The Jukebox Clan Does Japan

[GarrettM]

Avert your eyes, kiddies...

View attachment 438165

It looks like they're playing leap frog but he just can't quite get high enough over the top.

 

[jukebox333]

It looks like they're playing leap frog but he just can't quite get high enough over the top.

No, they were doing exactly what it looks like they were doing. I had one in the viewfinder, and by the time I'd squeezed the shutter, and with the camera lag, I'd inadvertently captured monkey business.

 

[jukebox333]

Thanks for the well wishes everyone.

Posting won't be as live as I'd like while I play catch up -it's been quite the 24 hrs coming to terms with having to leave Wen at Nagano, but also keeping the plans for the sake of everone else.

She's still in a lot of pain, and they are telling her to expect a long recovery. It will be a little while before we get an indication of how long before she can be discharged, but it won't be before we reach Nagoya at least.

The good news is I now have my own physical Traveller's eSim after finding one for sale at the conbini in Matsumoto railway stattion, and she has her phone and charger, so we are in 24/7 contact with one another again. That was very important.

 

[jukebox333]

After we had dropped Wen at the hospital, the kids and I drive east up the hill to Togakushi Shrine.

This was quite the journey in the van. The van is the same model we had to go to Fuji, but that one was a hybrid ePower version - Nissan's hybrid is a petrol engine powering a generator that charges the electric battery that drives electric motors powering the wheel - and it was very responsive both accelerating and braking. The petrol version I have for this 5 days is much more sluggish. Even the turning circle feels wider. I high recommend taking the hybrid if you have to choose - I think it might have been cheaper as well.

The main shrine you can see in the webcam is in the village a little down from the summit. There's lots of soba restaurants there, and apparently it's quite the mecca for enthusiasts. We were headed for the upper shine and continued on. I'd watched the snow falling on the cam for weeks now, and knew the desination would be well above the snow line. The last fall was last week I think - I didn;t check on the day it snowed at Fuji though. The roads were clear now, but there was at least a metre on the ground.

There's a paid parking lot up the top, and we set off to the middle shrine.




The path had only been cleared as far as the middle shrine. Even then the last 20m was an icy, slippery mess. But we pushed on to reach the money shot that I'd been wanting to see:



The stand of cedar trees here is incredible. I wish I'd brought the crampons to be able to continue up the path a way more, but even so, the sight of these massive ancient trees was just breathtaking.



Not wanting to end up on my backside, or worse sprain - or break! - my wrist, we turned around and headed back to the car.

Accomodation in Nagano was the JAL City Hotel.

We'd originally planned to head to Hakuba from here, but when my accomodation of choice there was closed for bookings in April, I decided to steer back into the city, so needed a place with decent car parking. JALC fit the bill.

I joined the free JAL One Harmony rewards program, and got their rates for rooms, which were pretty good. The one assigned ot Wen and I was on the 14th floor, with views of the mountains. Free beverages in the fridge, loads of amenities in the room, and a huge bed with lots of floor space.









It felt damn cruel to spend my first night alone in Japan with all that.

Pragmatically, it was a really nice place to stay, about halfway between the main station and the Zenkoji temple, but also near lots of places to eat. When I explained why the occupancy was for four, not five, and that I would have some special need - car park re-entry, phone access for the hospital for emergencies etc, the front desk staff and manager were accomodating, and generous. I would definitely recommend this hotel as a Nagano base for anyone.