Nyuto Onsen – The Onsen Tour

Having skipped the cable car in Hakodate I make my first train in good time. Between the fish market breakfast and the walk around town I managed to go to the station to reserve my tickets in the hope of better seats. The first train is a normal JR train. 2 hours on I change at Shinaomori for the JR Tohoku Shinkansen for the next leg of my journey. I only had 13 minutes to get from one platform to the other which given the different networks was a short walk. I find my carriage and seat and get settled. My seat was next to an old lady so I gamble and sit in the 2 empty seats. But given the train was a rapid service to Tokyo my luck ran out at the next stop and I had to move to my allocated seat. Seeing the snow covered Japanese countryside is quite humbling. Its so different from Tokyo with simple one or two story buildings scattered around. Seeing the sparse road traffic makes me realise how bloody fast we are travelling. It’s only when I get off the train I see the full beauty of the Shinkansen train that I’ve only ever seen on TV documentaries. Just the nose itself is 2 long car lengths. I guess the aerodynamics play a large part in the whole bullet train set up. Last leg is another Shinkansen, but just the one stop to Tazawako where I have to get an hour long local bus transfer to Arupa Komakusa and the onsen I booked will come pick me up. So Nyuto Onsen is an area close to Lake Tamagawa (deepest lake in Japan) that boasts 7 different onsens, each with different mineral compositions and some dating back to the 1600s. The one I was staying at Tsurunoyu is a mixed onsen that had 20-30 rooms and probably the most famous in the are. When staying at any of these onsens the price includes dinner and breakfast. The mixed thing wasn’t that big a deal as the way they are set up allows people to get changed in separated changing rooms and enter the onsen discreetly. The water is a cloudy milky white and combined with the steam off the onsen you would struggle to see far in front of you. I get there close to dinner time so opt to onsen after dinner. Dinner was an interesting collection of foraged mountain vegetables, mushrooms and fish. It was nice to see such good use of what was around them. Each normal thing you would find at a Japanese dinner was slightly different. The soup had mountain yam in it. A creamy slippery potato like dumpling that added a little bite to the soup. Deep fried rice ball and some sort of fried chicken are one of the tasty highlights. The pickles were all smoked in a lovely woody flavour which quickly subsides when the vinegar kicks in. The fish was on a wooden skewer with a salt bake type layer probably to protect it from the wood fire it was sitting over. A whole arrange of different tasty mushrooms throughout the dishes and as I eat them I wonder if I will have funny dreams tonight. A short while after dinner I onsen and have the whole place to myself. Given its outdoor its more like a warm soak. I hunt for the onsen source like a crab trying to keep my whole body submerged and must have looked something special. It wasn’t that much hotter so I shuffle around a bit more. In that process I feel my buttocks get a little hotter than comfortable and realise there are various natural outlets from the gravel covered floor. I head for the indoor onsen and its a much hotter affair. It almost scolds the skin as you get in, but only for the first second or so as my body gets used to the temperature. I realised that the slightest movement of any body part causes that same initial sensation to reoccur. Better not get too excited then hey? I return to my room to find my bed made (awesome!) I try and revise my Japanese vocabulary as a couple of brushes of difficult conversations encourage me to get my head back in the books. 2 weeks off snowboarding in Australia didn’t really help matters either. The next morning I onsen before breakfast and I book my shuttle to the onsen and the lady is really helpful in helping me with the logistics. I have to get a shuttle to one of the other onsens and from there I can walk along to the others. She also gives me a number of bus schedules to help me get back to the train station as well as the Tokyo train schedule. I buy a ticket booklet which allows me to go to 5 onsens and take the shuttle for about $10. Ganiba onsen – I’m dropped off by the bus and met by an angry looking man (and yes I realise the irony in me saying that) and he points me to the 2 different onsens available. The first is an outdoor onsen which is clear as day and has a smattering of egg white like particles in it. To get to it you have to walk through a cut out path with snow walls twice my height either side. As the sun comes out and reflects in the virgin white snow its hard to make out the difference between floor and wall. As I bathe a couple of guys come by and take a snap and then see me bathing, apologise and carry on snapping. One tries to have a full on conversation with me and after whats seems like his life story and apologise and explain I can’t speak Japanese. He apologises profusely, gets naked and bathes the other side of the onsen. I try the other onsen the other side of this hotel and its a hottie. A lovely wooden tub which is really smooth. The water is not as clear and loads more white particles that resembles the egg in a chicken and sweetcorn soup. As I doze off slightly my perfirial vision sees each of the eggy particles spitting out a rainbow along its edge as the sunlight beams through the windowed wall. Pretty special but I do wonder if any of those mushrooms might have taken hold. Oogama onsen – pretty standard after the others but was amazed to see the size of the icicles hanging pretty close to the outdoor onsen’s edge. This indoor one was the hottest yet and I bail after no more than 5 minutes hoping to save myself for the others.

I planned to head back to Tokyo as there wasn’t a great deal that had caught my eye between here and Tokyo except a certain nuclear reactor that I’d rather keep clear of. Ben was away in the Philippines and I try to arrange to pick up the keys from one of his friends, but proves difficult mainly due to my last minute plan and complete lack of mobile phone reception the night before. I skip the last onsen I had planned to go to. Firstly because I walked straight past it and secondly because the bus back to the train station and train back to Tokyo only run hourly with a 40 min gap in between. Much more hot soaking and I think I’d pass out anyway.

I get on the bus back to the station as it picks up quite a few passengers on the way. One of which a young family who decide to put their fold up buggy in the aisle. A short while into the journey I wake up suddenly from a post onsen nap and drop my phone and bus ticket I was holding. It had fallen under the buggy and reach down to get it holding on to the seat in front for balance. Ouch – feck. Did I just dislocate my arm? Yes I did. Did I just managed to dislocated it after avoid serious injury including this bloody recurring one after all that snowboarding. Yes I did. Numpty. I couldn’t really afford to go to hospital as I was on a pretty tight schedule to pick up Ben’s keys. After liaising with Ben in the Philippines and planning out the weekend in Tokyo the last thing I wanted to do was delay it all and have to depend on my Japanese friends to help me translate over the phone to the doctors that I had managed to dislocate my arm picking up a bus ticket. At this point I was thinking of heading back to Tokyo (3.5 hrs away) and getting it seen to there. But then wondered how was I going to get my heavy rucksack or suitcase off the beaten up old bus. Every bump the bus hit was hurting so I decided to try and do it myself. I read an article maybe about 2 years ago and had a couple of episodes where I could have but didn’t try it. This was the time to pull it out the bag. Medic friends always tell me that it is procedure is to first exclude a fracture, but even I couldn’t be that unlucky and the trauma was low impact (a bloody bus ticket!). I put my hand into my shoulder socket to check and yep its definitely out. I put my hands together and interlocked my fingers and clasped my bent knee. I straighten the knee and voila. Crisis averted. Was it really that easy? Appears so. Pretty painless too. Still I won’t be trying to do that again in a hurry, but good skill to have in the back pocket. Well done Tim – you now no longer wear the badge of always being there when I pop my arm out. Just only when it requires medical attention. Anyway onward back to Tokyo to celebrate my birthday!

Hakodate

It’s a 3.5hr train ride to Hakodate from Sapporo so it was unlikely I’ll get up to observation point before the cable car closes for the evening. So when I arrive I check in and go find something to eat. A bit of research had pointed me to a few places, but the top listed Japanese options seemed to be closed. I opt for the Lucky Pierrot (burger) option which turns out to flood tripadvisor mainly with comments its not the gourmet meal people were expecting. The joint is different to say the least, but was willing to give it a go despite the reviews on tripadvisor. The set up feels like a cross between a dirty fried chicken joint and a wimpy that has been decorated by gypsies. The food isn’t that bad. Its fast food and is what it is. The chicken burger is more like chunky karage that is well seasoned between a sweet toasted sesame bun with more mayo than I care for. The chips come in a mug with some kind of chill and more mayo. The drink of course is the traditional accompaniment of iced tea. I was kind of grateful for something with meat in it as the back to back mainly raw seafood is getting a bit too rich for me and need something else to balance it out.

Not sure I’ll rush back to Hakodate just for this, but it’s worth a try.

Since I had already missed the last cable car I decide to call it an early night so I can head to the fish market at 6am for breakfast the next morning. I had a prawn, scallop and crab rice bowl for lunch which was simple, but really tasty. The advice of the guy was to use soy for the prawn and scallop, but have the crab plain.

I picked up a steamed crab bun for a snack just to try. I love these filled with char siu so though would be amazing with crab. It tasted different to the sweet/salty combo I’m used to. I’ve had better steamed buns, but had to try it. Was unlikely to get it many other places outside of Japan.

I walked around the old Motomachi district which was rich in British, American and Russian ties and interesting histories of fires that burnt down the city, things being rebuilt and the cycle repeating itself.

Given the late opening time of the cable car I wasn’t going to be able see the city from above without significant risk to missing my complex schedule of trains and buses to Nyoto Onsen.

Otaru

I’m told me that Otaru was famous for its seafood and glassware. The storm still blowing I still managed to walk to the fish market a friend suggested to go for breakfast. It was a late start so it was too late to eat without spoiling lunch so I just had a walk around. I got asked by a local if I was Thai which was a first. But I realised my snow rat goggle mark suntan probably make me look darker than normal. Some amazing sea cucumber and blow fish specimens there which make it special.

I waited patiently outside a restaurant that was recommended to me, but unfortunately it was closed. Gutted. I walked back towards the station where a smaller market I walked through earlier and find lunch. Surprising to see a bunch of people from Hong Kong at the place I pick. These guys were on the same bus from Niseko and they clock the coincidence too. What they didn’t realise was I could understand cantonese and hear them speaking about me.

Manage to get back to Sapporo by 1pm in the hope of reaching Hakodate earlier, however due to the weather a lot of the regular scheduled trains were not running and I had to wait to 5pm. Bummer. Onto Hakodate

Sapporo, Hokkaido

So I’ve decided to travel back to Tokyo slowly by train. I don’t have all the time in the world so can’t travel too much of Hokkaido, but plan to make use of my 7 day rail pass to do a bit of exploring and make a few stops on the way down. On the morning of departure from Niseko, Simon dropped me off by the Welcome Center / Bus station.

I Takkubin my snowboard back to Tokyo. A god send of a service where for $10-$20 USD you can send your luggage anywhere in Japan. It only takes a couple of days, but takes the pain of trying to drag your snowboard to and from the airport at both ends. Even more so when travelling around the rest of Japan. This may be a good point in time to tell Ben he might be expecting a snowboard at his apartment on Monday morning 🙂

We are informed the bus to Sapporo has to take an alternative route due to the adverse snow conditions and they tell us it will take 3.5 hours as opposed to the usual 3. Ironically it actually only takes 2.5hrs. The bus is due to make 5 stops around Sapporo and I’m booked on the last stop. I do a quick look up on the map from my phone and I’d much better get off at an earlier drop.

As with the way in Japan the drive insists I stick to the plan and assures me the last stop is near my hotel. Oh how wrong he was. I was now off the bus 5 km from my hotel and running low on battery. I stand outside the bus for 5 minutes trying to figure out what to do when the driver opens the door and says its all ok and he’ll drop me off at the main station near my hotel. He must have made a call because he had two English speaking reps waiting for me to make sure I could get to my destination. Obviously my Japanese is not anywhere near the ability to explain myself, and no doubt there will be more of these situations to come.

I find my way to the hotel and drop my bags and have a wonder around the sights of Sapporo. By this point the winds are incredible strong blowing the fallen snow to make visibility terrible.

Though throughout the day I think I experienced all four seasons. The roads are covered in a powdered snow that resembles that of the stuff you get in indoor snow domes. Its a good few centimetres deep on the roads and falls away as you walk on it, but the temperature is so cold it doesn’t want to melt. It makes crossing roads a challenge, but I see hunched over old ladies manage fine, so just tell myself to man up and just get on with it.

I make a trip the clock tower and learn a bit about the history of the town. Still amazed how early on the Americans were here.

Then I head to the Sapporo Factory. Part of the old beer manufacturing estate turned into shopping mall that seems to specialise in mountain sports gear.

A little misnavigated walk later and I’m in the Sapporo beer factory – surprisingly interesting learning about the history of Japanese brewery.

Catch a bus back into the city centre and walk around the fish market. Humungous crabs bigger than my head! Had the fortune to try some back in Niseko. Chunkier than lobster and oh so sweet.

I find the Soup Curry place my friend recommended. I thought Japanese didn’t do spicy, but this brought on a good sweat.

Walking back to the hotel the city seemed to liven up at night. I walked past the TV Tower and decide to venture up to the observatory. The storm was taking full effect and though I could see as far as the famous Ski jump, the photos came out terrible as the camera couldn’t decide what to focus on.

Though against the norm I caved in and bought the souvenir photo of me with the background of Sapporo in better conditions.

Niseko, Hokkaido – The final snowboarding chapter

After 2 weeks in Niseko I can truly say its changed my perspective on snowboarding, both in the different pleasures it can bring, but also educated me in the dangers the fun can bring. (Don’t worry Mum it was all done safely).

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve managed to experience the joys of riding through the gated areas of the Niseko resorts. Ungroomed and unpatrolled areas which are only opened when the conditions are good and safe enough to do so. Steep and deep in snow with lots of trees to meander through. Incredible, just incredible.

Physically challenging both when you have to dig yourself out the powder if you have fallen and mentally challenging for having to plan your line down and respond to the terrain in front of you.

I’ve hiked more times than can remember this trip. Sometimes through marked gates, other backcountry routes to peaks (with friends with significant backcountry experience) and other times with organised guides. I’ve had to dig deep as I’ve found both stamina and mental determination are both essential, but also learnt a great deal about equipment and clothing. Whilst here I borrowed or rented various bits, but I’m definitely investing in some avalanche gear before I return to Japan to snowboard (which is a certainty). More so for the piece of mind and knowing your own gear when it matters would be critical. I wanted to do an avalanche course, but time and overall exhaustion from the trip didn’t really allow.

Most of the time it was to find those mountain faces which haven’t been touched of if they have only the few who were willing to invest the hours to hike to the drop points. Some of the most mind-blowing runs in my 14 years of snowboarding that I will continue to dream about.

The mountain face we conquered

The ridge we walked up. Photo Credit: Sayaka Takano

Mt Yotei

Photo Credit: Sayaka Takano

At the top! Photo Credit: Sayaka Takano

Photo Credit: Sayaka Takano

Other times it was just as much for the hiking experience – a great physical workout which still probably doesn’t net out the insane amount of food I’ve eaten.

A finally by no means least of the new experiences is cat skiing. Not cheap at $300 USD, but given a lift pass is about $50 a day I think you get what you pay for.

We managed to fit about 7 runs in on the day. We got picked up at 8am for briefing and equipment hire. The operator took us to a disused resort where the cat would drive us up to various points on the mountain and we would ride down through completely untouched runs given we were the only people on the mountain. We were lucky with the weather as it had dumped the night before and were told it was pretty tracked out with previous 5 days tours where it had not snowed. A pretty awesome bento lunch was provided as was a collection of videos and photos as part of the package. Great fresh track runs and some interesting chutes out which aren’t too dissimilar to the boarder cross in the olympics. Only single filed, much more narrow and unfamiliar turns which you need to be prepared for. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the explaining, but something I would definitely factor into my trips in the future.

I also lucked in on accommodation. I stayed for a good few days in the normal lodge set up with the Tokyo Gaijins group but got the opportunity to share an amazing 17 sleeper chalet through Shane’s network of snow junkie friends. Kasetsu which was run by The Niseko Company was an insane set up that combined Japanese style with Canadian build quality. It was being in an episode of MTV cribs for 4 whole luxurious days. Would highly recommend doing this if you can.

To complement this it was a complement of extremely considerate and fun people from all over the world and varying walks of life.

So many laughs, snow experiences and one epic house party. I will forever be grateful to Shane and Xue for introducing me to the group, Hugh for dropping out (sorry dude but you missed out big time!) and most of all Don and Rochi for organising it all.

The money shot

Prior to this my Niseko experience had been very different. The massive influx of tourists, so much so it was so far removed from the Japan I have thus far experienced and grown to love. A popular destination for the Australians and Chinese made for a weird combination where staff would typical speak to you in English because they either couldn’t speak Japanese or were expecting you not to try.

The experience was particularly marred when walking down the street a young Australian walking towards me who thought he was being smart in front of his mates shouted out to me “Ni Hao” in an attempted comical Chinese accent. His ignorance was somewhat thrown back when I replied in English to point out his comments may have been of racist persuasion. I would like to point out that I don’t bare any grudge against that great nation. Firstly because some of the best people I’ve met in my travels have been Australian and secondly it’s no different to the British contingents the bring such a great reputation to our nation in the various Mediterranean islands destinations. I sound like an old man, but where is the sense of pride in representing your home nation.

And finally a note of thanks to Simon who kindly put me up in a bed for a couple of nights while I sorted myself out on my slow journey back to Tokyo. Not only did he offer to put me up for a while, he carted me and my luggage around, showed me some pretty awesome parts of the resort runs I hadn’t really explored properly and offered an interesting local insights into Niseko. Thank you.

He had mentioned one evening as part of his tenancy agreement he was required to clear the balcony of snow, so after he left for work one morning I spent about an hour shovelling the snow and compact ice off. More as a small gesture of thanks but it turned out to be quite a satisfying job. Hilariously as Simon returned from work I had cleared the balcony his house mate was responsible for and he pointed to the other balcony he was responsible for which was still caked in a meter of snow and compressed ice. Oooops.

Walking back to Simons one afternoon I was met by 4 open back trucks and some huge piece of machinery that picked up the 2 stories worth of snow at the side of the roads. I recalled a conversation with friends another evening where they said they had that much snow they have to take the snow away. Crazy! And this was suppose to be a rubbish year for snow!

Apologies for the long post, but it’s been a big two weeks of my life that will remain the best (and possibly most exhausting) 2 weeks of my riding career.

Zao, Myoko, Nozawa – Snowboarding the next chapter

Finding it difficult to collate and write about the copious amounts of food I’ve eaten in Tokyo so I’m going to keep that on the back burner for now and carry on with my other updates.

So after my last snowboarding post I’ve returned to Myoko Kogen, Nozawa Onsen and also went to Zao Onsen for the snow monster festival.

Myoko and Nozawa brought much the same back country and tree run riding pleasures as they did before and now seems a distant memory. Fun times with friends.

Zao was a change of scene and the annual snow monsters festival provided the ideal opportunity to ride a new mountain range. This time we went with Tokyo Snow which also provided an opportunity to meet other people. My recently expatriated friend Jolyn was also here with people from Google so there was a fresh set of people party with. Ben and I managed to get up to the snow monsters after navigating our way through what I had worked out to be the quickest route. Those plans were quickly scuppered when we were told at one of the main lifts there was a 40 minute wait.

