lot of times to potentially lose your ticket!

Caroline was rightfully paranoid upon realising we wouldn’t have a passbook kind of ticket as we’d had in previous years that would enable you to acquire tickets as and when you needed them. That was it. One ticket, one go, if lost, gone.

We made it all the way to Day 15 before that was an issue. We scrambled off the Shinkansen in Iiyama and Thomas was panicking because he couldn’t find his ticket. The train hadn’t left, but we had no idea what the dwell time at the station would be. It’s never a lot on the Japanese rail system. Caroline tried to ask a couple of railway staff who were on the platform, but they didn’t understand and the train left before anyone could do something like jump back on and look for it. D’oh. We had no option but to continue on and try and sort things out as we were going. We were hoping it would be found on the train and could be collected later.

... and day 16 ...

With our skiing done yesterday we were debating whether we’d squeeze in a morning of skiing but as we went to sort out dinner for the night, it started raining. We’ pretty much decided that skiing was unlikely but rain was the icing on the cake.

So that just left us to pack get to the bus stop and travel. The sort of day that leaves you with nothing to write about really.

Easy.

We enjoyed the buffet breakfast after something of a later start and set about packing to get to the busstop. For the first time on the trip since arriving in Japan, we had to take ALL of our gear with us … skis, boots, clothing, the whole shebang. Add to that the rain and it was a fully laden, sloshy trip to the bus stop. But at least we were there on time(ish). The Rowlands were of course more organised than us and were waiting so we joined them, mostly because the rain had resulted in enough ice on the ground that my attempts to get up the slight hill to join the back of the line were threating to land me on the proverbial and send me sliding back to where I was standing anyway, so I didn’t tempt fate.

Then the bus arrived, took a look at the people waiting and left. So did the next one which was as full as the first had been. Fortunately, it seems they bus company keeps calling for as many buses as are needed to meet the demand on the day, so it wasn’t too long before one came along that we were able to load our gear into.

The transit to Nozawa Onsen involved a bus from Shiga Kogen to Nagano, a Shinkansen from Nagano to Iiyama  and another bus from Iiyama to Nozawa Onsen. What could possibly go wrong?

For most of us, not much. But remember how Thomas had lost his ticket? He was going to have to buy one in Nagano to get him to Iiyama. Not a big deal. All went well, he had his ticket, we had ample time in Nagano and we just needed to catch the train. So I went to grab some food. When I returned, Caroline thought we might need a bit more and went to get some too. She took longer than Thomas, Emily and I were expecting.

By the time we had minutes to catch the train, we’d decided to meet her on the platform, shepherding all the luggage through the gates. Caroline caught up to us as we were doing that and we quickly worked out which platform we needed to be on.

But the ticket machine ate Thomas’ ticket and the next train was about two hours away.

Bugger.

He had someone helping him and we thought he, like us, knew which platform we needed to be on. Caroline, Emily and I scrambled onto the train (wrong car though) just in time to leave, thinking Thomas was also getting on. As we tried to steer all our crap down the aisle to the right car (about three cars away thanks to my misdirection) my phone rang.

Thomas wanted to know if we were on the train ... because he wasn’t.

We’d abandoned him.

At least he’s a competent adult who’s capable of sorting himself out, getting on the next train after a really disappointing delay and meeting us at the accommodation later on. He didn’t freak out and did an admirable job of not screaming down the phone (as may have happened if we’d done this to another member of the family).

Eventually he sent me a message to let me know he’d managed to get on an earlier train than he’d thought and we were much relieved. Until we got another message to let us know the train he’d boarded didn’t stop in Nagano as Iiyama as required. Did I say he was competent? Oops.

Eventually he did make it to join us, even in time to come and enjoy the burger dinner we had. He wasn’t lucky enough to get to partake in our first steamed apple bun of our time in Nozawa Onsen, but then neither was Emily who’d opted no to take part in our exploratory walk ahead of our first day of skiing! At least he made it and bore it in relatively good grace and was there in time for our first day of skiing.



And at least there was no sign of rain … it was snowing again.





Mar 1, 2023

Japan 2023 - Days 14 and 15

There isn't heaps to report from these two days as it was travel and then skiing with no-one being kind enough to provide me with blog-fodder. what a disgrace. In fact it was so exciting that one night Bel decided the best thing she could do was Japanese Where's Wally!

