Tokyo: Awesome Autumn in Hakuba

In September we celebrated one year of living in Japan. Until we had confirmation that Ath's contract would be extended we were in full sightseeing mode, trying to cover as much of this amazing city's scope as possible schlepping and exhausting our 3 young kids in the process. I wouldn't say we've stopped now we have more time, we've just calmed down a bit and living in Tokyo feels like 'real life' where our routines and home in Shibuya are fully established.

Living within an expat community is the perfect catalyst to keep my exploring hat on. A tall latte from Starbucks on Meiji Dori (the closet coffee shop to the British School with rare outside space for little ones) and Jonah's banana and orange juice, is our morning ritual after dropping the girls off at school. This is where lots of school mums hang out and has transformed into a knowledge pool where everything from restaurants, recreation, interesting shrines and temples, parks, shops, sashimi bars, weekend city escapes from the city...you name it gets covered by an international bunch of mums bonded in friendship by our common 'gaijen' (foreign) status with kids at school. The fact that there are some outstanding woman amongst this crowd is a bonus and many are friends I know will be in my life a long time. I stick notes in my iPhone which is now like my directory containing the latest information about Tokyo and its surrounds. Despite being able to speak or read Japanese, getting around and discovering remote places in no longer an issue.

We're officially in Autumn now, weather has cooled down and the colours of the trees are changing. Fall has to be my favourite season and I've loved the experience in Japan. Over half term school holiday in October we headed north to the Japanese Alps for the weekend.

We figured driving a long way with a baby at night was not ideal, so I left in the morning with the children on the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train). The girls love travelling on these high speed trains. After cleaning the train (see pic below) at Tokyo station the cleaning staff line up in a long row adjacent to the train and proceed to bow. After this a bell is rung which is a signal for passengers to board the train and at the same time it acts to welcome everyone onto the Shinkansen.

The Shinkansen is similar in speed to the Eurostar (London to Paris) but somehow when you throw the Japanese service experience in, this truly feels like you move like a bullet. We arrived in Nagano in an hour and 20 mins (same journey took Ath about 3.5 hours to drive) and we then took a local bus into the mountain village of Hakuba.

Hakuba is well known by Australians who dominate the village over ski season Dec-March. As we were visiting out of season, there was hardly a sole around. No restaurants were open either so we stocked up at Lawsons (convenience store) and the Phoenix hotel provided us with a great bbq and food for dinner on Saturday night. There was so much rain the day we arrived due to a typhoon that passed over Honshu island it was really stressful for Ath driving up that night. Thankfully he arrived safely after midnight using the 'find a friend' app on his phone, as we were pretty remote in the mountains tucked away in a wooded cabin.

The following day we explored Lake Aokiki about a half hour drive from Hakuba. This lake has pristine, aqua blue water. I think the reason for this is because no motorised boats are allowed on it. The reflection of snow capped mountains in the lake and a forested trail around the circumference in amazing autumn colour made this a great morning. The girls managed about 4 kms. We had a laugh when we arrived. We were the ONLY car in site and parked on a random sand road/ park space. Not sure how, but a Japanese worker spotted us, ran over talking in Japanese and made us move the car to this huge designated car park area (with not one car there).

Exploring Hakuba was fun. We had to rug up in hats, gloves and ski jackets. Even though the chalet had the most awesome huge modern bath tub which we could only fill by operating a remote control wall panel, we decided to use the local onsen to bath the family that evening. The indoor thermal water is so rich in minerals - you can almost smell the goodness! The water was really hot, so the girls used the outdoor onsen where the water was cooler given the outside temperature was about 2 degrees. Jonah loved it too. The locals love bathing their babies in the hot onsen waters and we're well into this tradition now.

The final day was the highlight for us all. We took a 8 minute gondola up the Hakuba Iwatake mountain area to the most breathtaking view of coloured forests. The trees were bright shades of reds and yellows and although we tried to photograph this, no photo can do the experience justice. Rach loved the gondola, it was really high and she screamed in delight for 8 minutes up and down. The view of the mountains and scenery from the top was incredible. We took the footpath and did an hour walk round the forest trail at the top. After busy urban life in Shibuya, it was really refreshing being in such invigorating nature. There were some climbing frames made of rope and a swing at the start of the forest trail which the girls thought were fun.

As always its never a dull moment when driving in Japan and we took the wrong route home via Nagoya. We had no idea until after driving for 2 hours we saw a perfect view of Mount Fuji from the car. Fuji is south so we had travelled all the way south rather than east, so despite seeing beautiful views of Fuji-san what should have been a 4 hour trip home took over 7 hours on a bumper to bumper two lane motorway! With overcrowded Japanese road side service stops (and failed attempts to find a Starbucks on route) I'd say kids were were hungry and grumpy when we got home at 9:30pm. But we loved this weekend trip and we know the beautiful nature expereince up Mount Iwatake will stick as an amazing memory of Japan.