I plan to dine in Hakuba in the Japanese Alps.
Has anyone among us dined there? I’ll plan to update this thread as my visit takes place.
Thanks for any suggestions .
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Country fried chicken at a ski hill cafeteria.
Warm cafe au lait from a vending machine . 150 yen
Mulled wine at a ski hill Café at the top of a lift
My first buffet breakfast at the hotel
Nagano is known for its apple juice apparently. Tasty Japanese beef curry on the breakfast buffet daily. Would have to wait in line for 10 plus minutes for an omelette so I haven’t done that yet.
No photo of the mediocre Italian buffet that was last night’s supper (3 dinners are included in my hotel package)
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Exciting to see your trip starts!!
I’ve tried to negotiate the meal out from the hotel package in the past. If food is so so, I would rather skip the meal or eat less to try something better around.
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I’m part of a 24 person group, it would be too difficult to negotiate out in this situation. I don’t mind losing a few meals in a touristic town. 
Stopped by the grocery store to get some snacks.
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Avocado tuna bowl at a ski hill cafeteria. 1200 yen.
Single malt whiskey at The Pub, next to Mominoki Hotel
Ordered too much food for 3 at the Izakaya Kaz near our hotel, owned by our hotel.
Softshell crab with fried oysters in the background.
Scallops. I think butter shoyu hotate
. First miscommunication while ordering food in Japan. The server brought 3 orders of 3 scallops rather than 1 order of 3 scallops.
Okonomiyaki with pork, mixed tempura (shrimp, eggplant, sweet potato) in the background.
Not pictured: delicious yakisoba with roast pork, edamame, and Prosecco.
The servers didn’t understand split cheques or table cheques. Our group of 24 had a cheque that added up to 105 000 yen, which is around $1350 Cdn. Luckily no one was cheap and we weren’t short when people put their money in!
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Scallops should be easy to finish normally! 
Love that!
I don’t really see that in Asia. In France, the restaurants will happily do this.
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We had 3 tables of 8, and thought there would be one cheque per table. We sorted it out, but there was some broken communication. We had asked for the server to make sure it was one cheque per table before we ordered. This part of Hakuba attracts a lot of Aussies,and the izakaya is in a building owned by the hotel, (as far as I know) so I was surprised they would not split cheques. They may be used to more 4 or 6 person family/friend groups than 24 person groups of virtual strangers.
Will be travelling with closer friends later so the cheque splitting won’t be a problem.
Isn’t there a Japanese that can speak English somewhere? Maybe the receptionist? Ask the person to help to write down so you can show to the restaurant.
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The servers were speaking reasonably good English. That was why we thought our request was understood.
Things worked out ok.
Lovely lunch at this kaiseki restaurant in Nagano province.
Lovely apples in Nagano. Hundreds of different apple products are sold as souvenirs.
These apples were bigger than softballs.
A little stand near Kenko Ji temple
3 cheese Toastie and a flat white for dinner at The Rabbit Hole, an Aussie Bar in Hakuba
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Your udon looked good!
I saw a lemon ramen! Haha, never heard of that and it’s one of the most expensive bowl of noodle (with Tan Tan Men, I guess the Japanese version of the Chinese Dan Dan Mian).
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Last meals in Hakuba. Pork katsu on ski hill
Salmon sandwich with genovese sauce (pesto)
Flat white with Frangelico at Rhythm & Beans
Koiya restaurant . Soba with vegetables. Also had grilled eel, not pictured.
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I am ALL over that meal. Nice!
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The Koiya restaurant specializes in eel. Seems they slaughter the eel after you order it, because there’s a 30 minute wait on the eel dishes.
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