Marc's Public Blog - Japan

2017/02/03 Jigokudani Yaen Koen: Yamanouchi's Monkey Park

π 2017-02-03 01:01 in Japan, Japan2017, Ntrips, Trips

Most people who go to Yudanaka/Yamanouchi do so only to see the moneky park. In our case we were there to go snowboarding, but it would have been a mistake not to go to the monkey park of course.

Our last morning in Yudanaka, after a nice breakfast at Ryokan Hakura, Onozawa-San nicely drove us to the park entrance and we got up there bright an early before everyone else, which is good considering how packed with tourists it got by 10:00 when we were about to leave. Thankfully it also opened 10mn early (08;50), giving us a bit of extra time. This also includes a 20-30mn hike on a snowy path from the winter entrance.

The monkeys are of course incredibly cute, and we found plenty of then in the natural onsen in the morning, as a way for them to warm up:

hot vent in the snow

the onsen was full

amazing it can stay in a branch like that

See more images for Jigokudani Yaen Koen: Yamanouchi's Monkey Park

2017/02/03 Winter and Snow in Japan: Hokkaido's Niseko, Lake Shikotsu, Otaru, and Sapporo

π 2017-02-03 01:01 in Japan, Japan2017, Ntrips, Trips

After a good time in Yudanaka/Shiga-Kogen and seeing the monkey park, it was time for another longish trip: a small train to Nagano, Shinkansen to Tokyo Station, JR train to Kanazawa, airport train to Haneda, plane to New Chitose Airport not too far from Sapporo, shuttle to rental car, and then longish drive at night (thanks Arturo) to Niseko, with some roads closed on the way (no thanks to Google Maps for sending us on them):

Good Bye Nagano

Haneda

Fuji-San, at sunset, lucky shot from the plane

Lots of driving in Sapporo to get some remote resorts (Rusutsu, Kiroro)

Many deer walking on the road, our rental car had a deer anti collision device for night driving

Mt Yotei was a nice volcano visible from all around. Some people hike it up for back country skiing

We ended up driving a fair amount, the car came it quite handy:

Outside of Niseko, we went to:

Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

Otaru Snow Light Path

A Quick Day Through Sapporo

Sapporo Snow Festival

See more images for Winter and Snow in Japan: Hokkaido's Niseko, Lake Shikotsu, Otaru, and Sapporo

2017/02/04 Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

π 2017-02-04 01:01 in Japan, Japan2017, Ntrips, Trips

After our first day skiing in Niseko, I figured it would be a great idea for us to go to the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival since in weekends they would shoot fireworks in the evening. While the festival was fun and worth going to, going on a saturday night was a very dumb idea because many people did the same, and cars backed up in the only street to get there until there was an ever growing traffic jam for the last few miles of driving, which I guess was due to the parking lot having fully filled up.
Thankfully I was able to use openstreemap to see a side street getting into the town (google maps failed to show it) and talk a traffic guard into letting us take it. From there, we got to the festival within minutes when the normal road was not moving and probably backed up for another 30mn or more. Advise to others: don't go on weekends, the fireworkds were not exactly special and not worth the traffic jam at all. A weekday without traffic is likely a better idea.

The festival, though was fun and pretty, too bad it was almost a 4H drive (return) from Niseko, and the bad traffic jam...

See more images for Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

2017/02/08 Otaru Snow Light Path

π 2017-02-08 01:01 in Japan, Japan2017, Ntrips, Trips

After Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, we still had to visit Otaru Snow Light Path, which was a short drive from Kiroro Snow World where we had a great day snowboarding.

We had a very quick look at Otaru while we still had a bit of daylight left, including the local (small) museum, mostly centered around trains:

cool to see snow all the way to the ocean

We then went to see the Snow Light Path festival:

I love you too Arturo :)

See more images for Otaru Snow Light Path

2017/02/09 A Quick Day Through Sapporo

π 2017-02-09 01:01 in Japan, Japan2017, Ntrips, Trips

Since we were going to Sapporo for the snow and ice festival, we left early to visit what we could during the day. We started with Shiroi Koibito Park, a chocolate cookie factory that pretends to be the charlie chocolate factory with oompa loompas, and while it is touristic, it's funy and pretty :)

Next, we went to historic village of hokkaido, which was a mix of old and new buildings, which felt a bit weird to me. I'd say it's not an essential visit, but it was nice to see with the snow: