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.