Snow in Nagano, Japan & Arrival in Tokyo by Bullet train of Japan | Senso-ji Temple

We got snow in Nagano, Japan in April 2024 while visiting Togakushi shrine. We stopped in Nagano while going to Tokyo from Kanazawa. We used Coin Lockers at Nagano station to drop our bags and explore Nagano.

Finding snow is not very common in Nagano in April but we were lucky as the experience of visiting the place got even better this way.

About Us:

We are Shalini and Subham, an Indian couple living in France and we love to travel. We have a goal of visiting as many places as we can, and explore each place to the best we can. We have day jobs but we travel whenever we can; weekends, sometimes weekdays with our laptops in our backpacks, anytime we can.

#japantravel #nagano #nomadshubham

new day again new day suitcas brand new day and today we are off to Tokyo we’ll be taking the shansen but before that we’ll make a quick stop for a couple of hours in the city of Nagoya we have reached the kazawa shansen station and we are going to take a shansen from here to Nagano the idea is to go to the togakushi Shrine in Nagano it takes about an hour by bus from Nagano to go over there so we’ll have to use luggage lockers today uh they’re called coin lockers because you need to Insert Coins in order to put your luggage in and we’ll put all our bags in uh the Nagano station using the coin lockers and then take the bus to togakushi Shrine on the way back we’ll see if we can check out another Shrine over there um and then we’ll head back to Nagano and take another shansen to go to Tokyo basically this train from Kazaa uh that we’re taking towards Nagano it stops at Tokyo so we are in the platform right now and since we have reached early the idea right now would be to have some breakfast we already picked it up from Family Mart last evening what are we having for breakfast a lot of food we have boarded the train for Nagano it’s called thear taka 556 again the porach is splended with very clean washrooms so we kept our bags over here you can keep them inside along with you as well so these are all the washrooms wash basin the other compartment just have a look how spacious it is announcement going on in Japanese we have reached Nagano that was our train the idea right now is to search for some wine lockers to store our bags station coin Locker finally we found a locker where we kept all our bags for now a big one a big one I think it’s 800 Yen sour luggage locker 20 1 Z first glimpse of the Nagano City amra station and now we are making our way to the yeah bus ticket office music change so right when you come out of the Railway Station you will cross the road and you will get the Alpo bus ticket office from there you can get these passes they pass 3,000 per head which provides us unlimited bus ride as well as yes some discounts in selected places places okay Nagano City is the capital of Nagano prefecture and it evolved as a temple town around zenkoji one of Japan’s most popular temples in 1998 the city also hosted the Winter Olympic Games and some former Olympic facilities can still be viewed around the town View toi Shrine is hidden in the mountains of Nagano prefecture more than the religious buildings it is the beauty of the place and the Tranquility that rains there and it will seduce The Travelers choosing to venture there and yes here you can see some snow ice blocks rather now it’s going to be a bit of a hike from the main road this is the main entrance of the main Shrine approaching the cider trees line of cider trees this area is designated as the National Monument by nagana prefecture still walking so the hike from the Red Gate down there to the main Shrine should be about half an hour there’s quite a bit of snow over here more than we thought we’d find the walkway is a bit slippery because of that and we are rushing as well cuz we need to get back to Nagano station in a while to catch our train to Tokyo the very history of this Sanctuary dates back to the year 210 BC to gakushi means hidden door this Sanctuary inherited the name after the goddess Amaterasu the goddess of son because of the behavior of her brother susanu the god of storm hid in the cave behind a rock door and brought the world into darkness and confusion she was determined not to come out greatly troubled all the daes discussed getting her to come out and so the decided to have a festivity outside with songs and dancing to bring her out wondering what was happening outside amateras was slightly opened to the door and then another daty named Amo tachikara noo took the door and threw it away and it is said that this door fell to Earth and became Mount tokushi hence the name the hidden door Shrine this Sanctuary venerates the various deities he worked for the liberation of the sun goddess and therefore for the return of light to the country located at the foot of one of those sacred mountains Mount togakushi the togakushi shrine