The early Shinkansen
Out of the hotel at 5:30am with onigiri from FamilyMart, and onto the Joetsu Shinkansen at Tokyo Station. The tickets were ¥13,580 for the two of us.
Snow Country
The train goes through a long tunnel, and when you come out the other side, everything is white. That’s the famous opening line of Kawabata’s Snow Country, and it’s set right here. About 75 minutes from Tokyo.
Our ryokan
Our ryokan was Shosenkaku Kagetsu. It was too early to check in, but they let us leave our bags and gave us matcha in the lobby.
Boots first
Our Singapore shoes were not going to survive this. The town was buried.
So the first job was proper snow boots: ¥37,000 for two pairs. Minmin tried them out immediately.
Echigo-Yuzawa Station
The station has a big food and souvenir hall inside. Rice crackers, grilled skewers, sake, and two new Rilakkumas (¥1,100) for the collection.
Lunch at Yasuyoshi
Lunch was at Yasuyoshi, a Japanese restaurant near the station. Seafood hot pot, steaming away. ¥4,000 for the two of us.
Then a slow walk through town in the falling snow.
Onward to the Yuzawa Kogen Ropeway!