Day Four - Monday 15 December 2014

This morning we were up bright and early to bid Tokyo goodbye and catch a bullet train to the former Winter Olympic village of Nagano.

We had to squeeze into a local train amidst peak hour traffic to Central Tokyo and then transfer onto our reserved seats on the luxurious bullet train, which travels at 350 km/hour.
The cleaners who hopped on to the train just after it arrived were so polite! They were lined up along the platform, spaced out evenly so as to be in front of a door. They bowed to the train as it arrived and then bowed to us - the waiting passengers - and put up this sign: -

"Just moment please" - although it took more like five minutes.
They, of course, bowed to us once they finished and left the train.

Our first view of snow was intoxicating - but there sure is a lot of it. 

At Nagano, we transferred to another local train, as it turns out aren't staying at the main resort but at the one where the snow monkeys are. Cool!

This one had the seat heater on furnace setting. Our bottoms were on fire!

Outside the countryside started to look like a postcard - snow-covered trees and houses - and even apple orchards with snow on each apple. (Apples which sell for somewhere between $5 and $15 in fruit shops.) Some of the train platforms we passed were carrying a metre of snow!

We had one final train transfer before arriving at the small town of Yudanaka at the end of the line. 

We stepped out into a fairyland of snow (with quite a bit of slush around the taxi rank). 

We slithered and slid down the hill and round the corner to our hotel - the Hotel Tsubakino. 

We have booked into a traditional Japanese room - with sliding doors, futons instead of beds and a small table with a tea set and kimonos and Japanese sandals we can wear if we want to.

We were worried the room would be cold - but it's beautifully heated. Compared to our previous room, it's like a mansion.

When we sat down at the little table at the end of the room, we discovered the tablecloth is an electrically heated blanket - so you can sit with your legs under the table with a warm blanket over them. How luxurious is that!

The temperature here today is 3oC and it drops to about -2oC overnight.

We went for an exploratory walk and there's snow, snow everywhere!

The kids spent the whole time throwing snowballs - and never seemed to tire of it.

For dinner, we had an amazing traditional Japanese meal at a nearby hotel.

It was served by a traditional Japanese lady who spoke practically no English.

We had little burners where we cooked strips of wagyu beef and capsicum and, the most amazing thing was we picked growing mushrooms from a stump on the table and grilled those as well!

Every part of the meal was fresh and carefully prepared - strips of raw salmon and tuna, amazing kinds of tofu and taro and God knows what else. It wasn't all very nice - but certainly was very interesting.

After dinner, back at our hotel, we went up to the 5th floor to the public bath area.
There was no one else there in the women's section and it was absolutely amazing!
A long passageway with bamboo flooring, then through a sliding door a large changing area, then a beauty area with large mirrors and hairdryers and all kinds of lotions. Then through another door into the bathing area. The bath was about 20 foot long and fiendishly hot - but very luxurious.
I could see outside to the snow on the terrace.
A wonderful end to the day.