It was possibly the coldest morning of our whole trip, at -10°C and our little car was completely frozen up. The doors wouldn't open, and the windows were covered in thick frost. The previous cars we rented in Hokkaido and Tohoku came with snow and ice tools, but the Tokyo office provided no such thing. … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter day 12: Shirakawago & Hida Folk Village
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
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
Our flight should have got to Japan at 6am but Saturday flights from London to Tokyo now only leave in the late afternoon, meaning we lost a whole day in Japan. Our flight from Heathrow left at 17:45 and we didn't reach Haneda until 15:30 the next day. The new flight route had added 3.5 … Continue reading Japan 2023 Winter Day 1: Planes & snow
My Nihon 