February 2025 Family Ski Trip

The Annual family ski trip, 2 weeks. In and out of Osaka this time. Leggi altro

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Inizio del viaggio
23 febbraio 2025
February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D1 - Travel day
23 febbraio 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C
We woke up to Dale's 15th birthday. Having packed the car the night before it was an easy morning, leaving home at 6:40am.

We dropped the car at parking and had 45mins to kill before bag drop opened for our flight. At 8:45 we went through security and into the terminal.

We go Oscar some new headphones, as the buds hurt his ears, ate some expensive airport food and waited for our 11:45am flight. The flight left at close to 12.

No luck with scoring an empty middle seat for either of our rows. The kids were happily settled behind us. The flight was very full, but pretty uneventful. We did alert the cabin crew about Dale's birthday, and they announced it over the PA and came down to her singing happy birthday and gave her a card signed by the whole crew, some chocolates, a drink and a cake. Her embarrassment was short lived and she appreciated the treats.

We landed on time at 7:50pm, and we passed through the immigration check quite quickly. We saw the cabin crew and were able to get the video they filmed of Dale's birthday off them. Our ski bags were out first, then a short wait for our luggage. It was 8:30 by the time we got to the JAL luggage desk to send the ski bags.

Here we hit a snag, they could not say when the bags would arrive, saying it could be anytime in the week. With no snow, they would have been there on the 25th when we needed them. We really didn't want to luggage 2x 25kg ski bags around. But we had though this could happen. Plan A was send the bags, plan B take them with us. That developed into plan C, take the clothes and boots and send just the skis, and hire skis until ours arrive - so we repacked our ski bags, moving boots into the clothing bags. Then we ended up with plan D - take the lot with us as moving the items around now made the ski bags lighter and much more manageable.

The we headed to the Nankai railway lines and jumped on the waiting train at 9:10, it left at 9:27pm so with 2 hungry kids we hit up the drinks vending machines on the platform. The train journeys was easy and not too full so we were able to place the skis under the seats of the Nankai airport express. Outside it was snowing!!

We arrived in Namba at 10:11pm, got some gloves and beanies on and walked the 650m to our hotel Wellstay in the wet snow. Arriving at 10:20pm we checked it drop bags at our room and the went back out to hit up the family mart for some very late dinner. It was slim pickings this late, but the hotel had a free hot/soft drinks bar that worked well. We were in bed about 11:20pm.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D2 - more travel
24 febbraio 2025, Giappone ⋅ ❄️ 2 °C
We woke up early at 5am, then given moving at 7am for some Family Mart breakfast and ate at the hotel. After thus we took a quick walk to the Namba Yasaka Jinja shrine to show the kids. It was about 0 degrees.

We packed up and made our way to the Namba Midosuji metro line around 8am. We got on the not too packed train at the end carriage and rode it to Umeda. Here we exchanged our one way pass for tickets to Kanzawa and also found out that all Thunderbird cars are reserved, so we got that organised. We ended up on the 10:42 Thunderbird, this gave us time to grab some snacks for the train. Leaving Osaka it was snowing!!

And it continued to snow all the way to Kyoto as well. Tsugura was well and truly covered with snow. Our supposed arrival of 12:03pm ended up being 12:20pm, luckily our 12:17 shinkansen to Kanazawa was still waiting for passengers, so we managed to make the transfer and get onto our train.

When we got to Kanazawa station it was busy. We were hoping to store the ski bags at the station to avoid taking them the 1.5km walk to our hotel only to return the next day. Here we hit a snag - no lockers big enough, luggage storage would not take that size and also didn't open until 10am, when our train to Nagano is 9am. The nice lady at tourist info suggested we try a taxi.

So we headed over to the taxi rank and asked. Now this was our first Japanese taxi ride, but I think we ended up with a dodgy one. He loaded the boot with out bags then placed our skis hanging over the top above the middle back seat. Then he had our 15 yr old daughter sit in the front beside him, not my husband, our son sat under the ski bags crouched down, with my husband either side. Not to bad, until he asked to twitter chat with my daughter after some small talk about her age, high school, pierced ears. Lucky it was a short trip. It was an interesting first taxi ride.

