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

Surviving Tokyo

To appease the masses (or at least Uncle Steve), the blog returns. (Note to Uncle Steve: no computer for three days means no blog updates for at least three days.)

Back in Hakuba today after a long weekend between Tokyo and Kyoto, Tom and Brian and I hiked high above Happo One for our longest tour yet. Although we had beautiful, blue skies, we did not have good snow. I made a few nice powder turns, but they were unexpected in a run largely marred by wind buff, sun crust, old avalanche debris and other crud. But at least we closed the day with a soak in an onsen near the lodge.

So, with little to report from the slopes, the recap of a Tokyo all-nighter begins here. After taking a bus to Nagano on Thursday, we rode the Shinkansen (high speed rail) to Tokyo Station and then set off into a city intent on overwhelming our senses with an endless array of lights. We arrived in daylight, and once we found out how to actually leave Tokyo Station, we wandered the nearby streets for a bit before ducking into a mall, where we found an indoor market with meats, teas, pastries and more. 

First glimpse of Tokyo.

Then it was into the Tokyo Metro for more confusion and a ride to the area of Shibuya, where we emerged from the underground. Night had arrived at this point, and Tokyo was lit up: neon signs, flashing signs, big lights, little lights, tall narrow lights. Just an insane amount of lights.

It's so bright!

More confused wandering for us, until we retreated back into the metro to check out Shinjuku and eat dinner at a place called Lois, which Brian wanted to try. Yet we never found Lois — again, too many lights — and instead settled on a random restaurant. Post-dinner we returned to Shibuya and went to a bar for some sake, and quickly moved on to another bar; before we even entered, a Scandinavian named Eric met us at the door to make fun of my beard. Back inside, he befriended us and launched into a tirade about anti-Semitism spreading through Europe, and took a strong liking to Brian upon learning of his Jewish heritage. Yet Eric’s key contribution to the evening was introducing us to Yuki and her friend (Huki??).

 Brian makes a new friend in Eric, the agnostic wannabe Jew. 

Yuki became our tour guide for the rest of the evening and early morning. She led us to a third bar nearby, which was critical because at that point rain had begun to pour down on Tokyo (still lots of lights, however) and we had no interest in more confused wandering. 

Tom with Huki (?) and Yuki. 

By the time we left at 5 a.m., the rain had yet to let up, so Brian, Tom, Yuki and I hopped in a cab to Tsukiji Market, a fish market. With Yuki’s help translating, we eventually found our way to the tuna auction (becoming soaked in the process of dashing from warehouse to warehouse in the rain), followed by a 1.5-hour wait for breakfast of the best sushi any of us had ever had (despite being frigid in our drenched clothes.

 Tuna auction at Tsukiji Market.

 Sushi breakfast (along with miso soup and green tea).

After breakfast, we hailed a cab back to Tokyo Station, where our exhausting Tokyo experience ended as we boarded a Shinkansen for Kyoto. Kyoto brought a welcome slowing of the pace. Once again, however, it is past my Japanese bedtime, so this is all the blogging for today. Hopefully the update will keep Uncle Steve entertained until tomorrow.