day 23 - tokyo to brisbane

day 22 - tokyo

day 21 - tokyo

day 20 - hakuba to tokyo

Wadano Lodge on the morning of our departure to Tokyo.

Serious snowfalls over-night make for a picture perfect landscape.

The road from our lodge has yet to be cleared, with a bogged car from Double Black Lodge out front.

The road up to the ski fields at Sakka. Snow ploughs have been through early morning and left walls of snow on the road verges.

When it snows in Hakuba, it really snows - the locals say it "pukes down".

Our mode of transport down to the Hakuba Bus Station with Peter the lodge manager as driver.

day 19 - dosojin fire festival

day 19 - last day skiing in powder

Ally and Claire exiting the High Cascade Cafe after morning tea
- hot chocolates and double choc cookies of course.

Ally and Claire bogged knee deep in fresh powder snow.
The very last day produced the very best snow.

Fresh deep powder snow on the cat track down to Skyline 2 from High Cascade.

The front beginner's slopes at Sakka are even covered in 15cm of fresh powder snow,
with no-one around to track them out.

Ally and Claire knee deep stuck again under the Kitaone 3 double chair.

High Cascade Cafe disappearing under mounds of fresh powder snow.

Sakka triple chair at the beginner's slopes on the front valley.

Ally and Jeffrey exit High Cascade after some respite.

Seriously deep powder snow - seriously cold - seriously fun!

day 15 - jigokudani monkey onsen / sake brewery / zenkoji temple

Ally, Claire, Lee and I walking back through the forest after seeing the snow monkeys.

Andrew, Will and Claire.

Lee and Will.

Andrew ghosting a snow monkey.

The monkeys are just amazing.  They just laze about in the hot water preening each other.

Ally and Claire posing with their friends.

You could just watch the monkeys for ever.  Especially the baby ones they are so cute.

After the snow monkeys we stopped at a Sake Brewery for lunch. 

The kitchen was in the middle of the restaurant.

On the way home we stopped off at Japan's third largest temple and went on a tour.  This temple has the first buddhist statue in Japan in it.  It is made of wood and you can touch it.  It is very smooth, in fact the face has no eyes, mouth or nose because they have been touched so much they have been rubbed out.

Lee and Paul finished off the day with some dancing.

collage of hakuba ski area

day 11 to 19 - skiing in hakuba

Ally and I having a chai latte break at the bottom of Sakka Ski Area.

Thats me coming down the huge slope at Sakka.

Jeffrey and I resting on the chair lift between runs at Sakka.

Clive at the top at Kitaone.

Ally at the top at Kitaone.

Claire exiting the chairlift at Kitaone 3.

Andrew on the shuttle bus heading back to our lodge after a hard day of boarding.

Jack still has enough energy to smile - just! we have about a 100m walk up to the hotel to catch the shuttle bus about another 500m to the lift.

Dinner at Sekkaisei (a traditional Japanese homestyle lodge) next door to ours.  It was almost like sitting in their lounge room.  Traditional Shabu-Shabu, where you add meats and veg to the crockery pot with steaming broth in it and cook to your liking.  Lots of sauces, pickled veg and rices.

Isn't it great to see the boys using their culinary skills.

Everyone enjoyed the meal and the best thing was we didn't have to walk far. Just next door.

Ally and Jeffrey relaxing on the chairlift.

Claire and Clive.

Andrew very relaxed in between runs.

Sam disappearing in the snow out the front of the lodge.

Little place called Emu not far from where we are staying. 

Ally is just preparing the hot plate to cook Okonomiyaki (sometimes called Japanese Savoury Pancake). You get a bowl of veg, meat and seafood batter to cook on the grill. Fun and seriously cheap.

day 10 - takayama to hakuba

We are up for a busy day of four train connections for our trip to Hakuba.

Jeffrey and Clive always managed to get empty window seats in first class.

First class is always directly behind the train driver's cabin which is glass backed,

so you can get a nice view out the front window.

And the snow got heavier and heavier as we climbed higher and higher into the mountains.

Thankfully we didn't have to wait long on the platforms for connecting trains as it was bitterly cold.

As soon as you boarded the trains you had to strip off the layers as they are all very well heated.

One of the train legs was cancelled due to heavy snow so we had to catch the bus for this stretch. 

Anticipation and excitement builds on the last train leg to Hakuba.