Nuya's Travelogue: Japan 2009, Day 2

Christmas deco at the hotel lobby. It snowed heavily the previous night. Thick snow covered the area.

First hotel breakfast of the trip

I decided to be adventurous and tried the little cuttlefish stuffed with rice inside, the brown stuff you see next to the onigiri. Erm.. taste is ok.. look wise.. feels like I'm eating a baby alien.. :P So better not think too much when you try .. lol..

Today we planned to visit Snow Monster. The main reason why we came to Yamagata :)

The snow monster ropeway is about 40 min bus ride from the Yamagata bus station.

On the way to the bus station, we saw this 'bicycle' park.. so neat and interesting.. :) Hmm.. won't it be difficult to ride in the snow..?

While waiting at the bus no. 1 berth, we realised that we need to purchase the bus ticket at the bus station before boarding the bus.

After conversing with the staff at the station with my broken Jap, we managed to purchase the tickets from the ticketing machine.

Bus 1 (Yamagata bus stn -> Zao onsen stn) ¥980 per pax. Destination: Mount Zao

Snacks to go

On the way to Mount Zao. So exciting!!

After 40 minutes, we arrived at our destination. We asked for the direction to the Snow Monster at the Info centre next to the bus station and was told to walk 10 minutes to take the ropeway.

It snowed heavily again. I had to use my umbrella to shelter the snow. See how 'frozen' my umbrella was after 5 minutes of walk? lol

We arrived at the ropeway station after just 5 minutes of walk and were still wondering why the info centre staff said that it was a 10 minute walk. Little did we know that we would be taking the wrong ropeway.. lol

Some boiling Konnyaku balls. No one seemed to be tending this stall. I guess it's self service with trust.

I'm sure the warm eggs are popular in such cold weather. See the snow boarder outside the window? lol

We took the wrong ropeway, Zao Chuo Ropeway instead of Zao Ropeway and ended up in this mountain where it's frequented by snow boarders.. not tourist like us! lol.. No wonder we had lots of strange glare from the people there.. lol

It was freezing at top of the mountain.. so we decided to lunch at a cafe there to prevent from turning into ice block.. The temperature was about -6 deg..

Curry Rice (750 yen)

Cha Siu Ramen (750 yen)

Beef Set (800 yen)

After eating lunch, I regained some energy and so I ventured out into the snow to take some pix

Think this is a machine to clear snow?

The area is so white that it feels like a dream.. hehe

The wrong mountain but still very pretty nonetheless :D

Skier ready to ski down the slope into the land far far away.. hehe

After wasting 2 hours and us almost turning into ice block due to the earlier mistake of going up the wrong ropeway, we decided to still proceed with the plan to see the Snow Monster. And I'm sure glad we did that.. :)

Top down view from the cable car. This time round, the ropeway is filled with tourist like us.. so we were pretty certain that this is the correct ropeway to be in.. lol.

On the way to Snow Monster

Visibility was low

This gives you an idea of how cold it was... Backdrop was the Snow Monster trees. They weren't exactly fully formed into monster shape yet. But still it's quite a sight.

Aren't they cute? So fluffy..

The railing... frozen...

Snow monster slowly forming. Read somewhere that the trees will fully form into monster like shape in Feb/March.

Coffee break and time to defrost.. haha.. I'm glad to see other colors.. other than white..

Hot cocoa.. In Jap.. it's ko-ko-a.. not ko-ko.. :P

How cold? This cold.... *gulp...

Everywhere is so pretty..

This looks like a little lone island.. hehe

They lighted up some trees as Christmas approaches..

This looks like a cake with lots of icing on it..

Walkway layered with snow..

There are 2 ropeway to reach the Snow Monster. This is the 2nd station.

Time to go back.. Taken from the ropeway..

Darkness approached as we reach the base of the ropeway

Finally reaches the base

Time to walk back.. it snowed heavily again!!! We took about 15 minutes to walk back to the bus station. Heavy snow through out the walk... -_-"" It wasn't too pedestrian friendly as there were cars zooming passed as we walked. We were also feeling stressed as we weren't sure what time was the last bus back to Yamagata city.