Index
Day 1: Flying
Days 2/3: Nagano Snow Shuttle
Day 4: Shiga-Kogen
Day 5: Shiga-Kogen
Day 6: Yudanaka
Day 7: Shiga-Kogen
Day 8: Shiga-Kogen
Day 9: Shiga-Kogen
Day 10: Shinkansen
Day 11: Hakushu
Day 12: Toyosu Fish Market
Japan
Starting the day back at Shiga-Kogen, this time the Kumanoyu ski area. Tiny lodge, another beautiful sunny day, views (from the top) of the "Japanese Matterhorn", and for a change, quite a few Japanese schoolkids taking ski lessons during class time.
Switching up guides and groups a tad, Leana was excellent, and wisely lead us to a slightly early lunch at the delicious Crumpet Cafe-- which was a good idea, because they sold out not long after we ordered! o_0 Saw mounds and mounds of powder everywhere, did an unexpected (to me) road crossing on skis, and had another solid loop of the ski areas not too long after lunch. Had no idea the individual ski areas were quite so small til I was actually skiing them. Skiing in powder also got a little easier, but still felt pretty clueless most of the day.
Somewhere along the line we ran into JPTC's staff photographer, Amy, who documented most of us embarassing ourselves in the deep snow. Always good to have proper documentation. *grins*
Post-ski-day stop was Kanmandaki Falls, which was not quite as dramatic as I was thinking. Scenic for sure, and the slide down the snow back to the parking lot half-delivered (you literally got stuck halfway down and had to walk). Dinner that night was at Restaurant Ru, right between Yudanaka Yumoto and Snow Monkey Lodge, an easy walk from both. Like most restaurants in the area, their overly large and complex menu meant some dishes were very slow to come out, but overall the quality was pretty good, from the gyoza to the mushroom salad to the various hamburger steak curries.