A view from above
With the emergency status being issued, these Winter nights are going to be quite silent – but the city still showcases quite the skyline and winter tends to favor visibility. From the deck of Roppongi Hills Mori tower you have a 360. The last floor is also an art museum- their last permanent exhibition featured big (Japanese) names in contemporary art – take Takashi Murakami known for his super flat paintings. Without context you’ll feel you’re looking at cartoons, flowers and love dolls – but his pieces take so much from the history of Japanese art! Some are updated, (r)elaborated versions of monks finest paintings. I feel it is one of those examples where you don’t get it because you don’t know what you’re looking at. The coexistence of old and super new might be the most defining feature of Japan, but being art one ultimately can read whatever one wants to. The breast milk doll? Well – I don’t have ALL the answers.
Some shopping in Shibuya and Shinjuku
Some pictures of the scramble from above taken from an unremarkable (but view worthy) café on top of the Magnet tower. I love the Yakult commercials – being 2021 the scramble is totally uncrowded.
The clothes I’ve been wearing the MOST this winter are UNIQLO’s heating optimizing wearables. Yes, the leggings, but above all the long sleeved top, which has both been awesome to wear under city clothes and as a first layer snowboarding. Everyone gets so excited about the heattech line, but I love the Airism line. Just by Shinjuku JR station there is a huge Uniqlo store.
Some iconic buildings in Shinjuku have been featured in the super famous anime your name, including docomo tower. What strikes about anime living here is how lookalike reality is !
Leave the city behind! Snowboarding in Honshu
During this season, the best plan for the weekend is always to go snowboarding/skiing! It’s so comfortable and efficient with the Shinkansen!!! The fast train takes you to great spots in less than 2 hours (I remember taking night busses to get to the slopes, so this feels too good to be true + non-Japanese citizens get discounted tickets!). As a confident skier and a not particularly talented snowboarder, I do feel that Japan is better suited for the latter, as resorts tend to be smaller and the powder is truly amazing. Not too much steepness but lots of fresh powder! The areas of Gala Yuzawa and Ishiuchi are interconnected (and Kagura is as well with a shuttle) and you can get there in an hour from Tokyo. We stayed in a kitschy, warm ryokan with excellent breakfast, but as mentioned it can be done as day trip from Tokyo. In 2 hours you can get to Nagano area, which is basically a winter wonderland. Nozawa Onsen is a charming *onsen* location and made me think of Spirited away. It is a mountain village filled with wooden houses with an onsen inside. The water is very very hot – it took me 15 entire minutes to get in. Don’t skip it, it is by all means an authentic experience and may I add that being experienced with no clothes on and in a wooden structure it feels unchanged over the centuries – maybe that’s the charm of the onsen. The baths are open 24hs, most of them are free and tiny (you can donate) and very basic. Nozawa also has some nice bars (to name two) and I assume in non pandemic times offers some decent nightlife. Bring back pickles – they’re delicious. For the ones who were too tired for the slopes and stayed behind this is a nice café – our accommodation had great rooms, a fire place, a storage/dry room for your gear and excellent seasonal dinner (incl. sashimi). I also recommend this bakery. If you visit Nozawa close to New Years’ there are offerings in front of all the small shrines surrounded by snow – it’s one of the best times of the year to go. An alternative/possible addition to Nozawa onsen is Madarao – itinerary is similar as in both cases you take the shinkansen to Iiyama station and board the bus in front of the station. With clear weather the best views are probably from the top of the single (pizza box) chair as you can see both sides and the lake. For only 500 yen more you can get a pass to Tangram (another tiny resort you can ski to from Madarao), which faces iconic mountain Mt. Myoko. At the top of the 4-people chair on the right there’s a cafe that’s all windows on the mountain scenery. Slopewise, Madarao has something for everyone – there is lots of tree runs options, but most trees are very close to each other (much more than in Niseko) so that can be… challenging. I suggest lunch at Aki’s pub – kind of an institution in Mandarao. For both locations I advice to bring cash (notably, the only ATM that actually works in Nozawa is located at the post office, and it closes at 21).
Still very accessible (fastest is Shinkansen to Nagano + bus, cheapest is the direct bus from Basta Shinjuku, from where you can board a bus to everywhere, apparently) but offering a broader selection of options is Hakuba, home to no less than 7 different resorts. I haven’t visited them all, but been to half of them. From the smaller ones Iwatake has great slopes on the upper part, including a natural pipe. Really entertaining with some decent degree of steepness (there’s even a City Bakery café on top). For views Hakuba 47 and Happo One are the best, in both cases you can walk up to the highest part of the mountain and venture on some scenic off slope trails. At sunset it really looks like aNorth Face ad. I liked the slope from the top lift of Happo One best (just before the walking I was mentioning) – the resort’s downside is the poor/confusing signalling! Hakuba 47 has some swing music playing on the lifts and we saw a family of snow monkeys with cubs from the chair.
