Because of dubious (or perhaps I should say 'non-existent') plan, instead of going to Nagano early morning, we explored Takaoka until our checkout time. We took photos at Doraemon no Sampo Machi just outside the hotel, Doraemon post box at Takaoka station waiting room, walked to the Takaoka Great Buddha and finally the Takaoka Castle Park.
Takaoka Great Buddha is about 10-15 minutes walk from the station. Regarded as one of the three Great Buddhas in Japan (the other two are in Kamakura and Nara), this one pales in comparison to the other two. The statue somehow seems smaller although the actual size is actually comparable to Kamakura and Nara. I visited Kamakura Great Buddha in 2018 while I went to Nara in 2017 when I was still a dumb ass. I was outside the Todaiji Temple but did not take any photos of the temple as well as the Buddha as I was not aware that I was at a significant landmark. At that time, my dumb self only knew Nara meant deers. The temple is very small although there was no crowd as we were there in the morning.
Takaoka Castle Park is about 5 minutes from the Great Buddha and if yesterday's Kanazawa castle is bad enough with only watch towers and external walls, Takaoka Castle is even worse. Nothing is left of the castle and where the main keep used to stand is only an empty plot of land now. There are random art statues around this empty plot of land. This was an impromptu visit and I had no knowledge of the place. I took photos of some of the art statues but I did not take photo of the most significant one: statue of Maeda Toshinaga. Maeda clan has an important significance in this part of of Japan (the Hokuriku region).
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| Takaoka Daibutsu or Takaoka Great Buddha |
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| With its close proximity to buildings, it feels like a temple for the residents instead of a tourist place. |
In all, I think Takaoka has been very disappointing and I will not recommend to specially visit here to see the Great Buddha or the Doraemon stuff. Lucky I am a fan of Conan and Hokuei Town (Conan Town) at Tottori is so much better and worth visiting. If I am a fan of Doraemon and make a special trip to Takaoka just for these few attractions, I would be regretting.
We took Ainokaze Toyama railway to Toyama to catch the Shinkansen to Nagano. We learnt our lessons and went to book our seats. It was not as crazy and traumatic as the previous Tokyo-Takaoka shinkansen as the shinkansen trains at Toyama are mostly reserved seats. Thus there were plenty of seats available. At Nagano station, I decided that we should reserve seats for the journey to Tokyo tomorrow. The queue for the counter was long so it was a good luck to see a JR staff who just got outside for duty. As I was queueing, I signaled to my sister to try approaching that staff. That guy taught us that we could reserve seats from the machines outside the ticket office. We had to change to Nagaden (Nagano Electric Railway) to reach Yudanaka and this is not covered by JR Pass.
Doraemon no Sampo Machi
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| Doraemon mail box |
Based on the initial projection, I thought we would have to go to our ryokan to drop our luggage first and catching the next shuttle bus to Ryuoo Ski Park at 2pm. Somehow our good luck continued as we reached just before 1230pm and we saw that the Ryuoo had an office just outside Yudanaka Station where we could leave our luggages. So we ended up dropping our luggages there and caught the 1230pm shuttle bus.
With zero preparation whatsoever, obviously there would not be skiing and snowboarding so I had no idea what I was going to do there. The person who recommended this place i.e. my stupid sister also had nothing in mind and instead of trying to find out what we could do in this place also just walked around and did nothing. Haiz.. How to not get angry -_-" Ryuoo is catered for the locals so English signage is almost non-existent. I had to just ask people and despite the limited English, the staff had the translator to help with the communication.
I bought the access for the ropeway (2500 yen) and was informed to take V1 lift, V4 lift, and the ropeway to the Sora Terrace. After taking the ropeway down, however, we had to walk all the way back to the bottom. It sounded okay since at this point of time I had not really walked in the snow. After walking in the snow only then the "Oh shit!" came. My snow shoes do not grip perfectly: it is helpful but I still have to be watchful so as not to slip. However, they did not get wet so that is the most useful things.
