Best goggle tan ever

I have a couple of blog posts to put up that I didn't get to in Japan, so here's one of them.

This is Jon. And this is Jon's goggle tan.

Stateside

After 30 hours of door-to-door travel (shuttle to the airport in Tokyo, flight to Chicago, flight to Boston, parental chauffeur to Hopkinton), Tom and I returned to the States shortly after midnight on Tuesday. No radiation scans, so we have no idea how contaminated we are.

We capped off the trip with a group dinner in the lodge on Sunday night, eating soup and gyoza.

Katja makes the soup

Everyone else prepares the hand-made gyoza

Dinner time!

Now I just need to fully kick a head cold I came down with late last week, and make sure I'm over jet lag. Tomorrow, it's back to Vermont for me.

To everyone we met in Japan, thanks for a great time!

Powder video

Tom put together the latest video. Most of this was filmed over the past two days, and most of the most was filmed on what I'll call "Super Deep Wednesday" (the name having been chosen just now in lieu of other monikers such as "Radioactive Pow Day" or "Nuclear Winter Day" -- don't worry, it wasn't really radioactive snow; we're still safe in Hakuba, and leaving soon).

japan week 5 from tom duggan on Vimeo.

Deep snow, and donating

Wow. Today was deep. Just ridiculously, absurdly deep.

Though as good a day as we had on the mountain, it’s crazy to know that so many people close to us are dealing with so much loss. So before I get into our day, here’s a link about donating to the relief efforts in Japan. If you can contribute, the Japanese can use the help.

www.interaction.org/crisis-list/interaction-members-support-japan-earthquake-response

As for our wellbeing, there’s a lot of conflicting news reports about the severity of the nuclear threats and whether those threats will increase or decrease. The one consensus seems to be that we remain in a fairly safe spot in Japan. Tom and I have talked about our options, and barring some major development, we plan to stay here until Monday, as scheduled.

If today was any indication, we’ll have plenty of snow to enjoy in the next couple of days. We woke this morning to heavy snow falling, but only a dusting had accumulated on the ground. Happo One, on the other hand, had picked up a massive amount of snow. More than a foot at the higher elevations, and coming down hard throughout the day. A big group of us — Tom, Jon, Dan, Katja, Lachlan, Kirsti and myself — spent the morning up high in the deep snow. After yet another bakery lunch (becoming a daily stop), we moved down to the trees on the lower mountain. Here are some photographic highlights from the day: 

 Tom

 Jon

 Katja

 Lachlan

 Kirsti

 Tom again

 Jon again

 More Jon

 Jon kept finding the really deep snow today

Dan looks for a soft landing. He found one. 

Learning Japanese

I came to Japan knowing one Japanese word: Konnichiwa. Hello. Four weeks into a Japanese ski vacation, and I know three Japanese words. Arrigato. Hai. Konnichiwa. Thank you. Yes. Hello. Thankfully, that’s all you really need to know to communicate in Japan.

I haven’t intentionally avoided learning Japanese. The language has just been incredibly difficult for me to pick up. When I traveled around Western Europe during my college semester abroad, I always made a point to learn a dozen basic words or phrases: Hello, Thank you, Please, Excuse me, Wine, Beer, My name is …, Where is the bathroom, Goodbye, Yes, No. I’ve tried to learn the same set of words in Japanese, but no matter how hard I try, how many times someone tells me how to say a word, no matter how often I check my phrasebook, I’m stuck with three words.

The rest of the time I point, nod, smile or act confused. I can sort of understand a few other words, even if I don’t fully know their meaning. The Japanese often say, “Arrigato dorimas.” My best guess is that emphasizes the thank you. Perhaps a Thank you very much. Cheers is kompai, but I don’t know if that’s a real cheers or just something Westerners say for cheers. In the past few days I’m coming closer to knowing “Excuse me.” Sumimachen, or something close to that. I have yet to try it out on a real Japanese person.

But the other phrases — You’re welcome, Please, My name is … — are totally lost on me. I’ve asked how to say those words. I’ve been told how to say those words. But I can never remember how to say those words. I have a 20-minute retention period, tops.

In other news, I had another pair of bindings break on me yesterday. I was borrowing lodge owner Nick’s tele skis, which had an old pair of Voile bindings. I noticed when I started skiing them that the binding cable was frayed. Sure enough, after the first run on the third day of using them, they gave out. I had gone in for a bathroom break, came back out, clipped into one ski, bent down to clip into the other, and POP! Binding snapped.

