Japan Adventures - Day 8

Our last full day in Kyoto welcomed us with a grey, wet, gloomy face as we set out to visit its temples and more cultured sights. 

Our first stop for the day was the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine at Inari. We descended from the train and looked around, trying to work out in which direction we should head. It turned out to be pretty easy given the number of tourists headed to the same place, not to mention the fact that it's conveniently located about 200m straight up the street from where you get off the train.

The shrine has hundreds (thousands?) of red arches, each inscribed with the name of the company that donated it. They lined a path up from the main shrine apparently all the way to the top of the hill.

It was a fascinating place and we took a stroll down the path less-travelled that mentioned something somewhere about a castle. After strolling along what clearly wasn't the path that most of the tourists were taking, we reached another small shrine. It was a very cool collection of little shrines either being attended to or prayed at by a pair of little old Japanese ladies. The were bustling back and forth between different areas and Michael insists that at least one of them was engaged in speed-prayers between them all. I think that he managed to do so at that little shrine but abandoned his quest when it became apparent he may end up with hundreds of photos. 

The boys were keen to head to the top of the mountain (40 minutes from that point) but Emily only wanted to leave. With Caroline's knee still suffering we told the boys that they could run up the top if they'd like and that we would meander back the way we came. Apparently the view wasn't worth the effort required. 

We headed back to the bottom of the shrine and wandered down a couple of touristy little streets, finding a shop that would engrave chopsticks at no added cost. This resulted in us each acquiring our own pairs (I'll leave it to you to guess who Potato is). It was while waiting for these to be engraved that I wandered off and found an old guy cooking beef skewers over his little charcoal barbecue out the front of a butcher's shop. His sign had 800 yen each crossed out and replaced with the bargain price of 320 each, so I promptly requested 6 of them (Should have all been for me, but I shared). 

I have to say that it was the best thing that I'd eaten in Tokyo. I'm not sure what it was that he was dipping it in as he cooked it, but damn that was tasty!

We next planned on heading out to the Kinkakuji temple first (the Golden Pavilion) but due to a rushed exchange about where we were going at the bus interchange ended up on a bus going in the opposite direction, to the Ginkakuji temple instead (the Silver Pavilion). Given we'd been looking to go to both of them it wasn't the end of the world. 

We didn't spend a lot of time there as time was getting on and we really wanted to get out to the Golden Pavilion as well. I have to say that the best part of the Ginkakuji Temple had to be its gardens, including the rock garden (which the photo of keeps crashing my ipad each time I try to load it). I'm not sure if it was due to the weather being particularly wet or whether its the standard state of affairs to preserve the gardens amongst hoards of visitors, but you couldn't wander through them to the extent that I would have liked. Add to that the fact that some of us weren't quite smart enough to have water-proof clothing with us (that would be the males of the family) standing around and contemplating the zen was really just going to end up with a thorough soaking. 

On the way to the Ginkakuji Temple I'd spotted an awning across the road advertising Day Cafe, Night Bar, Bear. I laughed at it, having no idea what that quite meant. 

It was only on the way back down the street when we walked under the awning that it became clear to me exactly what Bear meant. I would never have guessed.

Instead we hurried back to the bus so that we could get to the Golden Pavilion before it closed for the day. We successfully negotiated the bus system and made it there with a good 20-30 minutes to spare. 

It was worth the effort, but now even wetter than we had been before, no one was in the mood to particularly hang around. We opted for retreating to the hotel for warmth and a change of clothes before searching out dinner for the day.

Caroline had been keen to head out to Gion the previous evening, but weary legs and time had defeated us. As an alternate, we opted to head over there with the kids for dinner. Fortunately as we left the hotel this time the lovely gentleman at the door asked if we'd like umbrellas! Rain deflectors in hand, we again took off into the night. 

Emerging from the subway, we negotiated our way toward where we expected to find bountiful numbers of restaurants. We certainly found plenty of them, but their prices were a bit beyond what we hoped to spend to feed a family of 6. A lack of any real guidance saw us head randomly Down a small street that appeared to be full of restaurants, but in reality was filled with bars. It wasn't very busy (it was a Monday night after all) and seemed to perhaps cater to more of a male business orientated clientele.

