February 12, 2017 - Mt. Fuji to Hakuba

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I wake up to someone's alarm clock in the dorm room. It is on vibrate and volume. It is 5:45am and now I am wide awake. Darren peaks into my bed and he said that he's been up since 4am and the alarm has been going off much before 5:45am. This is the problem with hostels and I find this is very disrespectful. I get up and Darren said the shower was hot. I am excited and jump into the shower and it is purely glorious to have uninterrupted hot water. There is a bathtub in the room with the shower and this is common in Japanese culture. Cloe told me last night that Japanese often bathe before going to bed.



We have lots of time. The restaurants are closed, but we find a convience store and pick out some food here. Darren gets this triangular-shaped rice, shrimp, mayo wrapped in seaweed thing and a pork dumpling/ball - we saw these in SE Asia too. I got a tempura noodle soup and a salted hard-boiled egg. Darren liked his food, but said it wasn't enough. I didn't like the smell of my soup, but ended up liking the taste. The egg was kind of gross and I won't get that again.



We are almost at the bus station and are looking forward to not having to wheel around our luggage anymore. The bus is on time and we are thankful since we have a short connection in Tokyo for our bus to Hakuba. We return to Tokyo the same way we can to Mt. Fuji. Darren spots a monkey on the side of the road and I missed it, but am on the lookout.



We get into Tokyo with enough time to get our tickets, grab some sandwiches and go to the bathroom. We load the bus and get nestled in for several hours. I am getting super excited. This is the reason we can to Japan - to go snowboarding.



The drive from Tokyo to Hakuba is about 5 hours by bus. As we get closer to the mountains, we see vehicles with snow piled on top. This is a good sign to an avid snowboarder. We hear stories about the storm that just hit. We make a few bathroom breaks along the way. Darren and I get a few pastry/buns - Darren picked one that is in the shape of a cylinder and it tastes like a croissant. He also got a hot dog pastry. I got a pastry with an egg on it and a sweet bun with red bean inside. I didn't really like either of them. The red bean paste was way too sweet.



As we head into the mountains we see a little bit of snow and then all of a sudden the mountains are covered with layers of white. It looks glorious. Ski resorts consume the mountains. Hakuba has 10 ski resorts in this one area. We also see lots of dams in the valley bottoms, which collect energy.



As we get close to our stop, we realize that the bus stops right beside our hotel. We get off a little bit early and are happy that we don't have to find a taxi or walk with loads of gear again. We are staying at the West Coast Inn. When we enter the residence we don't find anyone, but were told that we are in Room 7 and to head there is no one is at the front desk. A key hangs in the door and we make ourselves at home, we are going to be here for 8 nights, so we can hang out and relax. Our room as two twin beds and it is a corner room. Like every building we go into, it is cold. We have a heater and immediately turn it on. Hallways and bathrooms are always cold. It does seem like a luxury when I sit down on a heated toilet seat. Outside of our room is a balcony and 3 beers are stashed in the snow - 2 coronas and an Asani (a very common beer in Japan). We hope that the residents before us forgot their beer here and this will be a pleasant welcoming present. Downstairs we find the common room and kitchen behind some sliding doors. Here we find Jimmy and Shaky, owners or family members of the hotel. Jimmy is Canadian and his father owns this place. Jimmy is a special person with lots of energy, possibly drunk and likely has done a lot of drugs in his life. Shaky is the mother-in-law and she is Japanese. She shows us the bathroom and shower. Things seem slightly dirty here and older, but we are getting what we are paying for - this place is cheap in comparison to most places in Hakuba. Jimmy says that they own a restaurant down the street and can take us there later and can drive us back when we are done. They serve BBQ ribs and western style food.



We settle in and decide to take Jimmy up on his offer. We head into their West Coast Restaurant. We are surprised by the prices here with a large draft beer costing $14 CAN. We get a pizza and some drinks and it comes to $70 CAN. We aren't sure if the prices are like this everywhere, but we sure hope not. We chat with a group of 3 guys all from the USA and work as helicopter pilots with the Navy. They seem into a lot of the same stuff as Darren and I, so it was easy to chat with them. They live in Japan and are on their way back. They are going to return on the weekend and might try to get in touch with us to do some riding then. After they leave, we meet Veronica and Dome. They are staying at the same hotel as us. Dome is from Australia and is a super happy fellow. Veronica is from Venezula, but is living in Australia. She is this petite, beautiful girl with lots of life. I am surprised to meet someone from Venezula. She says that he country is really violent right now and people are trying to flee. It is not safe for foreigners and we would likely be killed if we go there. We wanted to go to Venezula while traveling South America, but there were strong travel warnings against travel, so we didn't go. She says that their current leader fooled the poor into believing that he would work for them and bridge the gap between rich and poor. However, that was not the case and he has brought in guns from other countries and it is very unsafe, even for locals. She said that her family is well off with her mother being a dentist; although, she only makes $300/month. This is better than the $20/month that others make. It was so amazing to meet these people.



We head back to the hotel and call it a night. Before we go to bed, Dome introduces us to Brad. Brad is a snowboarder instructor staying at the hotel. We wanted to go to Cortina tomorrow, but he says that it will be best to wait for some more snow before going to Cortina. He was there today and it is all tracked out. So, Darren and I will look at the snow reports in the morning and maybe change our minds.

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