Travelling to Shiga Kogen meant travelling by train from Kyoto to Iiyama (with a stop at Nagano) and then by bus to Shiga Kogen itself. So that’s exactly what we did. We’d sent our ski equipment through ahead of us, so the luggage issue wasn’t too bad and the trip was uneventful though we did say goodbye to Sam for a couple of days as he’d opted to go elsewhere and meet up with us again to ski in Nozawa Onsen.

For dinner a local ‘pub’ selling Mexican food was selected. It turned out to be expensive and disappointing, but that’s one of the chances you take when travelling around. They can’t all be winners.

With only a single full day to ski, the Rowlands opted to rest weary legs and avoid the task of hiring and returning equipment, which left Caroline, Thomas Emily and I to ski. As usual we didn’t quite get the early start I’d have liked and Caroline had boot issues early which made her wonder if she was going to be able to ski at all, but we eventually sorted them out (utterly stress and hassle free of course – and I was calm, patient and … well none of those things really) and managed to make it onto the slopes.

We’d skied at Shiga Kogen twice previously and everyone other than Emily had at some point skied a run which we remembered as the Men’s Downhill which had been used during the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Emily hadn’t been willing to ski it on those occasions, but with vastly improved skills was dead keen to give it a go this time. So first up we headed up tot the top of the mountain and negotiated our way back down. It was everything I remembered, groomed, but on the bloody steep side of things. We all safely negotiated it and Emily was happy to have finally ticked that off her list of desired achievements. The weather was quite spectacular for the day and we worked our way up down, across and around the mountain, travelling as far as the place we’d stayed on our first trip there and ending in our happy place in Ichinose.




The Rowlands spent the day on a tour to see the snow monkeys and we all met up for dinner upon their return. The day ended with rain, which was a first for us in the mountains and certainly made our decision not to ski the following morning before travelling out again a better decision than we could have imagined at the time.

Japan 2023 - Day 13

Today saw us taken an excursion from Kyoto to Nara to see the deer there. For they unfamiliar, they will bow to you. You bow to them, they bow back, you feed them. What they don’t necessarily tell you is that once the deer know you have food, they’re not going to simply stand around and wait for you to politely bow and feed them.


It quickly became apparent the deer were none to backward about giving you a hint you should be feeding them. The bite on the butt certainly wasn’t subtle! I quickly gave up on bowing and waiting for a return and simply fed them quickly to avoid further hints, be they nips, butts or simply having them grab the deer biscuit from my hand.





We spent awhile in the park and walked through to a temple where a very large buddha statue resides, though most of us didn’t pay the additional fee to go through and inspect them .

Rhianna turned out to be the deer-whisperer and certainly persisted with the feeding well past the point where the rest of us had given up being abused by the deer.

Having enjoyed our sushi lunch so much the previous day it was suggested we find something similar in Nara before making our way back to Kyoto. We managed to find one and the food was good even if it didn’t have the express to table conveyor, nor the game for every five plates, but we walked out well and truly satiated!

We stopped at a supermarket after lunch and took advantage of the fact they had toilets available. unfortunately it was a traditional bowl in the ground squatter which I've never been able to adjust to. On the upside, they had a disabled toilet that had a western style bowl, so I used that. Happy to be done, I looked to flush away the evidence. There were no levers or buttons on the actual toilet itself (not uncommon) but neither did there look to be anything recognisable as a flush on the seat operation panel (you know, the one that sends jets of water or wafts of air up the backside). There was a stainless steel curved plate over a stainless steel rod of sorts, but I thought that might be the safety device that stopped you accidentally pressing the assist call button. Now I could have used google translate to check what the one other button was, but I decided it had to be the flush, so I pushed it. 

It didn't flush. Now I was really stumped as to which one was the button. While I pondered if I'd ever find a way to dispose of the evidence I heard footsteps, then an attempt to open the door and an enquiry in Japanese which I guessed was someone checking on my welfare to my utter embarrassment. At about the time he arrived I realised the stainless still components were the flush so I was able to open the door and assure the gentleman who'd come to rescue me that it was an error. I've got to say I was impressed with the timeliness of his arrival. If I'd been capable I would have found out who his boss was to compliment him on the efficiency of the service. 

