Hirayu and Takayama

Did it snow in Nagakute?? Oh the anticipation is killing me...the answer-NO!!! I was soo excited for snow I ran to the window as soon as I woke up and the sky was blue and the sun was shining-ugh. I was so sad, but apparently it was snowing a 20 minute subway ride away in Sakae-grrr. Oh well, I was able to spend all weekend in snow so I didn't miss out too much.

I went on a big adventure this weekend with Saori, Lizzie and Charissa. We went skiing, onsening (I dont think thats a real word:), sight seeing and saw some snow festivals. It was a very fast paced, yet relaxing (onsens) and fun. We booked a tour that included roundtrip bus ride, accommodations at a very nice ryoken (traditional Japanese hotel) with 3 meals, one day ski pass/onsen pass and free bus rides to the festivals. All this for less than $200-Saori is the queen of booking cheap tours.

It all started on Friday night at 8:04pm (we were 4 minutes late-opps) we arrived in our bus and there were only 10 of us for a whole bus-boy was this looking good already. We had a 5 hour bus ride to Hirayu which was spent mostly reading and sleeping. We arrived in Hirayu at 1am-and did we go straight to bed-oh on, Saori is a onsen fanatic and there was an onsen in our hotel so we went to the onsen at 1:30 in the morning-crazy. Hirayu and the surrounding area is famous for its onsens. There is a lot of sulfer in the onsen water so it smelt a bit like Yellowstone :) but made my skin feel very soft. This is the view I woke up to Saturday Morning.

View from my hotel room sat. morning-BEAUTIFUL!!

The Ryoken we stayed at. I miss that place already.

The ski slopes, it was a very small ski resort with only 2 ski lifts. It was very nice and this weekend I only fell about 8 times, no bruises or sore muscles-YEAH! But I did have sore toe from my boots that were too big, then too small (You win some and you lose some :)

Our 15 course dinner-soo much food. Saori ordered me a no seafood dinner and they gave me crab legs-haha each table was one persons dinner.

I was very upset and did a Brenda. On the way to the festivals on the bus I dropped my camera on the lens so these pictures of the festival are a bit fuzzy. Saori suggested I soak the camera in the onsen to make it better-haha because according to Saori the onsen can cure anything. I finally figured out if I hold the lens at a certian angle it will take clear shots. By the next day the lens just clicked right into place, and now it can finally zoom again-ugh and the camera was less then 2 months old.


Partially frozen waterfall-very pretty. Can you see the Women Ghost?? Its typically completely frozen but its been a warm winter (more on that later)

Lizzie pounding mochi-she's the one with the big malet

An igloo we drank sake in and kept warm by the fire

It snowed ONLY 18 centimeters (about a foot) according to the hotel staff over night. We woke up and were in a winter wonderland that was covered in marshmellows. Apparently this is a very bad snow year for Japan.
Walking up to see another frozen waterfall. You can see the amount of snow that fell by looking at the path.

Can you see the frozen waterfall behind me?? Gorgeous

A nice warm foot bath after our hike to the waterfall-was sooo nice and warm

Takayama
We decided to visit Takayama Sunday, cute little touristy town and hour away.

Ninja armor in a glass window on a Takayama street

I'm making rice cakes-the poor person that has to eat it :)

Hida-Kokubun-ji Temple-Takayama

Sarubobo Charm at the Temple-the Takayama mascot-you can find them everywhere! Very cute no face dolls in many different colors. So I bought two for met-they are supposed to bring you protection from bad things, a happy home/good match and, having a easy delivery on birth (that one will have to wait a while)