Singgah sebentar di Niigata

So our short winter trip started on 12/30. Our main destination located somewhere in between Gifu & Toyama, and we decided to drive along 日本海, (nihonkai, the sea) passing Niigata-Toyama before we reach Gifu. Sudah lama tak tengok laut, rindu pula. Actually, we wanted to stayed a night at Niigata, to enjoy the sea view but all the hotels & ryoukan were full ( some were closed) due to year end holiday. Luckily we found a cheap one in Toyama, so Shafi first night out  (err, I mean here in Japan) was at Toyama, yes it's his first stay over trip!

The weather was so nice, bright sunny but still so cold. We didn't take highways, we drove slowly along jalan kampung just to enjoy the season view. When we came near Lake Aoki (for the third time this year, tsk), hubby even asked if we wanted to try our luck again on the ring. Aha, good try hubby but I passed, didn't want to spoil the vacation mood because I knew I had to give up already and wait patiently for the new one;)

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And when we entered Hakuba area, mashaAllah it was all white the slopes were all busy with the skiers, the snowboarders. They looked soo tiny from below.

We drove along road no 148 until we entered Niigata prefecture, and along the way I can't stop ooh, aah, ooh because of the scenery. The mountain, the tree, the river subhanallah too pretty in white.

We first stopped at Marine Dream at Itoigawa, Niigata. Kani (crab) is famous here, 紅ズワイガニ (zuwaigani)
to be specific. There's a lot of stalls selling fresh & boiled crab, well most of the stalls sell crab actually and obachan yang jual semua were very good in attracting customers. Terasa nak beli je tapi mama Shafi tak pandai masak ketam, err tak pandai potong;) Abah Shafi pula tak berapa minat sebab leceh katanya nak makan, heh selamat.

We had lunch there, at the restaurant inside the building named 番屋. Nampak ramai orang beratur, so must be good. I had kani & some sashimi while hubby had ikan bakar, のどぐろ ikan bertekak hitam namanya. And guess how much ikan tekak hitam tu cost? 3,000yen, ishh mahal kan. The price was not stated in the menu, but we didn't expect ikan bakar can be this expensive,hihi. Selamat sedap!

And before we continued our journey to Toyama, we took a brief walk by the sea side. Fuyu no umi, nanka kowai; ombak besar dan garang. Angin sejuk, mencucuk2, ishh berpuitis pula;) Tak sampai 5minit pon kami di tepi laut, langit makin mendung, salji pon dah mula turun, jadi cepat2 kami ke kereta. We still got 90km before we reach our final stop of the day, Toyama.