We journeyed back to Kyoto and decided we had just enough time to cram in a visit to Kiyomizu-dera which we’d not visited on our previous trip to Kyoto. It was truly spectacular with amazing views of the city in addition to the temple itself.




That simply left getting home on the bus, dinner and packing for another day of travel. Being the end of the day the bus was jam-packed. Sam decided the 45 minute walk would be better and set off while the Rowlands were a bus stop away from us, so we separated and found our own way back. This time, we were headed for Shiga Kogen where we had decided during our final planning session to add a day’s skiing to the itinerary before heading to our final ski destination (Nozawa Onsen).

Feb 22, 2023

Japan 2023 - Day 12

The forecast for today is a maximum of about 4 degrees and we woke to snow drifting happily down from the sky. And we are going on a cycling tour of Kyoto. Winning. Apparently they sometimes cancel if there’s a lot of rain forecast but snow? Pfah! Toughen up.

So we all set out, appropriately rugged up (though me sans gloves because yep, they’re waiting for me in Shiga Kogen and Sam in his shorts of course) and set out on our cycle adventure. It was actually awesome. The guides had spare gloves and beanies so everyone was able to dress appropriately warmly as we cycled our way around.

Our first stop was Honganji Temple where I felt a little sorry for the family having some sort of ceremony while a bunch of tourists walk in behind them, kneel down, watch for a bit and leave, but at least we were quiet! 

We went from there to Kitano Tenmangu where we learned the shrine has a gate that is reserved exclusively for the emperor. Our guides weren’t aware of a time in recent history where that gate had actually been used, but it was quite ornate (I neglected to get a photo though).




Third stop on the tour was the Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji). Last time we visited it, it was raining and quite miserable, but this time we actually managed to get some sunshine amongst the snow that fell throughout the day which presented some spectacular views of the pavilion.



Next stop was the imperial palace where we’d hoped to lure at least one Rowland into posing for a photo up against the wall just to set off the proximity warning that Michael had found on our trip many years ago. Unfortunately, as it was a guided tour, we had to skip over that little joke.

One of the highlights of the tour had to be the lunch we were treated to. Despite it being our fourth trip to Japan, it was the first time as a family that we’d been to a sushi-train restaurant! We were escorted to our pre-booked table and watched as the sushi went by because our guide told us we were better off ordering fresh dishes from the tablet rather than taking them from the conveyor as it went past. He started ordering for us and when a dish was ready, a second conveyor delivered it straight to the table. It was awesome. To top it off, every five plates you ordered entitled you to a game of chance to win some crappy little random prize. Must be a good one to get the kids sucked in! We ate very well and were surprised at just how economical it was. There’s no way we’d be getting away with eating what we did in Adelaide without taking out another mortgage.

With our bellies full, we continued on to the last of our tour stops, cycling along the Kamo River and into Gion, the Geisha district where amongst all the tea houses we saw a restaurant that specialised in puffer fish. It wasn’t something I’d ever thought of putting on my list of things to try in Japan and I’m not about to either! Apparently there’s still a couple of deaths a year, usually from amateurs eating this ‘delicacy’ but failing to prepare it properly.

With the cycle tour over I suggested that we slip in a visit to Fushimi Inari, but Caroline wasn’t feeling a hundred percent so we shipped everyone else off while she rested up before dinner. That was something of a mixed bag with Caroline not really up to eating and a hodge-podge of choices by everyone else. In the end Emily and I ended up eating at a Yakotori restaurant that Jason and Bel had also chosen to eat at. There wasn’t enough seats for the rest of the young adults who ended up at an Okonomiyaki restaurant instead. With that all done it was time for bed!



Feb 21, 2023

Japan 2023 - Day 11

 With USJ our of the way, we’d decided to explore Osaka using the Amazing Osaka pass on day 2. Its something I’d thoroughly recommend to anyone considering a visit here. It get’s you onto all the cities public transport (excluding the JR lines) and into a massive range of the city’s attractions waaay too many for the single day we had, but there’s a 2-day pass available too if you’re here longer than we were).

