It snowed like crazy all last night and today!
Today B went out to ski and I continued my non-skiing adventures. We actually had decent snow fall overnight and today so he has had a great time skiing around Hanazono and Hirafu:
I am currently spending my days at local onsens and also trying out different food places in Hirafu Village! Hirafu-tei onsen has been my default onsen as its right near the shuttle bus stop and when I go in the morning I usually have it all to myself. I did try to access The Vale onsen today but despite what their advertising claims, they are not open to local visitors. Hirafu-Tei in the mornings is pretty quiet though, so I really enjoy sitting out in the hot bath and looking at Mt Yotei on my own. I have now worked out not to sit to close to the right side of the outdoor bath though as it’s next to a bloody chairlift! Don’t want to blind any poor kids.
I had lunch at Tozanken Ramen on the Hirafu Main Street. They open at 11am and I was there at 10:45am and joined an already long line! When you eat here you collect a ticket to help them seat you in order. 
Considering they are based in the main village where everything is very expensive, their prices are reasonable (¥750 for my bowl of soy pork ramen) and it was good ramen. Not the best I’ve ever had but so far above the crap I ate at a ski cafeteria yesterday!
When B got back to the hotel after his day in the snow we had reserved the hot bath downstairs for ourselves for an hour. This is not a proper onsen (the water is not piped up from a geothermal source) but it is still styled like a traditional bath – you get naked, wash beforehand, sit in the hot bath. The difference here is you can make a private booking so we could actually go together rather than be gender separated. Unfortunately….it was broken *insert sad face here* so instead we went for a very quick soak at the Mt Yotei Hotel one before dinner.
For dinner tonight, our accomodation booked us into a Japanese bbq place that comes highly recommended called Orench. They said we needed a decent booking time there (it’s not a quick eat and run place) so allocated two hours to us between drop off and pick up.
You basically order small plates of different meats and then cook it yourself on a personalised bbq at your table. Awesome! The wagyu special rib was a highlight for us but we also tried beef tongue and chicken necks which were yum. Below is the sequence of me trying the beef tongue.
After we finished, we wandered next door to Sasa sake bar. They didn’t speak English but through pointing and lots of nodding we were able to try a bunch of different sake liquor flavours including:
– strawberry
– plum
– suzu
– orange
Japanese food eaten today: ramen, katsu curry, Yakitori (Japanese bbq), sake, umeshu (plum wine)
P.S. B’s friend discovered crab popcorn today. They are literal tiny crabs deep fried 😱
Mel's Travel Blog 