Even though driving home through the blizzard was a challenge I was glad of it when we woke up to Akita city covered by a blanket of fresh, white snow. We had another exciting day in Akita ahead, meeting some more of the famous monsters of the prefecture. Before our next road trip, we explored Senshu Park, the home of the reconstructed Kubota Castle.

Our first stop in the park was Yojiroinari Shrine, an Inari shrine, dedicated to an ancient fox. There was a beautiful line of torii, the red contrasting so well with the fresh snow. The park also houses another shrine, Iyataka Shrine, which has a huge torii welcoming visitors, which again, was more beautiful with the snow.

The castle and castle gate in the park are both reconstructions after, like most in Japan, they were torn down during the Meiji restoration. It was too early to get into the castle, but it was very pretty seeing it from the outside. The snow-covered branches framed the castle, which made the concrete reconstruction a lot more magical. After a lovely walk through the park, we got back to the hotel, checked out, and set off to Mount Moriyoshi, to meet the monsters of Akita.

We drove into the mountains of Akita to Ani Ski Resort which took several hours on back roads and by the time we reached the car park it was absolutely packed, mostly due to people straddling multiple parking spaces meaning far fewer people could park. We managed to parallel park on the road to the Ski Resort and make our way back up. This is one of the less popular resorts for foreign tourists, mainly because it is in the middle of nowhere! There were many skiers around, but we were only interested in juhyo, the snow monsters! We took the gondola up, and it seemed the team only put one group in per pod, which meant it was a relaxing ride up through the clouds and into the beautiful mountains.

In preparation, we had our snow hiking boots, gators, and waterproof lined trousers on, as I had heard online that the walk around the snow monsters was not a casual one. Once you reach the top a man checks out your gear, and if you don’t have the right shoes they will have to lend you some. We were given an introduction to the course by a bilingual ski guide who explained some safety issues e.g. when crossing the ski paths, were given a ski pole for stability and set off. It had, sadly, been a poor year for snow, and even though it was 2.4m deep at the summit the monsters weren’t as fully formed as in previous years. They were still stunning though, and staggeringly tall! It was an absolute blast walking around the snow monsters in knee-deep snow, occasionally falling up to the hip in the powder.

The views from the top were stunning as well, there was a longer hiking course available to the true peak of the mountain. The sign clearly stated that if you weren’t prepared with proper hiking equipment, and hadn’t submitted a hiking plan not to go. As we had not prepared to that level we made the sensible decision not to and will have to come back in the future to complete the hike.

We eventually made our way back down the mountain after spending about an hour walking the short route. Once out of the gondola, we passed a little kei truck with an oven in the back and the sweet scent of yaki-imo, grilled sweet potatoes. Unfortunately, no one was in the truck, but with empty tummies we waited and a queue started forming behind us. Luckily a man soon ran out of the building and jumped into the truck, and we were able to purchase some delicious, warm yaki-imo, they were beautifully caramelized and so filling.

After our snow monster adventure, we needed to head back to Aomori City to return our rental car and make our way down to Tokyo in the morning. On our way past we stopped briefly in Hirosaki to see their snow festival. It was incredibly underwhelming, the snow sculptures were made with dirty snow, and it seemed more suited to families with small children. We took a quick look at the castle and got back to Aomori and ready for our shinkansen trip the next day.