2nd ski here since 2008. Heavy snow upon arrival and on the first day on the slope, with gusty wind and freezing cold temps around -10C day and night. Great Pow !!
on bus outside Ilyama station
local shops in onsen town
overnight snow
heavy snow and gusty wind on 1st day
looking back on Schindler slope
Top of mt
top of Schindler mogul slope
Madarao ski
went to Madarao for 1D-ski. About 1.5hr by shuttle bus from Nozawa. Snow was less powdery in general, might be due to lower altitude. Good pow was on the Crystal run on top @1300m where the slope was partially shielded by trees.
top of Crystal run
looking back on Crystal mogul slope
another mogul slop in Tangram area
Nozawa onsen town
Before leaving, had a quick stroll around the onsen town, including the onsen origin.
5th time skiing in Hakuba in late dec before X’mas. Brought a friend whom was very keen to learn skiing. Unfortunately, due to severe El-Nino snow was terrible on the slopes downhill – the worst I’ve ever seen. In Happo-one, slopes from Olympic courses and below were closed.
As a result, we skied in some of the upper slopes opened in Hakuba Goryu and Hakuba Happo-One, around 1400-1600m.
Shirouma dake can be seen with trees in the foreground
The spot was about 15min by shuttle bus from Fukushima station. From the bus stop, it took another 30min to walk past local farms and fields before ascending to a hill. Apart from various sakura species which blossomed, there were many other types of flowers such as peach, dogwood, tulips grown in the small hill around rural farms, composing a colourful spring view in the backdrop of distant Mt Azuma range.
This was our first sakura visit in Tohoku in 2009. Visited a top 100 sakura spots in Japan nearby Sendai, about 30 min by local train.
Funaoka castle-ruins Park (船岡城址公園)
The only top 100 sakura spots in Miyagi Prefecture where Sendai is. An easy 20 min walk up a small hill from JR Funagaoka station. From there, we had a great view of the thousand-sakura along the Shiroishi river dyke with Mt Zao faintly in the background.
Visited the 8km long Shiroishi river dyke at the foothill of Funaoka Castle Park. “Hitome Senbonzakura” literally means thousand Sakura at a glance. A beautiful row of big Sakura trees of 80 years and more formed a sakura tunnel where visitors could relax along the dyke.
Funaoka hill in the distance
sakura trees along the dyke
sakura tunnel
old big sakura trees of over 80 years old
On another day, visited the same but from the other end of the dyke nearby JR Ogawara station 大河原駅 (宮城県). Sakura tunnel was on either side of the river dyke.
After returning from Hida-Takayama, visited the Rose Garden in Kani, which was more than 1hr from Nagoya by train and shuttle bus. This rose garden was huge – apart from 30,000 rose bushes, it also had many Spring flowers such as Poppy, Daisy, Camelia etc.
Visited Nasu-dake on 16th Oct (Sunday) by Tohoku Shinkansen to Nasu-Shiobara, then by bus. Bus took 1hr+ but traffic grinded to a halt after passing Nasu-Kogen, before reaching the Nasu ropeway as the final stop. The bus driver was nice to suggest that hiking to the ropeway was possible in about 20min. Some of the passengers included me of took his suggestion. It was quite a steep climb along the road and also cutting through via footpaths. I finally reached the ropeway station after noon time. Realized that so many people were visiting, I had a quick soba then queued up for the ropeway. Reached the top station @1684m past 1pm, then quickly commenced hiking. Though it was a clear day, strong gusty wind blew amidst a very steep climb. About 30min later, I was rewarded with gorgeous views of Koyo laden Nasu-dake. With another 45min to reach the summit of Chausu-dake @1800m, I decided to turn back at that point. There was no more Koyo upward, and I needed to queue for both the return ropeway and bus.
Queued for bus after 2:30pm. Slightly after 3pm the bus arrived and the bus driver nicely let us embark, though it could not depart before 3:30pm. The bus was so full. I was lucky to have a seat while some had to stand for more than 2 hours before reaching the nearest JR station. Traffic was really heavy.
Nasu-dake junction @1718m, with Chausu-dake in view