We arrived at the hotel around 2pm, and very gladly dropped the bags. We went for a walk in some light snow to Kanazawa castle grounds, which was very different from cherry blossoms season as it was covered in snow. We had a bit of an explore as the snow varied its level of falling from barely any to a fair bit, all within minutes.

We then headed over to Higashi Chaya district. Her the snow started falling with more intensity and the flakes got bigger. We grabbed a custard tayaki, then went back out into the biggest flakes we have ever seen. If was like walking around in a foam party.

We then headed back to the hotel, deciding to walk rather than catch bus. We stopped at the 7-11 for a warm drink as we were pretty frozen. This put us at the hotel just after 4pm. Then they tell us we have free drinks until 10pm. Pity we had just bought drinks.

At 5:30pm we found a close restaurant that looked good to eat at and it was right next door to the hotel. However Emporer's birthday meant it was shut. So we found a Saizeriya 500ms away. So we hit up old faithful for some cheap fast food.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D3 - Kanazawa to Nagano
25 febbraio 2025, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
We woke at 6am and got ourselves ready, then headed out to 7-11 for breakfast supplies. We ate these at the tea table at the hotel. Before 8am we headed off on our 1.5km walk with the bags to the train station. We arrived about 8:15 at the station. Then waited for our 9:07 shinkansen to Nagano.

On board was some good luggage storage, so we were able to stow the bags and skis. At the Totama stop, our train was right beside another shink, and we had the cutest interaction through mime with 2 elderly Japanese on the other train. We arrived in Nagano at 10:12am.

We managed to find a tall locker to stash the ski bags in. Then purchased tickets fir the bus to Shiga. After this we hit up the Don Quojite for snacks for the week, $40 later we are set. We just had a combini lunch, except Jason had some takoyaki as well. We then headed to the bus stop for the bus at 11:30. We were first there but didn't leave our bags in case there was another bus before. Hindight we should have as others who got here after us left their bags, so we were back in the line.

It was sunny and not snowy in Nagano, luckily as we went further up the snow was still there, and it was evident the amount that had fallen. We arrived at Shiga Kogen, checked in, stowed the skis in lockers, and went up to our room. It's the same type we have been getting for the past 5 years, so we are used to it.

We used the new ticket machines in the lobby for the first time. I purchased the adult/child and adult/student packs at a discounted rate than buying single tickets. At 5pm we hit up Ramen corner for dinner, and were all done and dusted by 5:30pm.

Now time to chill, and slow down from luggage lugging travel.

Oh though we found out the main lift right outside the hotel is broken and unlikely to be fixed. So that will impact a couple of days skiing.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D4 - Snow day
26 febbraio 2025, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ -2 °C
We woke up early before 6am. We were at breakfast not long after 6:45am. After a delightful reaccquaintance with the breakfast buffet we geared up ready to hit the slopes.... well to jump on a bus to the Prince south building gondola.

Here we headed up and did our first few runs with 3 of the 4 of us being on new skis. We skied B1 to E1 laps. After a few runs Oscar was complaining of cold hands. So Oscar and I headed by bus back to the Prince West where we had hand warmers. Turns out they were body warmers for clothing, so they wouldn't work. We left Jason and Dale to lap the gondola few times in our absence.

The snow quality was pretty good, not too chopped up, and a bit chalky. We then skied back to the west building via B2 and C1, then decided to walk up to Hi Happy to have a late lunch at 2pm. We indulged I their large pork cutlet subs, while Oscar polished off a pork cutlet curry and rice. We purchased some new gloves for Oscar at snowcan above. Then took a walk back to the Prince alongside the very tall snow walls, they were over our head.

We decided to have a quiet rest of the day as the trip has been pretty full on with travel. We headed to the Ramen place at 5:40pm and just had a light dinner. Then had an onsen and a relaxing night.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D5 - All Mountain snow
27 febbraio 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C
Today was an all-mountain day. We had bought 2 day all mountain passes in adult/child and adult/student packs. We had our usual full up at the breakfast buffet then geared up by 8:30am.

We headed to Diamond, then spent did a few laps of Ichinose Family. The green run was a favourite as they could cut some corners and go off to the side and up some walls. From here we headed over to tanne no mori for a few runs amoungst the trees. Here Jason had a pretty good stack after a brush seperated his skis.