We eventually made our way to the top of the resort on a beautiful blue sky day to see the natural beauty of the Snow Monsters. The fir trees, that typically catch a lot of snow, are also subject to heavy snow filled winds which cause the trees to be encapsulated in a crusted snow. These are so heavy they cause the weaker parts of the trees to bow and eventually form what looks like monsters. An amazing freak of nature when a whole forrest turns into something out of a fantasy novel.

Snow conditions weren’t great for riding, but they were ideal for a hike to the top and taking some beautiful photos of Ben within the snow monsters and others of me with Ben’s finger.

Might have been a bit cheeky, but rather than walk down we rode down by the side of the monsters.

On returning back to Tokyo a friend who will remain nameless snowed me a video of them riding through the snow monsters.

Nagasaki

So I ended hitting the train times with pretty awful luck. I ended up waiting at Nishitetsufutsukaichi station for over an hour. A brief check and I thought the trains ran every hour, however they were every 2 hours to where I wanted to get to. Oh well was a good time to research and update the blog.

Nagasaki’s chinatown seemed to come up on the radar quite a lot on the research especially their sara ramen so I checked into Hostel AKARI and they showed me round all the facilities, pointed out the main attractions in Nagasaki and gave me some discount vouchers for popular sites. Score. The hostel had a nice vibe to it. Friends chatting and strangers watching TV together, a hostel vibe I hadn’t seen until now.

I got settled and headed out to hunt down these noodles. Walking through the narrow main local shopping district into town and 15 minutes along I hit the well lit 2 main intersecting streets of chinatown. Lots of street stalls selling steamed buns and dim sum like snacks, but I save myself for dinner. The noodles were more like fried ramen, crispy and fragrant. However the topping was a little bland. Some gems of good ingredients, but think I could do better (which isn’t saying much), but is normally how I judge a dish’s various aspects.

The best way to get around Nagasaki was the streetcars (trams) and for 500 yen a day tourists can ride them all day. Pity I only noticed this at the end of my first day sightseeing.

As mentioned in my previous post I thought getting to know more of the detail about the atomic bomb droppings was pretty a somber experience. However even more having visited Nagasaki to learn that it was actually a secondary target and had only been hit because the primary target was covered in fog and the pilots couldn’t see the target. Less casualties than Hiroshima, but just as unnecessary.

I venture to some of the shrines around Nagasaki which are dotted around some of the higher grounds of the city a lot of them next to each other but dedicated to different deities or teachings. Some pretty similar stories of things being burnt or moved and rebuilt. The Sofukuji temple below with strong Chinese influences and apparently each part was shipped over from China and assembled here. They are backed up the hills by their associated cemeteries which being deserted and a little overgrown was a little eerie to walk through.

Not that hungry, but I did want to try some of those steamed buns and treats in Chinatown. Not a good as the ones I’ve had else where but I think that mainly because they were left in the steamers too long and the bun was too soft. Belly pork was damn good though and full of flavour.

I was told by another traveller that I must go to the ropeway view at night. “It’s the third best night view in the world after HK and Monaco”. I had read top 3 in Japan but either way had better go check it out!

So it was beautiful view. Pretty windy but the city was quite spread out leaving a great night view spectacle. Certainly not top 3 in the world, but worth a look.

Thought I fill my belly with something more Japanese this evening and throw myself into the deep end with more Japanese only situations. The guy serves me up an amazing salad. Not the healthiest, but very tasty with lots of various nuggets of yum.

Tomorrow was going to be a pretty heavy travel day to Miyakojima for a spot of hot weather, scuba diving and beach time so I head back and hit the sack.

	Debra Olenski on Gyoza Lau, Harajuku
	TonyJ2 on Nyuto Onsen – The Onsen…
	LucyL on Gyoza Lau, Harajuku
	LucyL on Tonkatsu
	Alan on Tempura over rice (TenDon…

Taste Bud Adrenaline Junkie

In the search for that next level culinary and adrenaline experience

Month: February 2014