First stop was the Umeda Sky Building. Quite simply a stunning piece of architecture and engineering. It’s one of those places that words don’t really do justice. It happened to be valentine’s day today and there was something of a Valentine’s theme going on up the top of the sky building so we took advantage of it even though the day isn’t something we usually bother with.



Next stop was Osaka Castle with a plan to both walk the castle and take a boat ride around the moat. Turns out the moat doesn’t fully encircle the castle, but it was still pretty cool to get most of the way around and back again. We climbed the heights of the castle which not only gave us amazing views of the city, but an appreciation for the full extent of just how big the complex must have been during its heyday, built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (some 400 plus years ago thanks very much).



With the castle visit over, the next task was to find some lunch, which we decided to do at the next stop which was to be a visit to the Glico running man., something Sam had put me onto as one of those … you haven’t been to Osaka if you haven’t seen it kind of things. There was a market nearby where we thought we’d be able to pick up some food, but sadly by the time we arrived options were getting a bit limited and more people ate at Family Mart than from the market stalls (where seafood was one of the most common options.





Thomas managed to snag some half-priced sushi as they were packing up and he and Caroline shared a salmon skewer from one of the vendors that was very tasty. From there we headed from the running man, snapped some obligatory photos and I noted there was a Uni-Qlo just down the street and given I had under-dressed for the occasion, decided to seek out an extra layer of clothing to wear (and to be sure no-one missed me in as it turned out).

Remember the bargain gloves I’d bought back in Tokyo? Well given I had bought them for the mountainous areas and hadn’t needed them while we were in Tokyo, I figured I wouldn’t need them in Osaka and Kyoto either. Perhaps checking a weather forecast would have been a good idea because the temperature was getting down toward the freezing point! Sometimes I surprise even myself with how foolish I can be!

We opted to seek out a local ramen joint for dinner and Sam did some quick research to find us a highly rated place in the area, which was great until it only had eight seats. Given there were ten of us, the Temby’s opted to stay and the Rowlands went off to forage elsewhere. We thoroughly enjoyed our Ramen and Thomas kindly donated an Aussie $5 note to pin above the doorway where there were already a number of other foreign currencies. So if you’re in down town Osaka and spot one above a random little ramen joint, maybe it’s the one he left behind.

We rendezvoused back at the hotel where we collected the luggage we’d stored and set off for the train station to transfer to Kyoto for the next stage in our adventure.

Something I neglected to mention about our arrival in Osaka was the little mix up we had with our hotel bookings. Apparently I’d managed to book 5 double rooms … which would have meant that Sam and Thomas and Emily and Aimee would have been sharing beds. Fortunately for a small incremental cost increase we managed to get them into twin rooms instead.

Cue reception in Kyoto and apparently I’d even more cleverly managed to book five twin rooms … and this time there was no double room vacancy. Single beds for everyone! I may never be trusted to book accommodation again! Just quietly, I did sleep well though.

Feb 17, 2023

Japan 2023 - Day 10

 Be warned … this is a long one …

USJ Day. This is something that I’d been hoping to do with Emily for a long time. Ever since Universal opened its Harry Potter themed attraction at its parks, Emily has been dead keen to go. With the US and the UK being expensive to get to, Japan was the next best option, though the thought of everything being in Japanese made us a little hesitant, especially because when we’ve previously travelled here we haven’t been as far south as Osaka where USJ is located. Squeezing it in amongst two different ski locations in a two week trip was going to be a challenge to say the least.

It was part of the reason this current trip was planned to be a three week affair and there was  high level of excitement around finally getting to visit.

Now we’ve been fortunate enough to visit a number of theme parks over the course of our travels so we had some idea what to expect, but its been a while and we’ve certainly never tried visiting one with a group of ten people.

We immediately made the decision that beyond getting the same timed entry for the Nintendo attraction, we’d split up and do our own thing around the park, especially given the likely long wait times for the attractions.

We had a great day, but as you’d expect,  we spent a lot of it standing around and waiting. No one masters the art of a queue like a theme park. I can well imagine that there’s someone who when they introduce themselves and what they do, says “Oh, I’m the USJ line Guy/Gal”. Because there’s certainly an art to the weaving trail of a 2 hour queue and keeping much of it hidden so you can still entice people to join. Fortunately we didn’t wait in any lines for quite that long. I think the worst said it was a 70-90 minute wait and probably took just over an hour.

