Had a pretty eventful month of February so far… just got back from Singapore! Had a great time there but will save that for my next post (still have a lot of pictures to sort through).
First I want to write about a one-day ski trip I went on to Gala Yuzawa in the southern part of Niigata Prefecture. One of the guys at work was able to reserve the shinkansen lift tickets through the on-base ITT (travel) office so a few of us made our reservations and went. This was my first time skiing in Japan and also my first time riding the shinkansen! Below is the itinerary for getting there. Notice the app is called “Hyperdia.” This has been one of the most helpful apps I’ve had since living in Japan and I use it almost on a daily basis to look up train schedules. Really easy and convenient… it hasn’t failed me yet! Since I don’t live in Yokosuka, I met the rest of the group at Yokohama Station. From Ueno we caught the shinkansen to Gala Yuzawa which took another hour and a half from there I think.
The ride on the shinkansen was surprisingly smooth and very comfortable. It almost feels like you’re sitting in an airplane except that it’s much more quiet and the rows of seats can swivel around so two rows can face each other (helpful hint!). After passing through probably one of the longest tunnels I’ve ever been through (must have been Mt. Tanigawa), we emerged to find ourselves in a winter wonderland! Completely different from the other side of the mountain!
With my only ski experience being the sunny Lake Tahoe area and Mt. Charleston in Nevada, my first thoughts were, “Can we even ski in this weather?!” I admit I was a little nervous eheh. Anyway, the reason my coworker picked this particular ski town is because of its convenience. The train station that the shinkansen stops at doubles as the actual ski lodge! So, right out the gates you have the lines to purchase lift tickets, shop, and equipment rental area without even having to go outside.
Once we all got our lift tickets and rental equipment, we threw the rest of our things in lockers and headed up the lift to the upper lodge area where the actual ski lifts start from.
I can honestly say I’ve never been in snow like this before… the higher we went up on the lifts, the more windy and snowy it got… forecast for the day was 0-2 deg C with chance of snow but it was like a blizzard at the very top! It made for such great runs though! I’ve never been in that much powder and fresh snow, every time we got back to the top it’d be like another fresh layer going down the whole way. It was so snowy that I actually stopped a few times because gusts would come in and I just could not see more than 20 feet in front of me… I felt like if it were like that in the US they’d shut the lifts down but it was crazy fun to be up there just going at it!
I want to say the actual time spent on the slopes was from about 9am to 3pm with about an hour lunch break in the middle somewhere (black curry w/tonkatsu, oh so warm and delicious!). Once the day was done, we returned our equipment and jumped back on the shinkansen line to head back home! Tired and exhausted, the beer tasted extra good!
As my good friend from Alaska would say, “We carpe diem’d the heck out of today!”