Day Three

Okay fast forward to breakfast abd skip the boring bits. I got skis organised last night so they were waxed and waiting and also by some fluke there was an english language movie on TV last night with Japanese sub titles, sadly it was True Grit with John Wayne and between it being as interesting as watching puddles evaporate and me being tired breakfast is easily the most eventful place to start the day.
Now you can tell alot about people by finding out what their expectations of us are. The hotel despite being called the Alpine inn is really quite a traditional Ryokan, the rooms have tatami mats and bedding that comes out of the closet when you need it. The rooms are measured by the number of mats that cover the floor, each being about 1mtr x 2mtr. My room has eight so is quite large by Japanese standards.
The tradition of wanting to be a good host thrives too so breakfast is served to enhance our pleasure at staying. Fresh cut fruit, apples without skin and cores cut into wedges and wedges of orange, juice, fresh coffee a small plate of egg half way between omlette and scrambled and a slice of toast easily 4cm thick.
Toast that thick acquires a whole different place in the culinary firnament. It is of course simply fresh bread in the middle and iseasy to get used to if a little difficult to bite into. It came with sachets of Mr Kraft's conserves.
Lfts here open at 8am so by eight I had bought my electronic disc for about $50 for the day and while that sounds pretty reasonable to me a five day pass costs about $80!
The theme music for the morning is "Everybody's got to Learn Sometime" by Blur
First time on skis in six months and to say the gloss had gone off my performance is like saying the Titanic got a little bit wet! to complicate matters there was the powder and lots of it. There are certain do's and don'ts when it comes to skiing in powder. The first and most basic rule is if you stop you sink, so never stop. So what did I do when I hit my first bowl of powder, no prizes! The second rule is keep you tips pointing up because if you don't rule one comes into play!
The snow fell all day after about 10cm fell overnight so conditions actually improved as the day wore on. The temperature was about -8C all day and we had periods of sun. By eleven I had found my legs (I wish I'd thought to look down earlier) and was starting to impress myself.
theme music for the afternoon "Get Rhythm" wriiten by Johnny Cash but I'm thinking the Ry Cooder version
I had lunch at the Wild Mustang, love these Japanese names, and chikened out and ordered pizza coz it was the only thing I recognised from the pictures, it was pretty average but I was more interested in the carbs than the flavor.
Then back to the slopes for more sliding around, even managing to get some air (intentionally). Even tackled a couple of black (advanced) runs. Skis were good but I am so glad to have my own boots. By 4.15 the clouds were getting lower and it was pretty obvious that the best of the day was behind us so I skied back to the Inn and indulged in on of Japan's best gifts to the world; an Onsen, or natural hot spring bath, I followed the correct rituals and soaked in that hot tub before taking a cold plunge, Took all the stiffness away and I merely felt as if I'd been hit by a bus,
theme music for the late afternoon Lazyboy - Police, Dogs, Bonfire
After that it was simply a matter of consuming dinner, which incidentally cones on at least 12 plates with lots of green tea and tonight featured salmon and an assortment of dumplings, vegies and tofu. The dinners have been great.
Fellow guests are a couple of US navy pilots on reserve duty for a couple of weeks in Japan, an English couple and me, Five guests in the entire hotel. This very nice lesbian couple from Brisbane staying at the next inn come over to our bar in the evening as their hotel doesn't have one and we sit around telling travellers tales until it is time for bed.
That leaves me with a bag to pack for the trip back to Tokyo tomorrow!

---

---