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.