The journey home begins...

24th February, 2010

Today we were up early as our bus departure time got changed last night and they were going to pick us up at 8:30am instead of us catching the bus at 10am...no idea why this happened. So we rushed around getting ready for the bus and when the smaller bus dropped us off at the Bus Terminal we had to wait for the bigger bus to turn up which was about 9:10am.

Some of the sights from the bus trip to Tokyo

How would you cope at these views out your window every day?

   

Golf Driving Ranges pop up anywhere and everywhere

Wasabi KitKat anyone??

Chilli Kit Kat's anyone??

On the front it says Human EXpress....I hesitate to think what they do with this van..










     
             


The water Canons and Video Camera inside Narita Airport Terminal

 

Our flight on the Departure board QF22



Our plane ready to take us home from Sydney...its has been a long travel day and a half for us but we are glad to be home!

Thanks for reading and following our adventures and stay tuned for updates over the next little while as I get time and memories come back to us...

Denise & Tom

Hot, Hot, Hot

23rd February, 2010

Today was warm about 6deg and wasn't much good for skiing so we sorted things out for our return tomorow and packed our bags to make sure we weren't overweight for the plane...throwing out rubbish we had accumulated over the past 3 weeks so we didn't have to bring it all home.

Breakfast was another gourmet creation by Seiko - Yutaka's Wife

Here are the Hot Springs or Onsen that we had private use of whilst we have been here

As we hadn't used all our lift passes we gave them to Yutaka to use and he kindly gave us a bottle of Sake, Sake Set and goft boxed chocholate cakes as a thank you gift.

Dinner was at another Pension - Side Hill Bar & Dining, Western Style meals nothing picture worthy...

After a quick walk around the shops for last minute souvieners and then home to bed!

Noodle Class and Japanese Calligraphy

22nd February, 2010

This morning I went to Soba Noodle and Japanese Calligraphy Classes at Shouya Maruhachi which was a 160yr old house near Iwatake.  Tom went snowboarding.

Recipe for Soba Noodles

200g Buckwheat Flour

50g Plain Flour

125ml Warm Water

Extra Buckwheat flour for dusting board

* Combine Flours in bowl and mix well together

* Add 2/3 of the water and bring the mixture together

* Then add the other 1/3 and finish mixing the dough together

* Knead for about 5 mins until it is all combined and very smooth to touch

* Sprinkle flour onto bench and form dough into a ball and then roll dough out into a square and about 2mm thick

* Sprinkle flour on half of the dough then gently fold in half

* Repeat as above

* Cut noodles with a very sharp knife about 2mm thick and place in a tray ready for cooking

* Cook noodles until tender

* Serve as desired, traditionally served cold with a dipping sauce

Dipping sauce

Soy sauce
Sake
Sugar
Fish Sauce

* Combine all the above using a splash of each

After eating all the noodles any left over sauce can be made into a soup by adding hot water!!

Ok..now for the pics of me doing all this...I was having trouble cutting the noodles as the blade was flat on one side and I was trying to use the curved side and the Soba Master saw this and got me a Left Handed knife...it was a so much easier then!

After the noodles were cooked we sat down and "learnt" how to eat them, which is by picking them up with chopsticks and dipping them in the sauce the slurping them up in one go.

Once we had eaten our noodles it was time to learn how to do Japanese Calligraphy...

This is before the mess began!

These are my efforts...I was happy with

                                                                                         them :)

We got to bring some of these home and I will possibly frame the better ones when I get home.

It was a great morning and had a lot of fun learning new skills.

Yutaka picked me up and dropped me back at the lodge and as my shoulder was going into spasm all the time I booked in for a massage at "Fun Fun" at 3pm. The massage was painful but I knew the next day I would feel so much better.

I met Tom after he had been out snowboarding all day and we caught the bus home and had a nap.

Tonight we went out for dinner at "Shinshu Dining"...the food was nice but the menu wasn't very extensive so we picked a few things to share. The place was full and busy and a little chaotic, and as with all restauarants in Japan they allow smoking and they just light up whenever they feel like it and don't bother about the person next to them so this spoilt the night a little so we didn't hang around long after we had finished.

Back on the Slopes

21st February, 2010

Today Tom and I got back on the slopes after a couple of rest days and we had a great time. Stuck to the easier runs but it was a lovely sunny day so that meant Ice and Slush so the easy runs were challenging enough for us today!!

We went to Iwatake Ski Area today and the views were amazing!!

Tom in front of the Japan Alps

Denise in front of the Japan Alps

Icy Trees
















View from the top of the Gondola or Gondora as they say here!
This Gondola is 2.5km long, its a nice ride.

View from Gondola heading down the mountain

So that was our day in the slopes...sunny, icy, slushy and now its time for dinner!!

