Day 22 - Osaka / Home - We're Baaacck!

So I figured I'd combine the last two days into one big post as for Adelaide and I, the days seemed to have melded together, with lots of travel involved. We made the most of the last full day in Osaka, shopping around for some gifts, as well as checking out Yodobashi Camera once more, before heading to Kansai International for our Flight Home. The flight was quite a mission, and took it's toll on our energy levels, but after 18ish long hours, we finally made it back.

We took our time to wake up on our last day in Japan. Our checkout time wasn't till 10am, and with a day of shopping ahead of us, we were in no rush. At 8.30/9ish, we finally awoke, and did preliminary pack of our bags, reorganizing them so that later in the day it would be easy to sort out for the flight. As we headed downstairs to check out, we realised at the elevator we only had one of the two keys we were given - mine was missing. I thought I'd checked the room, and upon returning and trying to figure out why the lights were still on, I realised I'd left the other key in the power slot near the door. Thankful that we didn't have to explain that to the concierge, we checked out and they took our bags, in exchange for our token to pick them back up at 3.30pm, so we didn't have to worry about them or lug them around all day.

The view from our window

Our room (albeit a bit messy)

The chapel they had on the 22nd floor of the hotel

First stop was Dotombori, and specifically Don Quijote, arguably the biggest discount store on the Dotombori shopping street. The iconic, yellow 6 floor building which has an unusual Ferris wheel on the outside, has everything you could think of - and it's cheap! We stopped on the first floor to get some food items, and then slowly made our way up through the building, picking out things we wanted to buy for home. We spent a good hour in there (on the first trip), and were happy with our findings.

Once we felt we'd thoroughly been through the store, we left it bound for the anime district in Nipponbashi that Azumi had taken us to on our first day. We headed back down Dotombori to find our way there, stopping off at a few other stores to check out their wares. Once at a big intersection on Nipponbashi, we weren't able to find the right area, and after about half an hour of frustrated looking, we decided to head back towards Dotombori.

Addy was getting hungry, so she purchased some big Gyoza to go, and while she ate it we made our way down Dotombori, checking out stores. This is where our day was a little unorganized, and we spent a few hours wandering up and down the shopping precinct and it's side streets, not sure what we were looking for. Eventually we decided to get a coffee at the Hawaii Coffee located on the river, just next to the bridge. There I purchased a French Press Coffee, while Adelaide sipped a hot chocolate. The French press was quite expensive (700 Yen), and considering that it was around half the price of last night's dinner, was maybe a bit of a rip, but it was pleasant. While we drank our beverages, we decided to stop wandering around, and with time starting to press, we headed back to the Don Quijote store for one last look, before heading over to Umeda station, which had Yodobashi-camera, where we might find some more tech things.

We purchased a few things at Don Quijote, before only needing to catch the subway four stops to Umeda. Yodobashi is so big, it has a basement level which connects on to the subway station, so we walked right in and headed for the camera floor. We bought a few more trinkets before having a quick explore on a few of the other levels. At this point it was nearing 3pm, and we knew we needed to be back at the hotel to pick up our bags, so we got the subway the 4 stops back. Adelaide's navigation skills prevailed as we got the right exit which lead out to just infront of our hotel, saving us a lot of time. The subway had made me feel a bit icky, so we took some time in the Foyer of our hotel to rest, and repacked our bag, ready for our flights. Despite it was still cool in Osaka, we packed lighter, knowing that Cairns would be far more unpleasant in multiple layers.

As the foyer thinned with people, we finally left too. Back down at Namba station, we caught a subway to Tenoji station, where we transferred over to the Kansai International Airport Shinkansen. We had a short wait on the platform for it to turn up, before we boarded and bee-lined for some free unreserved seats. It was our last train ride of our trip to Japan, and so we were quiet for a time, taking in the views as we sped our way to the airport.

We're going home :(

When we arrived at Kansai international, we made our way out of the terminal, flashing our useful JR passes for one last time, and heading over to the departures floor. Of course, when we arrived at the Jetstar lounge, there was a note on the board which indicated that the checkin wouldn't open for another hour and a half. We took advantage of this downtime to go down a floor to the restaurants and shops to do some final souvenir shopping, before stopping off at a Grill joint, for an Australian Steak and chips which came out on a hot plate. It filled us up, and we took our time to eat it, but even at the end we were still early, so we headed over to the Choco-cro just up from our dinner place, for a parfait (Adelaide), and a waffle (me). That really hit the spot, and when we were finished, check in was open.

We joined the very long queue, and eventually made it to the desk where we checked our bags. We had been very generous with bag weight when we were planning our trip, and anticipating the worst, we added an additional 10Kg's of baggage allowance before hand (at a decent fee, versus the price per kg at the gate), only to find that our bags were just breaking 20kgs. The piece of mind was still nice however.

After the bags were checked and we had our passes, we proceeded to go through security. Just as we were joining the line, we got cut off by a father and his 3 kids, all carrying some of his bags on a trolley. He wasn't able to take the trolley any further, as pointed out by his son, and so he held up the line a bit while he got him and his family sorted.

After security came Immigration. When you enter japan they staple a pass in your passport which they need to see on your way out; if you don't have it, or you lose it, you can fill another one out. Some poor sod at the front of the line hadn't figured this out and was frantically running between the line and the immigration desk trying to get it sorted. With the 4 planes worth of people, lined equally, we all knew we were going to get in eventually, it was just a matter of time. However, one self-important person in front of us in line felt the need to heckle the guy getting his paperwork together. The disorganised guy eventually went through and the heckler had his turn at the desk, and proceeded to dig into the immigration officer about why he was keeping up the line, a somewhat ironic act. Some people. Anyway, we eventually cleared immigration, and on our way to our gate, I stopped off at a Duty Free store to purchase some of the delicious Japanese whiskey at a steal of a price in comparison to Dan Murphy's - The Yamazaki 12 Year.