We got into the park as early as we could, got our timed entry for Nintendo world and then went to find something to fill the time before that. We ended up at a 4D movie which was of course anime based, spoken in Japanese and almost entirely lost on Caroline and I. But hey, it filled the time until we got into Nintendo.

Getting in was our first experience of trying to corral everyone in one place while in the park and after a couple of false starts, we managed to do it, eventually getting onto the Mario ride which was a hell of a lot of fun, even if it seemed like complete chaos!

The kids were lining up for the café in there so Caroline and I opted to go for the flying dinosaur ride. We joined the single-rider line (40 minutes wait rather than 90) and set about waiting … and waiting. Eventually we made it to the front of the line and though separated, got to enjoy the ride (well I say enjoyed, Caroline not quite so much given she came off feeling a little nauseous). If you’re not familiar with the ride, you strap in and then get pivoted so that you’re facing the ground, horizontal to it at the point of commencement. From there, you loop, drop, weave such that at times you’re facing the sky, the ground and everywhere in between. It was awesome, even with sharing the ride with three screaming Japanese teenage girls!

After that ride it was finally time to meet up with Emily and head into Hogwarts. From the first entry it lived up to everything one had hoped for. Emily headed straight for Ollivanders to get her wand and then we set out to explore. We wandered through the shops and waited a really really long time for the Harry Potter ride. It was definitely our longest wait of the day but well worth it as the ride was sensational. Very different from the roller-coaster but rather than put in any spoilers, I’ll just say if you visit you need to do that ride.




It was close to 1pm by the time we were done with the ride and time for lunch. Having seen a few options around the park we opted for The Three Broomsticks. Hey, the line outside was only like five people long, so why wouldn’t you? A tiny little naïve part of me didn’t consider they line guy/gal might have had their fun inside the restaurant! Half an hour or so later, we enjoyed our delicious meal.


Having survived our time in Harry Potter land, we explored a bit more of the park, managed to squeeze in a couple more rides and shopped for junk souvenirs.

As our time in the park waned, Caroline wanted to get on one last ride, the flight of the phoenix back in Harry Potter land. The wait said fifty minutes. The clock said the park closed in fifty five. The ride doesn’t scream excitement. It’s a kids-focused roller coaster. After a bit of back and forth I did the right thing and agreed to line up while Emily shopped for additional souvenirs and on the condition she bought me the Mario Hat I’d decided I’d need for go-karting when my turn came. So we waited. Certainly the smartest thing I’d thought of before entering the park was having a book to read on my phone. It certainly aided with the eternal waiting.

Fortunately we managed to get onto the ride in about thirty minutes. I climbed in and pulled the safety bar down and waited. The attendant came up and indicated it needed to go one more click. Now I’m wasn’t the biggest guy in the park by any stretch, but there was simply no physical way that bar was going one more click. So they delayed the ride, ejected us and told us we’d have to wait and go in the front of the next one as there was extra leg room. So that was what we did before meeting up with Emily and getting out of the park.

For dinner, Sam found us an all you can eat Yakiniku joint. We had to split onto three different tables for all of us to fit in and so Caroline and I ended up alone while the other eight ended up at adjacent tables. On investigating the menu it quickly became apparent that the all you can drink option made economic sense. Let the fun begin.

Caroline and I sat and ate our way through a sizable portion of a cow, one tiny piece of meat at a time.

Over on the other tables, Thomas and Cameron were apparently making sure they made the most of the all-you-can-drink aspect of the offering two highballs (Whiskey and coke) at a time. By the time our allocated ninety minutes were up they were both well and truly ticking!

We somehow avoided the need for a small crane to extricate ourselves from the restaurant and waddled back to the hotel.

The Elicient was a lovely hotel and even had an onsen. Unlike lots of the tiny onsens our previous snow-based hotels have had, this one was quite large, well-lit and immaculately clean (though I should be clear we’ve never encountered an onsen that wasn’t clean). There was also a little feature on the TV in our room that would let you know how busy the onsen was. Caroline was waiting for ‘Vacancy’ which was the lowest level we’d seen. I opted to go down as quickly as I could given that was the state of the men’s when I made the decision. It certainly didn’t mean it was empty.