I went back, grabbed the last pair of tele skis in the lodge, and used those for the past two days. But with snow supposedly on the way (we've been switching between rain and snow for the past few hours), and the tele skis a mere 78 millimeters underfoot (which, once upon a time probably qualified as a powder ski), I’m likely switching to alpine for the last few days. Once again, thanks to Nick for the gear. 

Disasters and our safety (and deep snow)

Been a strange few days here in Hakuba. We were skiing up on Happo One on Friday when the first earthquake brought a low rumbling. I didn’t even mention it at the time, thinking I may have heard an avalanche up in the mountains. Not much later, as five of us were waiting to drop into a run, the first aftershock hit. We felt that one much more strongly. After the shaking stopped and we looked around for an avalanche, one in our group said, “That was an earthquake.”

It wasn’t until we made it back to the lodge that we found out the severity of the quake. Japanese television was showing images of the tsunami, and we began checking U.S. and international news outlets for updates. I’m sure everyone has seen the same images as us. The tsunami footage was horrible to watch, and the nuclear plant explosion was just scary.

Fortunately for us, we do seem to be in one of the safer spots of Japan at the moment. The affected nuclear plants are fairly far away, and the wind would blow any radiation away from us. We keep checking the news for updates, but all in all, we feel removed from the whole situation, physically and mentally. Quiet on the mountain and in town, somber but quiet in the lodge. We’ve had surreal blue skies the past two days, and with no one at the lodge affected by the disasters, we really have no connection to the situation other than what we’re reading online and seeing on TV. Barring some major development, we’ll be home in a week. Until then, give your thoughts to the Japanese who are actually suffering through all this destruction.

This will sound rather inconsequential after all the other news happening here, but the skiing had been amazing on Friday. Snow started falling Thursday night and came down heavily all day on Friday. We spent the day making laps through the woods, playing in the fresh snow that kept piling up between the trees. One of the more enjoyable ski days I’ve had on this trip (the mood changed quickly when we heard about the earthquake and tsunami).

Tom, above the powder

Jon, in the powder

Katja, above the powder

Katja, in the powder

Kirsti, through the powder

Saturday brought blue skies and a bright sun, which baked a lot of the south-facing terrain by early morning. After one trip to the top of the mountain (where we saw numerous avalanches crowns; we’re assuming the earthquake and aftershocks triggered the slides), we returned to the north-facing woods we had skied Friday to find plenty of deep, soft snow, which took our minds off the earthquake news. A few laps with Nick, then Tom, Jon and I went to the gondola station for a long lunch break at the bakery. Post-lunch we met up with Yoshi, an employee at Hakuba Powder Lodging who wanted us to take him snowboarding in the trees. Returned to the woods for a few more laps, and then we came upon a couple of other lodge guests building a backcountry kicker. Yoshi went big.

Yoshi, well above the powder

Yoshi, covered in powder

Jon, upside down above the powder and on the way to landing a backflip

Today we gave our bodies a much-needed rest, lounging around the lodge for most of the day.

One more update on our safety: sounds like some skiers were caught in a slide this weekend. I have no real details yet, but in case any news of a Hakuba avalanche makes it back home, just know it wasn’t us. Snow stability hasn’t been great in general, so we’re skiing trees and avoiding avalanche terrain. 

update

We're still fine here. The affected nuclear plants are pretty far away from us, and if anything more serious does happen to them, the wind is forecast to be blowing away from us, toward the plants for the next several days. So we should be out of the path of any radiation.

As for news, we're basically getting updates from CNN, NY Times, etc. (seeing as we still don't speak any Japanese). The people at the lodge who do know Japanese don't seem to know too much more than we're getting, either. Kind of just a wait-and-see period.

We did make it out to the mountain today. Really quiet for a weekend, but otherwise it was just a calm, bright, sunny day. Pretty surreal, knowing there's so much destruction a couple hundred miles away.

More on earthquakes

Woke up at 4 a.m. and felt one of the aftershocks in Nagano, which is pretty close. But it was just a low shaking here, not unlike the two I've felt in Vermont. So we're still fine.

Earthquake

We're all set here in Hakuba. Felt the quake and aftershock on the mountain this afternoon, but had no idea how bad it was until we returned to the lodge and saw the news. Seems like Hakuba is alright, but, sadly, that's certainly not the case in other parts of Japan.

Return of the pow

After a couple of mediocre ski days (dust on crust and ridiculously thick fog on Monday; high avy danger on Tuesday), we awoke Wednesday to more sun and low expectations. Took our time getting to Happo, and then once we were on the lift it started snowing. And then it started snowing harder. And harder. And even harder, to the point where a few runs and lift rides were in total whiteout. Tom, Jon, and Kate and I skied through the end of the day (with a bakery stop for lunch), lapping up the fresh snow in the trees.