We waited at the gate for about 40 minutes, before we started to board. It was a packed flight, but somehow we managed to be some of the first on the plane. This allowed us to get seated and sorted with our bags before the rush of a tour group joined us down the back. For this flight, we'd remembered to pack our USB cords for our phones, so we were able to charge them all flight. Because we weren't going to be losing any charge, we instantly took to Fruit Ninja, and this continued for much of the first part of the flight, apart from a break to do the crossword in our magazine.

The flight was... well, rough. It had lots of small to medium bumps all the way through, and they were welcomed with some of the roughest turbulence that I've ever experienced, and it genuinely felt like the plane was going down for a good 10 seconds, before the pilot directed us out of the path. Needless to say, Adelaide and I had a pretty sleep deprived night, both only managing to doze for no more than 20 minutes before being woken back up again by a particularly bouncy section. Towards the end of the flight, I noticed some lightning underneath us, and realised we must've been dodging many of the thunderstorms on our route, hence why we had such a turbulent ride.

Our approach into Cairns was a little unnerving too, as it was pitch black until the last 30 seconds when the street lights started coming into view. It had been raining quite heavily, which cut visibility down even more. Uninterrupted by this though, the plane landed smoothly, and Adelaide and I were thankful for being on hard ground once more. Disembarking, we were met with a big gust of humid cairns air at 5am, welcoming us back to the land down under.

Customs and Immigration took a little while given the number of people on the plane, and I think the officers did a good job of managing the many tourists who where on it, as some seemed to completely ignore signs and were wandering all over the place. Utilising the self service check in was quite nice, and made immigration a breeze - just a passport scan and a quick photo and we were let through.

Luckily, my bag was on the carousell so we managed to pick it up, and soon after Adelaide's came out confusingly on a different one. We left the baggage claim and found my uncle Julian waiting for us outside. Our next flight from Cairns to Brisbane wasn't until 10am, so Julian and Ann had offered to pick us up for the morning.

Returning to Julian and Ann's house, we gave Adelaide a quick tour of cairns, before meeting Riley, Julian and Ann's new dog once we arrived home. He full of beans and very playful, and despite our sleepiness, we were happy to see him. My grandparents turned up soon after, and Julian cooked us all a breakfast of sausages, eggs, bacon, garlic mushrooms and hash-browns, definitely needed after the lack of food we had on Jetstar.

Afterwards, Adelaide took a nap on the couch while I showed my grandparents some photos of our trip, but wasn't able to get through all of them as we needed to head back to the airport to check in again. We repacked our bags, losing our warm gear, and changing into much more suitable clothes for Australia, before Ann drove us back out to the airport as Julian had a meeting.

When we got to the Airport we were a little concerned for time, so Ann just dropped us and went, and we were able to quickly get to the Qantas desk, where we checked our bags. I was a little unsure if they would let me take the duty free I'd bought at Osaka and Cairns on the plane, but domestic flights are far more relaxed, and the attendant told me it'd be fine.

Checking through security, we found Gate 20, and had a short 10 minute wait before it opened up. QF709 was a much smaller Boeing 737-800, and there was a smattering of empty seats, in particular one next to us which was nice. By this stage, the rain had picked up a bit, but it didn't delay our departure. We left on time, and flew through the clouds, soon breaking above them. Adelaide was still tired, and so she started to doze after we got our morning tea of a White Chocolate and Cranberry cookie, and I got a coffee. Thanks to the free in flight entertainment, I watched a 'How It's Made', and two episodes of 'Top Gear', while Adelaide fell asleep across my lap, and had a solid sleep for the entire flight.

Just before our approach into Brisbane, the captain informed us we'd been too quick, and that we needed to slow down, so we had an impressive wide descent into Brisbane Airport, with only a small layer of broken clouds to pass through. With a smooth landing we were back home! Leaving our plane, we weren't sure if we were going to see Mum and Dad out at the gate, but when we were not greeted with cheers, we headed down to the baggage claim, where we ran into them there. Somehow again, my bag was one of the first out, before Adelaide's took it's time to appear. We dropped Addy home to her parents before we made it back to ours after stopping for a decent cuppa coffee.

Home

Overall, Japan has been an incredible experience that Adelaide and I will not forget. It's been the first big trip we've shared overseas and it's been an absolute blast. As with all holidays, it's a shame that it couldn't have kept going forever, trading cities and sights every few days, and we could've easily spent so much more time at each of our destinations. Japan has a lovely culture, and I know that I will return there one day, once again.

...And to everyone who has read this far, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Edit: PS, We did end up seeing some ninja memorabilia, but no actual ninjas :( We'll have to return one day and do an even better hunt!

Day 21 - Osaka - (Hillbrook Italics) Transitions (/Hillbrook Italics)

Today, we left Mt Fuji in a storm of snow, bound for Osaka once again; we had changed our plans a little bit. Initially, we were meant to spend our last full night in Hamamatsu, located half way back along the coast, however, when we realised that it was just more efficient to get all our train-ing out of the way in one day, we opted for that, and booked Osaka. It would've been nice to see a new town, however with dwindling funds, and many souvenirs still to buy, as well as being only half an hour away from the airport (instead of upwards of 3 hours), Osaka was clearly better choice.