Its been four years since I was last in an onsen and waddling in off the back of an all-you-can-eat dinner isn’t necessarily the best decision one can make, but it was our last night in the hotel and the last chance I’d have in Osaka. So I went in.

Now I’m not going to say a lot about a room full of naked men because most of you probably don’t really want to know. What I will say is that for a middle-aged white guy not accustomed to regularly bathing naked in a room full of dudes, it’s a little confronting, especially when the first thing you’re confronted with is a large Japanese guy walking straight toward you in all his glory. I didn’t exactly study the people in there, but there was certainly instances of champignons in tall grasses and some worms working their way through the moss.

When I went to bathe in the onsen itself, there were three young guys sitting on the side of the onsen chatting. One of them causally with one foot in the water and his other leg at ninety degrees laid out flat along the rim of the bath with everything on display. A welcoming spread indeed. I took my place and realised I was sitting and looking exactly in that direction, so quickly re-orientated ninety degrees so I wouldn’t have to look there. Instead I was left watching everyone walk past me on their way in. Let’s just say I have a much expanded (and not sought out) idea of circumcision rates in Japan).

I stayed until the heat was too much and quickly withdrew to find Caroline still waiting for the indicator to be something less than full. It was still full at half past midnight when she finally conceded and went down. Who would have thought the onsen would be the place to be at half past midnight on a Monday!?

Japan 2023 - Day 9

It’s currently the 17th of Feb and we’re back on a train travelling from Kyoto to Nagano so we can get on a bus to Shiga Kogen for more skiing. Given the hours of joyous train travel involved, I’m hoping it means I can catch up on a few days of our adventures! Kind of Ironic that on day 9 of our travels we were actually travelling in the opposite direction, having left Madarao bound for Osaka.

To achieve that we had to endure the chaos of twelve of us packing up to get out of the lodge. I know from all my work travel that I have an amazing capacity to spread my crap a long way in a very short space of time.  So if you give me four nights in one location and a lot of stuff, getting it all back where it belongs can be something of a challenge. Add another person to that and packing day can be pretty stressful, especially with skis and stuff involved. We managed though, sending a bag of stuff we wouldn’t need straight to the airport and our ski gear off to Shiga Kogen to await our next round of skiing.

With the packing taken care of we bussed down to Iiyama to catch the train. We had just enough time to dart into the local supermarket … the first time we’d managed to get into one this trip. Given we had a decent travel time ahead of us (five hours or so) we stocked up on a heap of stuff we really didn’t need (as well as some fruit) to help survive the journey. I love the fact that you can get basically everything you need to satisfy your immediate and not so immediate needs from a Japanese Supermarket. I picked up a crumbed pork cutlet to eat on the train, some baked goods, chocolate, whiskey, chips … and even managed to get out of there just in time to make it back to catch the train.

It was also where we farewelled Michael and Olivia as they were due to head back home and so were travelling to Tokyo rather than Osaka.

From there it was mostly a matter of enjoying the train ride. All of our previous trips to Japan had seen us travel from Tokyo to Nagano, but this time we were heading down to Osaka for the first time and we travelled West form Nagano to Kanazawa and along the coast of the sea of Japan.

The scenery was spectacular; mountains, lakes, tunnels and of course an array of Japanese housing, but other than that there’s not a lot to say about a 5 hour train journey where everyone survived connections, no luggage was lost and we arrived at our destination. I mean, maybe it’s a sign that everyone’s grown up when no-one provides me fodder to write about. All I can say, is that I don’t always pee on the train, but when I do, I like to do it at 300+ Km/hr with a window people can watch  through! That’s a very slight embellishment. The window isn’t to the outside of the train (sadly) and is really just enough for someone to see if the toilet is occupied or not (and only for the urinal, not the sit-down toilet). But still, if they see you in there, it’s pretty damn clear what you’re doing.

We arrived in Osaka around mid-afternoon which gave us time to check in to the hotel and then to go for a walk and explore some of the local shopping (with my express purpose being to find some whiskey). I was targeting the Daimaru we’d seen in the train station, but along the way we stumbled across Liquor Mountain. It was like coming across a rich vein of gold. I managed to pick up an elusive bottle of Yamazaki along with another single malt to keep it company, but given I was going to have to carry anything I bought for the rest of the trip (and had already picked up a bottle earlier in the trip) and hadn’t really scouted out a lot of prices, I limited myself to the two.

