They roam freely around the mountain and the elder monkeys seem to spend their days in the hot spring, keeping warm... not a bad lifestyle :P
Pictures speak a thousand words so...
xoxo
Karate Kate
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Monkey Magic
A few weeks back, we headed north-west to Jigokudani Yaen-koen, near Nagano to see the snow monkeys. It's a 2hr Shinkansen ride to Nagano and then a 45min bus ride to the park... then a 45min hike to the monkey park! Whilst I'm not a big animal fan, the little monkeys were pretty damn cute when they were play fighting each other.
They roam freely around the mountain and the elder monkeys seem to spend their days in the hot spring, keeping warm... not a bad lifestyle :P
Pictures speak a thousand words so...
xoxo
Karate Kate
They roam freely around the mountain and the elder monkeys seem to spend their days in the hot spring, keeping warm... not a bad lifestyle :P
Pictures speak a thousand words so...
xoxo
Karate Kate
3 Castles and a Museum
Granted the title would be better if it was "4 Castles" but we're working on it! A few weeks ago we heard that we're heading back to Perth in mid May - I have a work review so they decided to demobilise me a couple of months early! Welcome news as it's been 3.5 years since I lived in Perth and there are about 6 new bubs, MANY friends and family that we miss dearly and need to see.
We wrote a bit of mental "bucket list" of things we need to see and do before we leave... here is the first few adventures...
Odawara Castle:
It's 1hr south of Yokohama by train and well worth the trip. A few of the plum trees were in bloom, we got to dress up like Samurai's and Japanese bee-keepers (I can only assume) and the castle's museum was fantastic.
Nara Park:
We took the Friday night Shinkansen to Osaka. We stayed above the main train station in a "pretty twin" hotel room... hmmm definitions may vary - I'd describe it as a shoe box with Flintstone rock hard beds and pillows! two nights away from our king size, super soft, pillow top layered luxury bed was torture!
The next morning we set off on the train (~45mins) to a town called Nara. They have many shrines within Nara Park, which also has thousands of deer wandering around. They have had their horns pruned and look a bit mangey but are well fed by tourists. The highlight was the giant buddha at Todai-ji Shrine.
Yahoo weather gave us 40% chance of rain... never trust Yahoo weather - it BUCKETED all day!
Osaka Castle:
In the afternoon we headed to Osaka Castle. Whilst the plum tree and cherry blossom garden was impressive, as was the castle itself, the museum was a bit ordinary... although a lift up the middle of the castle did save us climb 8 flights of stairs! Word of warning - when having photos with cut-outs... check what's on the other side first... and never trust a Kept Ninja!
Hiroshima:
Saturday night we took the Shinkansen a further 2hrs to Hiroshima. After walking about 10km that day, even a rock hard bed didn't stop me sleeping like a baby! We headed out the next morning to the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was truly fascinating - I was overwhelmed by some of the stories and moved through it a bit faster when there were gory photos - just awful. There are still around ~200,000 people in Japan who have to carry health records after their exposure in 1945 to the atomic bomb. The museum, memorials and A-bomb dome are very well laid out and the town itself is very clean and attractive.
We then headed over to Hiroshima Castle, which was rebuilt after the atomic bomb. No lift in this one... damn.
It's a 4hr Shinkansen back from Hiroshima to Yokohama... ouch! It's taken a week to recover from our weekend!
More adventures to come!
xoxo
Karate Kate
We wrote a bit of mental "bucket list" of things we need to see and do before we leave... here is the first few adventures...
Odawara Castle:
It's 1hr south of Yokohama by train and well worth the trip. A few of the plum trees were in bloom, we got to dress up like Samurai's and Japanese bee-keepers (I can only assume) and the castle's museum was fantastic.
Nara Park:
We took the Friday night Shinkansen to Osaka. We stayed above the main train station in a "pretty twin" hotel room... hmmm definitions may vary - I'd describe it as a shoe box with Flintstone rock hard beds and pillows! two nights away from our king size, super soft, pillow top layered luxury bed was torture!
