Shiga Kogen - Snow Monkey Beer Festival

A day after arrving in Tokyo, it was onto the bus from Shinjuku station to Shiga Kogen with the Tokyo Snow Club - www.tokyosnowclub.com

Boy, was I unprepared for the level of stamina required to survive 3 days of skiing,  2 nights of craft beer tasting and after party dance floor carnage. 

We stayed at the Shiga Highland Hotel Annex, sharing with Chris and two of his Aussie co-workers.
Accomodation was pretty basic, futons on the floor for the boys and being the only girl, I scored the one proper bed in the room, thanks guys! Accomodation included breakfast and dinner as part of the deal, which was lots of miso soup, rice, hot pot and random bits of fish. But the sweetest part was the short walk across the road to access the ski lifts.

 Slippers, slippers everywhere. Green slippers were for indoors and blue ones for toilet use only.

I got the death stare from a Japanese guest when I was walking along the corridor in my ski boots rather than the slippers, whoops! 

Below is the view out the window, had to crack it open for some fresh air, 3 days of skiing and drinking = stinky room!!

Some skiing shots from the two bluebird days.....

First day was windy and overcast but I had a great lesson with one of the guys from Tokyo Snow Club and felt I deserved the following snacks from the vending machines :

Oh yeah, ice-cream vending machines, up there with beer vending machines as the greatest things in Japan. Also very impressed with the delicous craft beers availabe, some of which we sampled at the Snow Monkey Beer Festival on in the events centre right behind our hotel.

My favourite beer of the night:

Also really enjoyed the crazy bands playing at the festival and the impromptu break dancing lesson by some of the guys on the snow club trip. 

This guy wasn't part of our group, I just liked his coat.

Following the beer festival each night was more drinking, dancing and DJing from the Tokyo Snow Club guides. Great way to start our year in Japan, lots of skiing, beers and meeting heaps of people. 

Nearly forgot, there were also snow monkeys!!

Front view

Back view

 Apparantly you shouldn't get too close or they will throw poo at you!