After this we headed to Takamagahara, did a run or two, then headed down to Hoppo Bunadaira. This is usually one of my favourite places, but the snow was a bit crunchy and scraped over here and I wasn't feeling it. Hubby and the kids did another lap while I waited at Aspen Shiga.
We had a delightful lunch here. The kids love the spaghetti, I had udon and hubby had what he proclaimed to be the best kaarage he has eaten.

On our way out we saw snow monkeys were running around and climbing on the roof of the hotel. We watched the family of monkeys play and forrage for food for a bit. They were very close and had no qualms that people were all around.

We then headed for the chair to the left of the gondola and headed up Nishitateyama. This was my favourite place for the day and the snow was good, soft with even cover. We did a few runs here, and then headed for home as we were a bit tired. So back up he chair and then headed down the other side crossing the bridge, which seemed much easier this year than those past.

Our homeward journey had us revisit Takamagahara and Tanne no mori, the back to Family. A few runs here were had, and then son wanted a run of Diamond, so we ended up doing a few Diamond runs, before heading back to the Prince for a well earned onsen. It was about 2:30pm for our return.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D6 - Mt Yokoteyama
28 febbraio 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C
The usual buffet breakfast was had, then we geared up and headed out about 8:30am destined for Mt Yokote. We did a quick traverse of Diamond, Family, Tanne and Takamagahara, then up and over the bridge to Nishitateyama. Here we then went up the gondola to the Yamanoeki where a bus was waiting just before 10am. This bus was packed, we managed to get on standing at the front door section.

At Sun Valley another 4 people wanted to get on, we didn't think it was possible but they managed to squeeze onto the already crowded bus. It made for an interesting ride to Mt Yokote, where we arrived about a half hour later.

After taking the two chairs up to the top at 2300m, we took in the amazing views. Then we stopped at the bakery for a custard bread or two at 11:30.

We had a nice run down from Yokote, so we went back up the first chair to do it again. We then continued down and found our way over to Kumanoyu. Only two lifts were running here on the left side. We did one run down . The snow here was not as nice as that at Yokote. We then headed to the bus stop. Again the bus gods were shining and we only had a 4min wait, plus there was room on the bus!. Standing room, but we were on the bus.

We then went down the gondola at Yamenoeki. And headed for the Nishitateyama chair, then rode up the hooded quad before coming down towards Takamagahara. It was just after 2pm and our destination was the pizza place on the same side of the street. Luckily it was open after 2pm. So a couple of pizzas and some awesome fries later we were fed.

Heading off just before 3pm we departed our way up Takamagahara and then across to Tanne no mori for a few runs. Across to Family we went up the quad chair and back down the kids beloved green run (where they cut through the trees at every opportunity). Over to Diamond, where a race was had between hubby and the kids, for the last run of the day. Hubby won. So then it was back to the Prince with an obligatory snow fight on the run down. We arrived back at 4pm, absolutely buggered.

Onsen time and ice-cream to follow, we didn't worry about dinner.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D7- More all mountain
1 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C
Our morning routine is just that now - routine. Today we headed off on the bus for Gondola 2 and made way for Okushiga kogen. It is a bluebird day with high temps in the low teens.

We traversed the up hill both way traverse and enjoyed some runs down the Okushiga side. We made our way over to the chairs and the kids love the run through the trees with the animal spotting. We did this a few times on the slowest chair.

Off to the left side was a nice untouched field of snow...well that was until we got to it. We did some snow flops, some angels and some playing around in the snow.

After this we were hot, so went to the cafe, but decided to just grab some water and head over to Hi Happy for lunch. So we rode the three chairs up to get out of Okushiga and back over the the Yakebitaiyama side. Here we rode down B1 to C2. Hubby had a look at C4 and decided not to. We got on the chair to Diamond and rode down in to Hi Happy at 12:30.

After more delightful pork katsu subs and a curry we left lunch at 1pm, very glad to get back out into the cool after the hot restaurant. Our destination was Terakoya, so we crossed the bridge chair and rode Family quad up, then traversed I to Terakoya. I liked it here and we did a nice red run, there was a bit of a crowd to ride the chair, the kids wanted to leave.