Adelaide and I both woke up at our seperate hours of the morning once again. When I woke, I discovered that overnight the forecast of snow had been exceptionally accurate, and everything outside our window was covered with another inch of snow, and increasing. This cut down the visibility, and we were no longer about to see Mt Fuji, let alone the buildings further into the town anymore. It was bittersweet, not being able to see Mt Fuji, but at the same time, seeing snow for one last time. I couldn't get back to sleep once I woke at 6am, so I caught up on more Youtube while Adelaide slumbered.

Her alarm went off at 7.30, and our initial dialogue of the morning was "I don't want fish for breakfast". Despite we gave our second japanese dinner our all the night before, when similar things were going to be served again, our integrity weakened. Nevertheless, we made ourselves moderately presentable for breakfast, and headed down (there were many morning faces down there already). Once again, we were presented with a lavishly made platter of food. In the spirit of being away, I tried nearly everything, while Adelaide stuck more with the familiar things, and suffered from her morning lack of dexterity, spilling her tea and dropping her chopstick. She clearly needed coffee.

Morning Faces

Nice view for breakfast

A lovely view for our coffee

So after a quicker than usual breakfast, we headed down to the lobby where we booked our free shuttle bus to Kawaguchiko station for 9.30, after we'd checked out. The 'cafe' they have is on the mezzanine, just up a small flight of stairs, so we moved there to get our morning coffees. It was quite nice, sitting in the same spots we had the day before, yet this time it was snowing outside. The hotel was significantly busier today too, as there had been a function on the previous night, and so many people were in and out of the lobby and cafe.

The activity of the foyer broke our peace, and with our check out time approaching, we returned to our room for a final soak in our private onsen bath. This time, without Mt Fuji in view, the snow was our background and made for a far more refreshing bath. We showered and packed, and returned to lobby just before 9.30, and the staff took our bags into the bus while we paid off our massages, praying that Addy's card would clear the payment.

The 800m bus ride back through town was quite lucky, as it would've taken us ages to make it that far on foot, and this time, the driver didn't surprise a charge on us once we arrived. We went into the station and were directed by an attendant on which ticket to purchase. As the Mt. Fuji / Kawaguchiko line is linear, you can't really go wrong either way. Jumping on the train on platform 3 as we were advised, we discovered that this was a local train, as the express trains didn't run so often. It didn't bother us though as our plan for the day could allow for it. It gave us time to enjoy the winter wonderland views on the way back to Otsuki Station and I gave Adelaide an American geography lesson.

We only had half an hour layover in Otsuki station before our train swung by to pick us up, so we bought our tickets then headed back to the same bakery we'd stopped off at for lunch on our way in, this time buying a small pizza and crossiant each. We held of eating them there, and made our way to our platform.

Our second leg was a Limited Express AZUSA 10 to Hachioji Station, and it took us around half an hour. We tried to enjoy the views, but as we skimmed through tunnels at the base of valleys, we soon reverted to Fruit Ninja. Once at Hachioji, we then had to run over a few platforms, to catch the Yokohama JR line to Shin-Yokohama which left ~15 minutes later. This leg took closer to 40 minutes to complete, and at this stage the snow had turned into light rain.

At Shin-Yokohama, we left the JR gates and went over to the Shinkansen Platforms, where we boarded HIKARI 513, which was our biggest trip of the day. Leaving at 12.50ish, and arriving at Osaka at 3.30, we made multiple stops at stations along the way. As the train had come from further up the coast, when we boarded, we had to awkwardly ask a person to move as, while she had the right seat, she was 4 cars behind them. With the assistance of the guy sitting on the isle seat, she saw her error and very apologetically moved.

We settled in for the ride, listening to music. Adelaide declined my earlier offer of fried pork sandwiches which I had picked up at a Bento box store on the platform at Shin-Yokohama - as their more western options had all been taken. They were alright as lunch, but didn't impress Adelaide, so in failing to find a vending machine on the train, snacked on Toppo she bought from the snack cart lady.

We passed through Kyoto before arriving at Shin-Osaka, and we had cool views of rain showers approaching and passing as we went. Once we'd arrived back at Shin-Osaka station, we had to catch a subway to Namba. When we were booking our alternative route, we had checked to see if there were any options near Shin-Osaka station, however we were too late and the only ones that were free were rediculously expensive, thus we'd found a pretty neat little place outside Namba station. It was a busy subway ride, and a few stops away from our destination we were able to snag some seats.

Outside Namba subway station, we had to do some landmark orienteering to find our hotel, Monterey Rasmere, which I spied the top of the building when we stopped to try and figure out where we were. The night before, Adelaide was telling me that it was a love hotel which had me a little concerned as I'd heard about what some of the 'love' hotels were like in Japan. Once we were able to navigate up the first 22 floors of the hotel to the lobby, these were quashed... somewhat.

Hotel Monterey Rasmere is a decadent european styled hotel, ideally setup for weddings. As you walk out of the lifts, the lobby splits into two, one section for the concierge, and the other has a chapel built into it, with a glass roof above it. This floor also has waiting rooms and a photo studio. The surrounding levels also have bridal stores, make up rooms, waiting rooms and multiple halls, so you do the math.

