Author: Oli

Beef tongue and snowy onsens in Honshu

Another Shinkansen bullet train brought us back to the island of Honshu, where we’d picked Sendai as a base for the next three nights. This was as much for its convenience for a couple of day trips as it was for its exciting food scene.

Day trip 1: Matsushima

On our first day out we took a local train along the coast to Matsushima. The coastal town is famous throughout Japan for its beautiful collection of pine-covered islands dotted across its bay.

Matsushima is also home to Zuigan-ji, a Buddhist temple constructed in 1606. After a short walk through the grounds we kicked off our shoes to explore the temple’s dark wood interior, which was beautifully decorated with golden painted screens. The temple was built by Date Masamune, a regional ruler and founder of modern day Sendai, to serve as the family temple. However, we were saddened to learn that when he died, 15 of his samurai committed junshi, also known as “suicide by fidelity”.

When our stomachs started to rumble, we picked up some local delicacies from a seafront cafe. Sara went for kiritanpo (kneaded rice on a bamboo stick), which she barbecued over charcoal until it puffed up and the outside turned golden and crispy. I’m not entirely sure what I got, but it was softer in consistency and fortunately they barbecued it for me. While both skewers had quite a subtle flavour, the kiritanpo had a very satisfying texture, and their warmth was very welcome given the cold outside.


The real highlight of the day trip was a walk around Fukuura-jima, a small island connected to the mainland by a vibrant red pedestrian bridge. The island has a circular perimeter path, affording stunning views across the bay in the late afternoon sun, which had already begun to cast a golden glow across the sea.

That evening we returned to Sendai to try another local delicacy for dinner – beef tongue. For this, we sought out a restaurant called Tanya Zenjirou, located on the third floor of a covered arcade not far from Sendai’s main train station. Between us we tried tongue three ways; sliced in half (pictured below), thinly sliced and in sausage form. Honestly, the taste was great, primarily because it had been expertly barbecued to ensure it was smokey and charred on the outside while still rare on the inside. I don’t think either of us had expected this dish to be a winner, but I’d happily eat it again!

Day trip 2: Ganiba Onsen

The next day, we travelled 226 km by Shinkansen to Tazawako, followed by a local bus up the snowy mountain to Ganiba Onsen. Once again, I was very happy to be a passenger on the bus as it trundled its way through snowy forests and past ski areas to finally reach our onsen at the end of the line.

While this onsen had typical indoor baths, it also had an outside mixed bath located at the end of a very snowy path. Fortunately, the onsen owners had ploughed a path through the snow (which came up to my shoulders!) as otherwise there’s no way we would have found it.

The outdoor onsen itself was absolutely stunning. It required a bit of a leap of faith to leave our clothes in the changing rooms and emerge into the sub-zero temperatures, but we left any anxiety behind us as soon as we plunged into the lovely warm waters. The water was so warm in fact that we ended up using some of the surrounding snow to cool ourselves down! It was so relaxing soaking in the steaming water, watching piles of snow periodically fall from the heavily laden tree branches surrounding the pool.

On the bus back to the station we decided to hop off at the shore of Lake Tazawa. Legend has it that a local woman drank so much water that she turned into a dragon, and was soon followed by a local prince, and it’s their antics that prevent the lake from freezing over during winter to this day. Alighting the bus here was the sort of plan where we both agreed in advance that it was absolutely mad thing to be doing, and yet that didn’t stop us. The snow was so deep that even retracing our steps in our walking boots was a real challenge!

After an exciting few days on the move, it was now time to return to Tokyo to stay put for a few nights. Once again we wouldn’t be alone, as Katie (Sara’s sister) was joining us for the next nine days. We were delighted to have more company, and also keen to explore a different side of the world’s largest metropolis.

Chasing the powder in Niseko

We completed the bulk of our journey from Sapporo to Niseko via two trains; one (relatively fast) limited express train to Otaru and one (pretty slow) single-carriage local train to Kutchan. It’s always concerning when your train isn’t listed on the departure board when you arrive at the station, but in the end we managed to catch another train and still made it to Kutchan in good time.

Our trains trundled through beautifully snowy landscape, and it was immediately clear that there was going to be a lot more snow this time than during our last attempt to ski in South Korea!

When we changed to a local bus at Kutchan for the final leg of our journey, the conditions looked better suited to skis than motor vehicles. I was very glad to be on a bus rather than driving myself, since the snow had completely covered the roads such that there wasn’t a shred of tarmac, kerb or road marking in sight.

