Japan - Day 8 - Train ride to Hakuba.

27th December, 2007

Today we had to wake up early to catch two trains to get to the Shinjuku station where we caught the Azusa Number 3 to Hakuba.  Lucky for us, the Japanese trains always operate on schedule, so we got to the station a full 30 minutes early.  Our worry wasn't so much the trains being late, but our connection from one train line to another taking us longer than expected.  Even though we've been here a week, our Japanese translation skills aren't all that great, so navigating the busy Ikebekuro train station still takes some effort.  We finally boarded the train and found our seats and got comfortable for the four hour ride up into the hills of Japan.  If you happen to be a fan of the Winter Olympics, you may recognize Nagano, Japan as the site of the 1998 Winter Games.  Hakuba is a small skiing village that hosted the alpine ski events, including the ski jumping events at the resort called Happo-One.  Our train ride was nice and relaxing.  One of the things that stood out to us was the lack of ticket-checking.  At no time were we asked to show our tickets.  The honor system at work, I suppose.  The scenery along the trip was very beautiful, and highlighted Japan's agricultural side.  Truthfully, this was a part of Japan that I didn't know existed.  We spotted a lot of farms  in "hibernation" for the winter, including apples, rice and other produce I didn't recognize.  Many of the apple trees were kept in covered tents.  I've never seen that before.

We arrived at Hakuba and got a lift to the backpacker's hostel we'd be staying for our three days here.  (K's House Backpackers Hostel  They have four hostels in Japan:  Kyoto, Tokyo, Mt. Fuji and Hakuba.)  We were only a few minutes away and we soon arrived at our hostel, wondering what it would be like.  We would not be disappointed.  This place is fabulous!  Very clean rooms, and a cheap price for the area.  The owners are incredibly friendly and accommodating.  After getting settled, David and I played in the snow a bit and we just relaxed around the house.  David found some friends in the living area at K's House.  A large group of university students here from Tokyo had a great time playing with David.  They gave him the nickname Yancha Boy.  It means "mischievous kid."  David found many ways of getting them to keep playing with them, including creating a game of baseball with his magnetix. 

All in all it was a great day.
 

A few pictures are below.  Click on the image to see a larger version.