When we realised we'd gotten a room on the 31st floor (the top), we realised what a deal we had gotten when booking. For $150, the normally $200 room is seated on the South Western side of the building, and we can see part of the city and out to the bay. It's a bit smaller than other rooms we've had but it's nice. Once we got our stuff settled, we spent a while trying to do our online check in for our flight, spending more time just trying to access it as Jetstar was being stupid with our details (eventually letting us in under my name, despite we booked it under Adelaides, go figure). Being well inside the 48 hours, we had gotten shoddy seats, down the very back of the plane but there's not much we can do about that, and besides, we plan on sleeping for most of the Osaka-Cairns leg anyway. We also couldn't print the confirmation form, so we did some nifty photoshoping of the page, as all they need to do is check it at the check in.

At this point, Addy was starving, and with only 5000 Yen left, we opted for a budget dinner of Maccas; echoing my mantra that when your overseas, you've gotta have maccas at least once. As we went to leave our room, we opened the door to two surprised Japanese girls. We think they were a little lost but they didn't really seem like they were in for a chat, so we headed downstairs.

The McDonalds was in the neighboring building, but whoever designed it really hadn't thought it through. There was a shopping centre built ontop of it, and Namba JR station was below it. There were signs inside the building directing you downstairs for a number of things... but there weren't any stairs. The only ones that were available were outside, so after some confusion we managed to find our dinner. We feasted like kings, before we left to pick up dessert at the 7-Eleven around the corner. There Adelaide bought an icecream and some doughnuts, dissapointed that they didn't have any Chocolate-man instock, afterwhich we returned to the hotel room for the night.

Tomorrow, we're going to go back to a few of the major shopping spots to finish up our time in Japan. Until then, Goodnight!

Day 20 - Mt Fuji - Where's The Pizza?!

In our grand scheme, today was our dedicated rest day. We decided against going to Thomas Land (actually called Fuji-Q Highlands), and instead spent some of the day wandering around town, to discover that we weren't missing much.

We had set our breakfast time for 8am, so once more we were rising early (how terrible), some of us *ahem* Dylan *ahem* awoke earlier and started to enthusiastically take photographs of Mt Fuji at 7am, the stock camera click sound like a beautiful lullaby to those of us not yet ready to rise. A lullaby which persisted, until it was pretty much breakfast time already. I got up somewhat more grudgingly than the artiscally enthused Dylan, but we made it down to the breakfast room right on time. Another Japanese meal awaited us, and we were challenged somewhat, as one does not typically feel like vegetables and fish in varying stages of cooking right after one has awoken. We made another valiant effort before making our way to the lobby, where there is a cafe, and the coffee awaited us. 

Worth the early wake up and experimenting on Manual Mode on my DSLR if you ask me.

Our private onsen, with the mountain in the background

Adelaide's demeanor summed up brekkie really

Once we had consumed the caffeinated liquid of life we made our way back upstairs to decide what to do with the day. Since we had to be out of the room for cleaning for a few hours in the middle of the day, we just decided to go out for lunch at 11, and wander around the town a bit. Fuji-Q seemed a little expensive and the rides just a whole lot of too much fun for Dylan, so we settled in for a relaxing day of lounging around. Since it was not even 9 at this point, we sat around for a while, with a great view of Mt Fuji, catching up on the internets, before heading out at 11, when the cleaning ladies came a-knocking. Our hotel lies across the road from the Lake, so we decided to wander around it a bit, to admire the views and pick up some more hot drinks. At a moderately overpriced but well-positioned cafe we drank coffee and hot chocolate and admired the løveli lakes (I've been getting blank looks all day with that one). There seems a very limited demographic to which the people of Kawaguchiko cater, which turned up shortly after we did in huge tourist buses. Kawaguchiko seems to have a more domestic tourism industry than an international one, and this was reflected in the many Japanese restaurants, souvenir and ice cream shops along the lake. Since we were now having two huge Japanese meals a day, we wanted to have something decidedly starchy and easy to eat for lunch, so the hunt for pizza began.

Reference to the title

Just outside our hotel!

Post Caffination Glow

It really reminded me of Queenstown in a way

The carpark was empty... for now...

The town was quite unusual with Mt Fuji in the distance.

Captain Sense-Of-Direction suggested we turn away from the direction of the train station, and head down a seemingly mainish street. Unfortunately this turned out to be a mistake, and in my attempts to head us back towards the train station where I figured there would actually be places to eat, there was a misunderstanding with the signs, and we headed in a different direction once more for a few blocks. Dylan maintains that he knew exactly where we were going. We soon realised our miscommunication, and headed back towards the train station. We were getting pretty hyped for some pizza at this point, but Kawaguchiko is pretty small, and doesn't have main stream restaurants. Instead, we made our second error, and walked past the station towards the promise of a 7/11. The 7/11 was not too far, but it was certainly not near pizza, and we got a few snacks to console ourselves before backtracking to the station. At this point we were demoralised, despondent at our lack of pizza, so turned at the station to go back to our hotel by the same route we had taken yesterday, planning to go to the konbini next to the hotel to get something more lunchy. A mere half block from the station we spotted a miraculous Italian restaurant, with pictures of pizza outside! How happy we were, there were moments of sweet rejoicing before entering and ordering two pizzas. 

5 Cheese Pizza... Mmmmm!

Two 5 Cheese pizzas satisfied our cravings, and we returned to the lake, Dylan stopping for some dessert at the konbini. Here, we discovered something magical, that I had pointed out previously but somehow been misheard on the topic. You have read in this blog of pizza-man, and its amazingness. In this konbini, they had something I had never seen before, chocolate-man. It is a chocolate dumpling encasing chocolate sauce. Unfortunately I was full, but Dylan got one, and upon first bite, was convinced of its divinity. Japan is so great.

