Xavikun
Snowboarding in Naeba
This was the second time that I was about to see snow in Japan, the first time was at Hunter Mountain, this time I went with some Spanish friends to Naeba, a mountain in Niigata one of the most famous places to ski near Tokyo. Naeba is about 4 hours by bus from Tokyo (Shinjuku) and agency prices are not bad. For us it was about 22,000 yen for the bus ride, the ryokan (dinner and breakfast), rental and ski pass during for all-day Saturday and Sunday morning. The tracks were pretty good (though I'm no expert) and were large enough to ski without difficulties. The slopes just below the Prince Hotel are amazing.
The downside was that there wasn't much else around, a couple of shops but it's a place to go skiing and little else. There are several ryokan (Japanese inns) with affordable prices, but at the end of the day what matters is skiing, right? Also you call and they'll pick you up at the slopes. We ended up not skiing at night because we were tired, especially me as I spent more time on the ground, but everyone in general, so we decided to go to an onsen after dinner. It cost about 600 yen and we relaxed, it was an outdoor onsen where you are in the hot springs but outdoors is around 0 degrees, the feeling was amazing. Back at the hotel we were super relaxed and we thought we would go to bed early but we didn't know about the party with rooms next door. A great weekend and a place I recommend going to.
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