We arrived in Shiga at late afternoon via the Asama Shinkansen from Ueno Station (well, that took us to Nagano Station and from there we took a bus to Shiga), after spending the morning visiting the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa. On the way to the mountains, we spotted several snow monkeys on the bridge - they had bright red faces, I kid you not! Anyway, when we got there, we were a bit worried about finding our hotel and luckily was met by his sister and boyfriend at the bus stop. If that did not happen, I am sure we would spend the next hour trying to find our hotel. We stayed at Chu Hotel which was a fairly well-sized ski lodge, but it's hotel's name in English is printed at probably 10cm in font! *Well, it's name in Japanese was fairly big - but we can't read it!* Not to mention that the board was behind some trees..
Anyway, after placing the luggages in the room, we decided to have a walk around before doing some night skiing.
First shot of the slopes :)
Ichinose Information Centre
After that, we went back to the hotel and waited for dinner. We have heard a lot of reviews about Chu and one of their highlights is the meal provided. And we sure weren't disappointed! If I am to make another trip to Shiga, Chu Hotel would definitely be where I'll be staying. The food was great especially the dessert - Creme Caramel *grin*
One of the many delicious dinners in ChuAfter stuffing ourselves with food, we went for night skiing in Ichinose Ski Area which was in the area we stayed in. As I haven't skied in a while (and was never particularly good to start with), I started my first run with 4 falls :(, and countless falls in the days after :P.
Over the days that we were there, Shiga received it's fair share of snow making the runs really fun to be on especially on day 3. We actually contemplated visiting the snow monkeys on that particular day as we woke up to really a really cold, heavy and windy snowfall. The weather got us a little worried about the skiing condition so we decided to ask for directions to the Snow Monkey Park. So, we got ready and walked our way to the bus stop - and the sun was out, people walking out with their skis/boards. And when the bus was late, we started discussing if we should skip the monkeys and spend the day skiing instead. Which was the absolutely right thing to do!! :) I can still remember the expression on the hotel owner's face as he saw us running back to the hotel, away from the direction of the bus - he looked so baffled and amused at us but said, "No monkey? Good day for skiing!".
Pictures of the wonderful mountains & slopes
Pictures of the wonderful mountains & slopes*as one can tell, I was pretty buggered by the end of the week*
Clockwise from left : Monky Park *LOL*, Picking/Cleaning each other intently,
Eating tree barks *I think*, 'Lion' Snow Monkey! Hehehe
We covered a pretty large area in Shiga over the few days that we were there. We were mostly at Ichinose Ski Area as it was near our hotel plus we could ski in ski out of the hotel from there, but my personal favourite slope/area would be Terakoya Ski Area. I never truly understood why peple find the consistency of snows such a big factor, but I know why now. I absolutely loveeee powder snow! And of course, the thick and heavy snow falls also meant that it cushioned my falls better, LOL.
The other fun bit about Chu Hotel was their public bath which was located on the ground floor of the hotel. I was quite apprehensive about using a public bath (esp when one needs to be completely nude in Japan). There was so many 'steps' and 'rules' to taking a bath that it was so daunting! Not to add that we didn't have a clue about what to do. The funniest bit was we didn't even know how to use a yukata the right way and had to ask some ladies. They were so helpful, that they gave us a 5-minutes lesson on how to wear it the right way, and how to put on the ties that was provided. It was so entertaining as they used one of us as the model and A LOT of hand language, LOL. As there was only 2 of us the first time we used the bath, it was pretty fun but we obviously didn't do the right things, as when we were there on the second night, it was a lot of "Oh, so that's what you do."!! O.o
We were in Shiga for a total of 5 days before moving on to Nozawaonsen for even more skiing. On the final day that we were there, we decided to pay the famous Snow Monkeys a visit in Kanbayashi. To get to Kanbayashi, we had to take a bus to Hasuike and then change to another bus that would take us there. It was a rather cold and wet 30 minutes walk to the actual monkey park from the bus stop. The walk itself was pretty (if you discount that slushy ground) but did take a while. It was a fairly quiet walk at the begining, but just as we were about to reach the park itself, there was a large group of tourist that arrived as well, which made it harder to take pretty pictures and absorb the surroundings :( .
The walk towards Jigokudani Monkey Park
The spectacular view of the valley at base of the park
Anyway, from the valley there were some steps to climb before actually arriving at the entrance of the park. *Those were some painful steps for me personally, so not to go with aching legs!!* When we got there, it looked exactly how it was advertised - monkeys playing/bathing/cleaning in the hotspring. Only that no one said it was just ONE hot spring, and there weren't that many monkeys. But the snow monkeys were pretty cute with their bright red faces and thick fur. They seem oblivious to their surroundings when they were cleaning each other up in the tub - they were working with such concentration! And of course, when they soaked their body except the head - they look a little like lions when they get out of water. The skinny bodies with big hair. Hehehe..
The other fun bit about Chu Hotel was their public bath which was located on the ground floor of the hotel. I was quite apprehensive about using a public bath (esp when one needs to be completely nude in Japan). There was so many 'steps' and 'rules' to taking a bath that it was so daunting! Not to add that we didn't have a clue about what to do. The funniest bit was we didn't even know how to use a yukata the right way and had to ask some ladies. They were so helpful, that they gave us a 5-minutes lesson on how to wear it the right way, and how to put on the ties that was provided. It was so entertaining as they used one of us as the model and A LOT of hand language, LOL. As there was only 2 of us the first time we used the bath, it was pretty fun but we obviously didn't do the right things, as when we were there on the second night, it was a lot of "Oh, so that's what you do."!! O.o
We were in Shiga for a total of 5 days before moving on to Nozawaonsen for even more skiing. On the final day that we were there, we decided to pay the famous Snow Monkeys a visit in Kanbayashi. To get to Kanbayashi, we had to take a bus to Hasuike and then change to another bus that would take us there. It was a rather cold and wet 30 minutes walk to the actual monkey park from the bus stop. The walk itself was pretty (if you discount that slushy ground) but did take a while. It was a fairly quiet walk at the begining, but just as we were about to reach the park itself, there was a large group of tourist that arrived as well, which made it harder to take pretty pictures and absorb the surroundings :( .
The walk towards Jigokudani Monkey Park
The spectacular view of the valley at base of the park Anyway, from the valley there were some steps to climb before actually arriving at the entrance of the park. *Those were some painful steps for me personally, so not to go with aching legs!!* When we got there, it looked exactly how it was advertised - monkeys playing/bathing/cleaning in the hotspring. Only that no one said it was just ONE hot spring, and there weren't that many monkeys. But the snow monkeys were pretty cute with their bright red faces and thick fur. They seem oblivious to their surroundings when they were cleaning each other up in the tub - they were working with such concentration! And of course, when they soaked their body except the head - they look a little like lions when they get out of water. The skinny bodies with big hair. Hehehe..
Clockwise from left : Monky Park *LOL*, Picking/Cleaning each other intently,Eating tree barks *I think*, 'Lion' Snow Monkey! Hehehe
From there, we then took a bus back to Ichinose to collect our bags before heading off to Nagano to catch a bus to Nozawaonsen. The trip from Ichinose to Nagano was one stressful journey as our bus was due to arrive at 3pm, and the bus to Nozawa was due to depart at 3pm! To top it off, the bus arrived late in Ichinose. I had to take the timetable and pointed to the 3pm Nozawa slot repeatedly to the bus driver in Ichinose to let him know that we have to catch the 3pm bus at Nagano. But all was well, we arrived at 2:54pm at Nagano :), and our bus driver pointed specifically to which bus to take to Nozawa :))).
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