The rain was starting to get us down, hunger was fraying nerves and we were about to give up when we found a place with just enough English on the menu that we decided to give it a go. I'm pleased to report that it was a great success. We walked in to find the hoped-for barbecue tables and enough food on the menu that we were prepared to order (no gizzards for us tonight!) that everyone walked away happy with what they'd eaten and I hadn't had to take out another mortgage! 

All in all it was a successful day. Tomorrow we leave for Tokyo and the final leg of what thus far has been a fabulous experience.

And in Sam's endless pursuit of weird drinks, today was the day that Jungleman was sampled!

d

Japan Adventures - Day 7

After the travels of yesterday and our late arrival in to Kyoto, we were all ready for a good sleep in a proper bed, so we didn't have the most energetic start to the day. Eventually we dragged ourselves out of the hotel in order to search for some food for breakfast. In the brief research that I'd done about what we might like to see I had stumbled across the Nishki Market, apparently refereed to some as Kyoto's Kitchen. 

(Tasty treats for everyone!)

We decided that sounded like both a good place to find some food and somewhere that would be interesting to spend a bit of time. We navigated our way there via subway and found that it was indeed a fascinating place. We'd only made it about 3 shops in though before we came across the first 100Yen shop (think cheap as chips). The kids quickly disappeared eagerly inside and we weren't far behind. The obligatory souvenir chopsticks were the first thing procured, along with what was assumed to be wasabi peas and some Super Lemon (simply because I couldn't help myself). 

Kit Kats have been on Sam's list since we first arrived as he'd heard that there's lots of weird types around the place. We talked him out of buying them when we landed at the airport, though have at times since indulged in tea, green tea and strawberry-flavoured varieties. No sign of the chilli ones that he saw on day one. 

(A quaint little side street of the Nishki Market itself)

The variety of foodstuffs in the long, completely quaint market was far beyond the range of my culinary bravery and I was happy just to have a look and keep going in most cases. I kept to the simpler things in life ... chicken wings, deep-fried prawns and tempura fish bites. Caroline, always the brave one did indulge in a couple of tastes, but after finding something that even she couldn't stomach, became a little more circumspect.

I was also surprised to find a couple of specialist chopstick shops within the market. Who knew that there were so many different chopsticks and that you could spend so much. We later saw a pair in Inari that were selling for over 2,000 dollars. Apparently they are made using traditional methods and each pair is over a year in construction!

On the list of things we didn't try was this interesting dessert pizza that I saw advertised. It could be fun and interesting, but hey, we didn't come to Japan to eat pizza.

The market gave way to a couple of covered avenues of shops and lo and behold if we didn't discover that we had a teenage shopaholic amongst us. As we attempted to walk down and check out all the different things that were available, we found ourselves stopping every second shop or so for Michael to investigate the latest in Japanese men's fashion.  I think he's coming home with most of a new wardrobe as long as it can be crammed back into our luggage!

We also found a couple of things for Emily in a shop that seemed to cater very much to the cute Japanese teen-girl look (think skirts and tops with cute white collars) even if some of their clothes had some interesting (rather than comprehensible) things written on the front of them.

(I'm still yet to come up with any idea as to what they wanted to say with this)

By far the best clothing I've never bought was located within the market when I found a shop with these t-shirts. I was certainly tempted, but couldn't quite bring myself to do it even just to get a single photo with everyone in the family wearing one!

(With the Mother and Father T-shirts added in, we had a complete set going!)

(I was going to get the one on the right for Michael, but couldn't think of any occasion for someone to wear the one on the left!)

Thomas and I strolled into a Manga shop at one point just for a quick look around. With everything being in Japanese there wasn't any intent to buy anything, it was just a curiosity satisfying survey. I forgot when I entered all those things that I'd heard about Manga growing up (not a lot, but enough) and turned a corner at one point to be confronted by covers everywhere depicting young women with unnaturally large and completely unclothed boobs! I quickly turned to steer a rather wide-eyed Thomas back the way we came before tentacles and things became involved! I was rather glad that Emily hadn't accompanied us on that little venture!