Like a pudding calzone

We proceeded to have a very quiet and uneventful afternoon with Dylan watching Youtube while I read. This evening we decided to splurge a little and get a massage at the spa place inside the hotel. There was a lot of confusion surrounding the location of the spas, as there were two, and the information sheet we got was outdated, but we finally managed to book some massages for 5.25 this evening. After a few days of skiing and a few weeks of walking we had a few sore muscles, and the massages really hit the spot.

We were soon after served dinner in our rooms, and this time there was some lobster and crab that we really enjoyed. The other features of the dinner were quite similar to last nights one. For dessert we were given delicious fruit, with some exceptionally pungent strawberries. Dylan then went down to fetch some chocolate-man and ice cream, and we feasted some more.

Tomorrow we leave for Osaka, and will spend most of the day on the train. Kawaguchiko is a little isolated, so you have to train back up to just outside Tokyo before going back down past Mt Fuji to Osaka. Until then, good night!

Day 19 - Mt. Fuji - We Came, We Saw, We Soaked.

Today, we spent a lot of time on trains. Like, a lot. But now we're at Mt Fuji, which is nice.

This morning we awoke bright and early to another picturesque winter wonderland outside our window, but unfortunately it was our last day in Hakuba. We had packed the night before, so all we had to do this morning was go down, eat another delicious Yakata breakfast (BLTs with cheese and avocado, delish!), brush our teeth, and we were off! Marni was to drop us off at Hakuba-Happo bus terminal, and we had a 9.25 bus to catch. We brought our increasingly bulky bags downstairs and said our thank yous to Yakata and his wife. Our stay at Belnina had been really nice, and the only thing I wouldn't miss would be slipping and sliding every time I stepped outside the door.

Room selfie from yesterday

Marni packed our bags up and drove us out to the bus stop, also carrying two of the other guys from the lodge who were going up some slopes that were a bit of a drive away today. When we were near the bus terminal, Marni brought up the transfer charge, something we'd heard nothing about until that moment. We weren't 100% sure that it was legit, but since it was only 2000 yen, we gave him what had become half of our cash when we got off the bus. Either way, it was cheaper than a taxi would have been. We only had a short wait for our bus, and I had a delicious hot chocolate while Dylan struggled through a seemingly particularly awful coffee (apparently it was just hot). The bus came a little early, and left exactly on time, and we began the first leg of our travel day.

The day consisted of many short legs on one bus and multiple trains, none of which were longer than an hour ten. At our transfer at Kofu, Dylan decided to get a banana milk...thing that we had seen a few times in these coffee vending machines. It looked gross, and smelt revolting (Addy hates bananas), but he thought it was yum, but one a day was enough. We got off the bus at Nagano station and bordered a train to Matsumoto, then to Kofu, then to Otsuki. At Otsuki we took a break, finding a Japanese bakery outside the station for some delicoius pizza buns, mystery meat buns, croissaints and an excessively sugary donut. Dylan also treated himself to an Oreo milkshake, it looked pretty impressive, and tasted pretty good as well.

Outside the Station at Otsuki

Delicious!

 Otsuki to Kawaguchiko was our last trip of the day, and we had to buy a ticket for it as the JR lines had ended. The train was small, and afforded great views of Mt Fuji out the window. We were very fortunate today, the sky was almost completely clear, and we were able to see Mt Fuji all day. At this point it was mid afternoon, and I was on the brink of dozing off on the last train as Dylan busily attempted to get artsy photos of Fuji-san out of the window of the train. We were treated a great view out the front of the train, and could see the drivers amazingly precise timetable, which listed down to the second the time we should pass/stop at each station. At one point we passed a Thomas the Tank Engine themed train, and then spotted a theme park, which included Thomas Land, a place I think we should probably visit tomorrow, it's only a station away!

Took this arty photo when we were getting off the train

Well, I'll have time tomorrow to take a good photo... But Mt. Fuji is meant to be there

We disembarked our last train gratefully, before realising that neither of us had taken a picture of the map to our hotel, whoops. Luckily, Dylan remembered it's vague location, and it is situated on Lake Kawaguchiko, so we just followed the signs for the Lake from the station, about 800m, and wandered a short distance along the edge before encountering our swanky new accommodation. Upon our entrance, the concierge raced to grab our bags before we should be over encumbered pulling them across to the desk. We were quickly checked in, and led up to our room, a japanese style room with an awesome view of Mt Fuji. This is our most luxurious (and of course, most expensive) accommodation, but it is certainly impressive, as you can see from the pictures above.

Soon after the concierge left, a lady arrived in a kimono to give us Japanese tea and explain the public onsens to us, and we had to play a little charades to understand that she was showing us where the fire exits are. We had a little trouble connecting to the internet at first, and Dylan was starting to hyperventilate, but a trip down to the lobby fixed that, much to his relief. We also took a quick trip out to the konbini for some beer and snacks. Dylan was also given a mild shock by the bathroom. The toilet has 'many ubiquitous features' which can shock the uninitiated upon first try. The room lights turn on as soon as you walk in, and the lid of the toilet rises. It also flushes as soon as you stand up, and it took Dylan a few tries of the various mysterious buttons to figure out this particular feature.

