Trip to Yukiguni-- the snow country

January 2 we left Yokohama for Urasa, the eastern end of the Nigata perfecture. It took us 10 minute by bus to Yokohama station, then 42 minutes by Keihin Tohoku Line to Ueno. But that's not the end...as from Ueno we had to go to Takasaki (112 minutes), Minakami (63 minutes) before we got to Urasa (70 minutes). We started at 8.18 from Yokohama and got at Urasa at around 3 pm!!!


Eventhough it was possible to get to Urasa in 90 minutes from Tokyo by Shinkansen ( 8,170 yen for one way ticket perperson), but we decided to bear the pain changing trains several times as we had only to pay 10,200 for 2 roundtrip tickets for ibu and aji using the 18 kippu (juhachi ticket)which is only available during the summer or winter holiday. With such ticket a person is free to go by any JR train to any part of Japan for 5 days or 1 ticket can be used by 5 people within 24 hours to go all over Japan. If we were to pay normal rate to go to Urasa from Yokohama, we might have to spend 4430 yen for one way ticket per person.

Why did we choose Urasa? Because... there are some Indonesian friends living and studying there--at International university of Japan. It happens that there are also ski resorts in Urasa and those Indonesian friends have access to the IUJ ski's equipment so that we need not rent the ski equipment and got free accomodation at the dorm .

In the winter Urasa is covered by two to three meters of snow. This is the prime reason why this place is also called Yukiguni ( Snow Country). The snow can last upto 4 months and people from all over Japan come to this part for enjoying skiing and snowboarding. Urasa is famous for its ski school although many people say it's not the best ski resort in Japan.

For us--the 21 coming from Yokohama, Odaiba and Honjo ... Urasa offers more than chances to touch the snow, but also to build friendship among our fellow Indonesians.



Wisnu was so excited to play with Hikari in the snow that he did not want to stop although his cheeks had turned red and the snow storm blew so hard.

Akira stayed inside the resort with Ibu having his own good time surrounded by Aji's friends who took turn holding and hugging him. We left the ski resort at 4.30 and got stuck in the heavy traffic jam for 3.5 hours as all the cars left the area at the same time.

We left Urasa on Wednesday morning. When we got to Urasa station we found out that the JR train was halted due to the bad weather. There was only one way to go-- by Shinkansen to Takasaki, the nearest station by 4250 yen for one person!! What can we say? It was the only train operating!

Wisnu seemed to enjoy taking the Shinkansen although he had to stand up as the train was so full. The good thing is from Takasaki we could take the Shonan Shinjuku Line directly to Yokohama with that 18 kippu.(18 ticket).

When we were in the bus heading to our apato, Wisnu sadly cried out "ibu, main salju" as he realized that we were back at yokohama where he can not find snow. Oh dear, maybe next time you could play again with the snow... maybe not in Urasa...