After last year when we all spent Christmas in much warmer climates, this year, we decided to head for the snow. Of course, what good is snow without skiing! We ventured to Hakuba in the Nagano Prefecture in eastern Japan. Referred to as the Japan Alps, this area hosted the Winter Olympics in 1998.
We flew from HK to Tokyo with a quick stop in Taipei. Once in Tokyo, our schedule necessitated us taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Pretty normal except the taxi took six and a half hours! Partly because it's a long way and partly because we had to circumvent the closed tunnel that collapsed about a month ago.
Once we arrived in Hakuba, we either walked or used the local public transport. We skied for four days at three different resorts. It snowed everyday but we actually had a bit of rain mixed in. Consequently, the skiing was a bit icy on a couple of days. The last day we had great snow and spent all day on the mountain (once our young intrepid schussers got out of bed!)
On Christmas day, we took a bus back to Nagano, the we caught the bullet train back to Tokyo. A short taxi ride to the hotel but us right near the Ginza district. Great for shopping. Which was good since I forgot to pack a crucial part of Sydney's Christmas outfit. After a little exploring, we headed to the American Club, Tokyo for Christmas dinner. All the traditional turkey, ham, potatoes, stuffing etc. complimented by some out of this world sushi. I mean, really, you can't go to Japan and not eat sushi, am I right?
The next day we caught an early flight back to HK and were back home to open gifts by about 4 on the 26th. A quick trip but lots of fun. Click here to see the photos.
