Japanuary ahoy! :)

So, we are off to Japan in just 9 sleeps. I AM A LITTLE BIT EXCITED. That might be putting it a bit mildly….SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW!! I have never been near real powder snow before so I am a bit nervous, the excitement is definitely ruling over the nerves though.

I did say I would do a more detailed blog post once work had finished up which was a week ago but I have been busy Christmas shopping, reading and sleeping so this is the first chance I have had to sit down and do it. Okay that isn’t true, but it is the first time I have felt like writing 🙂

9 sleeps! So where are we off to and when….

• We leave Perth on Saturday Dec 28th at 11am. We are flying domestic to Sydney, then swapping to the international terminal and flying to Narita (Tokyo). From there we swap again to a domestic airline and fly up to Sapporo, then it’s a coach trip of a few hours to our accommodation near Hirafu. All our flights are with Qantas, although the domestic one is with a partner airline. Although the actual flying time is not that long (17hrs approx), the stopovers, multiple flights and coach trip mean our travel time is close to 30hrs. Buh.
• We are staying at the Freedom Inn, just outside of Hirafu which is so pretty! The guy who runs it is English and super friendly, he has helped us book and organise all my ski hire and lessons over email as well as arranging for the first night we are there to order in dinner (no restaurant on site) and take us out to an onsen when we arrive to soak away some of the travel pains. He also sorted a coach for us from the airport so we don’t have to swap trains to get out there (a bit of a nightmare with a snowboard and suitcase).

Freedom Inn

• We are staying at the Freedom Inn until January 10th. This means we will spend NYE in Hirafu which should be interesting! I hear the village goes a bit nuts haha. The plan for this part of the trip is snow, snow, snow. Lots of boarding, skiing, throwing of snowballs, frolicking and so on. We can even do some night time skiing. I am sure I will need a few days off (I don’t think I can ski for 11 days straight!) so I plan to attempt some hiking, enjoy the onsens and see what else there is to do. Massage? Massage anyone?

The different trails we can explore on the mountain

Late evening/night skiing is something we might try. Depending on how well I am going in powder!

Onsens are something I am really looking forward to…once I get over the fear of being naked in front of LOTS of people (who are all the same sex as you). Onsens are heated baths that are apparently amazing to relax in after a day on the snow. We shall see how my anxiety copes with that idea.

• On January 10th we head back into Sapporo and fly down to Kyoto with JAL. We then catch the train into Kyoto and have accommodation booked in central Kyoto. We probably won’t get into Kyoto until the evening on that day due to flight times so I imagine it will be an early night. The 11th I plan to explore Kyoto and visit some temples and the palace, the 12th we are going out to Hiroshima for the day (History teacher Mel can’t miss that experience) and on the 13th we are going out to Nara; in Nara I get to feed the deer at Deer Park! Plus just enjoy a more relaxed day in a quieter area. On the 14th we will spend the morning in Kyoto exploring a bit more before catching the bullet train up to Tokyo.

Deer Park in Nara

• We are booked into a hotel in Tokyo until the 17th. So on the night we arrive (the 14th) we are going to see Tokyo Tower at night time and (hopefully) to some nice restaurant B has been to before…mmmm yum. Then on the 15th IT IS DISNEYLAND TIME!! The 16th we are going to Ueno Zoo to see the pandas and polar bears (can you tell I go to choose all the stuff for Tokyo?) and then on the 17th we fly back in the evening. During the day we will explore Tokyo a little more as our hotel has a luggage drop option so even though we have to checkout all the bags can stay there. We have a late departure (around 8pm from memory) and an overnight flight into Sydney very early, then on to Canberra. I will leave all my snow gear in Canberra and fly in to Perth Sunday January 19th.

That’s all folks! I am getting pretty damn excited about it all now. Had a bit of drama with my snow pants not being sent when they were meant to be (thanks heaps for that Torpedo 7) but luckily a Canberra friend sent a pair over with B and they should fit. Fingers crossed! Other than that I am fully organised and ready to go – accommodation paid for, clothes sorted, yen sorted, ski gear sorted (including my own ski boots this time!), thermals sorted annnnnd of course a long list of people to buy mickey mouse ears for at Disneyland SORTED!

Mel xo

P.S. How awesome does this look? SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW!

Looking down to Hirafu Village and back up to Mt. Yotei