Our next run there was a communication/navigation error, I steadily of going down to the chair at the bottom left, they took the traverse off to the left, that took us to Hasidate, Hoppo-bunadaira. So we followed this until the small old gondola. The gondola took us back up, and I was able to show them where the chair would have dropped us.

We then rode down Family, across to Diamond and back to the Prince at about 3pm. Today was warm, the snow was a bit slushy, a bit sand like in places. But the blue sky and the views were always nice.

We headed off to the Junk food cafe for dinner, hot dogs followed by crepes.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D8 - Last All-mountain Day
2 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C
When we stepped out onto the snow, light rain started to fall. Nothing like being wet first up in your day. At least it wasn't icy. We rode up to Diamond and down across to Family. Here we went down the black side and across to Tanne No Mori for a few runs. The kids love making their own path through the trees, hitting little jumps.

After a play here we headed to my favourite area Nishitateyama. We did a few runs here then headed in, out of the wet to Aspen for snacks and an early lunch at 11am. Scored myself a custard bread, so I was happy. Hubby had the Kaarage again and Oscar had the pork cutlet curry. Dale had a cheese bread and then a custard bread. We headed out a bit before 12pm.

The rain mostly held off, as we had dried out a bit, we then headed back up Nishitateyama- where they were setting up for a race, to Takamagahara. Here the kids wanted to do the mogul side, after this we went through Tanne to Family. It was at Family that we spent a bit of time until 2pm doing various runs. The snow was soft and provided good grip, it was not too chopped up, nor too slushy.

We were buggered by 2pm and headed back for a run of Diamond, then headed back to the Prince. Here we had a play in the snow park on the snow bikes and toboggans. Onsen time was just after 3pm.

We headed out at 6pm for a quick bite to eat at Ramen corner.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D9 - Last snow day
3 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ -5 °C
It was a snowy morning when we looked outside. After breakfast we geared up, this time we added neck warmers and hoods. As a bonus the chair at out hotel was working again.

So at 8:30am we joined the queue of people to ride the lift up. We were able to enjoy a powder run down C1 before it got all chopped up. There is something to be said for silent skiing, the quiet of powder.

From this blissful first run, we headed over to the D4 run and onto the hooded quad. Here we had a play doing D1 and D2 with little crowd, and were able to still get some fresh tracks for about 3 runs. The kids were cold, the teen had not wanted a hood or neck warmer today. So the kids retreated with some yen to go get a hot drink at Prince East while the parents did a few more laps.

Coincidentally the kids emerged, right when we were going to get them. Teen now willing to take a neck warmer and balaclava now joined us for another run or two. Then they got cold. So we were all feeling it, we headed up the quad and down to the gondola 2. From here we headed up the top and skied B2 to C1 to get us back to the hotel. C1 was a chopped up mogul hell, so the kids and I called it quits and hubby did one more lap, before ending his day.

We then brushed off the skis and came and got the ski bags. We dried off all the gear and repacked the ski bags, sending them off to the airport. Best $80 ever spent. We also decided to send our main bag off to our hotel in Osaka, and will just travel with hand luggage for our few days in Nagoya. 160cm bag was $26, and we had it there just before their 3pm cut off.

After all that work was done, an onsen was in order. And of course ice cream to follow.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D10 - Nagano to Nagoya
4 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C
We woke and packed up hand luggage, then headed down for our last Prince breakfast. Then we were outside in the cold to catch the 7:57am bus to Nagano.

The bus arrived at 9:40am, 5 minutes s early, so this allowed us to buy tickets for the Shinano limited express to Nagoya that left at 10am. We got non-reserved seats and found four seats across from each other for the 3 hour journey.

The scenery was snowy until close to Nagoya, then it was just rainy. Five hours after our journey started, we arrived at 1pm, and rode the subway to near the hotel. Here we dropped the bags, and grabbed some lunch at the 7-11 below the hotel. After this went for a walk to some shops that were about 1km away. We hit up Book off, Don Quojite and Daiso where some money was spent, and some umbrella purchased as it has been drizzling rain. We headed back to the hotel and checked in around 4:30pm.

The room is large and well appointed, we will be happy here for 2 nights. Dinner was at Coco Curry that happened to be across the street from the hotel.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D11 - Legoland Nagoya
5 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ 🌧 10 °C
We had a nice night at out hotel, and went back to good old faithful - the 7-11 breakfast, just downstairs from the hotel in the morning.