The next morning we set off on the train (~45mins) to a town called Nara. They have many shrines within Nara Park, which also has thousands of deer wandering around. They have had their horns pruned and look a bit mangey but are well fed by tourists. The highlight was the giant buddha at Todai-ji Shrine.
Yahoo weather gave us 40% chance of rain... never trust Yahoo weather - it BUCKETED all day!
 |
| Watch out - the deer "butt" |
Osaka Castle:
In the afternoon we headed to Osaka Castle. Whilst the plum tree and cherry blossom garden was impressive, as was the castle itself, the museum was a bit ordinary... although a lift up the middle of the castle did save us climb 8 flights of stairs! Word of warning - when having photos with cut-outs... check what's on the other side first... and never trust a Kept Ninja!
 |
| damn... |
Hiroshima:
Saturday night we took the Shinkansen a further 2hrs to Hiroshima. After walking about 10km that day, even a rock hard bed didn't stop me sleeping like a baby! We headed out the next morning to the Hiroshima Peace Museum. It was truly fascinating - I was overwhelmed by some of the stories and moved through it a bit faster when there were gory photos - just awful. There are still around ~200,000 people in Japan who have to carry health records after their exposure in 1945 to the atomic bomb. The museum, memorials and A-bomb dome are very well laid out and the town itself is very clean and attractive.
We then headed over to Hiroshima Castle, which was rebuilt after the atomic bomb. No lift in this one... damn.
It's a 4hr Shinkansen back from Hiroshima to Yokohama... ouch! It's taken a week to recover from our weekend!
More adventures to come!
xoxo
Karate Kate
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Happy Hirafu Hoppers Return
After a great week in Niseko last March, we booked in our 2012 trip early.This time we had one new hare (Captain Simmo) and two new ski bunnies (Splintah and Miss Quotable).
Before we hit the slopes we had two days in Sapporo for the Snow Festival. There are three locations of the festival in town. We hit the Odori site first. It comprised of about 3km of snow sculptures and a jump ramp for boarders.
The second site was Susukino - they had ice sculptures and sculptors at work.
And the third site was Tsudome, which had snow slides, snow rafting etc. We unleashed our inner children and went nuts!
After Sapporo we bussed to Hirafu, Niseko and had 6 days on the slopes. With the help of Captain Simmo, Kept Ninja and I ventured on many reds and one black slope... for those European skiers out there, Japan has green, red and black... no blue... although 28 degree slope on some green runs sounds kind of blue to me! We had one private lesson which helped us get our ski's parallel and saved our legs from the painful snow plough!
We wore our heart rate monitors again and kept track of our runs...
Average Distance per day: 11.5km
Average Calories per day: 1,460 Cal
We had over a metre of snow whilst we were there - visibility wasn't flash all the time but better to have a soft landing than ice!
We stayed at The Vale, next door to Alpine Ridge where we stayed last year... in comparison:
Pro's of The Vale:
- onsen downstairs (indoor and outdoor) and heated pool (outdoor)
- Nice restaurant downstairs
- superb shower
- 15m from the Ace Family Lift
Cons:
- one flight of stairs from the lockers required to get to the first lift - I know, we're ski snobs :P
- ski lockers were too small
Overall - great accommodation!
We also tried out some new restaurants and bars in town...
- The Barn - set 3 course menu - delicious food, great cocktails, great ambiance.
- The Ice Bar - we froze, but the cocktails were good and the novelty-factor was high... I didn't try the cave ice bar... claustrophobia set in!
- Steak Rosso Rosso - not as wonderful as we remembered it but still nice beef!
- Dragon - a misinterpretation of the menu lead to me order sushi... in -10 deg weather... doh
- Abu Cha 2 - again, the food wasn't as good as the memory... funniest thing was Captain Simmo's face when he saw how small his crab dish was :)
- Tamashii Bar - we had great burritos here and played pool whilst we waited to check in.