consists of five shrines okusa chusa hosha kosha and homik kosha but the magic undeniably operates when one enters the path of the upper Sanctuary the okusa as the main Shrine of togakushi shrine the okusa shrine offers blessings including Good Fortune wish fulfillment good harvests and winning in sports these beliefs have been spread across Japan to together a lot of worshippers TR the bus dropped us here at a stop called XA park now we’ll go to peruri Art Museum Monument dedicated to the hu poems of Ino seetu the temple named zenkoji literally means yoshimitsu’s Temple the history of this Temple started in 642 when yoshimitsu Honda in shrined a Buddhist image at the present site the main image was created in India and and introduced into Japan when Buddhism via Korean Peninsula came here in 552 it is also called the image of soku Denay in Japanese the image has been believed to lead all people to the Buddhist pure land regardless of their status gender or Creed it has been earnestly worshipped by many people from those in power at the time to the Common People the main image was completely hidden from the people in 654 and since then no one has ever been allowed to see it the significance of zenkoji to the development of Nagano was instrumental as many major Japanese cities have evolved either from the castle towns Harbor towns or the temple towns in the case of Nagano it grew from a temple town which developed around its Temple of great importance the zingi most recently rebuilt in 177 Zeno’s main hall is nicely ornamented and contains various Buddhist statues in the basement of the inner chamber is the underground passage where visitors can walk in complete darkness in search of the key to Paradise a short walk behind the main hall stands the relatively recently built Pagoda housing the zenkoji History Museum and south of the main hall is the sanmon gate which is the Temple’s main gate dating back to 1750 at the southern end of the approach is the neomon gate which is the outer gate of the temple guarded by the pair of Neo Guardians that’s the main gate we entered through the back gate again that’s the main hall and the Japanese gardens you will be there in the pure land [Music] Purity thank ah fast [Music] Tokyo so this is Tokyo Station crazy Madness so many people after such a long time I don’t know what to feel about it but it is quite fun reception area finally reached Tokyo yeah baby a single bed at double bed room is so far so good closet okay shower [Music] area Mal spring roll sh sh spring [Music] roll we really enjoyed the authentic setting in the restaurant sitting on the floor in the mattress and uh having the meal it was a very nice experience empty Tokyo streets it’s quite late at night right now this is a video game parlor very interesting we just want to take the Vibes of the video game 5 new [Music] once woohooo it’s very interesting you’ve seen this in movies before so [Music] cool night walk yeah this seems to be a market with a lot of false sakuras we’re almost there the zenji Temple of Tokyo Tokyo Tower yes lots of colors lights senoi also known as asakusa Canan Temple is a Buddhist Temple located in asakusa and is one of Tokyo’s most colorful and popular temples we are walking at night in the rain in Tokyo checking out the S soji Temple near our hotel this is the yogoda hall just before we had seen the hexagonal Temple so this is the Sosi complex and just have a look at this Pagoda how many stories are there 1 2 3 4 5 story Pagoda awesome this five story Pagoda was burned in 1945 during World War II and it was reconstructed in 1973 and on the topmost floor there is a budha which was donated by Sri Lanka bronze HTO our one and only budda bronze statue would you have a look at the shrine exquisite coming here at night is a completely different experience than what it would have been during the day true that the shrine is closed but we have the lights and the lights of the Tokyo Tower insane the legend says that in the year 628 two brothers fished a statue of Canon the goddess of Mercy out of the sumida river and even though they put the statue back into the river it always used to return to them consequently senoji was built nearby for the goddess of Canon the temple was completed in 645 making it Tokyo’s oldest Temple fortune telling kamaron which is the thunder gate is the outer gate of this Temple and the symbol of asakusa and the entire city of Tokyo a shopping street of 200 M called nakam leads from this outer gate to the temple second gate the [Music] hamon so this was a very long day for us from here we are just going to go back to the hotel and call it a night and tomorrow we’re going to explore team lab borderless Museum uh go up the shua uh Observatory deck it’s going to be an amazing day exploring the city of Tokyo capital of Japan and we hope that you stay with us in the video so thank you for sticking around and see you in the next vlog