had a great time with ski pals skiing, dining, drinking !!
Snow was not great even in mid March 2016. Quite disappointed – just a little bit of powder at the very top due to unusually warm weather for a couple of days prior to our arrival.
Travel resource
Our stay there was nice. Nice views of the onsen town from higher ground. Dinner was fusion style with Kobe beef served. The garden was filled with sakura in full bloom.
Myoko Kogen is in fact in Niigata Prefecture, on the border with Nagano Prefecture. 2nd visit since 2001. So glad to be back with a tint of fall foliage, probably 10% 🙂
Imori-ike (いもり池) with Mt Myoko in the background
Visited 3 waterfalls, with probably 50% of fall colours.
From late September onwards, fall foliage would commence its descend from 2700m. Took the only shuttle bus to Tatami-daira (terminal) 乗鞍畳平 and started descending along the main road, alongside with many others doing the same, while from time to time, there were cyclists ascending ! Though the fall foliage has passed its peak @2500-2600m, it has descended to 2000-2300m with vivid colours on the way. Took about 5 hrs to descend to Resenkoya @2100m, before jumping on shuttle bus to return to base @1400m. On next morning, prior to hiking up to the summit of Mt Norikura, the pension owner was so nice to drive me to nearby Ichinose area with beautiful pond and foliage reflections.
Picked up a rental car near Nagano station and visited Kagami-ike (mirror pond) 鏡池 with reflections of Mt Togakushi. Fall foliage was probably about 30%. Walked part of the Togakushi-sando leading to Togakushi Jinja with a long boulevard of tall Japanese cedar trees (Sugi).
2nd visit since 2005. Took the new Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa from Tokyo. Visited Kenroku-en (兼六園), one of the 3 most famous gardens in Japan.
World Heritage. 2nd visit since 2005, when the village was covered in snow in early December. This time we arrived after peak fall foliage.
visited the western part known as Noto Kongo coastline as day trip before returning to Wakura onsen town for overnight stay.
2nd visit since 2010. This time we reached the innermost Keyakidaira by Torroko train where fall foliage has clearly passed its peak, though there were still some in the Unazuki onsen town.
Our 2nd visit since 2004 koyo season. This time is for peak sakura season though. We strolled around the hilly onsen town, dotted by temples and two public onsen for daytime visitors. As usual, we did not go for the public ones but saved the soak in the onsen ryokan instead.
World Heritage. 2nd visit since April 2000 for sakura.
After 15 years since 2000, we returned to Kyoto during peak sakura season 🙂
from Gion, walk towards Yasaka shrine and up further then you arrive at this park. During the sakura season, it is spectacular to have several hundred trees blossoming at the same time. Besides, in the middle, there is a huge Shidarezakura (weeping sakura) tree which is gorgeous in the day as well as being light up in the evening. Sadly, compared to when we last visited in 2000, it has shrunk. Upon return, 3 Japanese ladies in kimono were playing traditional music in Yasaka Shrine.
Having visited many sakura spots in Japan, by far this is still the most impressive. In other sakura spots the Somei Yoshino (slightly pink, but almost in white) are widely planted. However, the ones in Heian Jingu are predominantly of Yaeshidare-zakura (pink overhanging). It happened that a Japanese couple was holding their wedding ceremony.
visited Ito onsen town and Izu Kogen. Sakura blossom was later than yearly average by about 1 week. We had gone to Kyoto prior to this but were disappointed as almost all sakura trees were still in budding stage. Thus, we were so glad that we made the right decision to detour back to Kanto as sakura was in full bloom in Ito and Izu Kogen. At the end of the 4km long sakura boulevard (tunnel) uphill we arrived at the Sakura-no-sato (hometown).
