From Motegi, we drove a couple of hours to Takaragawa Onsen, a natural hotspring in the mountains. Most onsens are separate sexes and nude !! But Janet had researched a mixed one. It had several pools all next to a river, just beautiful. We had to wear their bathing outfits – the men’s were a bit like a long loin cloth and women’s, a sack with shoulder straps. Thankfully, no cameras were allowed!
The drive carried on past several small ski resorts, along fun to drive twisty mountain roads until we go to Nazowa Onsen our home for the night. That is also a ski resort that still had a few higher altitude runs open.
The next day we visited three other ski resorts (can you tell we were exploring them all as a recce for next winter season…?) Madarao, Myoko and Japan’s biggest ski area Shiga Kogen, which hosted quite a lot of the1998 Olympics.
Then the end of the day was quite magical – Jigokudani Yaen Koen Snow Monkey Park. This is where macaque monkeys use a riverside onsen to keep warm during winter !! Clever fellas. It was quite amazing how comfortable they were with humans, strolling past within a foot of you, then taking a soak in the onsen. Suddenly, it was like all the young ones were having their mad half hour before sunset, all jumping in on each other like teenagers 🙂
Next day we went to Hukaba, a big ski resort a lot of our Aussie students had been to and recommended. It was also home to the Nagano 1998 Olympics and still has the massive ski jump, Eddie 🦅 you were a brave man.
Then we drove a few hours South to see the stunning Mt Fuji 🏔 We were very luck to see it clearly on the drive in, bathed in sunlight.
It is often shrouded in cloud (a bit like the Manx Manannan’s cloak over Snaefell) and that is how it looked this morning.
Today, with Mt Fuji photo opportunities out the window, we drove around the Five Lakes area and visited Lake Saiko Bat Cave (all asleep) and some lava tubes (Fugaku Wind Cave and Narusawa Ice Cave) which both had ice pillars in them instead of the usual stalactites.
Then we completed the two hour drive back to Tokyo. We must have adapted quite well over the 1,400 kms as it seemed easy and drama free to get back to the rental garage. The expressway tolls soon add up but halved the time of the journey today. Also stopped Pete moaning about having to drive so slowly (40 kmph or 60 kmph on the small roads) [Janet chipped in].
We are now currently flying to Kobe for our next adventures.
