while most people come to japan in
spring for the cherry blossoms not that
many come in winter for sightseeing
however i think winter is the most
underrated season in japan and one of
the most magical
in this three-part winter video series
come along with me as i explore central
japan for a week and let's see what
japan has to offer in winter
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in the distance
we went a little bit overboard with the
white mascara
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when i think of snow near tokyo i think
of nagano prefecture and the japanese
alps it's only a few hours away and
there are many direct buses and trains
that leave from shinjuku station i took
a direct train from shinjuku to kamisua
station at nagano before getting on the
local bus to go to the first location
hologram
so now we're on the bus and we're going
to go to our first stop and apparently
this place opened up at the end of 2020.
i haven't been there before i'm excited
to see what it's like
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renting a car would be the most
convenient way to get around rural japan
since there are only a few buses every
hour if you don't have a car just stick
to one or two areas and spend more time
there which is what i would usually do
however when i'm filming my videos i
want to show you a variety of places to
give you more ideas of what to do
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i'm excited to see the view
after about a 30-minute bus ride we
arrived at the ski resort kurumayama ski
resort has slopes for all levels and is
surrounded by the beautiful snow-capped
peaks of the japan alps
even if you don't ski you can still come
here to see the view at the top
it's so strange to be riding a lift
without having like skis on
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since i'm gonna be skiing on another day
of this trip um i'm not gonna be skiing
today however you can also come here and
ski and then see the viewpoint i would
probably recommend that
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getting off the ski level
wow this is so weird so weird
and just like that after a short 15
minute chairlift ride we're above the
clouds
the chair lift operates year round
however when there's no snow on the
ground you can also hike up the mountain
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this is so beautiful
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it feels like i hiked all the way up
here and i conquered this mountain but
actually i just took the ski lift on a
clear day you can also see mount fuji
there in the distance
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in the summer you can also come here and
hike all these mountains nagano has
beautiful mountains you can hike i've
done some of them in kamikochi actually
i was wrong i saw a lot of people hiking
and they told me the mountain ranges
here stay open all year round so i
really want to come back and try winter
hiking sometime because the views look
spectacular
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oh my gosh it's like a roller coaster
like look look at that look at oh my god
this is too scary
oh my god
holy crap
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now this feels like christmas i wish i
was here for christmas not in tokyo
next i wanted to show you another
beautiful mountain and nagano so we
headed to komagane city
you can also take a direct bus here from
shinjuku all cars are actually not
allowed to pass this point so we're
going to take a bus 30 minutes and then
a ropeway for seven minutes to get to
the top of the mountain kind of good to
see the snow cover 230 centimetres
foreign
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once you get to the top and get out of
the cable car you'll enter a hotel which
also has a cafe a shop and rental gear
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the steep slopes of the senjojiki cirque
were carved by glaciers 20 000 years ago
and now it's a beautiful place to have a
walk around or to hike to other
mountains in the region
so in the distance over there you can
see some people climbing the mountain i
would stick to the baby stuff and have a
nice little walk with my snowshoes
so here is what the place looks like in
winter and here is what it looks like in
summer it looks like a completely
different place
this place is open all year round so you
can enjoy a nice little stroll like i
did or hike up to the peaks
wow look how deep this goes
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it's
oddly satisfying
made it to the top so here's the
celebration
if you don't talk
it's actually so quiet here
okay someone's talking anyways can we
just take a second to appreciate how
beautiful the mountains are in nagano
it's my first time doing this like
snowshoe activity it's so easy to walk
in but i want to test
if it's easy to run it so
count me down
muddy three two one
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oh it's pretty good kind of tiring it's
like having weights on your feet
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oh my gosh
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after getting snow on my pants i was
ready to go inside and warm myself up
with a cup of tea
if you guys have time i really recommend
staying the night here so you can also
see the beautiful stars
so that concludes the first part of the
video i'll see you guys next week for
more fun in the snow bye
no bull fight
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