At about 8:30am we headed off towards Nagoya station, then continuing onto another subway line to travel to Legoland. Unfortunately today was a low cloud and drizzling rain until about 5pm. We arrived at Legoland before it opened, so we checked out the hotel lobby and lego store attached.

Just before 10am we joined the small crowd of maybe 70 people for the opening of the park. Here we spent the day getting slightly wet all the time. Some rides were closed - the biggest rollercoaster being one. We rode most of the rides, wet seats were the problem, attendants sometimes tried to wipe them. The good part was there was little, to no, line wait for the entire day. In saying that the rain kept drizzling all day just enough to be annoying.

The Miniland was very well done. The kids rode the small roller coaster a few times, this and some other rides they were the only passengers. We stopped for lunch at around 1pm at the burger place. These were ordinarily at best and close to $20 for the set. Disney has one up on the food over this place.

After completing every ride they wanted to we hit up the largest lego store in Asia in the park. We were very restrained and did not buy any of the Legoland exclusives, as they were too overpriced. We did however do the 3x build -a- minifigure for $16. At 3:20pm we decided to call it a day at Legoland. Hubby really wanted to visit the SC Maglev train museum. It was open until 5:30pm.

So we walked to the train museum and saw all the rolling stock they had. It was a large place with lots of trains. We finished up there just before 5pm. We had forgotten to get our Lego passports stamped at Legoland. It shut at 5pm, so we hightailled it back over there, showed the attended a translated message. She checked our ticket and let me go back into the store to get the stamp.

After this was complete we walked back to the train station and caught the train back to Nagoya, this took about 25mins. We had decided on Tonkatsu Matsunoya for dinner and there was one about 170m the other side of the station. Here we had a nice dinner, but stuffed up on the ordering machine and ended up with an extra dinner. So we got that one as take out and it will be breakfast.

We then decided to walk back to the hotel instead of getting the subway. It was 1.8km and took a while. We did see some interesting things, like a street being filled with emergency vehicles and more arriving on the scene. We didn't hang around to see what the emergency was but about 7 vehicles were spotted and more were lights and sirens on their way.

We arrived back at the hotel safe and tired about 7:20pm.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D12 - Nagoya to Osaka
6 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
We woke to the emails advising us that our return flight home had been cancelled due to cyclone Alfred. We got onto Jetstar straight away and rebooked the earliest flight they had - Tuesday until Wednesday afternoon- about 33hours of travel over 3 flights. We are set to fly to Narita early on Tuesday morning, then Narita to Cairns on Tuesday night. After arranging before 5am, we will hopdrpart at noon to land in Brisbane after 2pm. Then we can see about getting home if it's not too flooded.

We then booked hotels for the extra nights we have to stay, and booked an airport hotel for the final night ready for the early morning flight. After this it was time to inform work and others, such as airport parking. After the stress and action, it was time to grab some breakfast, then we packed up and left.

We caught the subway to Nagoya and then purchased Shinkansen tickets to go to Osaka at 10:23am. The trip on the Nozomi was under an hour, and had in at Shin-osaka in no time. We then caught the subway to near Shinsekai and dropped our bags off at our hotel.

From here we headed to Don Quojite and some Animate stores and did a little retail therapy. After 1pm we were hungry, so we headed to the nearby Saizeriya and grabbed some food. Some more shopping occured, then we walked back to check into our new hotel for the night at about 4pm.

The room was huge and very nice, it also had a large balcony. I then had a translated conversation with the concierge as I needed their help to contact the airport taqubin and advise them of our flight cancellation and new collection date/time. We managed to get the job done thanks to translation apps. She was a lovely lady and I gave her some Aussie chocolates as a thank you.

At 6:20pm we decided to walk the 150m to Matsunoya for a rice bowl for dinner. The Shinsekai area is nice at night.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D13 - The not flying home day
7 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
We spent the morning organising things and didn't go for breakfast until 8am. Checkout was 11am, but we got going around 10am.

Our destination was our new hotel due to cancelled flights we have a bonus 4 nights in Japan. 3 nights are at this hotel. We dropped the bags and set off on a quest to find a suitcase Jason saw in December. We hit up all the Don Quojite shops we saw, and couldn't find the same one. We went to a luggage shop in the vicinity and found the one, it was $30 more expensive, but we purchased it as it was a quest fulfilled.

