The winner of Visit Japan Campaign – Long Lit, would like to share his experience in visiting Japan rainbow route with us. Let’s see how he enjoy the Japan’s winter!
Day 1 – Arriving Japan, wandering Ueno, Special 23th Birthday
Just a normal day for an undergraduate to check his emails, an unexpected email from FUN! JAPAN popped out... “Dear Long Lit-san, we are pleased to inform you that YOU have won our Visit Japan Campaign from FUN! JAPAN. Congratulations!” I was shocked, wild with joy and my happiness overflowed. After all, all the points that I had invested in this campaign finally paid off! I was lucky, I knew that this is going to be the best birthday present for myself, all thanks to FUN! JAPAN. Before I share the amazing journey of us, I would like to thank you, thank you and thank you (Important things usually are repeated 3 times) for giving me such opportunity to visit one of my favourite countries, Japan.
It all started with my flight with Japan Airlines
My first-time experience on Japan Airlines was amazing, super comfy seats and the flight meal was delicious! My flight was on 26th February 2020, during the night. Thus, landing on Tokyo-Narita will be on 27th February 2020 (my exact birthday date 😊). One of the greatest memories I had here, was a small gift received from a pretty stewardess during the midnight, so grateful to have it, Arigatou Japan Airlines!
First day we wandered in Ueno, Tokyo
A beautiful photo of us after our airport meet-up, subway line transfer, all the way from Narita Airport to Ueno. The Ueno tour guides from Ueno Joshi were friendly, humorous and informative. In fact, they tried their very best to introduce this historical site of Tokyo, I cannot really express how much I enjoyed with their company for the day.
The “Chadō” Japanese Tea ceremony was definitely the best experience in Ueno, where we learned the Japanese traditional way to drink Matcha, also we saw how much passion they have in their tea etiquette. The “Chawan” bowl I used to enjoy my matcha tea is over 300 years old, you can imagine how nervous while I was holding it.
To Nagano via my first Shinkansen experience
After Ueno tour, we took around a few hours journey, by taking the bullet train from Ueno Station to Nagano Station, then public bus transport to our stay, Shiga Kogen Prince Hotel. The Hokuriku Arch Pass is a very convenient rail pass for foreigners like us that provides unlimited travel on JR within 7 days including bullet trains! Once we reached Shiga Kogen, Mr Tatsu, one of the managers of the hotel gave us a warm welcome and said that we were lucky as the snow will be thick during our stay and might be lucky enough to see snow monkeys on the following day.
Another birthday surprises
Right just after we had our buffet dinner, FUN! JAPAN and my fellow winners, alongside with Mr Tatsu gave me a birthday surprise that I never expected. I was touched, tears all over my eyes, what a birthday year in 2020! After that, we had a good rest as we need to wake up early in the morning for the snow monkey.
Day 2- Snow Paradise, Snow Heaven in Shiga Kogen, Nagano
Dance monkey, snow monkey
As it was snowing the whole night, the snow becomes really thick and the weather was extremely cold early in the morning. However, that’s the good news for us to see snow monkeys bathing in natural hot springs. So chilling, so relaxing, so adorable!
As you can see my face expression shows how much I want to bath with them, have a great monkey massage and some chitchats. For your information, you can actually stop at nearby public onsen and try your luck to bath with these cuties.
[Rea More] See the Monkeys Enjoying the Hot Springs At the Yamanouchi Snow Monkey Park!
Yudanaka, hot springs heaven
Can you imagine? Imagining yourself naked, having yourself in a 60 ℃ hot water bath, in an outdoor temperature of negative centigrade. Yes, this is what they have there in Yudanaka, Yamanouchi town, numerous of public baths and hot springs! After our snow monkey visit, we got a chance to visit the onsen town of Nagano, especially Shibu Onsen that inspired by the making of the famous anime ‘Spirited Away’, where walking in this town feels like you are walking in the anime itself.
In this lively town, you can see hot springs out of nowhere, hot spring eggs are self-serviced, you grab and pay it yourself. Lastly, we stopped by a mini public hot spring to relax our feet after a long exhausting walk.
[Read More] Experience Nagano Prefecture's Scenery at Yudanaka Onsen
Shiga Kogen, FUN! JAPAN Winter Olympics
Although we didn’t have the chance to experience ski or snowboard, we still had some amazing winter sports such as snow-scooter, snow bike and snow slide. We enjoyed it so much especially the snow-scooter, we even had a friendly match, Malaysia vs Hong Kong vs India.
They said people hate cold, winter shows depressing part of year. As a Malaysian that lived in a tropical rainforest for 23 years, I do not feel that whatsoever. Oppositely, winter and snow give me magical, relaxing thoughts as this was the second time touching snow in my lifetime. As Mr Tatsu said, due to the high elevation of Shiga Kogen, the snow in Nagano is generally finer, hence it is very suitable for winter sports. My second snow experience was amazing, memorable, definitely will be back here to master my snowboard skill. After a long day of winter activities, we had a great dinner, a comfortable dinner provided by our hotel, and ready to leave this beautiful snow paradise, Nagano.
Winter in Nagano, a paradise that I will never forget!
Day 3 to 5 will be shared in the next article! Visit Japan Campaign provides an unforgettable worthful experience to FUN! JAPAN members. Perhaps you will be the next winner.
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