Snow!

Not a ton of snow, but enough to make for a good morning at Cortina. Alas, Brian had to leave Saturday morning and missed out on the goods.

Friday’s rain transformed into snow in the afternoon. Patrick, one of our lodge mates (and the man behind powdermania.com), said that if anywhere would get enough snow to cover up the crust, Cortina would be the place. Located at the north end of the Hakuba Valley, closest to the ocean, Cortina apparently tends to pick up the most snow. And in this case, Patrick’s prediction proved prophetic. He drove Tom and I, along with lodgers Lachlan, Kirsti and Katya, to Cortina. A relatively small resort (compared to Happo One, at least), Cortina held dozens of lines through widely-spaced trees. The new snow covered much of the crust, but not all. The typical run went powder turn, powder turn, crust, waist deep, crust, powder turn, knee deep, crust, pow turn, pow turn …. Despite the crust, the new snow felt good under the skis.

 Tom dropping off a Cortina ridge

 Patrick snapping photos of Kirsti

 Katya not hitting any crust

 Kirsti also avoids the crust

 As does Lachlan

By early afternoon the sun had baked the snow into mashed potatoes, so we left the slopes to take advantage of Cortina’s other offerings: 3,800 yen (about $45) buys not only a full-day lift ticket, but also includes 1,000 yen toward lunch in the resort hotel (where a make-your-own pizza costs 1,200 yen) and provides access to a slopeside onsen.

 Hotel at Cortina

Pizza at the hotel at Cortina 

A low-key afternoon back at Hakuba Powder Lodging followed the ski day, with a group dinner of grilled chicken and salad. Then, come evening, a bunch of people gathered for a ball hockey game in a nearby parking lot. 

Hakuba ball hockey game

Rain

The title pretty much says it all, although I could add, “fog.” 

Still, having not skied yesterday, and with a weekday pass that will keep me from riding the lifts the next two days, I felt like making some turns this morning. Tom and Brian came out for a few runs before heading into town (Brian leaves for home tomorrow, and wanted to grab a t-shirt). I made three more gondy laps and then came back to the lodge. Despite the unpleasant wetness, at least the rain and warm temps softened up the snow for some corn-like carving.

The forecast for next week looks a bit more promising, so we’re hopeful for a return to winter. 

Snow monkey movie

Made by Tom:


japanese snow monkeys from tom duggan on Vimeo.

Only in Japan

We opted to skip skiing today. But that’s okay, because instead we went to Jigokudani to see Japanese macaques, better known as … SNOW MONKEYS!! And they were awesome.

After a bus dropped us off near the entrance of Jigokudani Monkey Park, we followed a trail through the woods for nearly 2 kilometers until we reached the monkey onsen. The macaques ran all over the place, dashing up to people, fighting and playing with each other, roaming the hillsides and relaxing in their own onsen.

And that’s enough description. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Video!

Tom put together a video of the first week -- Tokyo and skiing.

first week of japan from tom duggan on Vimeo.

Taking in the scenery

Blue skies and warm temps all week have made for beautiful days but, combined with a lack of new snow, have made for less than ideal backcountry conditions. Our ventures into the Happo backcountry keep landing us atop crusty slopes. We’ve therefore largely limited ourselves to skiing ridgelines to avoid avy danger in the sun-baked bowls (watched one wet slide come down a chute around midday today) and scoping out lines for when better conditions return. All in all, that means no great ski photos, but I have snapped some scenery shots of the Japanese Alps.

 Not our tracks on that slope

 That long, flat peak has several ski tracks on it -- we're guessing from TGR

Start of the hike out after skiing the north face of Happo

Kyoto photo and food extravaganza

Torii gates at Fushimi Inari

Kyoto brought a welcome switch to low-key tourism. Nap on the 2.5-hour train ride from Tokyo, another short nap in Matsubaya Ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn, booked by Brian) and we were ready to explore the streets of Kyoto.

Hanging out at the ryokan

Though the city contained a few broad boulevards, the majority of the streets were narrow roads and alleys barely big enough for a single car. After meandering for a while, we stumbled upon a small restaurant filled with locals. We were offered the only available table, and sat down to a Korean barbecue of chuck roast, chicken liver and other obscure cuts of meat. All delicious, particularly when accompanied by beer.

On Saturday we set off with an itinerary planned by Brian: morning stop at Fushimi Inari, a major shrine on a Kyoto mountainside; a late-morning trip to Nijo Castle; lunch at Nishiki Market; an afternoon of roaming the city before heading back to the ryokan to prep for a 10-course (give or take a course) Japanese meal at Arashiyama Nishiki. The plan was going swimmingly until we made it to Fushimi Inari, which Brian commented was probably the most photogenic place he’d ever visited. So we spent the entire morning and early afternoon there, filling up our SD cards and depleting the batteries in our cameras.

Fushimi Inari has one main shrine and tons of smaller shrines. Thousands of orange torii gates line the path to the top of the mountain. The shrine draws lots of business people, who donate money in hopes of earning wealth. Nick, the owner at Hakuba Powder Lodging, later told us the place brings in a million dollars a day in donations.

Shrines — large and small — feature stone carvings of two foxes. Inari means “rice,” and the foxes signify some connection to rice; in tour books and subsequent web searches, explanations for the canines ranged from foxes being the messengers of the Shinto goddess of rice to signifying a strong rice harvest. Regardless, between the statues and the torii gates, the entire shrine area made for an impressive trip.

With a large part of our day exhausted by Fushimi Inari, we had time to make a quick walk through Nishiki Market for lunch snacks: grilled oysters, soy milk doughnuts, rice cakes, scallops.

For dinner, Brian led us to Arashiyama Nishiki. A waitress dressed in traditional garb took us into a private room and then brought course after course. Tofu filled with mustard, shashimi, multiple soups, beans, clams, dessert … between Tokyo sushi and Kyoto meals, it was a good trip for eating. Brian gets all the credit for that.

About to start the meal 

This course came in a shelf with drawers

Sunday morning we finally made it to Nijo Castle, where we toured the grounds. We passed through Nishiki Market again for lunch, and then it was back to Kyoto Station for the train and bus voyage back to Hakuba and return to the mountains.

 Walking to Nijo Castle

 Nijo Castle and the surrounding grounds