The last stop on our road trip through Japan was to Shirakawago.  This was another place on my pinterest page that I couldn’t wait to visit!  It is absolutely beautiful during the winter and during the spring.  The snow began to fall heavily as we drove up to the village.  After stepping out of the car, it was like taking a step back in time.  A time of geishas and samurais and a time of Japanese culture that has inspired books and movies.  We crossed the bridge over the Shokawa River that lead to the Ogimachi village that is famous for its unique gassho houses.

The Gassho houses have a unique architectural style with steep straw-roofed homes made of wood.  This area of Japan receives a huge amount of snow each year so the roofs are angled to prevent snow from piling up on them.  “Gassho” comes from the Japanese word for prayer, and the steep shape of the roofs resemble praying hands.

It was an amazing experience to walk along the narrow roads through the village with the snow falling all around us.  Ogimachi Village was declared a World Heritage Site in 1995.  Some of the houses in the village are over 250 years old.  Many of the old farmhouses have been turned into restaurants, shops, and even places you can stay the night.  We considered staying the night, but I was afraid it might be a little much with all the boys!

We decided to try some of the traditional Japanese food while we were there.  We ended up at a little vendor that sold homemade meat pies and warm drinks.  The meat pies were so good!  It was perfect on a cold day walking around the village!

As we were leaving the village, the snow stopped and the sun began to shine through the clouds.  It made for a very beautiful sight.  I can only imagine what it must have been like to live here hundreds of years ago.

We had the most amazing time on our road trip through Japan.  It is a trip I will never forget and a time with all my boys that I will forever treasure.

A couple of months before Christmas, Brandon came to me and said…I just want to see some snow for Christmas!  Living on a beautiful tropical island is amazing, but you do really miss all the seasons.  So we made plans to go find the snow in Japan.  We decided on a little village called Hakuba which is near Nagano where the 1998 Winter Olympic games were held.  Hakuba is known to have some of the best powder in Japan for skiing and snowboarding.

While searching for a place to stay, I came across The Green Plaza Hotel which is located in the Hakuba Cortina Ski Resort.  I fell in love with the unique European style of the hotel with its beautiful red roof that stood out against the mountains covered in snow.

After leaving the Snow Monkeys, we drove straight to the ski resort which was about another two hours away.  We reached the resort after dark and it was beautiful to drive up to the hotel at night with snow falling all around us.

The inside of the hotel was beautiful.  However…the hallways kind of reminded me of the movie The Shining!!  I loved the elevators…I have found that in Japan they have some of the neatest elevators.  Every morning it snowed, and Colt loved to watch it out the window while we got ready to go down for breakfast.

Every morning, the boys would wake up, eat breakfast, and snowboard until the ski lifts closed for the evening.  They did not even stop for lunch.  They asked if they could just pack a Snickers bar for lunch so they wouldn’t have to stop snowboarding.  They had the most fun and there was hardly anyone at the ski resort so they had the place almost to themselves.

While the boys snowboarded, Colt and I hung out at the kids play area.  He spent everyday sledding, making snowballs and having snowball fights with the Japanese workers.  They just loved him and thought he was so cute!

One evening we decided to explore the town of Hakuba and find a new restaurant.  We ended up at Lucky Pete’s!  It was run by an Australian man and had the best burgers!  We had the most fun exploring the town of Hakuba!

It definitely made it feel more like Christmas with the colder weather and the snow!  I am so thankful we were able to take the boys to ski in the Japanese Alps!  The next day we made our final stop at the villages of Shirakawago….

Colt’s Snow Angel!

As you head down the mountain out of the park there is a little cafe that serves food and hot chocolate.  We decided to get some hot chocolate and find a place for dinner. The hot chocolate was perfect after the cold walk through the mountains!

Just as we left the park we found The Farmhouse Restaurant.  A lot of the restaurants in Japan are houses that also serve as a restaurant.  I had the dumplings and the boys had pizza.  The dumplings were some of the best I have ever had.  I may have eaten a couple of plates of them. 

After dreaming of going here for a long time, it turned out to be the most amazing trip.  It’s one of those experiences that I will never forget!  If you are ever in Japan, you have to go see the snow monkeys!  

After leaving the snow monkeys we headed to the ski resort in the Japanese Alps…

Over Christmas we were so blessed to be able to take a much needed family vacation!  Our first stop was to Tokyo!  We were so excited because this was our first time to visit Tokyo.  Its only about a 2 1/2 hour flight from our beautiful island of Okinawa!  We decided to rent a car for this trip because I will tell you that this country girl has a hard time navigating public transportation!  When I found out that Tokyo had a Max Brenner’s Chocolate Bar, I knew I had to go! We have been to the one in New York City and we just love it so we couldn’t wait to get to Tokyo and get some of that delicious chocolate.  If you have never been I highly recommend it!

There was a huge Disney store next to Max Brenner!  The boys had a lot of fun shopping and then watching the fireworks that were coming from Disneyland!

The next day we finally made it to Disneyland.  This was our first time to visit Disneyland.  I never imagined our first time would be in Japan! It was absolutely amazing.  It looked so beautiful all decorated for Christmas! The boys had so much fun timing out all their fast passes for the rides.  I think we rode just about every ride there!  We also had fun trying out all the Christmas food and the different kinds of popcorn.  At the parks in Japan, you can buy a themed popcorn bucket and you can refill your bucket throughout the park with lots of different flavors of popcorn.  The boys all got a Darth Vader bucket, and I think our favorite flavor was the milk chocolate popcorn!  

The Christmas show and fireworks at Cinderella’s Castle was so beautiful!  We had the most wonderful day!

The next day we headed to Disneysea.  This is the only park in the world that is like this one.  Some say this is the best Disney park in the world!  It was a little more geared toward the older kids but Colt was tall enough to ride all the rides! This park was so beautiful and represented countries from around the world.  We were so excited when we made it to America.  It has been so long since we have been back home it was nice to at least feel like you were there for just a little bit!  

We loved visiting Tokyo!  The next day we began our road trip across Japan to find the snow!