16 days Japan winter trip with my LX7

[samtcy]

160) These are manju, with either chocolate or red bean paste fillings.

161)

162) Our room

163) Cute supper snacks...

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165)

166) Bought this for my LX7 from Yodobashi Camera.

 

[SilverPine]

Very nice travel series here, enjoy viewing the photo. Love the yellow tone produced by the LX7 consistently from all the photo which it present a bright and happy mood for the viewer, so is result from the LX7 or from your PP?

 

[samtcy]

some was PPed, some are raw.
Mostly just increased contrast and adjusted brightness. Some had to adjust color abit too. But I started to get more lazy as I post more photos, so lately have been doing less and less PP on the photos.
I bought my LX7 just a few days before the trip so wasn't too familiar with its settings yet, just mainly used auto mode and aperture priority mode.

 

[samtcy]

Day 6: Visit Echigo-Yuzawa and Karuizawa. Stay at Tokyo.

Itinerary for this day:
0754-0904 Ueno to Echigo-Yuzawa via Shinkansen
Visit Echigo-Yuzawa for foot hotspring and Sake museum and Snow.
1204-1229 Echigo-Yuzawa to Takasaki via Shinkansen
1235-1250 Takasaki to Karuizawa via Shinkansen
Visit Karuizawa and lunch
1542-1650 Karuizawa to Ueno via Shinkansen
Return hotel for a short rest
Walk around Ameyokocho at Ueno and dinner.

The main reason for this trip was actually for my brother (and my cousin who would be joining us on this trip from Day 8 onwards) to see snow since they've not seen falling snow before.
Since the places where we've visited for the past 5 days were areas where there's low chance of snowfall, so I thought of bringing my hubby and brother to Echigo-Yuzawa to try our luck.

Yuzawa area in Niigata prefecture is actually 1 of the areas that is not too far from Tokyo that has a pretty high possibility of snowfall. Plus it is convenient to get there from Tokyo, about 70mins Shinkansen train ride from Tokyo to reach either Echigo-Yuzawa station or Gala-Yuzawa station

167) Saw this really huge Katsudon onigiri (riceball) from the convenience store. Brother bought 1 for breakfast on the train.

168) Got this from convenience store before boarding the shinkansen from Tokyo to Echigo-Yuzawa.

169) Brother's Katsudon onigiri.

170) After about 70mins Shinkansen ride, we arrived at Echigo-Yuzawa station.

171) Looking out of the train station's window. Yey! It's snowing!

 

[samtcy]

172) Outside the station's main entrance.

173) Water sprinklers on the main road and pavements to prevent snow accumulation.

174) Echigo Yuzawa station

175) From across the station

176) Foot hotspring just across from the train station.

 

[samtcy]

177) It's snowing! It's snowing!

178) In the end, we chose to use the foot hotspring just in front of this hotel, less than 5mins walk from the train station.

179) The foot hotspring which we used

180)

181) Map of the town

 

[samtcy]

182)

183) I love walking in the snow!

184) We left our bags on the ground and started playing in the snow (that is, rolling around in the snow actually), and not 5mins later, this is how our bags look like. lol.

185) As the snowfall started getting heavier, we headed back to Echigo-Yuzawa station

 

[samtcy]

186) Visiting the sake museum that's located inside the train station's building.

187) More that 100 different variety of sake for you to taste. 500yen for 5 cups of sake.

188) For 500yen, they will hand you a sake cup, and 5 coin tokens. Use the tokens on the sake dispensing machines.

189)

190) If you prefer warm sake, you can use this to heat up your cup of sake.

 

[samtcy]

191) Arrival at Karuizawa station.

192) I've visited Karuizawa during autumn season on 1 of my previous trips, and it was really beautiful and lots of visitors.
But this time round, the streets are empty and most shops were closed. Not sure if it's because I visited on a weekday and not a weekend though.

193)

 

[samtcy]

194) After walking around in hunger for about 20mins, we finally found a restaurant that's open for business.

195) Inside

196) Not sure if it's because we were really hungry, but the food's not bad!

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[samtcy]

199)

200) 1 of the churches at Karuizawa

201) Karuizawa's Ginza. This street was so lively in my previous visit. But on this day, most shops were closed.

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[samtcy]

204) After returning back to Tokyo, we visited Ameyoko at Ueno for the evening.

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208) Dinner

 

[samtcy]

Day 7: Tokyo to Kinugawa onsen. Visit Edo Wonderland. Stay at Kinugawa onsen.

This day's itinerary:
0718-0803 Ueno to Utsunomiya via Shinkansen (45mins)
0823-0900 Utsunomiya to Imaichi via JR Nikko line (37mins)
Took a short 3mins cab ride from Imaichi station to Shimo-Imaichi station
0927-0942 Shimo-Imaichi to Shin-Takatoku station via Tobu Kinugawa local train (15mins, 200yen)
Took a short 5mins cab ride from Shin-Takatoku station to Edo Wonderland
Visit Edo Wonderland (closes on Wed)
1520-1535 Bus from Edo Wonderland to Kinugawa onsen station.
Bought some snacks and drinks from convenience store opposite the train station.
Took a short 5mins cab ride from Kinugawa onsen station to our hotel.

There are actually a few different ways of getting from Tokyo to Nikko/Kinugawa onsen.
The more convenient way is to take a direct Tobu Ltd Exp train from Shinjuku in Tokyo to Nikko, then transfer to Tobu Kinugawa line to reach Kinugawa onsen station.

However, since Tobu is a non-JR company train line, therefore it is not covered by JR railpass (which we are using for the trip).

Therefore, we took a longer journey with more train transfers to get from Tokyo to Kinugawa onsen area.

209) After taking Shinkansen from Ueno station at Tokyo to Utsunomiya station, we then transferred to a local train on JR Nikko line at Utsunomiya station to Imaichi station.

210) Onboard JR Nikko line local train

211) There's a toilet onboard the JR Nikko line train.

 

[samtcy]

212) At Shimo-Imaichi station, about to board the Tobu Kinugawa local train. The orange train is a Ltd Exp train, whereas the train with Red in the foreground is a local train.

213) Boarding the Tobu Kinugawa local train. Tobu Kinugawa line is a non-JR train line.

214)

215) Onboard the train

216) Even though it's a pretty old train, but there's also a toilet onboard this train.

 

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217) Edo Wonderland at Kinugawa onsen

218) Inside Edo Wonderland

219) I liked how they have staffs wearing Edo period costumes and walk around in the park as if they are residents of the place going about doing their daily tasks.

220) Mascot

221)

 

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222) Experience shuriken throwing for a small fee (500-600yen if I remembered correctly)

223) Lunch

224)

225) My plain udon

226) The hubby's tempura soba

 

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227)

228) Play traditional games (these are free for u to play with)

229) Tops. These are also free for u to play with. We spent a nice 30mins playing with these.

230)

 

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231) Parade

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235) Check out the height of her shoes

 

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236)

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238) After leaving Edo Wonderland, we took a short bus ride to Kinugawa onsen station.

239) There's a free hand and foot onsen (hotspring) just infront of Kinugawa onsen station.