Ok ski report, as promised! On Friday afternoon, Danielle, Ryan and I hit the road for Nozawa Onsen, one of the most famous ski resorts in Japan. If you check out the website, (in English) there are a few photos and info on ski resort and public baths. The map I used to navigate my way from the top to the bottom of the mountain is also there... check it out for a glimpse at why I am so sore.

Anyhow. We arrived at our pension (really relaxed kind of lodge, Japanese style) right in time for a hot Japanese dinner. There were 30-some JETs there for the weekend, most from Nagano but 8 or so from Fukui-ken near Nagoya. In the village of Nozawa Onsen, there are about 30 natural hot springs. There are 13 public onsens in the village that are open all day long and are free of charge. After dinner we grabbed our stuff and headed for the nearest one. After a glance at the map, we just decided to follow the street and smell for sulfur in order to find it. We were freezing as we stripped down, soaped & shampoo-ed (it is against Japanese bath rules to enter the bath without washing oneself... big NO-NO) but once we started lowering ourselves into the bath... it was a totally different story. My feet were instantly on fire. The Japanese women already in the bath were watching our faces and giggling at our reaction to the heat. Of course, they were all bright red, too. Once we were brave enough to sit in the bath up to our shoulders, the water really did feel fabulous... even if our legs felt boiled. We took breaks in order to keep breathing. Turns out that Nozawa is also famous for their HOT baths. Go figure!

On Saturday morning, the pension owners woke us up for breakfast at 7:30am. I woke up a little before that to get dressed and we all wandered downstairs to a Japanese breakfast spread. Miso soup, veggies, fish, mushrooms... nothing even remotely breakfast-like in my mind, but it was expected and it was pretty tasty. After breakfast everyone bundled up, grabbed skis and snowboards and plodded up the hill to the lift. I was a bit nervous but excited to try out the beautiful heaps of snow and my new ski pants. And up we went! The first hill we went down made my confidence soar. It was incredibly flat, in fact in places it was literally difficult to keep the downward momentum going! We scrambled onto the next lift in hopes for something a bit more.... interesting? The next hill we tried was actually an upper extension of the first hill. The top threw me a bit because of all the snow! It felt very different to be turning in deep snow. But still, we decided that it was the world's longest bunny hill.

After reexamining the map, we decided as a group to head for the other, upper side of the mountain via the gondola. Having never really been on a ski trip, much less a gondola to go skiing... I was psyched. It took a long time to get up the hill and we were packed in like sardines with our gear. I was excited to get out at the top.. especially when I saw the view. It was amazing!! You could see mountains for miles. It was a perfectly sunny day and actually rather warm. The first hill we tried was another green run (for beginners). It was pretty long, but again really flat in the middle. I was starting to feel really good about myself. (ha!). Then the group decided to take another lift to the top of the mountain. I didn't really realize until we were already up that the only way down was via red runs. But then again, the green runs had been really easy so I decided that perhaps their red runs would be safe. Safe, I suppose.... but easy they were definitely not. About ten seconds (maybe!) after I started down the first of three options, I was sprawled on my stomach with my skis in the air. Not only was it plenty steep... but there were big piles of snow like moguls all the way down the hill. I was clueless and pretty stuck. My heros, Sara and Nobuko waited for me to pick myself up and watched as I face planted about 20 feet from where I'd re-started. Nobuko instantly turned into my ski coach. She advised me to face the bottom of the mountain more... instead of the top. Huh... well that sounded pretty obvious. Obvious maybe... but it didn't happen right away. On the top part of the run, I wiped out at practically every 20 foot interval. I had snow in my sunglasses and was laughing but feeling incredbily sheepish. Sara and Nobuko would ski to where I was laying, shout some words of encouragement, then watch me ski about 20 feet and wipe out again. It was a challenge, let me tell you. I was exhausted by the time we got to the bottom! The gang just laughed and we headed up again. Again!!?

We actually went up and down several times, and I'm not really sure that I actually got much better. Fortunately, the snow was really soft and I must be really good at falling, because I didn't do any permanent damage. I was also lucky enough to be skiing with some folks who had a ton of patience. At lunch I was concerned I wouldn't be able to keep going, but some Hagen Daz ice cream made everything look a little better! After a couple more attempts at the red runs (I did end up making it down one run one time without falling!), we were tired enough to stick to the green hills lower down. I was truly relieved. In total, we skiied from about 9 am to after 4:30 pm, I think. By dinner time, I just wanted to curl up and sleep.

Ah.... back to the onsen! My legs were greatly thankful for the hot water. The second onsen we tried for the weekend was not as pretty and had a seriously high content of sulfur (which I discovered when my silver ring changed to copper and then to iridescent purple then cobalt blue!). We played a full-group trivia game back at the pension and though many people headed out for karaoke or to the bar, I crashed. The four of us in my room were out cold by 10:30 at night. I didn't sleep all that well due to the fact that every single muscle in my body ached. Oh, and the fact that we were sleeping on futon (in Japan that just refers to the cushion, not a cushion on a frame, btw) on a hard tatami mat floor with the traditional bean-bag pillow. Once it was morning I was still exhausted but just needed to get moving because I was so uncomfortable in bed.

At breakfast the group looked like we had hall fallen OFF the mountain the previous day, instead of having skiied on top of it. It took a lot longer to get dressed and motivated to go back up. Since my skiing buddies from Saturday all left on Sunday, I skiied with Danielle and Ryan, both advanced snowboarders. They humored me though, and we hit the green runs on top right away. It was snowing really hard and during my first run down the snow hitting my face felt like nasty needles and I couldn't see out of my fogged up sunglasses. Not feeling incredibly motivated to start with, Danielle and I looked at each other and quickly decided we needed some coffee. So off came all the equipment and gear and the three of us sat inside a restaurant on the middle of the mountain with cofffee and chatted. They tried to convince me to join them on a black route, telling me it really didn't deserve to be black and that they really thought I could handle it... BUT... my own instincts of self-preservation prevailed. We finally dragged ourselves back outside and took the green routes all the way to the bottom and called it a day. We just were completely out of energy and the snow was really quite difficult to see in. We didn't exactly get our money's worth, but it was time for me to quit...

... and head back to the onsen!! After soaking, we grabbed lunch, beer and hot chocolate, stopped for some snacks and drove home through the snow. It was a blast even though I had a really rough day yesterday... trying to move was sheer pain EVERYWHERE. Today has been a little bit more normal. We're already planning the next trip so stay tuned... I may get even more adventurous!