Dinner and breakfast are included here, which is an added bonus. The kimono lady asked us what time we would like dinner served in our rooms, and bustled in at exactly 6.30 to serve us. She seemed a little flustered as she brought in the many trays and knick knacks involved in traditional Japanese dinner, and rushed in and out of our room as she laid out a table cloth, a tray filled with the first courses, the rice, the miso, and the specialty dishes, before lighting the hot pots, lava plates and miso bowl. It's a complicated process. Dylan had an interesting journey through his first traditional Japanese meal, discovering the strange vegetables, mysterious seafoods and delicious sauces. To his credit, he tried every single dish. The trays contained far too much food for the two of us, and we ended up with a bit left over. We called down to the desk to let them know we were done, and the same flustered lady soon rushed in to clear it all up and serve us a small dessert of mochi, manjyu, and jelly.

We decided today to make a small adjustment to our schedule. Originally, we were booked to spend a night in Hamamatsu after Mt Fuji, but since we have an entire day before we have to fly out, we thought it would be more convenient to go straight to Osaka and stay there our last night. We have booked a hotel near Namba station, close to Dotonbori, where we plan to do some last minute shopping and present buying. We are now staying at Hotel Monterey Grasmere Osaka, and we think this will work out better, since we weren't going to be spending much time around Hamamatsu anyway.

Tonight we will be relaxing after a few physically challenging days of skiing and unplanned ice skating (har har). Tomorrow, we might get a massage! Or go to Thomas Land. Or both! Until then, good night!

Day 18 - Hakuba - How Much Cold Can Two Queenslanders Take?

Our final full day in Hakuba contained yet more skiing, followed by another afternoon to rest and finished with not the usual extravagant dinner, but rather, our first 'povo' meal for the trip (but hey, we've had a pretty good run).

This morning we woke up surprisingly better than how we had gone to bed; Adelaide's knee had stopped aching, and despite my sore calf muscles, I was full of beans and ready to hit the slopes once again. Following our skiing regime, we were up by 7.30, and down at brekkie at 8. Yakata served up some breakfast wraps this morning, which contained chicken and spinach, and were made from homemade kale. I've just realised that it's a real shame we haven't had the chance to get a photo of any of his delicious creations. We had a side of fruit, and it was served with coffee, as always.

When we were filled up from breakfast, we went downstairs to get our gear. While we were down there we got into conversation with Marni about where we should go skiing today, and despite their suggestions about going to Happo, we persisted with our plans to go back to Iimori for our last day. Not to discredit their expertise, but in the end, we were happy with our choice.

The walk to the Weather Report didn't seem so bad this morning as we'd finally gotten some experience under our belt at this point, and when we arrived, we bought some coffees from the cafe across the road, called the "Sounds like cafe". We'd seen people go there each morning previously, but I had no idea how popular it was until I went into to get our takeaways, and the place was bustling, truly deceptive from the outside.

Nonetheless, the cappucino that I had was the closest one to home, despite it was still a little off, but Adelaides' hot chocolate didn't disappoint. It was a bit of a wait until our bus arrived at 9.05, noticibly empty now that it was Monday. As were getting on, we heard another newbie ask the driver where he was going, tentative that this was her bus. She hopped on, and when we arrived we found out it was her first time too, and that she was getting her beginner lesson today. Adelaide pointer her in the direction of the rest house, showed her where the lift passes were and where to go, and she was very thankful.

We got skiied up, and made our way up the four seater lift to the Soft Cream Course start, where we slid over to the Merry Land for our first few runs to get warmed up and reaquainted. On the chairlift, we marvelled at the brilliant clear day we had, and how empty the place was. Being the weekend on our two first days, it had been packed, with always a short line at the lifts, and many people to miss on the way down. Today however, it was close to empty. Apart from a few people spread here and there, you pretty much had the runs to yourself.

We made the most of this fact and made 5 runs down the soft cream course to start, zooming by the beginners, and we were feeling good about our technique. In light of that, on our 6th run of the day, we moved over to the Soft Cream course for a step up. The top of the Soft cream course flows on from one of the more intermediate runs up the mountain, so it has a fair bit of a slope on it (at least we thought so), and it was daughting to take on so inexperienced at the moment. We chalked it down to 'the best way to learn is by doing', and so we did. As it was so empty we had the ability to go slow the first few times, and the few times that we did get out of our depth, speed wise, we were able to just snow plow back to safety.

Pretty good views!

After another few runs down the Soft Cream course, we decided to head back to the Merry land course for a refresher, and to hone our technique, as we'd noticed that we were beginning to forget a few things (such as shifting our weight and the difference between having the skis positioned). Also, the Merry Land chairlift was much faster, and we were able to get a 7 minute round trip, as opposed to the Soft Cream course's 4 seater chairlift which was far slower, and took us closer to 15. While the course was longer, the longer wait in the chairlift put a damper on things.

After we'd sorted out our technique again, we did the Soft Cream course a few more times, and after deciding to go for lunch, were satisfied with how we were progressing. Both Adelaide and I were having a few occasional slips, and I had determined that I had a stronger turn than the other, but we were both better than we were that morning, and it felt good. Because of our expensive dinner the night before, we were running a little low on hard money, down to 5000 Yen, so we opted for Mos Burger as it was the cheaper lunch option at the Rest House.

This time I bought a cheese burger instead of a Mos Burger, as we've found they love to load up sauce on their signature dish, and we have a had a track record with being able to mysteriously spread it around. Nonetheless, it hit the spot, and after a break to take it in, we went back out. For the rest of the afternoon, we continued smashing the Soft Cream course, and by the end of the day, we had gotten it down pretty well. We still took the easier exit off the lift, which lead onto the lesser slope, but we were able to get our turns down nice and large, and I was even beginning to get my skis parrallel in places.

