Long Weekend Hakuba Trip!

Saturday 10th February

Breakfast was served at the lodge at 8:00am, so we woke up at 7:30 ish to get ready. There was a selection of bread, eggs, ham, sausages, and cereal available for breakfast this morning. The rest of the group then got ready to go skiing/snowboarding at Tsugaike, whilst me and another ALT friend (who’s not keen on skiing) researched on sightseeing places in Hakuba/Nagano. In the end we decided to drive an hour to Nagano city to see a famous temple (Zenkōji). The temple was pretty massive, and it has quite the historical significance in terms of Buddhism in Japan, but I kinda forgot what it was. The area around the temple was really lovely though, with lots of food stalls and little shops, so my friend and I worked our way up and down the street trying out all the different foods. We had a super delicious grilled onigiri, freshly baked apple pie, soba crepe (!), and a butter potato bun. We then walked around the temple area taking photos before having lunch at a soba place. The place was actually quite busy with a lot of activity, despite the rest of the city seeming relatively quiet. After we finished lunch we had a walk in the park nearby to see if the art gallery there was open but it turned out to be closed, so we got back in the car and drove to another shrine. After that we drove some on some very windy mountain roads back to the lodge where we just chilled, waiting for the others to get back from snowboarding.

After they came back we headed to the nearby onsen together, and then had dinner at the cafeteria there. After dinner we went back to the lodge and played games (one of us had brought his WiiU and Smash Bros along!) and just talked and had some really good bonding time.

Sunday 11th February

Woke up at around 7:50am for another 8:00am breakfast this morning. There was the same stuff as yesterday but with an extra option of oatmeal and bananas. A few people decided to not go snowboarding today since their bodies were really sore + it was pretty cold out and snowing today. We just stayed at the lodge relaxing and playing this unicorns card game (it’s actually really fun!) that one of us bought from Kickstarter. We then headed out for a pretty late lunch at a nearby 定食 place, and after that we walked over to the ski field to meet up with the others, and also to get some crepes and gelato! We walked back to the lodge together with the others who had finished up snowboarding, booked a table for our group at 19:30 at the burger place on the way back, and then just relaxed and rested up at the lodge until it was time for dinner. I wasn't too hungry so I just got the Kit Kat milkshake, and the fries with avocado and jalapeños. After dinner it was back through the snow to the lodge to play games. The lodge actually had its own super high tech fancy mahjong table, so we got that out and played mahjong till super late!

Monday 12th February

After a few late nights in a row, all of us couldn't wake up very early this morning! Woke up at 9:00am just in time for a quick breakfast before they cleaned up. Packed everything up into our cars, cleared the snow off our cars (it had snowed super heavily last night!) and then took some group photos and played with the fresh powder snow for a bit before heading to the Snow Monkey park. Some of us had already been before so we sat and waited in the nearby café. We ordered some fried chicken, fries, edamame, and muffins while waiting, and played the unicorns card game again (it’s such a good way to pass time). After the rest of the group was done with the monkeys we tried to get tables for lunch at nearby restaurants, but they were all pretty full, so we just ended up driving to McDonalds at Aeon instead! After we finished lunch we said our goodbyes and made our way back home in our respective groups. The drive back took only 2 hours, because we were setting off from the monkey park place which is much closer to Takasaki than Hakuba is.