#japan2014

[moonysirius]

god they look so stupid

[umlewis]

race winner lewis hamilton pulls a face on the podium, japan - october 5, 2014 📷 charles coates / motorsport images

[yotryu]

Tokyo - Last Day (15/02/14)

Our final day was just revisiting some shops to look for souvenirs before we headed for the airport. Lots of delays because of snow from yesterday, so buses were slow, trains delayed and ours to the airport got cancelled - we had to catch the next one and just made it in time!

Has been a full on 3 weeks, but heaps of fun was had, with many strange and unique things seen and experienced!

[yotryu]

Hakuba -> Tokyo - Disneyland (14/02/14 - part 2)

For full details of our time in Disneyland, see part 1!

[yotryu]

Hakuba -> Tokyo - Disneyland (14/02/14 - part 1)

We had a very full day today! Had to travel all the way back to Tokyo from Hakuba in the morning, drop our luggage at our hotel, then get over to Disneyland as quickly as we could! All the while snow is starting to fall in Tokyo, meaning public transport was inevitably going to experience problems.

We made it to Disneyland fine, the real surprise was how much more interesting it was (or any theme park for that matter) in the snow! Going on rides with gaps in the roof had snow falling on us; stepping out of a ride to see the park more white than before; having few crowds because of it not being a weekend and the snow - it was all great! By the end of the night we'd gone on 12 rides including a stack we hadn't planned to, and we had a heap of fun just hanging out in a theme park in the snow. 

The rides in order were: 

Pirates of the Caribbean

Big Thunder Mountain

Splash Mountain

Haunted Mansion

It's a Small World

Alice's Tea Party

Pooh's Hunny Hunt

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters

Space Mountain

Star Tours: The Adventure Continues

Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek

There are more photos in part 2!

[yotryu]

Hakuba Last Day - Snowboarding (Goryu + Hakuba 47) and Onsen (13/02/14)

Our last day snowboarding was at Goryu and Hakuba 47. Unfortunately visibility was poor today, and the snow at Goryu was fairly icy, and there were far too many people there! Once we got below the clouds at Hakuba 47 it wasn't too bad, but for a last day we decided to call it a bit early and get ourselves ready to leave the next morning. The highlight today though was the trip to an onsen (Mominoki Hotel) - this really was an experience worth doing. The water is unbelievably warm considering the outside temperature (below 0˚C) and you do feel relaxed and clean afterwards! The whole experience includes showering beforehand and bathing naked, so no photos are allowed. The onsen was definitely the right way to spend our last afternoon in Hakuba - rounded out the trip very nicely.

[yotryu]

Hakuba - Snowboarding 3! Iwatake (12/02/14)

Wednesday we went to a new mountain for boarding and skiiing! Iwatake was a short shuttle bus ride from our villa and proved to be a great place to spend the day! Not as big as Happo-one, but it was a lot of fun! A main gondola goes to the top of the mountain, then there are runs on every side of the mountain going in all directions! It gives a fantastic view of the valley around the town, including the other ski resort areas (you could see the lifts on the other close mountains!). The terrain is all wide and enjoyable to ride, and we even managed an accessible spot of powder - this stuff was hard to ride in because of how different it is, but we had fun getting stuck up to our knees and falling completely in to it!

Tomorrow is our last day in Hakuba and last day snowboarding - Hakuba 47 and Goryu mountains (linked) are our target!

[yotryu]

Hakuba - Rest day (11/02/14)

Tuesday was a rest day for us - Jules wasn't feeling great with a cold so we decided to take it easy and sort him out so we would be ready for the next day.

We ended up walking from our villa all the way to the 1998 Winter Olympic Games Ski Jump stadium - this was far more interesting and worth a visit than we expected! The slopes are terrifying and the thought of jumping off them even more so.

The rest of the day was spent picking up supplies and watching the Sochi Winter Olympics on TV.