[ Apr.2017 ] The main purpose of our travel to Iwate Prefecture in Japan was to see the snow wall.
My Japanese family already went and saw it a few years ago and had a great impression of it, so they took us there this time.
The route we went was the road called Hachimantai Asupite Line.
This road was to be closed at 5:30 pm everyday and we got onto the road just before that.
For a while the view was rather disappointing and my family were saying “Maybe the snow melted early this year”, but more we went up into the mountain, the higher the snow wall became and the view was amazing.
When we parked our car and went out, the strong freezing wind blew against us.
The snow flakes were blown and dancing on the road.
The wintry sky was impressive, too.
It was too cold to stay out, so after taking photos quickly we ran back into the car.
It was late April.
The winter in the northern Japan is really long.
I could not believe that just one day before we were on the very hot Ishigaki Island in Okinawa.
By the way, the hotel people recommended we go to another road called Jukai Line which had just opened on the same day after the closing period of winter to see an even higher snow wall, so we planned to go there the next day, but both Jukai Line and this Asupite Line were sealed off the next day because of the icy roads.
The hotel we stayed was Hachimantai Heights.
There were two parts in one room, bedroom and living room, which was nice and the bath in the room was made of hinoki (Japanese cypress).
That night we went to the family bath which had been booked for us, and on the next morning we enjoyed the room bath.
We had to go to the dining room for dinner (in Japan they sometimes bring the dinner to your room), but the foods were plenty and tasty.
We had Ishigaki Beef in Ishigaki Island a few days before, and now here we enjoyed steamed Maesawa Beef in Sushi.
There was also a dish of Japanese boiled pork and the pigs for this one apparently grew up by drinking Japanese tea.
The pleasant talkative waiter looked after us and according to him, the busiest time here is autumn when people come to see the coloured leaves.
