Skiing in Japan 2; we learn more...

So... how to figure out skiing near enough to Tokyo to fit it into a regular work week weekend?

We were inspired by the possibilities. Click here to see some of the options around Tokyo. 

But where to start, which to go to and how to get organized? We are always happy to depend on David, of Kanto Adventures (his site) to put together a trip that we can join to learn the ropes. We joined his small group, packed into a van full of interesting people to explore different ski resorts in Fukushima around Mt. Bundai. We spent two nights in this cozy cabin in the woods.

The first pleasure of these trips is the amazing networking that happens among a truly multi-national group sharing van time, and evening time around a table and several bottles of wine. In that group we had IT experts working on the Japanese equivalent of Amazon, we had an international rep of Lloyds of London, an electrical engineer, a biomedical researcher and a sales rep for new Tokyo tech start-up. Countries represented in that cozy van were Japan, USA, Canada, Phillipines, Indonesia, England, Scotland and Serbia. 

Our conversations ranged from life in Japan, to travel, to work and to adventures. We were enthralled by Paul, from LLoyds', who had just come back from climbing the first ascent of a peak in the Tibetan Himalayas! We had a hilarious evening of card magic and, yes... Shelley and I taught them how to play "spoons" and "Up Jenkins"; from Lost Ledge cabin in the wilderness of BC to to the mountains Fukushima, Japan!

Of course the main point of the trip was to ski. We went to Nekoma ski resort our first day and Urabanda our second day. From this we got a feel for how to handle skiing at these resorts. 

1. Know that there will be crowds wherever and whenever you go; it just a question of how big the crowd:

2. Go as soon as possible to the expert slopes. They will be less crowded:

3. The scariest slopes are the beginner slopes litter with snow-boarders (THE thing to do here) flopping and crashing into each other. Shelley is smiling after surviving the gauntlet!

4. Enjoy the various sites set up for marriages on the ski hills...

5. Eat your lunch at one of the restaurants at about 11:15 BEFORE the crush...

5. And most importantly... ski between the runs in the trees. There seem to be a wide variety of understanding about this at different hills but at each hill David inspired us to find the tree lines that are all untouched. We had fresh tracks every run because we were the only ones pushing the boundaries in this law abiding society. It was an amazing experience to weave our way through deciduous trees and deep untouched powder (... accompanied by the incessant J-pop blaring from every speaker on every lift pole).

Was it the great white wilderness of BC and the Selkirks? No. Did we have a good time? Absolutely! 

We were actually so inspired by our conversations about different resorts and where to go that last Saturday we had an "only in Japan" ski day trip. We caught the 6:30 AM bullet train in Tokyo to Gala Yuzawa ski resort.

Note the ski bag that we each had to manhandle through the subway and onto the train...

Click here for the full resort description. The train actually had its' terminal right at the ski resort. You walked out of the train, across the hall, into the locker room, then onto the gondola!

We got to the first lift at 8:45 and skied right until 4:30. We ended up with 25 cm of fresh powder that got chewed up pretty quickly by the crowds... but not in the trees!  :)

Then, as so many adventures end in Japan, we had a fabulous soak in the hot-springs that were part of the station complex (!) (As you might guess, this is a publicity shot. We actually had to wait in line to get into the hotsprings it was so busy that day. ) 

And a great dinner... yes you guessed it, right in the station complex!

We were back home, snuggled in our own beds by 10:15 that night; another amazing day in Japan!