Day 6 - Nagano bound!

Early the next morning, we caught the only direct train to Nagano over to Hakuba in Nagano...it was exciting to see the landscape change from urban, to suburban, to rural...to snow-covered.

It was such a pleasant journey, as often long haul train rides in Japan are.  They had a new lighting system above each seat to signal which seats were reserved, about to be occupied, or vacant. Each seat also had a book for your coat, a water bottle holder, a food tray, charging station, could recline, etc. Much more comfortable than any US economy seat on an airline. There was a glass sliding door to the restroom, which was modern and immaculate. It wasn't even a bullet train, which is what made the comfortable train so impressive.

When we pulled into Hakuba, we saw the familiar beautiful sights of our last deep winter excursion to Hokkaido...a blanket of snow.

The station at Hakuba was in a tiny little town that seemed half asleep. Our hotel was only a mile and a half away, so we caught a cab over to our hotel/ryokan. When we got to the hotel, we found a sign at the front desk that said it would be closed until 3pm. So we warmed up by sitting in a few massage chairs, in front of a huge picture window and stared at the snow. 

Once we checked in, we took a walk around the area. There wasn't much, admittedly. A couple of closed restaurants, ski shops and that was about it! Fortunately, we stumbled across a small, snow covered temple.

We did find one small konbini (convenience store), where I was able to find my favorite strawberry daifuku mochi, which I could not wait to much on.

Our hotel had a really cool feature in the lobby, a water bar...which had five water dispensers filled with water from different regions in Japan, each known for their differing healing properties. 

Our hotel was very special- our room had tatami mats and futon beds, and both indoor and outdoor onsen (heated pools). In Japan, onsen require nudity (no clothing allowed) and a pre-soak bath for cleanliness. The baths are all segregated by gender, so no funny business.

The indoor showers (the little benches are where you sit at) and bath

The indoor bath looked out over the outdoor bath, with its roof covered in snow.

This place was my little slice of heaven for two nights, and a third visit on our final morning there. I had it to myself 95% of the time, which was amazing.

This is Ryan in the men's bath...where he is viewed rebelliously sporting bathing suit attire.

We had to make it an early night since we had an early AM wake up call the next day....which would end up being the best day of our trip (in my opinion).