To give you an idea of what's cause these emotions to come back, I'll take you through a rundown of my first few days away.
The flight over and all the tribulations that came along with it have already been documented on here. What I didn't tell you about was that after finally finding my hostel on the first night and making my bed in the dark, I ended up waking up multiple times throughout the night before finally giving up on sleep. I got up, grabbed my camera and went for a walk around the neighborhood. Nearby were many typical Tokyo streets and a massive temple and market. After that I went for a quick walk along the river before heading back to the hostel.
At this point I still needed to resolve my unplanned travel questions. With some assistance with the hostel staff I booked myself a bus ticket to the mountains but alas, wasn't scheduled to leave until the afternoon. I had hoped to leave in the morning but this gave me to opportunity to tour around Tokyo for a few hours. I grabbed my camera again and wandered over to the subway and headed for downtown. When I got there I wandered through the streets before walking to the Imperial Palace.
After stopping to pick up some department store basement lunch, I made it back to my hostel, pick up my bags and head back on the subway for Shinjuku to catch my bus. Unfortunately I underestimated how long it was going to take to get there and inadvertently left myself 15 minutes to get out of the subway and find the bus terminal. A few minutes of panic set in before I calmed down and used my brain to find out where I was going. I watched a few buses drive around the corner and I started to follow them. This technique managed to lead me directly to the terminal but did not help me speak Japanese to the staff when I got there. Astonishingly, I managed to decipher that I needed a wifi connection to view my ticket. Luckily I walked outside, found free wifi, and got on my bus for Hakuba.
The reason I was traveling to this random place in the mountains of Japan is because I have two great friends working up there. I met Hayley and Danny while working at Mt Buller in Australia and they were kind enough to invite me to visit them in Japan. Me being a sucker for friends and intercontinental travel couldn't resist the opportunity.
When I arrived in Hakuba I was met at the bus station and had my first reunion with someone that I had met on my travels. This was an excellent experience because my year away felt a lot like an isolated part of my life that never really interacted with my former life. Now I was back to being 'normal' and yet was hanging out with friends I'd made in Australia. Anyways, our first stop was for dinner and we managed to find a Mexican restaurant where I enjoyed watching Danny eat a chimichanga with chop sticks to meet his New Years resolution. After a brief stop for snacks we made it back to the Luna Hotel so I could get settled in and get over the last bit of jet lag. I was surprised to find out upon my arrival that this hotel was not only staffed almost entirely by Aussies, but every guest was also Australian. This was actually a nice surprise because I love hearing the accent but also meant that there were people who would appreciate my Freo Dockers beanie.
After getting barely enough sleep, I woke up bright and early to get some brekky before making my way up to the adjacent ski hill, HappoOne. The ski lift is a mere one minute walk from the hotel which makes life much easier if you're not renting ski gear. Either way, it was a nice surprise to see that the lift tickets were cheaper than Canada even though the mountain is huge and the caliber to host several races during the 1998 Winter Olympics. I guess the most fortunate part of the day was that we managed to get half a foot of snow overnight, then had the clouds burn off in the early morning for a stunning bluebird. My first day of skiing in Japan was one of the better days I've had, and the whole time I couldn't believe it was really happening.
To top the day off, we headed over to a restaurant called Double Black where Hayley and Danny knew the cook so we managed to get nearly every item on the menu served to us. We sat down and the food just kept coming and coming. By the time it was finished we ate our way through 10 courses. With the food and a large beer, the meal cost around $26. Unreal.
Given how great my first full in Hakuba was, it may be hard to believe that I was more excited about day two. We were scheduled to be catching a full day tour that would take us to see a troup of macaques that have learned how to stay warm in winter by spending most of their time in a hot springs bath. I'd seen this before on some BBC show and was thrilled to go see it for myself. The monkeys themselves were very docile and allowed people to get much too close. This made for some extraordinary photos.
After we got over the thrill of seeing monkeys up close, the tour took us to a local sake brewery for lunch.
After eating lunch we had enough time to go to a nearby museum and see Great Waves (most well-known Japanese piece of art). Then we were off to Zenkoji Temple. This complex is a mixture of Shinto and Buddhist themes and the temple itself is around 1400 years old. That brought our entertaining tour, and all the information I learned along the way, to an end.
We finished off the day with a stop at a local restaurant to eat an unnatural amount of sushi and maki. And of course no day is complete without picking up some Calpis and chocolate from the local supermarket.
This brought another fantastic day to a close and brings the end of this post. I'm having an unbelievable time so far. Hope you're enjoying the ride so far.
