We woke up early to a snow-dusted Nagano City as we wanted to get a good start on our hour drive to one of the places I was most looking forward to on our winter trip. Before heading off we had a walk around Nagano and found a series of very intriguing statues along the … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter Day 11: Togakushi Shrine Nagano, the snowiest hike
It was time to get back on the road and we had rented from Nippon Rent a Car for the first time. We were staying near Tokyo station so I booked from the Tokyo Station Yaesu South Exit branch, which was in the basement parking structure underneath the station. The Google reviews had said it … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter Day 10: Tokyo to Nagano – Daruma & Snow
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 … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter Day 7: The Snow Monsters of Akita -Juhyo
We woke up in snowy Aomori city, with a view of the Shinkansen tracks and the busy Friday morning traffic. We went for a walk around the area and enjoyed another day of seeing Japan under the snow. Once ready we checked out and walked across the road to the Times Car Rental to pick … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter Day 6: Driving to Akita to see the Namahage Festival
As we weren't able to spend any time in Hakodate the previous day we decided to get up early before our shinkansen left at 12:48pm. We paid an extra 2000Y to check out later, at midday rather than 11am so that we could keep our luggage in the room until we returned from our excursion. … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter Day 5: Hakodate to Aomori
My Nihon 