After arriving in Niseko Grand Hirafu, we hot-footed it to collect our ski gear before the hire shop closed for the afternoon, and began the treacherous trudge to our hotel, each of us carrying two backpacks, a snowboard/skis and poles, boots, a helmet and ski clothes. We got so close to making it to our hotel’s front desk intact, until I slipped over on the ice and my belongings went in all directions, just like sonic losing his rings. Fortunately there was no lasting damage this early in the trip!

It didn’t take many runs down the mountain before we understood why Japan is so famous for its snow. Often referred to as powder, the snow in Japan has an almost fluffy texture, apparently the result of Siberian winds from the north. This creates snow that’s fun and forgiving for skiing, as well as beautifully soft to fall on (which I tested extensively). It snowed pretty much constantly during our four-day visit, which meant that we didn’t have to look hard to find virgin snow, even without going off-piste.

Niseko also introduced us to the concept of night skiing – for which a handful of lifts ran well beyond sunset and floodlights kept the pistes illuminated. I’d expected the lack of daylight to make skiing a bit trickier, but in fact the shadows cast by the floodlights provided more definition than the some of the flat light we’d experienced during the daytime. The slopes were also noticeably quieter after dark, which kept us going even when our legs were close to giving up!

And what better way to rest our aching muscles than a soak in yet another onsen? Sara was delighted to find that our hotel also had a hot bath, and I have to admit it felt very relaxing sitting there looking out the window at a gradually accumulating snow drift.

Niseko was noticeably more international than anywhere else we’d visited in Japan. English seemed to be spoken everywhere we went, and we heard plenty of American and Australian accents from our fellow skiers. We also noticed far fewer masks around the resort, which had been worn pretty much everywhere in Japan outside of people’s homes.

Niseko featured the highest proportion of snowboarders we’d seen anywhere in the world, with about a 50/50 split between skiers and snowboarders, so I felt right at home.

The lifts were particularly snowboard friendly too, with plenty of gondolas and not a single drag lift in sight. We even came across a chair lift that not only had a plastic hood to protect you from the icy wind, but also heated seats! What a luxury!

The United Niseko resort is made up of four distinct ski areas, which are each connected by high mountain passes. However, these passes often required a bit of a hike (while carrying equipment) as the highest runs were closed for most of our stay due to high winds, and sometimes the passes were closed altogether. As a result, we only skied three out of the four ski areas in the resort.

The sun came out in afternoon of our final day and the mountains immediately looked less menacing. Sara even found a bell to ring, much to her delight. This break in weather also gave us a rare of glimpse of Mount Yōtei across the valley as we headed back to our hotel.

  • Me heroically carrying Sara’s skis back to the hotel

As good as the snow was in Niseko, we couldn’t help but feel for the residents of Alpine resorts in Europe whose livelihoods depend on a healthy delivery of snow, but this year have been left with slopes of grass and mud. Hopefully this is a one-off and not a sign of things to come!

After an awesome four days skiing, our next destination was Hakodate – Hokkaido’s southernmost city and oldest port.

Four together again in Tokyo

We arrived in Tokyo via another Shinkansen high-speed train, which zoomed the 498 km from Osaka in 2 hours and 54 minutes.

On our way we sped past Mount Fuji, its perfect cone capped with snow that appeared to run down the mountainside like rivers.

We were super excited to arrive in the most populated metropolis in the world because we’d planned to meet up with our good friends George and Erin. They were kicking off their honeymoon in Japan, which just so happened to match up with our itinerary. After spending the last 5 months talking over video calls, it felt so good to catch up at an Izakaya restaurant in the historic Omoide Yokocho alley, and put the world to rights over a few rounds of drinks and grilled skewers.

Fuelled by George and Erin’s excitement and adrenaline, we started the following day bright and early at Shinjuku Gyoen park and botanical gardens. The sky was beautifully clear and the temperature was mild (especially in the giant greenhouse!), in stark contrast with the rain and snow we’d encountered on Kyushu.

Having read plenty about Tokyo’s overwhelming size (and knowing that we’d return in a couple of weeks), we were keen to focus on the area around where we were staying in Shinjuku. So, our next stop was the Meiji Jingu (shrine).