We split up after that, exploring the shops, including finding another pokemon store and the food gallery at the bottom of the Daimaru, before meeting up to organise dinner.

We again split up and sent the youngsters off to do their own thing and opted for Yakitori with Jasn and Bel, which was entirely delicious and nice and simple to organise given there were only four of us to cater for!

We retired relatively early given our plan for the following day was to take on Universal Studios Japan and would require something of an early start.

Feb 15, 2023

Japan 2023 - Day 8

Today was our last day of skiing the slopes of Madarao and the weather threw a little bit of everything at us short of blizzards and sleet. The day dawned overcast and snowing and before too long decided add a pretty decent amount of fog to the mix. It certainly made the skiing difficult.

Conditions were challenging enough that Caroline, coming to the end of one of our early runs of the day, she went to ski down to the lift for the next run only to find out she’d turned left a little bit early. Off the side of the run, into the deep powder and fwoof she was all but buried in it. There wasn’t a lot I could do to help as that would have involved either skiing into it myself or wading in it to try and assist with her retrieval and so she was left to extricate herself, skis off and wading back up the two metres onto the run. Hey, at least it provided me with some amusement and at least there was no injuries!

Today was also Saturday which meant lots of weekend skiers up for the day/weekend. There were actual lines to get onto a lift. Like, sometimes we had to wait like five minutes. We were definitely aware that we’d been spoiled over the prior two days with simply skiing up and pretty much getting straight onto a lift. It also meant the runs were cut up a lot earlier in the day.

The day’s skiing was challenging enough that Caroline, Emily and I decided and early break was in order and settled in for a drink and a crepe. Progressively pretty much the entire crew joined us and we decided we’d get in a little bit more skiing before heading to an on-mountain burger joint for lunch to see what it was like.

We managed to pretty much all meet up at the appointed time and found the place to have limited seating, so we staked the joint out, watching and hovering over people in the hope that it would encourage them to eat quicker and vacate their seats. After a while we decided to start ordering so that maybe we could coincide getting lunch with getting a seat. We were told the wait would be an hour. I think it’s a sign of how tired we all were that we agreed to stay and wait.

We did eventually get burgers and they were pretty good, but they were waaaay over-priced (compared to what else we could get on the mountain) and the wedges spiced within an inch of death so all in all, not what we were hoping for.

After lunch we decided to coordinate a trip across the other side of the mountain so some could again ski the natural half pipe. That turned out to be a long and painful exercise in herding cats that meant we didn’t end up doing a whole lot of skiing in the afternoon. The sun did come out though, which was as much curse as blessing as we started to get slushy snow and icy patches that detracted from the enjoyment a little.


We returned to our accommodation ahead of dinner and the younger members of the party decided that Michael and Oliva’s little slide would be a whole let better with a toboggan. And even better than sliding down with a toboggan, it would be better again if there was a jump. Caroline and I return from the mountain about the time the jump had been introduced, hearing gales of laughter coming from the rear of the building. We had to investigate of course. Apparently it was due to this:

Prose has always been my main means of conveying things in this blog, but sometimes words really can’t do justice to what you're seeing. I stayed outside long enough to witness these two amusing runs down the slide:


But, well it was cold, I was tired and I really wanted to get the ski boots off so I returned inside along with Caroline. The kids however weren’t done. By the time they were the jump was apparently about a metre high and resulted in the following. I'm sure you'll take as much joy from watching these as I did given I wasn't there to witness it first hand!





After that there was little to do but eat, compare aches and pains, pack and get ready for our transfer to Osaka the following day.

I have to say though, dinner included a visit to what has been my favourite Japanese toilet of the trip so far. I know I've detailed various aspects of the toilets here previously, but this is honestly the first time I came across one that was wifi enabled!

Now I'm not entirely sure what that does for anyone, but would guess that perhaps you can activate the toilet functions from your phone. That would mean you could scroll your socials and jet-clean your bum at the same time! Happy days!

Also, I have to say I loved the fact that there was no need to touch any component of the seat/lid if you didn't want to!