We also did some shopping at Daiso and got a various assortment of goods. We looked at Bookoff and Bic Camera as well. We ended up at McDonalds for lunch.

Then we went back to the hotel and checked in. The room is very large and has everything. This will do us nicely for a few days. Some laundry done and a bitbof a rest had.

At nearly 6pm we walked to Ajinoya Okonomiyaki for dinner. The line wait said 90mins. We waited 60mins, the kids were excited to see it cooked on the hotplate on our table. To their credit they both ate it, even though it had lots of cabbage in it. Dessert was Tanghulu for the girl, and Coolish for the boy. We then walked back to the hotel, to do some more washing.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D14 - Travels to Kobe and Kyoto
8 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C
We had a nice night at the hotel and woke to the news that the cyclone had hit home and was downgraded. So we decided to purchase the Kansai mini pass that is 3000yen and valid for 3 days to be able to travel around the area. Unfortunately we had to set off for Osaka to get Kansai mini pass redeemed.

It was another 7-11 breakfast, then we headed off before 9am. About an hour later, via Osaka, we arrived at Kobe's Sannomiya station. Our visit to Kobe consisted of us walking to the waterfront - where a small festival was happening, and around that area, after an hour or two of walking we headed off leaving via Kobe Hyugo station at noon.

We rode the train nearly one hour to Kyoto arriving a few mins before 1pm. We were hungry and then went searching for food that would please everyone. We ended up at the food hall under Kyoto tower at 1:40pm. From here we decided to walk the nearly 3km up to the main part of Kyoto. We went to and got some Taiyaki and the went to see if I could get a massage at the place we liked in December. Unfortunately they were full up, so we hit up some stores for the kids. Dale mainly got items.

By now we were pretty buggered being on our feet all day. We ended up catching the very full train from Shijo station back to Kyoto station, rather than walk the extra 3km. We caught the 5:13pm train from Kyoto back to Osaka. Luckily this train was only half an hour as we had to stand, then we jumped on the very crowded subway at 6:03pm, back to Namba.

As we didn't want to have to go back out for dinner we found a Gusto close by, and sat down to dinner at 6:20pm. Gusto was a family style restaurant, but your meals are delivered by a robot - kind of like a giant roomba.

It was decided that we would visit Donki on the way home so that hubby could buy his alcohol. This took a while as the duty free line was long. By now we were super exhausted, and we had the 900m walk back to the hotel. It was a big day.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D15 - Bonus day in Nara
9 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
I was hoping to get a massage this morning after researching a place that sounded good. It said it was open 24hrs, so I walked there about 8am and found a sign on the door saying closed until 10am.

I grabbed some breakfast on the way back to the hotel, and once we were all done we headed out to the JR Namba station to catch the train to Nara. We caught the 10am train and had to change at one station. The journey was about 45mins and we got seats along the way.

Once in Nara we walked up to the deer park and bought some food to feed the deer. The kids both loved and feared the deer at times. We walked around in the lovely sunshine. We stopped for an ice cream, then walked around Yoshikien Garden that had free entry. It was bigger than I thought. The whole area was not as spectacular as the red leaves of December, the cherry blossoms were only just starting to come out. I'm sure it's nice, but the red leaves are hard to beat.

At 1pm we walked back towards town and lined up for Tonkatsu at a place, when the attendant came to ask the number of people we were sent to their other nearby restaurant location that could accommodate 4 people. So we waited some more. We got in after another wait and ordered some lovely tonkatsu.

We walked back through Nara and left on 3:15 train. Arriving at the JR Namba station, as we are still using the pass, we decided to split up. Dale really wanted to do an animal cafe for her birthday, there happened to be a cat cafe pretty much next to the hotel, as it shut by 6pm, Jason and Dale went to the cafe/hotel. Oscar came with me as I finally got my massage, then we went into Den Den town shopping for Pokemon cards. We left there at 6:15pm.

Dinner was 7-11 items as we were still full from lunch. That left the evening to pack up as we check out tomorrow and head to the airport hotel for the night.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D16 - Another moving day
10 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C
Today is our last day at this hotel, as we move to the airport hotel this afternoon.