Now if you’re going for an even broader selection of slopes then Shiga Kogen is for you, as it is one of the biggest resorts and views are amazing. The best views are from the viewing deck pictured next – but the skiing area is really extensive so there are multiple viewpoints.
The thing about Shiga Kogen is that the resort is particularly vintage, in a sort of endearing but not fancy way. Think big hotels, bus tours. In fact, there is basically not a town, but just hotels on the slopes. I like the idea of stepping back in time, but I’m surprised this isn’t cheaper than more hip locations. That said, food and sake were excellent, everything was clean, comfortable and people were even nicer and politer than usual (can this be?). What is definitely cheap for what you get is the lift ticket: the skiing area is quite extensive and prices are equal to smaller resorts in Japan. It’s all about the skiing here 😉 If you wanna opt for skiing instead of boarding, I think this is one of the top locations to do so (I loved the black slope on the Ichinose Family side the best).
In the area you can visit the famous onsen monkeys – it is a monkey park, which is by all means an unnatural way to spot wildlife and it is usually cramped with tourists, so brace yourself for that… when I visited it was full of monkeys (I think I spotted a little less than a hundred) but apparently, for inexplicable reasons, sometimes they don’t hang out at the onsen. As I mentioned before, in Nagano you can really experience nature firsthand and encounter animals in the wild, here specifically I remember spotting a huge and fluffy white rabbit. Regardless of the location’s choice, the area of Nagano is known as the Japanese Alps and showcases probably the best mountain views in Japan.
Costs and general info:
Ski passes are cheaper than anywhere else I’ve been (as resorts are not too big) – buy them online to save a little more (around 50 USD a day).
I have my gear and am not renting – rentals are equally cheap but quality disappoints a little.. if you can, bring your own from abroad. If in Tokyo for the long run consider buying your own in the Jimbocho/Kanda/Ogawamachi area, sometimes sales are good. And, incidentally, you could stop for coffee here.
An important notice for the signs displayed on the slopes – most black slopes in Japan are nowhere in difficulty close to a European black – as everything, they’re way more delicate. But sometimes they’re ungroomed, which you might want to know before! For the tree runs lovers (I’m not counting myself) the country does deliver – occasionally you’ll even find a *zen reminiscent * tree gently placed in the middle of a slope. If you’re not very experienced I’d favor a red with a slight steepness over an endless forest trail. Regardless, it’s beautiful – one of my favorite sounds is the sound of the fresh snow being gently crushed by a board.
Views of Fuji 富士山
This is also the best time to get clear views of Mt Fuji. The entire Yamanashi area is very accessible from Tokyo by train and by bus from Shinjuku. From Lake Kawaguchiko here you have wonderful Fuji views (at the moment featuring some pampas grass). There are some open air cafés and shops too, it’s very pleasant. We had a saké tasting in the area, which was very interesting and I recommend the brewery. Contrary to what I thought, most sakés will have a gradation of around 15% alcohol content, which makes them very drinkable – there are many varieties from dry to sweet and it’s surprisingly easy to pair with food! Feel free to skip the wine. In this area I had a ‘sushi awakening’ here – my favorite kind was the taro chuo tuna. Oishii = delicious. The owner is an absolute sushi master. If you have a car, Hottarakashi onsen is located on top of a hill and serves great breakfast (incl. natto and raw egg). I visited recently and on a starry night it’s magnificent (it stays open until midnight); here specifically I suggest to leave your belongings in your car. If you happen to be in Kofu this coffee stand has good coffee + exceptional cake! Winter is also strawberry season in Japan and a common (romantic) activity is strawberry picking. You basically are taken into an indoor field and can pick and eat as many strawberries as you want ! You’ll also be given milk cream to tip the strawberries in (it’s so good ! You can ask for a refill). Japan is all about appreciating these small things.
Spot some early blossoms
Lately it’s been so warm that we are almost experiencing Spring in Tokyo – plum trees start blossoming the soonest, but Yoyogi already has some Sakura lookalikes*, which attract the usual pastel crowds. * there are so many kinds, apparently the famous Sakura is a slightly lighter pink than the blossoms pictured and blooms in April.
Finally some movie suggestions to stay in, to practice Japanese..
Wolf children :: beautiful snow scenes and drawings (this is exactly how Winter in the mountains looks like!)! This one is good to practice as there is little dialogue and characters don’t speak too fast
Spirited away :: it’s a classic for a reason and mostly takes place in an onsen visited by spirits.
Isle of dogs: this Wes Anderson movie has so many subtle references to Japan (from the yakuza to the zen garden) that watching it while living here is a treat;
Lost in translation: Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray in Tokyo.
My all time favorite: The night is short , walk on girl
The red turtle – again for the drawings, by studio Ghibli!
Paprika was also way ahead of its time if you like movies about dreams (a taste of what its dialogues are pictured next)
I suggest to rent them, but you can easily find these on the internet
2021 is still a complicated year to travel.. ganbaré!!
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