When I found out that I was going to
Togakushi, an alpine town 20kms from Nagano, I was excited at the prospect of
seeing some of Japan’s snow country (I’m Australian. My experience with snow is
limited – the novelty factor remains high). I had pictured myself
nicely rugged up in warm-yet-stylish snow-appropriate attire, frolicking in the
snow, maybe even making a snowman and throwing the odd snowball or two before
retiring to sit by a fireplace and sip on hot cocoa (yes, I realise this is the
ski-chalet cliché, but like I said, I’m not very well versed on snow life). Well,
as it turns out, the only real parallel between my imaginary snow-land and the
real-life version is that there was snow… except in my imaginary version, there
wasn’t nearly as much. In my head, Togakushi was a cute little
mountain village nicely nestled under a generous sprinkling of snow, but as my
bus wound its way up the steep mountain road towards the town, what began as a ‘sprinkling
of snow’ turned into a ‘blanket of snow’ which soon became ‘two blankets of
snow’, then a ‘duvet of snow’, until finally, I alighted the bus and found
myself standing in snow with a sprinkling of town, rather than the other way
around.
The thatched-roof buildings that line
the streets of Togakushi resembled tenuous marshmallows under the weight of all
that whiteness. I’d never seen anything quite like it… or,
evidently, attempted to walk on anything like it. Never again will
Converse be my footwear of choice when attempting to traverse snowy, icy terrain
– I had boots in my suitcase, of course, but sadly they were not on my feet at
the time I needed them most.
Aside from the footwear revelations, I
discovered that the benefit of my map was greatly reduced by the fact that
everything around me looked exactly the same – white - (thankfully Togakushi is
not a big town and only a few roads were walkable due to snow ploughing
slackness). Finally I learned that in winter, people should not go
to Togakushi on a Wednesday (unless they’re going to the ski resorts), because
everything is closed on Wednesday and they will be forced to walk up and down a
steep, slippery mountain road in search of lunch.
Despite these snow-induced hurdles, I had a great stay
in Togakushi – my hostel (the lovely Togakushi Kogen Yokokura Youth Hostel)
provided me with a nice, warm tatami-style room, a little onsen and delicious
dinner and breakfast. An old lady gave me a box of chocolates when I asked her
for directions and I got a glimpse into the more traditional side life in the
Japanese mountains. Oh, and a did make a snowman and throw a few
snowballs… until my hands got too cold and I realised I’d left my gloves in the
hostel and had to buy a can of hot coffee from a vending machine to warm my
hands up enough to get the feeling back in my fingers. I still love
snow.
Photos