  • Shrine visitors bow as they pass under the gate
  • Before praying, visitors throw a 5 yen coin, clap twice and bow twice. After praying, the ritual is completed with a final bow.

This shrine was set in a large forested park, and we might have struggled to find it if it weren’t for plenty of other folks heading in the same direction. While George made a wish at the shrine after making a donation and diligently completing the required series of claps and bows, it was the wall of Bourgogne wine barrels that caught Erin and Sara’s attention. These barrels had been offered by celebrated wineries in France, and a nearby sign explained how the wine represented the friendship between the two countries and wished for it to continue for many years to come. Who knew?

Later that day we paid a visit to Shibuya’s famous crossing; the world’s busiest pedestrian intersection. The crossing is an example of a pedestrian scramble, which means that all traffic is periodically stopped to allow pedestrians to cross the junction in every direction, including diagonally. The crossing connects a handful of shopping centres and offices with a busy transport hub, meaning that the foot traffic ebbs and flows with the arrival of trains and buses. We (unintentionally) crossed the intersection in pretty much every direction before finally managing to locate a bar overlooking the busy world below.

Much of the rest of the evening was spent trying to convince George into joining us for a karaoke session, which after a few drinks was forced by Erin’s ultimatum – either we did karaoke RIGHT NOW or we called it a night. We walked into the first karaoke venue upon exiting Shinjuku station, which happened to be an eight-storey building of private karaoke rooms. This session was much more successful than our disaster in Daegu in South Korea, and we happily butchered our way through too many pop classics to list here. I think Erin and Sara claimed the highest score for their heartfelt rendition of You’re Still The One, but the people’s choice award went to George for his energetic performance of Earth Song.

On the way back to our hotel we came across possibly the finest piece of public signage on the metro. The poster covers the very serious topic of assaulting police officers through two fighting cats. The text at the top translates as “I’m drunk and can’t remember”, while the drunk cat with a tie around its head is simply saying “meow!” after being stopped by the cat police.

We spent the next day forest bathing (i.e. hiking) in the Ōme Hills to the west of Tokyo. To get there, we left the city centre behind and headed out deep into the suburbs on a local train. As we exited the quiet little station of Ōme, it felt just like arriving in the suburbs of London to walk a section of the London LOOP (a long distance route around London through suburban parks) we’d been walking with George and Erin prior to this trip. Fortunately, the walk itself along a forested ridge was far more spectacular than some of the furniture superstore car parks we’ve found ourselves walking through on the LOOP.

It would have been a very relaxing way to spend a few hours together had it not been for the signs warning us of wild bear attacks. To make matters worse, most of our fellow hikers had bear bells (apparently bears also don’t enjoy surprise meetings) so we felt a little underprepared. Still, we did our best to chat away as we went, attempting to strike a balance between scaring off any unsuspecting bears while also not breaking the peace.

Prior to starting the hike, we spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to locate Ōme’s “cat alley”; a tiny pedestrian walkway that had been decorated with a bizarre collection of cat paraphernalia. Strangely though, we only spotted a single real-life cat in this seemingly cat-obsessed town.

With Japan’s cat count languishing depressingly low, we applied the same treatment as in Korea and visited a cat cafe. We weren’t the only ones missing a furry companion, since George and Erin had recently returned Gordon – the absolute unit of a cat they’d been looking after for a friend. As was the case at our previous cat cafe, our feline friends paid us relatively little attention until George took matters into his own hands and purchased some cat treats. It wasn’t long before he was absolutely mobbed by cats, but he diligently shared the treats out to ensure every cat felt valued.

Our final destination in Tokyo was Akihabara, a neighbourhood that has become a centre of various geek subcultures, specialising in everything from anime and manga to retro video and arcade games. Some buildings had up to eight floors of stores and arcades, ensuring that any niche interest could be represented here.

Honestly, some of the floors featured such a sensory overload of lights and sounds that we didn’t last long, although George and I did find time for a quick dance off. It turned out that we’re both too old for this kind of competition, and had to leave after two songs for some fresh air and a sit down. Believe it or not, the screens are feeding us both with the same instructions in the video below.

It was lovely to spend some time with such good friends so far from home. I’m not sure whether it was the good company or packed itinerary, but the three days absolutely flew by and we were sad to part ways so soon. Still, George and Erin had exciting plans to continue their honeymoon in south-east Asia, while Sara and I headed to Hokkaido; Japan’s wild and sparsely populated northern island.