With 2007 now behind us this might be a good time for me to actually get back to writing… still working on that, what with living in temporary accommodation and having to sift through piles of to do stuff. I’ll get round to it though, promise. In the meantime here’s some more pictures, this time from my New Year skiing trip.
Getting out of the city for New Year was probably the best idea I’ve had in a long ass time. Having spent the majority of the last 10 new year eves in a big city, I must admit that the great outdoors is a hell of a better place to spend your time. With that in mind I somehow managed to squeeze in a 3 day holiday over the New Year period, despite my now working for a Japanese company, and a newspaper on top, which entails no bloody holidays whatsoever (and I don’t qualify for legal holidays yet :sad: ).
So off to the mountains we went. Having had to once more cancel my plans to reach Hokkaido, we made it to Nagano prefecture (where they had the Olympics ya know) and a town called Nozawa Onsen. Nozawa is one of the four main ski resorts in the Nagano area. And it’s a good one too. Tiny little village, lots of free onsen and a huge ski resort, with some 50km of slopes. Boom!
We got lucky too and arrived bang in time for the first proper snowfall of the year, which meant shitty weather for the 3 days we were there, apart from the last 2h on the last day when the weather cleared up, of course. But hey at least there was a lot of snow.
I was trying to convince myself ahead of the trip that skiing was like riding a bike - you never forget how to do it. It’s been 14 years in my case, and boy am I glad to be right. After a couple of hours of getting back into it, skiing became easier and easier. So much so that on the last day I was actually up for doing black slopes and really had to drag myself away so I could make it in time for the bus back. I was always happy to find out that there were no old school pulley type lifts in Nozawa. You know, the ones where you put a round thing between your legs and get pulled, holding on for dear life and hoping you make it up the slope without crashing.
You forget how tiring skiing is though, but your body is only too keen to remind you. Especially when you’ve had no sleep and a banging hangover. That’s where the free onsen come in handy. Nozawa resides on a prime piece of hot spring real estate, and the town maintains and runs 13 free onsen, which are open to the public and residents. It’s basic though, no flashy anything. Just a hot tub, and I mean hot, some space for your clothes and naked people. Oh yeah and a distinct stench of rotten eggs… Nozawa’s hot springs are high in sulfur content it would seem, which is ok I guess but definitely takes a little getting used to. Still no matter how knackered your muscles maybe, 10 minutes in the water, at an average temperature of 50 degrees or so, and you feel like a new person. Ok so you also smell a bit like rotten eggs but hey it works for the locals.
The onsen are also used by the village to cook vegetables - the ones open to the public have little boxes outside where people drop eggs to cook. Highly recommended, the onsen eggs are maaad tasty. And then there is a big hot spring area for use by the villagers only where they cook all sorts of things. You got to make the most of what you’ve got after all. Just don’t try and have a dip in that one.
The town itself was really nice. Lots to see and do surprisingly enough, and some nice bars too. Shame about the apparent no smoking policy in most of them. Cigs on the street in sub zero temperatures really ain’t my idea of fun, but I guess it’s as good an incentive to stop as any. Food was pretty good too, though I ended on a strict diet of Mos Burger and ramen which worked a treat for the energy levels.
New Year celebrations were also pretty interesting. The village seemed to be dead until about 10 minutes past 12 when hordes of people started pouring into the streets, clutching giant bottles of sake and being generally merry. Nice to see that no matter where you are in the world, New Year celebrations always boil down to the simple things in life: drugs, friends and being merry.
The trip has only made me more eager to go back up and get my skiing on. After all Japan is primarily mountains so you’d be stupid not to make the most of it (even if you don’t ski, learning ftw). And as with most things here it’s also cheap! We managed 3 days in the mountains over New Year for 55K yen all inclusive, and I mean everything. Ok the bus ride there and back was a bit harsh but still. I’m intent on making it back, to Nozawa or somewhere else. Before that though it’s also about the snow monkeys and their onsen on the other side of Nagano. But that’s a story for another time.
As usual there’s a bunch of pics on flickr to look at, right here:
New Year in the moutains Flickr set
Popularity: 7%
Recent Comments