We did have a day of rest during the ski holiday (after 4 straight days of skiing, or was it 6 and then a break..) anyway.. we went off to “do culture” ;) First stop was sushi ;)

I think it’s cultural anyway. Very tech. You chose what you wanted from the touchscreen, and then a little (bullet) train would zap out to you with the sushi on it.

Next – off to see the snow monkeys. These guys hang out in natural hotsprings all day. They must get ridiculously hot and headachey. There’s even a snow monkey livecam, should you wish to have a look yourself.

Then we took a trip to Obuse where we sampled some sake.. and walked to a temple (which turned out to be closed). Interesting rituals around the drinking of sake (first sip without using your hands – just bring your head down and sip – neatly incorporates a bow). Definitely tastier than the last time I tried it in Dublin!

Then more skiing for the next few days… before all too soon it was time to go back to ChCh. We just had the one day in Tokyo really, but visited “The Ninja Restaurant”. Honestly, I thought the ninjas themselves were a little lame (definitely more fun if you speak Japanese, as then you’d get the full experience, our waiter spoke very good English, but wasn’t super theatrical). That said, the food was absolutely delicious and very well presented.

Maaike and I, on the morning before leaving, had a wander around the outside of the palace.. such luxury of space in a place as densely populated as Tokyo.

All in all, a really excellent holiday. I definitely felt like my skiing improved a lot, and really, such a great group to be travelling with. Thanks to all, and especially Mark + Kate, for organising such a great trip.

Ok, so, there’s not much to say here that the pictures don’t say. It was amazing. We had about 1.5m of fresh powder fall while we were there. It was incredible. Many thanks to Dan, Tim, Mark and Alistair for the photos here below. Quite a few of these pics I wasn’t even close to being in, as it was the better skiiers off in the trees… that said, we did get in them a bit, and increasingly so as it was later in the week.

This video was taken from my impromptu stag.. one of my challenges was to get down Kandahar as fast as I could. Tim?’s best time was 1 minute 50 ish? I was 2:14 or something, so sure, slower, but not that bad I thought. My limit was 3 or 4 minutes I think. At the end you’ll see I scoot through Dan and Tim, they were supposed to be the finish line, though I don’t think they got the memo – so it was a little closer than ideal ;) Thanks to Mark for taking the video.

And here’s a short video of me going through some trees.

And… there was time for being silly.. ;)

Anyway, it was completely amazing – I think I’m basically spoiled for life now!

Nozawaonsen is a small alpine village 4? hours, something like that, from Tokyo. Our friends Mark and Kate had been there before on their honeymoon, and they strongly recommended it for skiing. This was the reason we were all here in Japan. To Ski. It had about a 3.5m base by the time we arrived, and while there, it snowed another 1.3m or so. Insane.

Anyway, the village itself is lovely. There are ‘onsen’ (hot pools) all over the place. I think there were about 8 or so public baths in the village. It does take a little getting used to (it’s damn hot, and fully naked – males & females have separate rooms). The temperature gauge definitely read ’50c’ when I was in there once, but mostly it was about 44 or so. Hot.

We stayed in Villa Nozawa and it really was a great spot. 100m to the nearest chair lift. Excellent management, nice enough beds, wifi (good for raspberry pi’s ;) free breakfast (all you could eat) in the mornings.. and decent discounts on gear hire etc.

Anyway, some pictures from the village.

This last one…

Is from the central hot spring in the village. A lot of food is cooked in there! Anyway, it was a lovely place to base ourselves. Here’s a timelapse from our room. Start watching from about 20 seconds. It took me by surprise..

Well, I’m afraid as was mentioned in the comments on the previous post, I didn’t actually go to the fish market. I was pretty tired after the plane trip (even though I got 4 hours of sleep, which is quite a lot for me). Anyway, Maaike Dan & Can went off to see it. I think I probably would have found it simply a little sad.

You weren’t supposed to take pictures, but Maaike seemed to manage anyway. Apparently the sushi they had after was delicious!

10 of us headed to Japan for a ski trip. In a way it was our pre-wedding honeymoon (certainly fit the budget for it anyway ;) . Flew down on Air New Zealand, and for once, it was great not having that bad of a time difference (just 4 hours). Anyway, into Toyko and then took the bullet train (the slower class of bullet train) into Toyko central.

Tokyo, well, there’s a city and no mistake. It’s really very different I found. Partly I think simply the pictograms, and the simple busy-ness of the place. For example, on the subway there are ads everywhere, often LCD screens. Clean though, or at least, that was my impression.

Navigating getting a ticket was a tricky thing. It took us about 30 mins once arriving into Tokyo central off the mainline, to think we’d been communicated that we didn’t actually need a ticket for the subway part. In the event it turned out to be correct, but it was really confusing. Look at google maps

Tell me that’s not a little confusing! Anyway, we stayed in RYOKAN SAWANOYA and I must say, it was a really really excellent place.

We spent the first day just wandering about trying to get a feel for the place, a few gardens, museums, deep fried potatoes on sticks (so good)

One thing you notice is the total abundance of vending machines. They are simply everywhere, and they serve hot drinks, cold drinks, even ice-creams. Tommy Lee Jones seems to be a real favourite. They also make very nice coffee.

Oh, and packaging / presentation. Like Candace with the small tartlet above. It came in a box, inside the box were two little bags of ice (think the sort of silicon stuff which keeps your food dry – only ice).. they must get through so much cardboard.

Anyway, the highlight was the Sumo experience. We went off to see it and it was a spectacle. Still don’t really understand all the intricacies, but it was good to see. Don’t let anything other than your feet touch the arena (or go outside). Thumping isn’t allowed, but a slap is totally legal (now I know why E-Hondas move in Street Fighter was the 100 hand slap!). They’re definitely athletes though, in their own way. A bout typically has about a 3-5 minute setup, if not longer, and then can be over within a minute.

And the advertisements are pretty unique too. The more banners you have, the better the wrestler you are. The winning dude (Hakuhō_Shō) had I think about three complete circles of banners go around him. He is the grand master (and actually Mongolian)

So he won, and then there was this ridiculous procession of trophies. He got the one above, and then literally about a dozen more, before we gave up and headed out, but they were certainly still coming.

Anyway, a quick trip to Tokyo, we did go to the Shibuya Crossing (one of the busiest places in Toyko), but mostly it was just getting a feel for the place.

(CCBY http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya#mediaviewer/File:Shibuya_Night_%28HDR%29.jpg)

But soon it was time for the main event – skiing… which will be the subject of the next blog post.