The queue for each lift was about 15 minutes and the view from the Sora Terrace was not as amazing as the advertisement. In the cafe, there was a big signage of 60-something percent chance only of seeing the sea of clouds as advertised. Lol. I played a bit with the snow but after making 2 small snowballs (one with bare hand and one with gloves), I gave up. My hands were too cold and my gloves were wet since they were not made of leather. The cafe was super crowded so again no lunch today. The queue for the ropeway downwards was longer and it took us almost half an hour. I think as it got later, more people were going down as they already had enough time enjoying up there.
From here on, my sister finally learnt the hard way from her stupidity of not wanting to prepare for a trip. She wore normal sport shoes so she was having a hard time in the snow while I was enjoying myself. She thought the ski lift would bring us downslope too. There is a reason why it is called LIFT and not ESCALATOR. If people ride the lift to go downslope, they will simply be thrown down because of gravity and the position of the ski lift. In ski resort, the lifts are only to go up and people ski or snowboard downslope. We had neither so we had to walk downslope. To make things more exciting, we had to rush for the 4pm shuttle bus back to Yudanaka station or else we had to wait for the next bus at 530pm. I told her I did not care even if she cried or rolled down the slope but we had to reach the bus by 4pm no matter what. It was close to half an hour of adrenaline rush: some areas had deeper snow (thanks, shoes!), I still wanted to take photos with the ski lifts (otherwise I have no picture that I was in a ski resort), and the last stretch of confusion of where to walk to find the bus terminal. We reached the bus in time and if we reached a few minutes later, we would not be able to board the bus. We were already sitting at the aisle seats by the time we reached.
Our ryokan (Shimaya) picked us up from the station. Honestly, this is my worst ryokan experience compared to my previous ryokan experience at Kawaguchiko or Shiroyamakan. We got a room at level 4 and there was no elevator. I carried my luggage by the stairs but the ryokan actually had a dumbwaiter. When we checked in, only the lady boss was around and she did not inform us about the dumbwaiter. When my sister wanted to carry her luggage, the male boss already returned and only then he mentioned about the dumbwaiter.
The room is quite big and it sort of reminds me of Nobita's room with cupboard where Doraemon sleeps. However, the room gives me an old and haunted vibes rather than a traditional vibe so I am not fully comfortable here. This is also my worst onsen experience. There are only 2 shower stations, and the water pressure of the shower is so weak. I was alone when I was there and when I was showering, there were 2 angmohs coming. As there were only 2 shower stations and I was using one, the 2 guys basically had to queue in the nude -_-". Not my problem but I felt pressurised with myself taking too long to shower thanks to the weak water pressure. I did not soak as the onsen is too small. If the 3 of us went in, we would be too close for comfort under the water.
I was worried about food yesterday but this place is quite touristy so there are restaurants around. There is a Lawson near the station which is about 10 minutes walk from our ryokan where I bought my breakfast for tomorrow. For dinner, I wanted to just grab anything to eat before people started to eat. My sister still wanted to ma fan and she wanted sushi restaurant opposite the station but it was fully reserved. After that I told her not to be too picky and just choose somewhere as long as we could get a seat or else we would end up eating from Lawson.
We ate at yakitori restaurant which also serves other food. Although I did not get my kakiage, I was quite happy with my shumais and fried tako. I actually wanted gyozas but the picture in the menu which is labeled as gyoza looks nothing like gyoza. My worry came true. It is not the culture to queue and wait for available seats when the restaurant is full. Once the restaurant is full, the restaurant will just tell the coming customers "Sorry we are full". They do not even inform them to wait and all that. Lucky we were already happily having our dinner.
With zero preparation whatsoever, obviously there would not be skiing and snowboarding so I had no idea what I was going to do there. The person who recommended this place i.e. my stupid sister also had nothing in mind and instead of trying to find out what we could do in this place also just walked around and did nothing. Haiz.. How to not get angry -_-" Ryuoo is catered for the locals so English signage is almost non-existent. I had to just ask people and despite the limited English, the staff had the translator to help with the communication.
I bought the access for the ropeway (2500 yen) and was informed to take V1 lift, V4 lift, and the ropeway to the Sora Terrace. After taking the ropeway down, however, we had to walk all the way back to the bottom. It sounded okay since at this point of time I had not really walked in the snow. After walking in the snow only then the "Oh shit!" came. My snow shoes do not grip perfectly: it is helpful but I still have to be watchful so as not to slip. However, they did not get wet so that is the most useful things.