Eventually we worked our way out of the shops to descend into the food section of Daimaru, supposedly one of the best food halls in Kyoto. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. The Market was a lot more interesting, if also mostly inedible. Its like comparing the Central Market in Adelaide to the DJ's food hall - different target markets entirely

We were all a little amused at the collection of bikes parked all around the several 'No Bike Parking' signs just outside the doors.

No one was particularly keen to try the Pocari Sweat drink (I realise its an electrolyte drink, but lets not tell the kids that!).

By the time we'd completed all the unplanned shopping, it was well and truly dark and dinner beckoned. We headed back to the small street at the start of the Nishki market where we'd seen a Teppanyaki restaurant advertised. With great enthusiasm we climbed the stairs only to be told that we'd have to wait 10-15 minutes and that we'd have to sit at separate tables. That was fine by us only we were then very apologetically informed that the young waitress had made a mistake and that they wouldn't be able to accommodate us at all. She was kind enough to give us a map that seemed to indicate where two of their other restaurants were, but sadly there wasn't any English on it, nor any landmarks by which we could identify them. 

Onward we went. We found a second place only to find that whilst they had the seats available, they didn't have an English menu. Caroline was happy to go in on the basis of 'bring us some pork, chicken, beef etc) but the guy seemed really reluctant to engage in that sort of carry-on and so we beat a retreat.

We ended up on a little restaurant that charcoal cooked little skewers of meat and sat down for a feast. When we perused the menu and found things like cartilage on it, I was perhaps a little relieved that we hadn't gone with the 'bring us chicken' option as who knows which bit of the chicken we would have been getting. Caroline thought that perhaps the cartilage might have been a mis-translation of something, but when we attempted to have the waitress clarify, it was pretty clear that it wasn't. The kids settled for chicken thigh and chicken meat balls and Caroline and I for wings. I think we needed a local guide before we would have been prepared to be more adventurous.

We caught the train back and settled our well-worked feet into bed fo the night, planning on a temple-run the following day to see a bit more of what Kyoto was known for rather than just its shops.

Japan Adventures - Day 6

Day 6

The day dawned as forecast without the howling gales and dumps of snow of yesterday. It was travel out day and our options were to go via the snow monkeys, cram in another four hours of skiing or make our way toward our next stop in Kyoto.

With the weather being absolutely perfect, we decided that we simply had to ski. Everyone except Sam was keen to get out there and having had a day off the day before, I made Sam come with us.  We wanted to get up to the highest point that we could to get some photos given the inability on previous days to see too much. We'd headed up there on day one and nearly been blown off and that had scarred Emily's memories of the place such that by the time we made it to the top she wasn't interested in being there and Sam was giving us the 'I'm here under protest and I don't have to talk to you' treatment. Ah the joys of family holidays!

(I'm only skiing becauseyou made me!)

Sadly the cloud blew in whilst we were up there so we quickly skied back down and headed for the kids' favourite runs in and around the trees. A quick break and some ice cream (Some of the food options were interesting) cheered most of them up and we abandoned Sam inside for a while and had some more fun.

(Um, I'll pass on lunch thanks?)

By the time that we collected Sam to head back to the hotel to leave his mood had improved and the fun of getting off the side of the runs and into the powder among the trees soon had everyone smiling. Thomas won the Greenie award for tree-hugging when he tried to stop, speared a tree with one ski (which popped off) and ended up cuddling the trunk. By the time I saw him he had one ski off, one buried to the bindings in the powder and he was sprawled everywhere. 

We headed up for one final run, looking back wistfully over our shoulders at the gorgeous mountains, wondering when next we might be able to afford to fit some skiing into our lives. 

