Christmas Holiday Part II - Nagano!!!

After New Years, we had another 5 days to spare, so a friend and I decided to take a trek up North to Nagano to do a little skiing and see some snow. Little did we know there wasn't so much snow...

So we took the night bus on the night of the 1st and spent the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in Nagano while taking the night bus back on the 4th to arrive back in Osaka early on the morning of the 5th. It took us about 9 hours to get there...but we stopped a lot.

Nagano was good, and we were happy because after being warned that the trip might be cancelled due to lack of snow, it apparently had snowed a few feet right before New Years. Anyway, let me explain how the trip unfolded.

Day 1:
We arrived at 5:30 am on the morning of the 2nd. We had a slight problem because check in at our nice-ish hostel (not a hotel, but not a crummy hostel) wasn't until 3:00pm. SOOOOO, we went down to this dark and dank cellar-like room and took out our sweaters to act as blankets and pillows. We tired to relax in the basement and maybe get some more rest. It was hard though because it smelled musty and there were a bunch of random Japanese people eating smelly foods and making their good old Japanese noises, the way they do.

Anyway, Marita and Emily (Marita's friend who I met on the trip and she's super cool!) ventured off to find a cafe where we could get some tea and be warm while Cathy and I stayed in the basement.

They surely found a place rather quickly! I can't remember the name of the cafe, but it was a kind of small hotel-ish type place. It was our little haven. Very homey and comfy, and it was there we met this guy named Tom (a fellow gaijin) from Australia who served and lived at the hotel. He obviously spoke English (which is just a relief when in Japan). Anyway, he treated us really well and invited us to chill upstairs in this lounge area until we were ready to brave the cold and the not-so-snowy mountain. (Ya, that's right, the runs were pretty dirty at the bottom and the forecast for the next day was rain.) The lounge was cute with big windows and a huge flatscreen tv with tons of movies to watch. The four of us (Marita, Emily, Cathy, and I) played a couple games of Yahtzee up there and talked and rested for the morning.

Then we braved the mountain where everyone snowboarded except me, because i'd rather ski. Anyway, we all stared on the end of the easiest hill...and Cathy and I stayed there the longest. Then we got tired and made a snowman at the bottom of the hill...which was an event in itself. After this, she and I tried to do a big-kid run. Wow, honestly I haven't sworn that much in a while. It's so scary and I was getting really frustrated with having been fine at skiing 6 years ago and now literally having to start from the beginning. I mean...yeah it was 6 years, and I should be patient with these things, but usually i'm just not.

That night Cathy and I went to the Onsen (it was her first time). It was a cool one with a cedar bath and a regular sauna. Still I think it's just the best way to relax.

Day 2:
Emily, Cathy, and I slept in while Marita hit the slopes early. We were tired and lacked sleep from the bus ride. Our muscles hurt that day. Cath and Em's hurt more because they just tried harder the day before I guess. We woke up, watched a few episodes of Scrubs on my computer and then headed to the hills. As I was leaving the room, I realized I lost BOTH the right hands of the two pairs of gloves I had. Ahhhhhhhhh....these were the gloves that I had JUST bought in Nagano, AND my roommate Zoe's gloves. Not a good situation.

So I let Em and Cath go off to board. Honestly, I didn't really want to get back on the hill and I didn't feel like having my muscles ache the next day, and I was scared of wiping out and really hurting myself. Also, that day it was supposed to rain, so I didn't want to get caught in crap snow and again be at high risk of hurting myself. Plus, I had lost my only gloves.

I went to the lost property booth and reported my gloves. After this I retraced my steps 2 or 3 times, all the while still convinced that the gloves were in the room somewhere. I went into other hotels and asked if they were turned in from the street or whatever. Still with no luck, I just went on a nice long walk alone for about an hour and a half or so. I took many pictures of the mountains and just thought about stuff. It was nice to be alone and breathe the cold mountain air...

That night, I met up with the peeps again and we took the train to a bar to meet some other Nova teachers. What a blast. We watched some pool and just talked a lot. It was so cool to be in a completely remote part of Japan in the freezing cold, while drinking with friends. The whole night just had such a warm feeling to it although we were in such a cold place.

Day 3:
The last day was officially the BEST! Marita went to the slopes again, but Emily, Cathy and I woke up at a reasonable time and headed to the Onsen. The day previous, they both had horrible experiences on the hill and had to be brought back down on snowmobiles by rescue services!! (Pretty positive it was a blessing I lost those gloves) Anyway, they didn't really want to snowboard on the last day, thankfully. So, we went to the Onsen again. At the Onsen they had this little room with amazing massage chairs and vending machines, so we just chilled there until just after lunch time.

After the Onsen, we went to the rental shop because I really wanted to go snowshoeing!! They guy gave us a deal on the rental, so that was lucky. Then we took the gondola up to the top of the mountain where the hiking trails are and we snowshoed on the trails for like 2 and a half hours. It was just a breathtaking experience. It's so quiet and peaceful up there. We made it to this little hut place and took a few pictures and then headed back before the runs closed.

For dinner, we met up with Marita again and went over to Tom's cafe. We had previously arranged our dinner with him and he offered to serve us early because our bus was leaving at 7:30. Emily is a vegetarian, and I am loving meat less and less, so they made us all a creamy curry-flavoured pasta and we had wine with it. I scarfed mine down in like 7 minutes...it was borderline embarrasing when I realized it. Then after the dinner we went up to the lounge area and watched Shrek and played Yahtzee again until the bus came to pick us up. Such a perfect ending to a beautiful day in Nagano.

So that's the end to my winter holiday while in Japan. I'm thankful to have been able to experience both the (sub) tropics and Japanese snow.

I bet you're wondering what happened to the gloves...

The morning we were packing up I requested everyone to lift up their foutons to see if they were hiding. As Cathy kicked hers up we found both right hands sitting perfectly underneath the corner of her bed. A little freaky to say the least...