Japan day 2, we’ve arrived in the snow.

We began our day by sleeping in and then rushing with our bags to miss the express train from Matsumoto station. Seeing the city in the light of day was beautiful. The city is both metropolitan but also filled with older traditional Japanese architecture and narrow winding streets. Mountains surround the town and everywhere you look is like a postcard.

We were able to find a different train not too much later, a local one with just two cars and stops about every 10 minutes.

About 45 minutes into our journey it began to snow. What started as a light flurry quickly became a squall that made us feel like we were on the Polar Express.

The snow just kept getting deeper and heavier. Even the locals were jumping up to take videos and photos.

The train station where we disembarked was not the right one. It did, however, have a booth for boots and slippers.

By the time we got to Hakuba we were in a polar world the likes of which I’ve never seen. Snow banks well over eight feet tall and roads so icy it’s hard to walk on them.

We went on a foolish walking adventure down the very steep, narrow, and winding road to our hostel in search of food. Slipping and sliding our way down wishing we had put our skis on.

Tomorrow we are up early to ski. So much snow has fallen today on a crust that the avalanche risk is high, so we are staying in bounds. The powder should be well above our waists.