A final pack and we sent all our ski gear off to be collected later at the airport (thanks for that awesome tip Kayleen!) and rode the bus back to Nagano. From there it was a three hour 'limited express train to Nagoya where we transferred to the Shinkansen for the final rail-based leg of the journey. A train that goes super-fast and serves beer? Yes please, I'll take one! Surely the most impressive thing on the train though was the button that automatically lowered the seat for you! Pity that there didn't seem to be anything but a manual mode of lifting.

The changing scenery throughout the journey wasn't bad either. Starting in Nagano and heading out through 'rural' Japan with small individual homes and plots of land with either orchards or snow-covered ground crops and gradually progressing through until at the end of the journey we were certainly in 'Modern Japan' - tall buildings and dense living. The mountains never really seemed all that far away and there were plenty of tunnels along the journey.

We arrived in Kyoto at about 8pm, checked into the hotel (The Kyoto Brighton - a rather swish affair I must say) and then finally thought about getting some dinner. We'd bought some random sushi and a pork cutlet sandwich along the way, but the connections were short enough that we hadn't really thought too much about dinner ... deferring it until we arrived in Kyoto.

By the time that we completed the check in, organised ourselves and were ready to go out in search of food, preferring to look for something local rather than bankrupt ourselves at the hotel restaurants. It would seem that within a short walking distance of our hotel that there weren't too many options at that time of a Saturday night. We found one place that Caroline seemed to think would be ok, but as no-one else was particularly keen on it we searched further. We found a number of shrines and lots of tiny little businesses, but sadly none of them were of the 'we provide yummy nourishing food' variety. That just left big hotels with big prices. With Caroline having pushed her knee to the limits skiing our walking pace and distance were significantly reduced from   normal, we gave it up as a bust and retreated to a convenience store. 2 minute noodles, instant pasta (pasta soup to be precise) some strawberry jam and a loaf of bread was the answer. WEll, I say loaf of bread, but it was rather different from what we're used to. It consisted of about 8 slices, each approximately 2cm thick. It was like, I can't be bothered making a sandwich with two a piece of bread top and bottom, I'll just slice it less and have all the bread on the bottom! It certainly filled a hole.

The scratched-up dinner was consumed and the kids were content, but Caroline suggested that maybe some fries were in order to top off the day. I called dwon for room-service only to be greeted by a message that eventually got around to tell me that their services had finished for the night! What sort of big hotel has room service that finishes at 11pm on a Saturday night? I mean, the after hours menu is only on for 1 hour! Crazy.

I couldn't help but think that it was "Welcome to Kyoto, sorry we're closed." 

We retired for the evening with a plan to see what we could come up with in the morning.

Japan Adventures - Day 5

We went to bed last night with the promise of more snow overnight . We sure managed to get that. In fact when we went down to breakfast it was still snowing. It didn't stop all day. Sadly the snow was accompanied by a blistering gale of a breeze that made the skiing conditions less than ideal. That wasn't about to stop us though. Thomas and I headed out and braved the black run opposite where we are staying but by the time that we'd managed to navigate our way down through the drifts of snow we decided that there had to be a better run, but the next one that we tried sent us head on into the wind and as Thomas said, its not quite right when you have to skate-ski down the run.

We headed back to collect the late-starters, picking up Caroline Michael and Emily and headed over to where we thought there might be a bit more shelter. Apparently we picked wrong as Emily pointed out when she was being blown across the slope when she was just trying to stand there. Thomas' goggles had iced up and we headed for the nearest shelter for a bit of relief. At least there was some truly stunning scenery along the way.

That gave us time to further explore the wonders of Japanese vending machines and introduced us to the randomiser button! Not quite sure what you want to drink? Just hit the one with the question mark and get a random selection from the machine. I think the kids were disappointed when all that was spat out was a coke and a grape Fanta. 

We did eventually find a sheltered spot to ski, though it was a lot more work for us than it had been on the previous days. Of course that didn't stop Michael from zipping past us like we were standing still. Young bones, better skills and a whole lot less fear must be a nice thing to have while whipping down the mountain!