- Sekka Cafe - we had a great venison gnocchi
Besides the eating, skiing and cocktails, we also had a bit of fun on the tubes at Hanazono... the signs said to sit in the tube and go down one at a time... but seriously, how is that fun?... we raced...face forward - Kept Ninja has great video footage of this and skiing... hopefully we can get them on youtube soon and I'll post the link... for now - here's some tame video of our first runs... Miss Quotable won most races... though both she and Splintah had course collision with Kept Ninja of which he came out unscathed.
Overall and great holiday with lots of laughs and great company... back to work and the real world now!
xoxo
Karate Kate
Before we hit the slopes we had two days in Sapporo for the Snow Festival. There are three locations of the festival in town. We hit the Odori site first. It comprised of about 3km of snow sculptures and a jump ramp for boarders.
The second site was Susukino - they had ice sculptures and sculptors at work.
And the third site was Tsudome, which had snow slides, snow rafting etc. We unleashed our inner children and went nuts!
After Sapporo we bussed to Hirafu, Niseko and had 6 days on the slopes. With the help of Captain Simmo, Kept Ninja and I ventured on many reds and one black slope... for those European skiers out there, Japan has green, red and black... no blue... although 28 degree slope on some green runs sounds kind of blue to me! We had one private lesson which helped us get our ski's parallel and saved our legs from the painful snow plough!
We wore our heart rate monitors again and kept track of our runs...
| Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | |
| Holiday | 1 | 1 | |||
| Jumbo | 1 | ||||
| Green | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Sennoki | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Family | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Boyo | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Beginners Access | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Alpen | 2 | ||||
| Kings Access Area Pass | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Kogen | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Annupuri Family | 6 | ||||
| Junior | 5 | ||||
| Dynamic | 1 | ||||
| Utopia | 1 | ||||
| Annupuri Shirakaba | 1 | ||||
| Shirakaba | 1 | ||||
| Banzai | 2 | ||||
| Enchantment | 1 | ||||
| Makes Sense | 1 | ||||
| Namara | 1 | ||||
| Cruiser | 1 | ||||
| Renraku | 1 | ||||
| Silver Dream | 2 | ||||
| Distance (m) | 11215 | 8257 | 16267 | 7632 | 13884 |
| Calories | 1200 | 1200 | 1700 | 1200 | 2000 |
Average Distance per day: 11.5km
Average Calories per day: 1,460 Cal
We had over a metre of snow whilst we were there - visibility wasn't flash all the time but better to have a soft landing than ice!
We stayed at The Vale, next door to Alpine Ridge where we stayed last year... in comparison:
Pro's of The Vale:
- onsen downstairs (indoor and outdoor) and heated pool (outdoor)
- Nice restaurant downstairs
- superb shower
- 15m from the Ace Family Lift
Cons:
- one flight of stairs from the lockers required to get to the first lift - I know, we're ski snobs :P
- ski lockers were too small
Overall - great accommodation!
We also tried out some new restaurants and bars in town...
- The Barn - set 3 course menu - delicious food, great cocktails, great ambiance.
- The Ice Bar - we froze, but the cocktails were good and the novelty-factor was high... I didn't try the cave ice bar... claustrophobia set in!
- Steak Rosso Rosso - not as wonderful as we remembered it but still nice beef!
- Dragon - a misinterpretation of the menu lead to me order sushi... in -10 deg weather... doh
- Abu Cha 2 - again, the food wasn't as good as the memory... funniest thing was Captain Simmo's face when he saw how small his crab dish was :)
- Tamashii Bar - we had great burritos here and played pool whilst we waited to check in.
- Sekka Cafe - we had a great venison gnocchi
Besides the eating, skiing and cocktails, we also had a bit of fun on the tubes at Hanazono... the signs said to sit in the tube and go down one at a time... but seriously, how is that fun?... we raced...face forward - Kept Ninja has great video footage of this and skiing... hopefully we can get them on youtube soon and I'll post the link... for now - here's some tame video of our first runs... Miss Quotable won most races... though both she and Splintah had course collision with Kept Ninja of which he came out unscathed.
Overall and great holiday with lots of laughs and great company... back to work and the real world now!
xoxo
Karate Kate
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