It was an early morning start for yesterday's day trip with Tokyo Snow club. We met the bus at 7am at Shinjuku and headed out to Nagatoro, about 90km north of Tokyo. Kit Kats and cookies were handed out by our tour leader, Sam, a nod to it being Easter Sunday in the western world.Traffic was light and there was no queue for wooden boating so we were off ahead of schedule.
The boating was a bit underwhelming to be honest. It was only about half an hour long and there wasn't a whole lot to see. The guide said a few things in Japanese about the local area, which the girl next to me translated but he spent most of his time doing a sales pitch for the group photo another guide took from up on the rocks when we floated past. At $14 per photo, I'm not surprised no-one bought one.
It was amusing when we went over a few tiny rapids and the guides got us to pull up the protective plastic wrap around us so we wouldn't get wet. A couple of people were splashed and the squeals equalled what you would hear on an intense roller coaster back at home. One American tourist refused to join his wife for the boating, he stayed on the bus and met us at the final destination. Not sure what he was expecting but it certainly wasn't white water rafting!
Next we wandered around the Hodosan shrine area, a short walk from Nagatoro train station. It was really beautiful with lots of maples trees and some blossoms still around. But it was pretty chilly! A couple of girls in our group were wearing summer dresses and sandals. Not the best choice for a day out in the mountians.
We also had lunch part 1 while we were here, tempura vegetables and hot soba noodles. Soba noodles are usually served cold but we wanted something to warm us up!
Once we were back on the bus, some of the guys decided to go for some extra warming up with a hit from a giant whiskey bottle. The owner of said whiskey is in Tokyo for a buck's weekend. I would be interested to see the rest of his t-shit collection....
Next stop - flowers, whiskey tasting and more food! The flowers are called Shibazakura which translates roughly to lawn cherry blossoms. They have a similar festival at the base of Mt Fuji which would also be spectacular.
Unfortunately, there had been a cold snap recently which prevented some of the flowers from blooming in time to cover all the patchwork design flower bed areas. You can see some of the bare sections in the photos. It still looked amazing though, I think I am becoming a bit of a flower nut!
Close up of the Shibazakura.
Some of the flower variety names were pretty funny. Below are the Chichibu Heart Beat. There was also a flock of sheep for the kids to check out, I guess sheep are a novelty in Japan?
As you can imagine the boys were not that interested in the flowers and I found Chris heading straight for the whiskey tasting area. Note the posture of the back, the coiled neck, the head tilted forward and the intensity of the stare...do not attempt to step between this predator and his intended prey.
Time for lunch part 2.... takoyaki (octopus)
BBQ fish
Okonomiyaki (savoury pancake)
And burdock chips.
There was also lots of market stalls selling everything from kids toys to wooden bowls to honey with a bonus bee enclosed.
To finish off a fantastic day out we met up with some of Chris' workmates in the bar area, Golden Gai in Shinjuku. We went to a tiny, elbow room only bar called Ace's where we had overpriced beers but excellent company. We even met a couple on holidays from our home town of Footscray who gave us recommendations for good Japanese and yum cha when we eventually move home.
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