Last runs! Nagano Ski Weekend and Snow Monkeys

On the weekend of March 12th I decided to squeeze one more ski day out of this sparse season with a trip to Nagano.  Caleb from my Hokkaido trip sent me an invite to a trip organized by the event planning company WhyNot Japan. I was surprised to not only see Caleb, but also Lea and Biana from the Hokkaido trip as well.

I started the evening meeting up with a few other ALTs, and together we grabbed some authentic Indian food. I can't recall if I have mentioned this, but there is a pretty prevalent Indian population in Japan come to open curry restaurants. While much Japanese food is rather bland, they do dig rather spicy curry.

After dinner we caught a night bus (something I have made good use of in Japan) from Osaka into the middle of the mountains. Along the way we stopped at a rest stop. These stops always impress me by their amenities. They always seem to be a combination of a convenience store, restaurant, and gift shop. Some I have been in even have showers! It's a shame so many Japanese people work so much, since the country seems designed for roadtrips!

Nagano is a large mountainous region north of Tokyo with many ski resorts. We headed to a small resort near Yamanochi, called X-Jam, on Mt. Kosha. We checked in at what would normally have been a ski in and ski out resort. Yet this particularly weak winter did the resort no favors, and there was only a bit of snow left in the area, and only a fraction of the mountain's terrain was open. Knowing this I swapped my rental for a snowboard and had a great time snowboarding at the same pace as my friends, both new and old. I got more confident with speed and control throughout the day too!

On the slopes one thing we were quite humored by was toddlers riding tiny snow bikes down the mountain. These little tikes could barely stand, let alone control these vehicles. So they mostly just sat their shooting straight down the mountain as their parent reigned them in with those hilarious child leashes.  It was too adorable and hilarious.

That evening we had a great nabe dinner, followed by a fun, abet makeshift party. In a moment that felt very Japanese, we had a party-wide rock paper scissors tournament, where a few of my friends even won prizes! 

During dinner, as well as breakfast the next day I chatted in Japanese with a guy named Yoshi, who came on the event by himself from Tokyo. He used to be a distance runner, with an insane crowning achievement of 4 marathons in 42 hours. I couldn't believe it. I even asked another half-Japanese guy for clarification, since I thought I misheard him. Japanese people clearly commit to their hobbies.




The next day I went to Jigokudani, Hell Valley, to see the famous snow monkeys. Due to the sulferous content of the nearby hot springs, no vegetation can grow in this area of the mountains. Yet the abundance of hot springs allows the monkeys to keep warm during the winter. I didn’t know we had to hike to the park, but I enjoyed stretching my legs through the mountains. While at this time of the year there was no snow, there were plenty of monkeys, and just as many photographers. At points it was more entertaining to watch people react to the monkeys more than watching the monkeys themselves. The monkeys wild, and free to roam about, so you get to be quite up close, and I managed to get at least one good photo.

On the hike back down I talked with Yuria Saito, a Japanese English literature major in Osaka. I am sure she had fun speaking to me in English, and I am glad I got the chance to practice Japanese a bit more.

Our tour ended with a quick stop at a restaurant, and a long bus ride back to Osaka. The crowd on the bus was very diverse, had an interesting conversation with a french guy, and a Palestinian about games on the way back. It was refreshing to have so many different cultures around in addition to the reserved Japanese culture.