YAMAGATA: Zao Ropeway & Zao Monsters
What pops into my mind when it comes to Yamagata? I could think about Zao Monsters, Ginzan Onsen, Yamagata’s cherries, and a lot of SAKE!
As a start of our journey, we activated our JR East-South Hokkaido Rail Pass that is priced at ¥ 35,000 and hopped on the first ride with the Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa that departs from Ueno Station. It took about two and a half hours to get to Yamagata Station.
Reason behind we chose this pass was because we needed the 6 days coverage throughout our Tohoku region hops (though we didn’t go up to Hokkaido). Gentle reminder: all Yamagata Shinkansen Tsubasa required a reserved ticket to board the train. Remember to do it at the ticket office, make sure yourself have the reserved ticket if you are heading up to Yamagata.
For full itinerary, check out JAPAN TRIP 2024: 11D10N in Yamagata, Sendai, Aizu Wakamatsu & Tokyo
Soon after we arrived at Yamagata Station, we dropped our luggage at the hotel and headed out for a coffee, to freshen up ourselves.
Our real Yamagata journey began with hopping up on the bus moving towards Zao Onsen. The journey was about 40 minutes from Yamagata Station (we boarded our bus at Central Building Bus Stop), priced at ¥1,000 per way. It was very scenic along the way, the further up it moved, the view excited us! Pure white snow cap mountains with thick snow ground. Just one word, too fairy tale. Tropical creatures us were astonished by the view.
Once we reached at the Zao Onsen Terminal, we found ourselves facing the soft fluffy snow on the ground with snow cap cottage/ houses on each side of the road. Fairy tale scene X2! LOL. We then walked to Zao Ropeway Sanroku Base Station and it was about 10minutes’ walk from the bus terminal.
It took about 7 minutes on ropeway from Zao Sanroku Station (attitude 855m) to Juhyo Kogen Station (attitude 1,331m); then it is about another 10 mins cable car ride to reach Jizo Sancho Station at 1,661m above sea level. The return fare was ¥3,800 per pax on both the ropeway and cable car.
Winter is one of the best times to visit Mount Zao. March is warmer (at time of our visit) but still cold with a lot of snow. This time it is, the perfect time for snowboarding and ski. You will see a lot of ski enthusiasts gear up in their winter attire for this sport, moving up by the cable car many rounds with their ski gears or snowboard.
Along the cable car ride, you get to observe the Zao Monsters (also known as Snow Monster or Juhyo)! This is a special phenomenon whereby the trees are all glazed with layers of snow and ice, making them into fluffy cute looking monsters. This is caused by the heavy winter storm where the winter storm splashes on the trees and freeze immediately. You can get this view at the peak too!
There is Snow Monsters colourful light up at night if you are here at the right time. Do check it out on their website if you are interested in it.
Hooray! Up here at Zao Ropeway Observatory. Chilly temperature with strong breeze but it didn’t put off our excitement! It was -4 degree that day, in the morning.
We then warmed up ourselves with the heater and some food here at the summit’s restaurant. Dishes here were rather standard and ok-ish as a tummy warmer before more snow-walking.
Happy cousins happy us. LOL. It was also cousin bro’s first time to snow viewing, snow touching and snow “sleeping”.
Bro, SIL and their Snoopy pets.
A half day tour ended this way, and we headed down to explore the streets at Zao Onsen area.