We left the hotel to our 10am check out time, then walked to the JR Namba station where we hopped on a 10:15 train to Shin-imamiya, and then waited for our connecting train. The 10:22 train was cancelled, so we got on the 10:37 train bound for the airport arriving a bit before noon. We found our way to the hotel, very easy and on site, and a bit fancy. We dropped the bags off.

We then went and got ski bags around 12 from where they had been shipped to. Then we delivered these to our hotel as well. Now that business had been taken care of we decided to visit Rinku town. So we went through the ticket gates and onto a waiting train at 12:18 it was scheduled for the 12:32 departure. Riding the one stop to Rinku town we had a look around, and a late lunch.

At 1pm we decided to go to Saizeriya for our lunch. We are slowly working our way through the menu. But it is hard to beat $33 for 4 meals and a beer. Their corn pizzas are nice.

After this we took a stroll through some of the outlet mall, and headed for the ferris wheel. With a height of 84 meters it gave us a good view of the area during the 20minute rotation, our group of 4 was 2,400yen.

By now were were done and headed back the one stop across the bridge to the hotel. As it was after 2pm, we were able to check in. We have a lovely large room with 4 beds on the 9th floor, with a great view of the airport.

It will be an early start tomorrow with us having to be at the airport at 5am. Hence why we stayed on site.

We grabbed dinner at a restaurant in the same complex as the hotel, it was ok, but nothing great. Now off to bed ready for our long journey home.Leggi altro
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February 2025 Family Ski Trip Viaggiatore
D17 - The journey home
11 marzo 2025, Giappone ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
We were woken by our 4:30am alarm. We left the hotel room at 5am and waited about 5:15 minutes until check in opened at 5:30. We were first in the line, then first through security and first at the gate. We boarded just after 7am, but did not push back from the gate until 7:50am.

The flight was uneventful, and we landed around 9am. After getting bags, our mission was to stow them for the day. We asked at Yamote in terminal 3, he pointed us towards the ski lockers by the entrance door. We went there and found many ski lockers free - hurrah. Another win was that we could fit both ski bags, and 3x carry-on wheelies in the locker or 1,000yen. We stashed our rolling duffle and backpacks in another. 500yen for 6hrs, then it will be more. Next up was food as we hadn't had breakfast, so we hit up the Lawsons and got some food.

On our way out we saw the board still had the Brisbane flight, so we asked about it and were told they put on another Brisbane flight to cope with those cyclone effected. We were told to try to get moved online. So we sat on a Jetstar chat for about an hour, only to find out that it can only be done at the airport in person, and could not happen until check in opens. So fingers crossed we won't have to fly through Cairns and can get home earlier.

At 11:30 we left the airport headed for Narita town, only one stop away and about 10mins. We walked to the Naritasan Shinshio-ji temple for a look around. We then continued onto the Naritasan Park out behind it and had a traipse around. This was a lovely area, cherry blossoms were just starting to bloom.

The son was begging for Taiyaki, so we found a shop that had some, cooked fresh for us, the best kind. They also sold ice cream, so who could resist as it is our 19th wedding anniversary we indulged in some cheesecake flavour ice cream. It was delicious. We walked back up the old street Omotosando and purchased a decorative plate and shirt.

The 2:30 train back to airport was what we took. Then we just had to wait until a check in counter opened to see if we could get our flight moved. So we grabbed out bags from the lockers (we were 20mins over the 6hr one, so had to pay an extra 600yen), and waited until 4:30pm, and asked the first attendant we saw, all in it took a lot of hmm and head scratching and some changing of people helping. But we got moved to the direct Brisbane flight after about an hours of them trying to make it happen. (The extra flight was listed as suspended, so they couldn't add people to it until it's status change). We were given a slip of paper and told to come back at 7pm for check in to the new flight.

So we went and had our last Japanese dinner, and of course ice-cream. Then at 6:30pm we went and lined up yet again. At 7pm we were let through to the counter as we couldn't self serve, and the original lady helped us, gave us boarding passes and took our bags. Wahoo.

So we passes through security and immigration and are waiting to board our flight that leaves at 10pm arriving in Brisbane at 7:50am tomorrow.Leggi altro
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Fine del viaggio
8 marzo 2025