Snow and Shopping?

Yes, in Japan you can combine snowboarding and shopping together into one weekend. In fact you can do the both of them together in the same resort. Karuizawa.

We stayed in a cabin at the Prince Hotel. Very cool, a cabin in the snow, complete with big icicles hanging off the roof.

From the front door it was about two minutes walk to get to the ski lifts in one direction, and about two minutes walk in the other direction to get to the huge outdoor outlet mall thing. The slopes definitely aren't the best in Japan, but they are certainly good enough for a weekend of fun, and the views from the top of the mountain are pretty nice. And there is some pretty cool rocky mountains off behind the resort.

The actual ski slopes are pretty small, and so they get pretty crowded, probably the most crowded slopes I've seen here in Japan. And the whole resort is very beginner friendly, so a lot of time is spent dodging out of control beginners. And no powder, but still it was fun to just cruise around, and when you've had enough, you can go to the mall!

All in all a fun weekend.

Snowboarding in Naeba

On the work ski trip...

A friend and I snuck under the ropes and got some sneaky turns in under Gondola 1 at Naeba. Really easy access, no hiking! And the traverse out along a creek wasn't to bad... and unlike Australia, the creek was actually covered, so you could ride over it without to much concern. In fact we took a run down one of the gullies and it was much fun, well fun for me, apparently not so much fun for the person following me because I wiped all the snow off of a waterfall as I was going over it, so getting down after me was a bit of an issue. Heh.

Anyway, haven't ridden in the trees for quite a while, so was nice to get back into it again, and the snow was sensational, almost waist deep in some places and really fluffy. Yay, Pow!

 

Really was amazing to get such great snow (with steep bits!), with pretty much no other tracks apart from our own, and did I mention no hiking? Just get off the Gondola, duck the rope, enjoy the pow, short traverse along a creek, and duck another rope back onto a groomed run. Easy. Fun.

Got to say though, it's quite a bit steeper than it looks in these clips, and was pretty hard work, especially as I was riding a 146 with the stance set tip and tail with the back foot at -15. But for such a short board, it really handled it nicely. Just need to square up the angle on the back foot before next time, then it will be even better.

Still snowing...

 

Its still snowing.

This is the front of our apartment building, the grass is all completely covered and there is snow piling up against the little walls. There is a couple of inches of slush on the roads as well. The news is saying that some trains and highways are closed, and even the Shinkansen's are running late (that never happens!).

Might be interesting walking to work tomorrow morning if it freezes tonight...

It's snowing in Tokyo!

It's been snowing here in Tokyo all day. Very cool! Have to go out later, could be interesting...

Has been a while since I posted, but have some more to post later today...