**Update**

WOW thats all I can say about tonights dinner...went to a little place called "Hie"

It was kind of like Tapas/YumCha where you picked little dishes and go from there

We had

Crispy Potato Salad

Tuna Sashimi

Smoked Salmon & Salad

Roasted Beef & Vinegar

Fire Festival

20th February, 2010

Today we managed to go on our walk as planned yesterday as it was a nice clear day and not overly cold.

This is a Snow Bunny I made on our way into town...hehe

I found this Russian Man whilst I was out walking..hehe

Found this funny little sign outside of an Art Gallery on our way into town.

After wandering around town for a bit we caught the bus to where we thought the Fire Festival was but we misjudged it by quite a few stops and ended up at another part of the resort. So after catching the right bus we eventually found the 40th Fire Festival of Happo, Hakuba.

Tonight will have to be one of the highlights of our trip, it was great to mix with the locals at one of their celebrations.

These are the food tents that were filled with many local dishes like Pork , Vegetable Miso with Udon Noodles, Local Marbled Beef on Skewers dipped in brown sauce, Chicken Skewers, Seafood  Bowls, Spiced Teas and Gluhwein ( Hot Spiced Wine).







                                                                                                                                                             The first event was a Flare Display by the Happo Ski School Instructors

For all special occaisions like festivals and weddings a Sake Cask is broken open and we got to witness this tonight. The Sake is then shared with the community.

After the breaking of the Sake Cask we were entertained by the Happo Traditional Drumming Group...I took some video of this but unfortunately it doesn't do much justice to how it was in person but its a sample anyway...was amazing to watch and listen to. They did several different performances with all different variations of drumming styles.

Click Here!! Traditional Japanese Drumming ~ Video

The big drum that kept everyone else in time...was funny to see little kids drumming away on this.









They were very active in their drumming jumping all over the place

The Happo Ski School did some formation skiing with no crashes which was very spectacular to watch and afterwards they did stunts through a Ring of Fire

The night finished with a spectacular fireworks show, even the Japanese ooo and ahhh at them.
It was a great night and  freezing our butts off was almost worth it, standing on the snow for hours will do that but the 30min walk home soon got us all warmed up again.

And we made it just in time for a Hot Spring Bath before bed..woohoo!!

Another great night in Japan ...

Whitehorse Walk

19th February, 2010

Today was a rest day as Tom's shoulder was playing up and I still wasnt feeling up to skiing. We decided that we would go for a walk into town for a look around and got as far as 3 streets down and decided we needed to put another layer on as it was getting quite chilly.
By the time we had got changed it was snowing quite heavily and so we pulled the pin on the walk and wawtched some of the Olympics on TV instead.

Being in a country that has a large team in the Winter Games means that there is more coverage which has been great! and understanding it hasn't been a problem either as you can hear the English commentary just under the Japanese one.

For dinner tonight we went to the Whitehorse Hotel which is run by TJ who chats on the same Ski Forum as we do, as each Friday night they put on an Aussie BBQ. Dinner was great and we stayed in the bar till close and I even got to play behind the bar, mixing cocktails for some of the guests. Thanks TJ!

Then it was home to bed.

Perfect Views and Wandering

18th February, 2010

This was this mornings breakfast - also get homemade bread rolls each morning!!

















The View we have to put up with from the Breakfast table each morning!
















Tom and Yutaka ( our host) went snowboarding today and said it was a little icy out there but still lots of fun.

I did the washing ( oh joy) and also went for a walk into the main part of the village.



These are the Ski Jumps used in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, about a 10 min walk from where we are staying.

The Hakuba Metal Manhole cover

Got back to the Pension to find Tom worn out and in bed snoring away...will have to wake him soon for dinner...what will it be tonight?

Well tonights dinner was Japanese!!! I know its surprising but there ya go..hehe

We went to a place called CoCoRo just down the road from where we are staying and its was amzing food! and we had the place to ourselves.

Chicken on Rice with Egg, served with Miso Soup and Pickled Veg













Tom had Char sui Pork and Rice...very yummy

And we got free donuts for dessert as the Chef was preparing a new menu :)












Us at CoCoRo

Tom loved this place as it had Footwarmers in the well of the table...hehe

Playtime at a local school                                                                                    

17th February, 2010
Views overlooking the Hakuba Valley from Happone

Went out skiing this morning and it was lightly snowing for the first few hours then it stopped and was quite mild.

I completed a whole 1/2 a run when I stacked and pulled the muscles in my lower abdomen and was forced to sit it out for a couple of hours. Tom took off and had a good board around the mountain without me lagging behind him..hehe

I got back on the ski's after lunch and could manage better than I thought I woule be able to but only stuck to the Bunny Runs aka beginners runs for a little while before calling it quits and heading home for an Onsen.

After a nap and hot bath I felt a little better and so we headed out for a late dinner at the Korean BBQ ( forgot to take the camera but a barbie is a barbie), dinner was filling and it the spot perfectly.

Then it was home to bed.....