It's been a while since I've been here joining the #WednesdayWalk initiative by 
Spring is here in Tokyo but this morning I woke up to a snowy day. A bit rare for mid-March so I was able to recall a trip I took last month to a snowy town in Yamagata.
We took a night bus to Yamagata, board an early morning train to Kaminoyama Onsen and left our bags at the hotel and took the bus that we had reserved beforehand to Zao Onsen.
It was still early when we arrived at Zao Onsen, an onsen town famous for its snow monsters in Yamagata Prefecture. It's on the mountains of Yamagata and surrounded by more mountains. I didn't really researched properly about the town, so I was a bit surprised when we arrived. It looked like another onsen town that I've been to. No snow monsters in sight. Where are they?
Turns out you have to take the ropeway to see them. It's on the mountains of Yamagata. But there's nothing there for sightseeing tourists like me. It's actually better to go there if you're snowboarding or skiing to fully enjoy the experience.
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We walked around the town trying to find the ropeway boarding area. On the way, we found several hostels and hotels. We tried looking for an accommodation in this town actually but it was too late for us. Traveling in a group needs ample time for preparation and we weren't that prepared. We decided to just come here on a day trip instead of staying here - hence the reason we're here early morning.
When we were on the ticket counter to take the ropeway, we were confused because there were 3 ropeways. The first one will take you to Soramado Cafe and a ski area. The 2nd one is another ski area. And the 3rd one which was the longest will take you to the snow monsters area. We were discouraged to go to the 3rd one though because besides not snowboarding or skiing today, the queue was already too long and we would probably have to wait an hour or more to board the ropeway. There were customers waiting to get the ticket behind us so we had to decide right then and there. We decided with the 1st one.
We're the only ones in that cable car that weren't holding a snowboard or a ski. It was kinda awkward at first but our purpose was to have breakfast at Soramado Cafe. Upon disembarking, the crowd went on to the ski area while we were left to enjoy the view. It was so incredible! Zao was better than my first impression.
We enjoyed taking pictures while also taking in the view. If we didn't take the ropeway, we would surely not see this view. My friends who were into winter sports were even talking of coming here again next year to snowboard and ski. The powdery snow was just too tempting for them.
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We found an area where there were trees but we needed to climb a bit. I didn't go further and see what's up there but some friends said it's just snow there. We decided to settle near the trees, and had fun taking photos here. It was awkward at first because people were passing by going up there but we had too much fun as a group that some strangers were greeting or joining us in our fun.
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We went down back to the town and this time we got to enjoy the great view of the mountains. When we're going up, we were squeezed in the middle of the cable car but going down, we got lucky with the window view. We saw a few snow monsters from above but mostly were winter trees. Snow monsters were actually trees covered in snow and from a distance they looked like monsters. Hence the name snow monsters.
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Now we're back in the town. We're walking around exploring and also looking for a restaurant to have lunch. All that fun in the snow made us so hungry even when we just ate breakfast. π
We were also looking for the footbath areas. It's cold and it's just so perfect to get our feet warm. The town had a lot! Probably 3 or 4. We found almost all of them but we didn't get in as the wooden seats were full of snow or it's out of order. I realized this is what too much snow would bring.
We found day use onsen too but we're not here for it. Probably next time. Most of them were just a few inches away from the footbath locations so it was easy to navigate. And while onsen brings out that rotten smell, we didn't really smell a lot of that in this onsen town. I think we only smelled it one time when we passed by a river.
We gave up on the footbath because we had no choice. On our town expedition, we found out that there were only a few dining spots in this town. Most were closed for lunch, or just so out of our budget. We almost settled in a soba place, but a few steps from it, we found a nice place to have lunch. It would also fit us - I mean 9 people is surely a crowd and hard to find a place to eat in Japan.
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After lunch, we went to shop! We found a small outlet shop selling winter sports clothes and my friends were so into it. Some bought clothes and accessories.
We found an interesting river, not because it's covered in thick snow but because we found out the water is made up of onsen water and mountain water. The river is called Dondon-biki because the stream makes a Don don sound. In the past, when children misbehave, parents would threaten them to be thrown in Dondon-biki. π Also in the past, it's called Mikaeri-Taki because people would turn around the onsen village one more time before leaving. You can verify this info in the image I took while I was there.
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After more town explorations, we decided to go back to the bus terminal. Our bus would depart at 3:50 PM. Our town expedition ended on another souvenir shopping and me buying an onsen manju. Zao Onsen was nice and we hope we could go back here again next winter - and hopefully that time we would be able to stay overnight in this town.
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Thanks for reading!
See you around! γγγγγΎγγοΌ
With love,
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.