Powder snow slopes in Nagano (27.-30.12.08)

The ski season starts in Japan around beginning to mid of December. There are plenty of ski resorts along the West coast and the Central mountain range of various sizes. It is possible to do day trips from Tokyo within short distance. There are even high speed trains which connect to some resorts in a 1 hour direct link with free onsen (hot bath) in the train station to relax while waiting for the return train. Tokyo itself sees very little snow since it is at the warmer East coast and temperatures drop even at night not below freezing. The West is influenced by the Chinese-Siberian climate and snowfall is plenty with several meters of snow during January and February. The air is very dry and therefore the snow has a very good powder texture. We decided to join an international group in between the years for the famous Hakuba/Happo ski area at the Western Alps near Nagano. It was the former site of the winter Olympics in 1998. We were eager to improve our snowboard skills since we started last winter in Munich. The trip takes 4 hours by bus from Tokyo and we settled in at noon time in a traditional Japanese style Ryokan hotel in Happo. The rooms were nice with tatamis mats on the floor and futons as sleeping matraze. This has the big advantage of more space to sit and relax since the futons can be flexible arranged and there are no big bulky beds occupying the whole room. The hotel served breakfast and dinner too. We spent the first day walking around Happo, had a look at the Olympic museum and visited the ski jumping arena. The village has a nice feeling with narrow roads, plenty of small pensions and hotels which some are in a kind of Alpen style. Some even have German names like Weisses Ross. As in Sapporo the roads were never cleared of ice and a lot of people slipped while carrying the ski gear. It is a strange thing since Japan is very safety conscious and any construction side is two times blocked and fenced. It seems the streets are no mans land and nobody bothers, even the village itself.
The next day became the serious test for our snowboard skills. We had purchased some wrist protectors. and Yuki starred even the luxury version of ass protection. We managed more or less well until the wind became so strong in the afternoon that the ski lifts had to stop operation. The next day was sunny with no wind and we had a perfect day out. We mixed on this evening with the French community and spent an entertaining evening in an outdoor onsen followed by a French style dinner buffet in the room. It turned out that one of the French guys was married to a Laotian women and he had recorded our documentary about caving in Laos from September. The world is small!
The last day saw me in perfect turns and falls and a partially turning and still much sliding Yuki. But we were happy with our snowboard skills and considered it as a successful time. While waiting for the bus to leave, we found a free footbath onsen at the station. We soaked our feet in the hot water and listened to the guitar songs of one of the Japanese guys sitting there. I contributed some German songs and over some Whiskey we became good friends. Japan is wonderful with its onsen culture!

Practicalities:

Hotel incl. lift ticket and half pension around 10.000 Yen per day per person
Snowboard and Shoe rental 3000 Yen for 3 days

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