In seeing that we had some packing to do, as well as planning for our big transit day tomorrow, we got the 2 oclock bus back again. It would've been nice to get the full day in, but we were tired at that point, and after finishing a run of good... runs, we decided it was best to finish while we were ahead. Adelaide planned that when we got back to the Weather Report stop, we could return our gear, as it was only a few blocks down and would save us the walk. However, I raised the point that Adelaide had rented her ski clothes from there, and that we wouldn't have any shoes, so we arranged that I would mind the ski gear, while she returned to the pension to grab the replacement for when we leave.

And so our plan went into action. While Addy was careful walking back to the pension, I went about making some snowballs for her arrival back, however when I saw how slippery the road really was and that Addy was walking very slowly, I forgo my barrage. I hope that on our drive out tomorrow that I see someone else took advantage of my arsenal, and put them to good use. We had another 3 blocks of careful foot placement down the road, until we got to the Rental shop, and were disappointed.

We had seen many notifications online and in the shop about their opening hours (being 7-10am and 4-6pm), but for some reason had thought that was just for pick ups, and we thought that they'd be open all day for returns. This was not the case, as their stated opening hours were, well... their opening hours. Being 2.30pm, and too long to wait for it to reopen, Addy got a little annoyed and so we had another fun 20 minute walk back 200m up the road. We dumped our gear in the drying room, and I got it sorted for the afternoon, when we were finally able to return it.

At least we were back in the warmth! It wasn't snowing or windy today, but it had taken it's toll nonetheless, and we were cold. We spent some time procrastinating, before we got down to business and figured out the details of our next day. Traveling to Mt Fuji is definitely doable, but will just take some time tomorrow. We sorted out the buses and trains we have to catch, before we realised we still had a final payment for the ski package to make. They hadn't notified us, but we felt bad not paying it before we left. Adelaide talked to Yakata and he was very accommodating, but that still didn't change our stance.

When 4pm rolled around again, we layered up and went downstairs to get our gear. Treading slowly, we inched our way down the to the rental place, which this time, was open, and we ran into Dylan again. He was very carefree about our gear, and seemed happy that we'd returned it, but didn't feel the need to check it was all there (although, I suppose skis are hard to smuggle... that and he had Addy's Credit card details just in case). Once we'd dropped them off, we went to the Konbini above it for our dinner.

Breaking one of our last thousand Yen notes, we splurged and got a large bread roll, a 4 pack of crossaints, a dessert bun, some chocolate, another cup noodle and some chips. This is what was going to be our super nutritious dinner. It was still a little too early for dinner, so we watched some more Modern Family until it was 6 pm.

What $12 can buy in a Konbini!

Dinner tonight was a selection of:

- Entree: Crossiant, moderately warmed to Adelaides liking in the microwave
- Main: Cup Noodle with dried prawns removed, made with natural kettle water, served with a vending machine Asahi
- Dessert, Two Options: Meiji Chocolate (Adelaide), or Dessert Bun (Dylan).

But hey, we can't live like kings all the time, and despite the cup noodles were a bit of a let down, overall it was yummy. We should be able to get some more money out tomorrow in Nagano, which'll be nice. Afterwards, we packed our bags ready for departure tomorrow, and Adelaide managed to settle our remaining account with our package with Yakata, as well as donate the rest of the Laundry powder and handwarmers (which were dissapointing).

Tomorrow, we should be in relaxation land, with glorious view of Fuji-san! Until then, Goodnight!

Day 17 - Hakuba - Everyday is Leg Day When You're Skiing!

Despite some rumblings overnight(!), we woke up today to a clear day, fit for skiing! With the lesson that we'd had with Adam, we felt prepared enough to hit the slopes by ourselves, and that's exactly what we did! Our second full day in Hakuba was spent back at Immori, before we had an early finish for a nap, and a quiet dinner.

Overnight, I had a pretty disrupted sleep. The air in the pension is a little strange - perhaps it's a mix of the altitude, the central heating, or the hard pillows, but I've been waking up with a heady cold like feeling each morning, which has put a bit of a damper on things. The beds aren't super comfortable either, and so any light movements woke me up. Of all these first world problems however, I seemed to miss the most interesting part of last night, which was experienced a treamour. Adelaide vaguely remembers waking for a few seconds, when she heard everything shaking, with a low rumble behind it, before it eventually passed. After a while, I began to remember waking up to similar circumstances at one point. It wasn't a bus or vehicle passing by our window though, as there weren't any lights accompanied with it, and it didn't have the higher pitched engine noise accompanied with it (Adelaide cites that the windows were rattling). I'd post a picture as evidence, but it didn't seem to be enough for the Japanese Meteorological Agency to concern itself with, so you'll have to take our word for it.

Our lesson yesterday had left us a tired and sore, but not so severely that we weren't keen for another day ahead of us. We followed a similar routine to yesterday, waking up at 7.30 for brekkie downstairs at 8. Yakata had outdone himself again, this morning producing breakfast burgerettes, made up of a small burger bun (assumed to be homemade), with a poached egg, strips of bacon and avocado for a paste. There were garlic mushrooms and steamed spinach to accompany it around the base. We also had a side of fresh fruit again (although this time it was a different assortment).

We scoffed breakfast, and went downstairs to get our gear sorted for the day. Adelaide was super keen and got ready in a few minutes, so she went outside while she waited for me to faff around with the many layers and boots. It was another awkward walk down the main road to the bus stop, perhaps tomorrow we might just ski it, and we waited till 9.10 for our bus to turn up. Thankfully the driver and bus where the same as yesterday, so he knew we where we headed. The bus was far more busier too, and Adelaide and I snatched up some of the last seats.