Tom making the most of Wednesday's new snow (which, lower down, was not as deep as it looks here)

On Thursday, with high winds forecast for Happo, Tom and Jon and I took a chance on Cortina. Alas, with Patrick leaving the lodge on Wednesday morning to continue his ski season in British Columbia, we were left without a ride to the north end of the Hakuba Valley. So we took a train and a shuttle, and when we arrived at Cortina we found a reported 50 centimeters of fresh snow. It was at least that deep.

Jon, not finding any crust at Cortina

Great skiing in the morning, until the sun turned certain aspects into heavy mush. And then, just before lunch, my binding ripped out of my ski and bent in half. So I have no binding, and no ski. Fantastic. At least I had pizza and an onsen.

I'm none too happy about this

Fortunately, Nick of Hakuba Powder Lodging has a couple pairs of tele skis he never uses, so I can borrow those for the remainder of the trip. One is a pair of old fat skis, which could come in handy tomorrow, as snow is falling once again.

Movie stars

Riding the chairlift to the Japanese version of Hollywood.

Yes, Tom has produced a new video of Japanese skiing (see below), but that’s not the reason for our newfound stardom.

japan week 3 from tom duggan on Vimeo.

The skiing and acting skills of Tommy and myself earned us a major part in a Japanese feature film. Come June, we’ll be hitting the silver screen as torch wielding skiers, captivated fireworks watchers and post-ski-day skiers. Tommy was even handpicked by the movie crew to lead the fire line.

Kate deserves all the credit for discovering our talent. She learned of an opportunity for Western skiers to appear in (aka star in) a Japanese movie, and signed us up. Alas for Kate and Katja, the Japanese didn’t want any female Western skiers. Just us manly men. Of course, I wanted to look good, so with my big screen debut approaching, I figured it was time to clean up my scraggly beard and rock the ‘stache.

Me looking good while Tom tries to take a picture of the guy we thought was the director (flashy red coat man)

We really had no idea what to expect with the film. We were told we would be part of a torchlight ski parade and paid 10,000 yen (about $120) for our troubles. So after a day of relaxing and eating birthday pancakes in the lodge, we waited for a cab to bring us to the nearby resort of Tsugaike for the film. We were skeptical to begin with, but when the cab was late picking us up, we grew even more dubious. But the taxi did eventually come, and was already paid for. That’s the star treatment, alright.

At Tsugaike we met up other groups of Westerners (Canadian, French and two Aussies) who were equally clueless. We rode a lift to a lodge, where we finally found out the plot of the movie. In “Andalucia,” a Japanese detective vacations to a Spanish ski resort, uncovers some sort of crime and eventually returns to Japan. Clearly a frontrunner Best Foreign Film at the next Oscars.

Me blinking (and still looking good) while taking a picture with the guy who we later determined was not the director

Anyway, on to the more important stuff about how Tommy and I became big stars. Inside the lodge, everyone went through a screening process. One girl (there were a handful of women, not sure why Kate and Katja couldn’t star as well) in snowboard boots was booted. Next came the question, “Who can ski with torches in both hands?” Tom and I were the first to respond affirmatively. Soon enough, the 40 or so of us Western skiers were led outside and had to hike up the hill about 80 yards to the starting point for the torchlight ski parade. We were asked, “Has anyone skied with torches before?” Tom and I instantly confirmed that we had in fact skied with torches before (the truth doesn’t matter in Japanese Hollywood). I then positioned myself to lead the line during rehearsal, but at the last moment a Russian bastard cut in front of me. But karma had her way, and the Russian bastard screwed up the route downhill (turn at this guy, turn at that guy) and was sent to the back of line.

At that point, fate took over. Tom had skied the perfect route, and the movie crew came up to him, pointing.

“Hai, hai, hai!” A translator explained that Tom-san was to lead the ski line. So, after a dinner break for the crew (we were sent back to the lodge to sit around and waste time), we donned bright pink ponchos, grabbed two torches and hiked back up to the starting point. Tom-san at the front of the line, Mustachioed Greg just behind him. We held out our torches, which were doused in kerosene and set aflame, given the “Action!” call and pointed our skis downhill in a slow, slow snowplow.

We don't know where or what Snow Wonder Land is, but we got to keep the ponchos

Not slow enough, however. Tom-san blew it, skiing too fast for the director, and we had to hike back up the 80 yards to the starting point. Many a grumble from the out-of-shape Western skiers who expected the 10,000 yen to come easy. They’ll never make it big in Japanese Hollywood.

