We had such a great time celebrating our two-year anniversary on Mt. Zao this past Friday. We splurged for a nice room at the Tsuruya Hotel, which is one of the more luxurious ryokan (Japanese-style inns) that we’ve stayed in.The price included a fancy dinner they brought up to the room, a free one-hour reservation in one of their four private baths, a discounted ropeway ticket up to see the Ice Monsters, and a great Japanese-style breakfast the next morning.
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- The front of Tsuruya Hotel.
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- The ropeway up the mountain to see the ice monsters at the tip-top. We bought discounted tickets at the front desk of Tsuruya.
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- Mt. Zao is famous for these ice monsters, which are pine trees that get covered in ice and snow during the winter months and hunch over into these awesome shapes.
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- The Ice Monsters Light Up is every night in February.
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- A baby ice monster!
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- It was absolutely freezing and super windy on top of Zao when we went up, but the view was spectacular.
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- A statue inside an igloo built at the foot of the ropeway.
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- Dessert was La France pear sherbert. We ate it as per the staff’s recommendation, which was to take a bath in the huge hot spring-fed bath in the hotel first.
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- Breakfast in the morning; just as delicious as dinner.
Tsuruya Hotel information here.
Mt. Zao ice monster light-up information here. It’s in Japanese only I’m afraid, but if you’re interested, feel free to send us an e-mail with questions!
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