Return to Hakuba!

Tuesday January 3rd.... Melbourne....sweltering in 40 degrees! Friday January 6th...Northern Japanese Alps.....-10 degrees! Totemo samu-i desu yo! Darn...I knew I should have packed a jumper!

We'd been back in Australia, visiting family and friends and celebrating the wedding of our youngest daughter, Sarah. Even so, I'd made sure our long weekend trip to Hakuba with Tokyo Gaijins was booked.

Touching down in Narita on the Wednesday, where it was a chilly -2 degrees on the ground, we quickly layered up for our 2 hour journey back to Ishikawacho in Yokohama. Welcome back to Japan and Winter in January!!

As is normal for trips organised by Ricky of Tokyo Gaijins, the departure point for Hakuba was in Shinjuku on the Friday at 8pm. For us, it meant leaving Ishikawacho at about 6pm. We caught the Shonan-Shinjuku Line from Yokohama which is far quicker than taking the Tokaido Line to Shinagawa then transferring to the Yamanote Line to Shinjuku. Leaving Friday and arriving after midnight means we're on the snowfields ready for an early start on the Saturday morning. Last year we'd done the same trip with a group of friends, which included brother Si and niece, Charlotte and Abi, Alex, Graham, Meg and Abishek. This year it was Steve and I and 60 other unknowns.

We arrived in Hakuba at about 12.30am. By 1am, we'd laid out the futons, quilts and sobakowa (buckwheat husk) pillows on the tatami mats and were looking forward to a long awaited sleep. Mmmm....the futons were a bit hard this time and those pillows really are a bit torturous. I, cunningly, had stowed a latex pillow in my luggage. Very kindly, I donated my soba pillow to Steve and used my puffer jacket as extra padding.

Saturday morning, after checking out the view, we were ready for a Japanese breakfast at 7.30am. We needed to be kitted up by 8.30am to catch the first shuttle bus. We slacked off though and caught a bus just after 9am, not wanting to overdo things. With the exception of goggles, gloves and beanies, we hired all our gear for the weekend which saved lugging a lot of stuff around. On arrival it was all hanging on a rack ready to go. Too easy!

After a 20 minute  shuttle bus journey we arrived at Tsugaike Kogen, the first mountain for us to conquer!! Hakuba has three main mountains.... Happo One, Iwatake and Tsugaike Kogen. Armed with our lift voucher (pre paid by Ricky for 4200¥ or about $55AUD/day) we quickly exchanged this for our electronic ticket, collected a map and planned our assault. With 22 chair lifts and a gondola we had plenty of choices. The ratio of runs is....Beg: 40% Int: 40% Adv: 20, so a perfect place for us to 'have a go'!

Surprisingly, on our first day we had very few falls and seemed to quite successfully descend the slopes. There seemed to be a little less powder snow than last year but the conditions and scenery were fantastic. We had a lunch stop at, can you believe it, KFC located half way down the mountain. Recharged, we were ready to tackle the slopes again.

The 'navigator'!

The 'entertainment'!

I liked this Einstein design!

While we were still ahead, we opted to catch a 3.30pm shuttle bus back to the hotel and take advantage of the hot onsen to soak our weary muscles in and then enjoy a relaxing lie down before dinner. As we were back a bit earlier than all the others I had the onsen to myself, which prevented me splashing anyone like I did last year. Oops! I was also sporting a sprained left thumb gained from an argument between my ski stock and a slope so I was glad to rest it!!

Dinner, like breakfast, was traditional Japanese fare and dress code was PJ's, if you so desired. 

                                        

Following dinner was the pyjama party where members of the group got together for drinks supplied by Ricky and the typical snow stories of the day. Of course, typically, not everyone wore their night gear. Afterwards, many went for more drinks down the road but we were glad to hit the 'tatami mats' in preparation for the next day.

Interesting pj's Ricky!

Mmm.. and very daggy Jordan!

Sunday dawned crisp, cool and clear! There'd been no snowfalls overnight which, ultimately, was to be my undoing throughout the day. We headed off on the shuttle bus, this time to Iwatake, where we'd enjoyed a wonderful day last year. Iwatake's main run is Sunny Valley, suited for beginners to intermediate level skiers and is 3.8 km long but, with 15 courses altogether there are plenty of choices on this mountain. Certainly enough to keep me busy! We started off taking a lift which deposited you at a point a run short of the gondola drop off point. The views from every angle were nothing short of spectacular unless you're looking directly at the ground after a fall!! 

Steve was in his element, zooming and traversing, down the slopes but weariness seemed to have beaten me and my endurance level was low. In places where it was a bit icy I'd hesitate and then down I would go, each fall compounding my lack of energy!

Preparing for more falls!

By the end of the day I had injured my left thumb again and again but it was actually my poor right thumb that came off worst. On one of my many falls, I had doubled it back and by the evening my whole hand was very swollen. Ouch!! Throughout the night it felt like I had a leg of lamb as a hand. I'd found a snaplock bag and gone outside to scoop up some snow which became a useful icepack until it melted and ended up on the futon. Darn!

Before dinner we went for a walk around town and to the slopes of Happo One where the lights were on for night time skiing. 

Even the trees rug up!

By dinner time we were ravenous and enthusiastically downed our miso soup and the normal assortment of Japanese taste sensations! Many people went out again that night but many were also nursing wounds so we weren't the only ones to be saying, 'Is it bedtime yet?' There was a heavy dump of snow on the Sunday night and Happo One looked superb on Monday but we decided to enjoy walking around town as my hands were not capable of gripping the stocks (even Jordan the snow board instructor bowed out after a crash the day before). Such a shame as the powder snow looked amazing!!

Ricky had offered five tickets to anyone who was happy to catch an earlier bus so we actually caught a 1pm bus which got us back to Tokyo about 2.5 hours earlier than the others. We were back at the apartment by 8.30pm  rather than 11pm, a bonus for Steve who had to be at work earlier than normal for a 'phone hook up' meeting the next day!

Wish my thumbs could do that!

Wow! How lucky were we to have enjoyed yet another ski adventure in the Japanese Alps? At about $550AUD each, which included accommodation (we paid extra for a private room), two dinners and two breakfasts, all transport, all our ski gear, ski lifts each day and insurance, I believe it was  good value! Only our lunches each day and breakfast on the last day were extra. To those of you who love to ski, I highly recommend a skiing holiday in Japan and if you join a Tokyo Gaijins group all the preparation is done for you. We will definitely squeeze in one more trip before the snow season closes in mid March! The question is, 'Where?'