Bullet Train Day

Our main objective for the day was get to Hakuba where we are going skiing. After another good nights sleep, we packed up our gear before heading to the Shinkansen, commonly known as the  Bullet Train.

The Hokuriku Shinkansen arrived at precisely 10.57 and departed at 10.58! Tokyo seemed to continue on forever, eventually housing became less dense with patches of forest and fields appearing. The flat landscape Became hillier and soon we were disappearing through dark tunnels only to emerge on the other side to higher mountains! At top speed, the Hokuriku Shinkansen reached 260km/hr covering the 240km to Nagano in just over an hour.

We exited the the railway station in search of the bus which would take us to Hakuba. On arrival to the allocated bus stop there was a very large queue. Luckily there were several buses and we squeezed on to the second bus. Actually it was the luggage that seemed to be the limiting factor with the buses because we climbed in to discover lots of free seats! We couldn't have had a more contrast travel option with the bus which took just as long as the Shinkansen to travel less than a quarter of the distance!

The road was narrow and windy as we snaked our way up. Big snowy mountains emerged in the distance. The Hakuba region was a surprise...the mountains were higher than I thought they'd be, the houses/lodges/hotels were more spread out too and the snow had been and left! Stephen, the owner of our lodge picked us up at the bus station.

Snowlines Lodge is our home for the next few days. Owned by an Australian (friend of a friend) its a beautiful, spacious lodge. As we travelled via Perth, we made a decision to hire skis and boots but brought all of our ski clothing and helmet with us which can I say was delivered from the airport to our lodge - nothing is too hard in Japan. There is a huge emphasis on pleasing others, avoiding conflict and  so much respect for others. We definitely can learn a thing or two from the peaceful culture. Anyway, after settling in we were picked up by the rental ski place, taken to the shop where we all were size up for ski gear before being driven back to the lodge.

We were excited to see our Canberra friends, Jules, Paul with daughters Seanie and Daisy had returned from their day's ski. After a quick catch up over a drink, it was time to find some dinner. Thanks to the wonderful suggestion by Stephen we wandered off to Nonjae in the SNOW! Snow had been lightly falling and within an hour the ground was covered. Skiing tomorrow is looking good :)