Last Snow Hike of the Year

[Oyaki, grilled on a cast iron pan over an open fire.]

Two weeks ago, I went to Nagano for three days. I spent the first day exploring Nagano City. I suppose it was because it was a weekday, but the town was pretty quiet with mostly older folk in the streets. But when I asked the hostel keeper, she said that it was pretty normal. I tried some of the local delicacies, like the oyaki pictured above. Oyaki are dumplings with skins made of fermented buckwheat flour which are wrapped around sweet or savoury fillings. I had one of each of the oyaki containing red bean paste, okara, and nozawana (Japanese green veg), and they were served with complimentary miso soup, buckwheat tea and pickles. They were really yummy, my favourite's got to be the nozawana.

[Zenkoji Temple]

The next day, I got up early to watch the morning ceremony at Zenkoji Temple. It was all done with great ceremony, while one group of monks were doing the chanting, another group were sitting to the side drinking tea?? I didn't stay for too long, after about twenty minutes of watching the monks chant, I returned to the hostel for brekky and a nice hot cup of tea.

 

[People waiting to receive blessings.]

After brekky, I went to meet with my hiking companions at Nagano Station, and we set off for Togakushi. The weather was perfect for snow hiking, but unlike the featherlight snow of my previous snow hike, this snow was wet and heavy, and required a lot more hard work to walk through.

We got some wonderful views from the top though, and what goes up, must come down... I'd bought along my sled, so after making sure that I had a safe path that didn't involve going off an edge, I took it easy and slid down!

It was not the smoothest of trails because of how wet and uncompressed the snow was, but I got to have a bit of a slide, my last opportunity until next winter.