Wow Zao!

Our final day in Zao Onsen was the best of all - great weather, great snow and adventurous skiing!

We were up close and personal with Zao's famous snow monsters and we even hiked up above the cornice on the headwall to access a great snowfield beyond,

That was an expedition reminiscent of many adventures on the headwalls of the Scottish corries.

The final night in Ueno, on the outskirts of Tokyo, was memorable for aesthetic and cultural reasons - you had to be there.

Our special thanks for help, guidance and friendship go out to:

Echigo Tatsuya san, Takako Nakanishi san and our other friends from the Freizeit ski school

Mao Ojima san and her team at Lodge Scole

We'll be heading back to Japan, of course.