Far EA(s)Ts .... The Golden Triangle!

[amaroo]

Only just catching up with this TR now. What a great trip. Like a few others I'm certainly taking notes on where to eat.



Thankfully dinner is in a couple minutes

Cheers

looks like their Sky Suite III, of the at least 4 different seats they have on international routes, and IIRC is the same Zodiac Cirrus base as the CX seat you flew SIN-BKK

Having the TV facing the seat in a permanent position makes the capsule feel a whole lot smaller.... although, excellent for viewing gate to gate.

 

[amaroo]

Tonight we're eating Shabu Shabu .. more importantly - Kobe Beef, Shabu Shabu.

This meal was a real highlight of the trip.

Seryna http://www.seryna.co.jp/en/

 

[amaroo]

Kobe Beef - look at that magnificent marbleization! The best I've tasted!



A quick dip in here and it's ready to eat.



Dipping sauces



You drink the broth after you've cooked your beef, veges, and noodles - lip licking delicious.



The wine list was also impressive... LOL maybe next time!

 

[njba]

Two of us loved this

View attachment 87820

Sancerre is the only sauv blanc worth drinking. Can be very nice on a warm day.

The GH in Singapore looked fantastic! Must go there one day.

 

[amaroo]

Sancerre is the only sauv blanc worth drinking. Can be very nice on a warm day.

Not sure about the only one, but we love'em

GH in Singapore looked fantastic! Must go there one day.

A real surprise package, reasonable too ... for Singapore.

 

[amaroo]

Big day today - ticking off something that has been on our to do list for a couple of decades.

First we had to make our way to Tokyo station to catch the Hokuriku Shinkansen... 10 min taxi ride sorted that.

Views from the cab - passing the Imperial Palace





Our bullet ride





I used the Sygic app to see the speed

 

[amaroo]

The Shinkansen was taking us to Nagano, but our destination was Jigokudani Park ... in other words - Snow Monkeys.

Views from the train

 

[love_the_life]

Waiting patiently

The train looks quite quiet, bereft of passengers even. We were in Green Car when we were there and there were very few people in our carriage and lots of room.

 

[Pushka]

Waiting patiently

Or not.

 

[amaroo]

Waiting patiently

The train looks quite quiet, bereft of passengers even. We were in Green Car when we were there and there were very few people in our carriage and lots of room.

We were the first onboard. I'd say the trip out was 3/4 full .... the return trip was standing room only.

I wandered up to the posh cabins - they were basically empty.

 

[love_the_life]

I take it you had seat reservations.

 

[amaroo]

I take it you had seat reservations.

Yes, I don't know if it was the best move in terms of $$ (AUD$875), but I purchased 4 x 5 day JR east passes at the airport. I then reserved seats on the spot ... lucky I did, as the the return trip was difficult to get 4 seats close together.

The pass was good for unlimited travel on JR Tokyo and JR East Shinkansen lines but was useless for Tokyo Metro. Shame there isn't a pass that covers the lot!

 

[love_the_life]

As we were not doing return trips on Shinkansen or JR we worked out it was more economical to buy point to point but we did purchase and do seat reservation several days before we were to travel. Not sure what we will do at the end of the year as we will probably be making more return trips.

Waiting to hear how you got from Nagano to visit the snow monkeys

 

[amaroo]

As we were not doing return trips on Shinkansen or JR we worked out it was more economical to buy point to point but we did purchase and do seat reservation several days before we were to travel. Not sure what we will do at the end of the year as we will probably be making more return trips.

Waiting to hear how you got from Nagano to visit the snow monkeys

We did a day trip from Tokyo - it's a full day. Left the hotel around 6.30am and arrived back around 7pm.

 

[love_the_life]

Did you do it with an organised tour or DIY?

 

[amaroo]

Did you do it with an organised tour or DIY?

Private tour with a few additional bits. Depending how liquid lunch is I'll post more detail later today.

 

[love_the_life]

Private tour with a few additional bits. Depending how liquid lunch is I'll post more detail later today.

Sounds just like something we are after. We have been toying with staying a few days in Shibu Onsen but no decisions yet.

 

[amaroo]

When we decided to do a Tokyo side trip, we wanted to do three things - Snow Monkeys, Sumo Tournament, and Tsukiji market .... unfortunately, the fish market was closed. As the song goes - 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

The Snow Monkeys!

I started searching for tours and couldn't find any for the day we wanted. Changed the search wording to private tours - Boom! we were locked in.

The Snow Monkeys we saw are located at Jigokudani Yaen-Koen in the Joshinetsu-Kojen National Park. It's about 35 kms from Nagano. Here is a link to the website JIGOKUDANI YAEN-KOEN|Welcome , Japanese Monkey to the world it has a couple of excellent web cams.






The tour company we selected was Snow Monkey Resorts Welcome to SNOW MONKEY RESORTS! | Nagano, Japan They were very good to deal with and delivered exactly what they promised - no problem recommending this firm. There are many tour options - we selected this one SNOW MONKEY PRIVATE TOURS | SNOW MONKEY RESORTS and tacked on Zenko-ji Temple

Given we were only staying 4 nights in Tokyo we did this as a day trip however, you could easily stay a few days in the area and do many other activities. Once we booked the tour - I had to sort out transport from Tokyo > Nagano > Tokyo ... as mentioned upthread we purchased JR East rail pass. It did the trick, but it would be excellent if you could purchase a pass that included Tokyo Metro.

It's a full day, as the advice was it was best to start the tour at 8.45am, meeting at Nagano station... the tour ended when we were dropped off at the station to catch the 5.09pm Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We caught a taxi from the hotel at 6.30am and caught the 7.20am Shinkansen. Just like clockwork we arrived at Nagano at 8.43am where our guide was waiting.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

 

[amaroo]

After around an hour we arrived at the park, quick pitstop at the cafe - this is where we would have lunch



After you get dropped off at the cafe it's a 1.6k walk (3.2k return trip) to the Monkeys.

There are plenty of monkeys down here - they belong to a different troop to the hot tubbing stars.





We were warned not to make eye contact and definitely not to carry food or plastic bags. Sure enough we witness a young couple being attacked whilst holding a plastic bag... our guide went straight into action mode and sorted it. The young man was frozen stiff and left his lady to fend for herself...

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

..... Just like clock work we arrived at Nagano at 8.43am where our guide was waiting.

Ha Ha amaroo EVERYTHING in Japan runs like clockwork !