Saturday night saw the repeat of last years Hanami Party at Toshimaen. Toshimaen is one of the biggest theme parks in Japan although we were there for none of that carry-on. The easiest way to get to Toshimaen is on the Oedo Subway line, it’s about 18 minutes from Shinjuku.
There must have been a good 30 of us this year, all Friends from a local Sushi bar and predominantly the same crew i go to the Onsen trips with.
It started early in the evening and what a show they put on, 5000 yen for all you can eat and all you can drink for a good few hours, set in the greatly lit surroundings of Toshimaen.
After a good feed of Yakiniku and Nabe, along with my fair quota of beers it was off to Nerima for the second party of Karaoke and Whisky … plenty of both.
Next week, now the Cherry Blossom Season and related Hanami parties are finished and i’ve hung up my Snowboarding Boots for this winter, i will resume my journey on the JR Yamanote Line.
Next stop will be Hamamatsucho, another first for me so i’m looking forward to it. So far i know very little about Hamamatsucho so i’m open to suggestions on things to see and do while i’m out that way.
Last night I attended the same function I met the grandson of the founder of Miss Nippon last year. Again it was held at the Keio Plaza hotel and again it was a great night.
I spent the early part of the evening talking to TVK Yokohamas Kyoko Nakayama which was interesting as always and also caught up with the World Extreme Skiing champion Yoshimasa Wada and told him of my recent Snowboarding trips.
The highlight would have to have been meeting Lungtok who apart from being part of the Tibet Olympic Judo Team several years ago, is currently the translator for the Dalai Lama when he is in Japan. Not only was his conversation interesting I was most impressed to hear he was fluent in 5 languages.
Unfortunately the guy in charge of taking the photo was obviously impared with Sake and he managed to take an out of focus photo.
Not unlike last time, the grog and food was put on, and put on very well i might ad. Fast becoming a favourite of mine is Sushi and I only broke away from the Sushi last night to try one thing and that was the Whale Steak. There was a raw option beside the cooked variety but my taste buds weren’t tempted.
Coming from Australia the topic of Whaling came up on several occasions and it was discussed in a mature fashion, more than I can say for the behaviour from the guys from Chasers in this recent clip on youtube. I never have really liked much of their stuff.
This weekend i headed up to Gala Yuzawa, about 1.5hrs North West of Tokyo on the Shinkansen. I must say, it certainly is the easiest way to get to the snow and the same as last week, pretty cheap too. This weeks trip was an up and back affair for 8700 yen, which includes the day on the mountain.
Gala Yuzawa is in Niigata Prefecture, check it out on this Map Of Japan, and the station is only operational during ski season where the lifts operate directly from it’s own station, how easy is that?! The station is actually on a side track which diverges from the main Joetsu Shinkansen track just after Echigo Yuzawa Station, being only 3 minutes further on. The main Joetsu Shinkansen line runs between Tokyo and Niigata City on the Sea of Japan, Northwestern coast of Japan.
Although you can go to Gala Yuzawa as a destination, there is very little parking, as it is really regarded as a day trippers mountain. The number of people at Gala Yuzawa is limited to some extent by how many people the Shinkansen can carry there. Even so, it does get crowded, but not as much as you might expect.
The Joetsu Shinkansen, you can just tell it goes fast by the look of it.
It was another great day and we were treated with perfect conditions – being blue skies, great snow and 12 degrees C.