Canadian guy playing with torches

Japanese film crew dousing the torches

This time, torches alight, the parade went smoothly. On to scene number 2.

The first 10 of us in line remained in poncho costume, while the rest of the line took off their ponchos and became the audience. Four or five more takes of us skiing past the cheering audience. And since we were acting Spanish, we had to yell. “Yarrrrrrrrrriiiiibbbbaaa yarrrriiiiiibbaaaaa, AAIE AIE AIE AIE!!!!” “Speeeedy Gonzalez!!!!!!” “HOLA HOLA HOLA HOLA!!!!” Yep, we hammed it up. Tom was even mic’d up.

Scene 3: The fireworks display. Us ski stars got rid of our ponchos for our second role of the evening, attendees at the Festival de neu i foc (Spanish for the Festival of Fire, supposedly). We gathered in a circle around a 360-degree rotating video camera and were told to ooh and aahh at the (fake) fireworks display bursting overhead. We stood. We ooohed. We aaahhed. One person (or maybe many people) looked directly at the camera. We had another take. We were told we didn’t ooh and aaahhh enthusiastically enough. We all ooohed and aahhed and shouted and high-fived and acted waaaayyyyy too excited about a fake fireworks display. We confirmed our earlier belief that this movie will be absolutely terrible. Except for the appearances of Tom and I. Those will be amazing.

Spanish fire festival on a Japanese ski mountain

Scene 4: Grab our skis off the ski rack after the festival and walk back to the hotel. Way too many takes of this.

“Andalucia” comes out in June, in Japan and maybe Spain. If you can get your hands on it, you have a chance to see the next two great American actors to come out of Japan.

And for all our troubles, we did in fact earn 10,000 yen cash.

Cash money

Deep in Nozawa (best day ... ever??)

Dan goes up for fresh air after too many face shots

The title of “Best Ski Day in Japan” has been usurped. As good as Cortina was on Saturday, yesterday far, far exceeded it.

“Best run of my life.”

“Best ski day of my life.”

“Best lift-served day of my life.”

Those were some quotes from yesterday, and they all came before noon. No letdown whatsoever in the p.m.

After skiing Cortina, Jon began pushing for a trip to Nozawa Onsen, a resort 2.5 hours from Hakuba. He convinced Patrick to drive, and along came Tom, Dan, myself and Nick, the owner of Hakuba Powder Lodging. Nick knew the area from past ski trips, and served as unofficial tour guide.

“Best tree skiing in Japan,” he proclaimed before our first run.

I can’t disagree.

The only issue is that you’re not supposed to ski the trees at Nozawa Onsen. But that just meant we were pretty much the only ones in the woods, and didn’t cross another track all day.

Deep snow. Amazing terrain. Long runs. Pillows. Drops off avalanche barriers. Untouched powder on every run. Really, words and even pictures cannot describe how amazing the day was. I keep shaking my head in disbelief as I remember it. 

 A rare shot of Patrick when he's not behind the camera

 Jon is attached to these skis, somewhere behind the cloud of snow

 Nick showing off one of the lines

 Jon rests up in the car after a long day

And, just for good measure, one more deep one of Dan

Finding what we came for

With 100 kph winds forecast for Happo, we decided to take a chance on Cortina today. At the very least, we figured, we could eat pizza and enjoy the onsen. We hitched a ride with Patrick, filling the van with Tom, Jon, Katja, Dan and myself. Sure enough, we ate pizza, enjoyed the onsen and … skied lots of deep powder.

Tommy takes over camera duties for a couple of runs, and catches me in tele action

Today was the type of day we came to Japan to have. Tons of snow on every run. Seemingly every powderhound in Hakuba had the same plan as us (including Kate and Sarah, who we bumped into early in the day and later joined for some laps). Riding up the lift, we kept watching skiers and boarders bursting from the trees, spraying snow while yipping and whooping and garnering cheers from the lift. Plenty of competition for fresh lines, but we all found our share.

Jon hits a drop

 More fresh for me

  Jon looks for some more pow

 Found it

Tom, getting deep

Once the front and backsides of Cortina were tracked out, we moved inside for Part II: pizza. I was quite satisfied with my creation today. A light layer of teriyaki sauce on the bottom, then tomato sauce, slices of ham and pepperoni, lots of cheese, a bit of onion and more pepperoni, topped off with a thin layer of cheese. Deeeelicious.

Post-lunch brought two more runs, followed by the onsen. All in all, best day in Japan so far. 

 Tom, in there somewhere