Iwate 2018

The day I flew I was having food poisoning and all that came out of me was watery stuff so I was kinda worried that it was going to happen on the flight there but fortunately I got better when I got on the red-eye flight, transferred at Jakarta and then reached Tokyo without sitting on the plane toilet haha.

So so so glad I bought the white down jacket because the weather was much colder than I expected. -8 during the day is really crazy cold, especially in Appi Kogen.

I love the hotel that we stayed in. The food was so on point. Iwate is famous for their beef and milk products and they serve both in their meals. The onsen was also on point and they had a private onsen as well, which I did in the morning. They also fetched us from the ski slopes everyday.

Just look at the marbling.

Dinner was Beef Sukiyaki, Beef BBQ and Crab steamboat, with a few courses of sides like sashimi.

Now to the snowboarding part. Appi is a little bit more expensive than Myoko, but the powder is superb and unbeatable, even Niseko couldn't beat it. The slopes were super challenging coz it was immediately the black run when you come out of the gondola and the winds were super strong. All I could remember was that it was super super cold and my nose kept dripping but the snow is amazing. A small price to pay for the good snow. The weather on the last 2 days were blue bird days so we had a good view of the slopes. I like the sailor runs too.

This is the cute Appi Kogen train station which looks like a bus stop.

On the way back to Tokyo I stopped by Sendai for their famous BBQ gyu tan (beef tongue), which was quite good and rubbery like squid. Haha.

I'm not sure if it's because of my sick body that I couldn't really enjoy Appi fully but I kinda liked it and it might be my next snow destination again. All I could remember is that it was really cold (-10 everyday) and I kept going to the toilet after every meal hahaha. I would love to go back one day to fully enjoy the sailor run in good health condition.

Oh I had the private onsen in the morning and did a IG story on the outdoor onsen so check it out.
I just love the outdoor onsen with snow flying over my head.