The queue for each lift was about 15 minutes and the view from the Sora Terrace was not as amazing as the advertisement. In the cafe, there was a big signage of 60-something percent chance only of seeing the sea of clouds as advertised. Lol. I played a bit with the snow but after making 2 small snowballs (one with bare hand and one with gloves), I gave up. My hands were too cold and my gloves were wet since they were not made of leather. The cafe was super crowded so again no lunch today. The queue for the ropeway downwards was longer and it took us almost half an hour. I think as it got later, more people were going down as they already had enough time enjoying up there.
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| So much effort to go up and this is only scene that I think is worth it. The other views from his place are meh. |
Our ryokan (Shimaya) picked us up from the station. Honestly, this is my worst ryokan experience compared to my previous ryokan experience at Kawaguchiko or Shiroyamakan. We got a room at level 4 and there was no elevator. I carried my luggage by the stairs but the ryokan actually had a dumbwaiter. When we checked in, only the lady boss was around and she did not inform us about the dumbwaiter. When my sister wanted to carry her luggage, the male boss already returned and only then he mentioned about the dumbwaiter.
The room is quite big and it sort of reminds me of Nobita's room with cupboard where Doraemon sleeps. However, the room gives me an old and haunted vibes rather than a traditional vibe so I am not fully comfortable here. This is also my worst onsen experience. There are only 2 shower stations, and the water pressure of the shower is so weak. I was alone when I was there and when I was showering, there were 2 angmohs coming. As there were only 2 shower stations and I was using one, the 2 guys basically had to queue in the nude -_-". Not my problem but I felt pressurised with myself taking too long to shower thanks to the weak water pressure. I did not soak as the onsen is too small. If the 3 of us went in, we would be too close for comfort under the water.
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| The room is big because it has a seating area (indoor 'verandah') and sink and toilet i.e. the area behind the sliding door in the photo. From the position where I took this: behind me is the Doraemon's cupboard, there is another sliding door on my right which has a private onsen (with notices all in Japanese that I don't know if it can be used or cannot), and on the left side of futons (cut off in the photo) there is another cupboard. |
We ate at yakitori restaurant which also serves other food. Although I did not get my kakiage, I was quite happy with my shumais and fried tako. I actually wanted gyozas but the picture in the menu which is labeled as gyoza looks nothing like gyoza. My worry came true. It is not the culture to queue and wait for available seats when the restaurant is full. Once the restaurant is full, the restaurant will just tell the coming customers "Sorry we are full". They do not even inform them to wait and all that. Lucky we were already happily having our dinner.
Finally this agony is over. Tomorrow we will be returning to Tokyo and if I am not happy, I can just don't care and split from my sister. She should be able to navigate Tokyo on her own. Today has been a horrible day. It could be worse but by God's grace, we have been very very lucky with our transport since this morning. We reached Takaoka station at less than 5 minutes before the train left for Toyama. If missed that, we would have to wait another half an hour for the next train. If we did not get the guy who helped to reserve shinkansen seats using the machine, we would miss the 1230pm shuttle bus to Ryuoo and perhaps we would not even experience the ski resort and snow at all. If we missed the 4pm shuttle bus from Ryuoo, the Yudanaka station office would already be closed by 5pm. We would not be able to contact the ryokan to pick us up and we would have to drag our luggages from the station. Lastly was the dinner arrangement. If any of these was late even by a few minutes, our day would be so much worse. Really really thank God for today.
Yesterday's sentiment still remains: I won't go with anymore overseas travel with my sister. She still had the cheek to say that we actually still had the time and should have just returned to Nagano and stayed there. You did no shit for the planning at all and still dared to say that. Our ryokan actually offers free trip to the Monkey Park but we do not know this before hand so we did not cater time for that. Even tomorrow we have to take the train leaving Yudanaka before 8am. I am not interested with Monkey Park so I am okay to skip it. My sister wants Monkey Park so it was her loss.
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