Trip #1: Marunama Ski Resort in Niigata, Japan. Dec 4th.
I went to Marunama with a small group of people, including a couple we are friends with. Dereck was gone this weekend so it was just me this time. You can rent vans from the base that make it easy to haul up all your gear to the mountains. Marunama was about a 2.5 hour drive, but there was no snow on the roads so I'm sure this time of year it would take a bit longer. The mountain road was very pretty to drive on, but there was no snow on the way there so I was little worried. However, this was early December and still considered "early season" so I knew it wouldn't be optimal conditions. The resort itself was nice, but extremely busy! I'd say about 3/4 of the runs were open, but the main gondola was still shut down so the lifts were SOOOO busy! I was shocked how busy it was. At times it took over 20-30 minutes of waiting before you got on the lift... seriously. Also, it was so warm that by the end of the day the snow had turned to slush. I would like to go back to Marunama again later this season to see how it compares when it's fully operational! Even with the melting snow, I still think I did a pretty good job for my 1st time back out in a few years. It felt great to be strapped onto my board and feeling the cold air on my face. I love that feeling! After this trip I was ready to go again...
Trip #2: Hakuba 47 Resort, Nagano, Japan Dec 17th.
Dereck was gone, yet again, for this trip... however, our friend Eric signed up to go with me on a trip lead by the base's Outdoor Recreation department. Yokota's Outdoor Rec is really great- the trips are decently priced and the guides know a lot and are very helpful. We were up early to take the bus to Nagano to check out the Hakuba region. On the way there it started to snow- which got me SOOO excited since it was my first snowfall of the winter. (Where we live there is no snow at all... bummer). The snow just kept on coming and never stopped. By the time we got to the ski resort, there was about 6+ fresh inches of powder and by the end of the day it had to have been about 2 feet or more. It was amazing! The visibility was very low at the top of the mountain, and I was a bit disappointed because I'm sure the view would have been amazing. However, the snow was so soft and fast that I was pretty invincible- falling didn't hurt and the conditions kept most beginners off the runs, so it was a pretty awesome experience. I felt that I was able to gain a lot of skills just during this one day. I feel my control is so much better after having to navigate through so much powder and 20 ft visibility at times! Eric is a skier, but his style was more slow and steady so he was fun to snowboard with. We had a great day!
See how white it is? We couldn't see anything!!!!
Trip #3: Akakura Onsen Ski Area, Niigata, Japan Jan 6th
The third trip I went on was so far the best- and I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the fact that Dereck was around to come with me! Yay! Finally!...
We went with another small group. There were 4 of us total that went in on renting the van. The road conditions were great, but we got a bit delayed getting to the ski area because we got lost! Well, not really lost, as we always knew where WE were, we just didn't know where the ski resort was. This was because it was a multiple ski-in/ski-out type of place, with tickets being bought at the lifts near the bottom of the mountain, only about 50 ft from the town buildings. We kept trying to find a big lodge area (Like Marunama and Hakuba 47 had) and couldn't find it. Also, the GPS kept navigating us to a place further up the mountain. We followed the GPS first and it brought us to a teeny tiny (think 4 buildings, seriously) mountain village that dead-ended. We thought we were going to get stuck and go over a cliff... pretty crazy. But the view was so pretty I was able to justify the detour as a "nature drive" instead. Eventually we figured out how to get to the actual ski area and got out on the slopes. It had snowed that night, so there was a lot of fresh powdery snow, but it was sunny so we got to see a great view! On one lift we could actually see the Sea that separates Japan from Korea. There were times where I thought "I can't believe that this is just hours from downtown Tokyo"... and it really sunk in how awesome our life here is!
Dereck and I had a great day. The runs were great, it wasn't too crowded, and the weather was beautiful. Other than my terrible head cold (hooray for dayquill!) the day was pretty perfect.
Here are some pictures from Akakura:
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