We had muesli in our room, and caught our train at 9:15. Snow followed us for most of the morning. The train took us out to the coast, and past a lot of little fishing villages clinging to the sea shore.
There was a change of trains at Niigata, and a change of directions. I'd not been able to find our next destination on any maps, and assumed we were continuing south along the coast. But we went inland on a double decker Shinkansen. We had been allocated downstairs seats, but because of the sound barriers couldn't see anything, so we went upstairs to the non-reserved section.
It didn't matter much, though, because we were soon in the mountains, and went through lots of long tunnels, emerging only a couple of times at ski resorts along the way.
I don't know why I couldn't find Takasaka, because it was a big city.
Another Shinkansen took us into Nagano, the end of the line.
Each group of cleaning staff stationed along the platform bowed as the train pulled in past them. Here we changed trains again. This was tricky, as we found, after asking a couple of times, that we had to leave the station, go out across the street, and down a flight of stairs to the local trains' station. The ticket collector grabbed my bag and raced me down the last flight of stairs just seconds before the train left. We only found out at the other end that our JR pass didn't cover this private line, and we hadn't paid.
It was a more leisurely trip, past orchards with their tree trunks wrapped in hessian blankets,
and on to Yudanaka. Here we were met by a name-carrying driver, who took us to our hotel in Shibu-Onsen. This is a little village built over hot springs. Most of the hotels and guest-houses have their own onsen (hot bath), and there are nine public baths. These are segregated, as you bathe naked. I would like to have a go, but it would be a bit lonely there on your own. At the hotel, a welcoming committee of two was at the footpath bowing to welcome us, and up in our room, we were seated for tea as soon as we came in.
We went for a walk around the town, with gentle snowflakes drifting around us all the way.
When we got back, we did take advantage of the public footbath at the door of our hotel, much to the amusement of some passers-by.
We did washing, read the internet about the bushfires back home, then went to tea, which was a Japanese banquet I had pre-booked. There were at least 15 different dishes, from carp/koi soup, with a fillet of fish with scales floating in it, to a cube of clear yellow jelly which tasted like flower petals, and some pale green creamy garnishing which was so hot I felt it blow right up my face and out my forehead somehow, and for those few seconds I thought I'd explode.
Our hostess left us to it after explaining the first few dishes, so we don't know what most of it was, but, peasants as we are, we really didn't get much of a thrill from it. Sorry Kaori.Our bed was made while we were eating, so once I've finished this, in the lobby where there are chairs, we'll go up. Maybe to the hot bath, maybe not.
PS Yes we did. There was no-one else there, so in we went prepared for a nice long soak. But we both found the water SO HOT, we didn't get right in, and didn't stay for long. How's this for a tide mark???!!
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