TripRoundUnder

The time had come for our delayed honeymoon to Japan! Steve’s uncles who unfortunately could not make the journey for our wedding provided money towards an overseas honeymoon and we chose Japan! 

The start of the holiday was not without complications. Arriving at our stopover in Cairns we were informed that our checked baggage had been left at Adelaide airport! Not ideal as our first stop was the snow and we kind of needed our cold weather gear! 

If you know anything thing about us, we are soft when it’s comes to the cold, so having limited baggage was a little stressful!

Arriving in Tokyo we spent a decent amount of time at the airport trying to sort things out, but hopefully our bags would be eventually meeting us in Nozawa Onsen. We got our first taste of Japans efficient but slightly stressful public transport system and made our way to our 1 night accommodation in Tokyo and also sampled our first of many ramens for dinner.

The next morning the moment we had been waiting for, our Shinkansen or bullet train to the snow (Via a Tokyo shopping trip to get some cold weather gear, thanks Jetstar)!! This was a big moment as Steve had never seen snow and all he wanted was to have a snowball fight! The bullet train was incredible, moving so fast but so smoothly was very impressive and we started to get excited as snow topped mountains and towns appeared outside the train windows.

Arriving at Iiyama, we were on a bus up to Nozawa and the views got even better, it really did look like a fairytale out the window. Arriving at Nozawa, we immediately went for a walk and the views were spectacular, definitely living up to our expectations and what we had been told. Steve even got his snowball fight and to make a snowman!

We managed to sort out ski (Lauren) and snowboard (Steve) gear for the next day and even booked in lessons as Steve obviously had never been on a snowboard and Lauren hadn’t skied since she was a child. 

Snowboarding turned out to be just as difficult as we had thought, Steve spent a lot of the first day falling over, luckily the snow was soft as there had been a big snowfall overnight. Lauren found early going a lot easier and was cruising around with only a few minor stacks. The views around the ski area really made the rough start worth it though, can’t be mad when you’re looking out at these mountains!

The real reason we visited Japan ie our love of food was definitely taken care during our time in Nozawa as we sampled all the different types of Japanese cuisine we could get our hands on! The steamed dumplings were perfect for the frosty weather.

Over the next few days Steve managed to start falling a little less and went up the ski lifts and sampled a few of the green slopes and had an awesome time cruising around. Our bags even arrived! It was a nice change to have more than 2 sets of clothes!  

We also experienced what makes Nozawa famous around Japan and the world, its Onsens. These public hot geothermal baths were definitely a shock to the senses in multiple ways. Firstly, all bathing is done in the nude with strict rules and traditions and secondly, they were unbelievably hot (as Lauren can attest to)! By our last day l, we had gotten used to things and Lauren even managed to dip her lower body in! This was especially helpful with our bumps and bruises (Steve’s) from stacking it many times.

While we were there, the amount of snowfall was absolutely crazy, more than a metre of snow in a couple of days and we really got to see what life was like in a snow town!

Our time in the snow had been awesome, next stop back to the big smoke of Tokyo!

We made it to our new Tokyo accomodation, this time in Shibuya, home of the famous Shibuya crossing. We managed to find it by going for a run and accidentally stumbling into it! Continuing our run to Yoyogi park we again got into trouble and yelled to stop running as we stumbled upon an apparently pretty culturally important walk in the city. 

Tokyo was definitely one of our foodie stops of our trip and we managed to book in a lunch sushi omakase, an intimate experience where the chef creates the bites of sushi right in front of you with some of the freshest and high class seafood you’ve ever seen (Pro tip, use tablelog and book lunch meals if you want to save a bunch of money on higher class meals). Our highlight was the fatty tuna that melted in your mouth, but we were a little more unsure of the tiny raw live bait that you ate whole, a very weird sensation! 

Although we didn’t manage to book tickets to an actual sumo wrestling match, we still booked a sumo experience to learn more about the sport. It wasn’t super serious, but the wrestlers were still very entertaining and we now know how everything works!

One thing we didn’t know about Japan was how seriously they take their desserts and sweets! We developed a serious love of mochis and some of the creations were unbelievable. Same with their pastries, Japan definitely has taken a lot of inspiration from France and we sampled some of the best and most detailed croissants we have ever had. 

Golden Gai was another attraction on our to-do list, a collection of over 200 tiny bars all located within a hundred or so metres of each other. Most bars had at max 6 or so seats and the atmosphere even early on a Friday evening was awesome! It was here we also developed a love of of umeshu (plum wine) and yuzu liquid a Japanese citrus fruit. 

We finally managed to get a proper running route sorted thanks to Steve’s friend Daisuke, running around the Imperial Palace marvelling at the ancient architecture, a slightly different view from our normal runs in Australia! We even managed to get a glimpse of some very early blossoms, normally a spring specialty! 

Our time in Tokyo was at an end, next stop Kyoto!