As the weather was clearer this morning, we could see through to the mountains which Hakuba was flanked by, and it made for a spectacular drive out to the slopes, and when we finally arrived at imori, we could almost see to the top of the visible side of the runs, as they escaped back up the mountain higher. Without needing to wait around for our lesson today, we were able to jump right in, of course, after we'd had a starter coffee and hot chocolate.

We chose the same slope we were familiar with for the morning, and when we went over it was very quiet, so we were able to get a few runs in, mostly uninterrupted. As the morning progress, more schools came over, as well as another group booking which made things more congested. After 5 or 6 runs on the newbie slope, we mustered up the courage to go down the 'middle' run.

I realise at this point a map might be helpful! Below I drew the yellow boxes around the area we stuck near. We got dropped by our bus at 'Base Centre Iimori', and what I've been referring to the Newbie run is actually called "Merry Land Course", while what I've been calling the middle run is "Soft Cream Course". The two red runs (intermediate), on the right side of the yellow box are extremely steep, and visible from the rest stop, and form an amazing foreground. It just so happens that much of what is in the Yellow Box is all we can see when we arrive, outside of that it's hidden by trees, the mountain, or clouds. It'd be great to come back and venture to the top, and even better, ski down one day!

As you can see, we finished our last run for the morning on the Merry Land course, before we took the chair lift back up, and this time took a right turn straight off it. After cutting across the "snow park" which was where people could do tricks, we had hoped to have a clear run down the soft cream course, into the rest house for lunch. Adelaide got cut off near a jump by some self centred skiier, so she lost it and felt a little awkwardly, her first major fall. She tried her best and managed to get back up, so we took it easy on the way down, and slid in for lunch.

Instead of having Mos Burger again today, we opted for the caferteria options, which offered quite a range, and was much more impressive than I had anticipated. A long wait in the queue made us cold and hungry, so I ended up ordering Japanese curry with friend pork, and Adelaide tried a Spicy Chicken Namban curry - and we both had a side of chips to fill us up. Both our meals were massive though, so the chips were redundant, but yummy.

We sat for a bit and absorbed our meals, hesitant to go back out into the cold. We persisted though, and went to put on our skis. Just as I was about to finish up clicking in, we ran into Adam, who was there with another class. We didn't see him out on the slopes, which makes us think he had an advanced class.

After lunch, and our bad first impression, we decided to try the soft cream course. It had a little bit of a steeper incline at the start, which I found made it difficult to get my technique down pat, but the end of the run was wider and a little bumpier, which was better for practice. After a while though, it got busy with people trying to do tricks, and being towards the bottom of some of the intermediate and hard runs, would often get the speedfreaks and experts zooming past.

In light of that, after 5 or so runs, we moved back to the Soft Cream course to finish the day. Lunch had lulled the course, and we even managed to get 5 runs in in about 25 minutes, with very few delays on the chairlift (apart from one time when Adelaide almost missed the chair, and another when she abandoned me for the seat in front).

Pro Skiier

Up the 'Milky Four Chair Lift'

Looking at the Straight Whisky Course

Watching people wipe out on the jumps was entertaining

Looking back down the valley - great visibility today!

Nearly 1.30pm, we were thoroughly stuffed, and decided to get the 2 oclock bus home. We finished with a final run on the Merry Land course, and was able to slide almost all the way out to our bus stop. Because we had some time to kill, we went and bought another coffee and hot chocolate from the Crepe van which had been tempting us the day before - and while we were ordering, realised that it wasn't a van like the trailers we normally have, instead, it was an actual van that had been so caked in snow the front seemed to have dissapeared. We drank our warming beverages while we waited for the bus to show up. It was a bit of a sad sight, as we watched the guy who had served us sit in his cold, orange little van, while "All By Myself" played. I think he must've heard us commenting about it, because the song soon changed to something a little more upbeat.

We boarded the next bus that came, but we had a change so we jumped back onto our actual bus, with our actual driver (the same guy who had driven us there), and it was empty that early in the afternoon, only two other pairs of skiiers, both of which got dropped on the main drag of Echoland. We made a beeline back to our Pension, before coming back up stairs where Adelaide promptly had a nap, and I soon joined her after I did some internetting.

Fearing that we'd sleep into the nighttime, we woke up around 4.30pm, and chilled until nearly 6.30 when we went to have a soak in the onsen. We didn't have any plans for dinner, so newly warmed, we braved teh cold and took a walk down the main street looking for some place to eat. I took my nikon out too, and did some rough practicing of manual photos in the dark. Echoland is quite attractive at night, and it made for some good photos (although it's another situation where you could spend a good few hours with a tripod... and provided you weren't too cold).

Our accommodation!

One of the many blind intersections dotted around Echoland

Down the main street

Dinner

Cold

Cosy

Eventually we found a Bar and Grill that did steak, and after Adelaide spied they did wedges, we were sold. We had an entree of Wedges topped with cheese and bacon, with mustard sauce, before we both ordered an Aussie rib eye. They were filling steaks, but not enough to fill us all the way up, so we got some brownies and ice cream for dessert to. Like most places along the main street, it's a bit of a touristy place, so we ended up paying far more than we usual did for dinner, but we figured if we're skiing again tomorrow, we'll be so tired we can just eat the two cup noodles we bought from the Konbini the other day.

After our meal, we waddled home in the dark. Full, tired, and now warm. Tomorrow, we'll have another day of skiing, hopefully making the most of the time we have left in the snow, and maybe even adventure up Toomi if we feel confident. Until then, Goodnight!