Khristian Snyder – Travel Journal

Snow Adventures: Nagano

The Departure

This adventure was a long time in the making. A couple years ago, Austin and Carly had mentioned they wanted to do a trip to Japan and the Philippines and I quickly invited myself to join (along with Erin and Jerry). The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as. with my current job, I was eligible for a three month sabbatical. Japan is one of my favorite places in the world and I always wanted to explore the more remote areas of the beautiful country so this was the perfect opportunity to get off the beaten path.

Last February (20223) the trip was already deep in planning mode. Our goal was to maximize the use of points to fly for free and we were all able to get business class flights to Asia a year in advance. I decided I would go out early to do some traveling before the rest of the crew arrived in Japan. After years of saying “we should go snowboarding in Japan”, I was able to get my Dad onboard for a Japow adventure and I got him a business class seat as well. The trip planning was intense leading up to departure. Meticulous spreadsheets, maps, video calls, hotel bookings, and all other sorts of logistics. Eventually it was late February and time to head out. I had spent the last couple months refining my “onebag” for backpacking around Asia for the next several months. This was quite challenging with camera gear, my drone, and meeting clothes. The trip of a lifetime was here and I couldn’t have been more excited.

Go time! It was February 22nd when I took a quick flight up to SFO to meet up with my Dad. We checked in our snowboards and made our way to the lounge for some mezcal before boarding our JAL flight to Tokyo. The flight was awesome and I got to sit next to my dad (on his first long-haul biz flight) and enjoy the amazing drinks and fine foods before getting some rest and arriving in Tokyo.

We arrived at Narita at night and my uncle Austin picked us up. We enjoyed a delicious homemade dinner, sushi, and some cold Kirin’s before getting some rest as the next few days were going to be busy!

Nagano

Sleep when you’re dead! The next morning, we packed up the car and we all made the long road trip up to Nagano and checked into a ryokan for one night. It was the perfect traditional Japanese experience to kick off the trip! The town we stayed in, Yamanouchi, was at the base of the mountains and was a full on onsen town with hot springs steaming all over the place. While we still had some daylight, we made a quick journey up the road and hiked to the snow monkeys. These Nagano snow monkeys are quite famous and have been in many nature documentaries, known for relaxing in the hot springs every day. They were cool to see and I didn’t expect there to be so many of them…hundreds of monkeys everywhere!

Once back at the ryokan, we got into our yukatas and enjoyed the rooftop onsen before feasting on an incredible multi-course dinner. I accidentally paid for an extra person so I had to eat two full courses. Bummer. 

After sleeping on the tatami floors, we got up the next day and made our way up to Shiga Kogen, one of Japan’s largest snow resorts. While a bit dated, the resort is absolutely massive and is made up of over a dozen smaller resorts. The snow was rough on day one…a complete sheet of ice. Thankfully it started snowing the next day and got a bit better and eventually turned into some good powder runs. It was great helping my cousin snowboard for the first time. Eventually the rest of the family left and my Dad and I stayed back for one more night at Shiga Kogen. The next day we awoke to a full on winter blizzard. It was absolutely dumping…puking! This was great as it was raining for a few days the week before and this was a good sign for the rest of our trip.