We did at least have a bit of fun when watching Michael and Thomas venture down through some deep powder, especially when Michael decided to completely lose it! It was a treat to watch, that's for sure. 

With conditions challenging we spent a bit more time indoors and this gave the kids a chance to indulge in sampling some almost random candy. So far, they've been well guided by the pictures and the bins haven't been lined by their contents.

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Slipperquette

Its taken me a few days to get used to it, but I think I've managed to adapt to the etiquette around the slippers. There's no wearing of shoes beyond entry to the room and once you're in the hotel, everyone pretty much gets around in the truly fashionable green slippers. 

About the only place that you don't wear them is into the toilet, because there you get to wear the even more fashionable blue slippers, appropriately labelled, toilet.

I'm sure that I've breached etiquette more than once, getting around without any shoes on or even just my socks. I may have even wandered out into the snow briefly with the green slippers on. I've only managed to deduce that it can't really be a hygiene thing, because they all get randomly changed around the place and everyone sticks their bare feet in them anyway. I know that I'm missing something but the amount of english spoken by the staff here is limited, so I haven't really bothered to get that deep into understanding why. 

I put it down to being part of the culture and have just tried to adapt. 

~~~~~~~

Tomorrow will see us say farewell to Shiga Kogen, the Shiga Aspen Hotel and the skiing as we head into civilisation in Kyoto. We were contemplating going to see the snow monkeys but with conditions forecast to be excellent tomorrow morning we may be skiing to the last possible minute!

With our departure, we'll be saying goodbye to the Carpenters, who have been played every day at breakfast time and the yodelling that gets played every night at dinner time. I might have to consider sending them some modern music. The closest that we've had to it was on the ski lift to day when Caroline, sitting with Michael, Thomas and I started asking us if we could hear the music as she hadn't noticed it on any of the previous rides. They were setting up for racing nearby and I thought perhaps it had something to do with that. Apparently it sounded a bit like Taylor Swift. We strained our ears and listened harder and as we neared the end of the ride, Caroline came to the realisation that it was coming from inside her jacket. Taylor had somehow started playing on her phone. It was rather amusing.

Japan Adventures - Day 4

Day 4 dawned with snow falling from the sky and some significant wind which didn't make for the greatest start to the day, but hey, who's going to complain about snow when you're skiing?

After a couple of runs whilst we all sorted ourselves out for the day (including Michael deciding that all these early starts were a bit much and procuring an extra hour's sleep after breakfast) we headed over the mountains to try and find some runs that were better sheltered than where we started. That was successful enough and soon we were exploring a nice little area with a few groups of trees and some left-over powder for us all to play in. 

It was during this little venture that the kids found a little but of a bump they decided to do some jumps off.  Thus began what I like to call Stackarama.

Michael was the first to go down, deciding that he'd try a 180, only to find that the lack of a descent on landing did nothing to help him and down he went. Thomas had a go at something that can only be called a half-hearted attempt at a 180 because he managed to get half way through it before panicking and backing out ... landing with his skis at 90 degrees to where they should be pointing. Not conducive to landing at all.

Even Sam wasn't immune, finding that the fact that what they were jumping off wasn't really all that ideal and managing to basically get it wrong and land with one ski pointing directly down at the snow. Man down!

It was at that point that we decided that if there were going to be jumps, perhaps they'd be better off in the terrain park where there were jumps actually designed for that sort of carry on.

(When it stopped snowing, the views were awesome)

We stopped for lunch first and a slight delay whilst Michael and I hunted down a good spot to eat saw Thomas, Emily and Sam clambering about in the snow. They managed to make a good start on a snowman before we dragged them off to eat. 

On our return from lunch there was a bit of an effort to finish it, but it was interrupted when someone (couldn't have been me) suggested to a nearby group of ski-school students that hurling a couple of snow balls at my kids wouldn't be discouraged. A playful and not very serious snowball fight erupted, with our kids having higher ground and Thomas taking great delight in being able to catch the snowballs and hurl them back again. I think both sides had plenty of fun!

That done we headed off to the terrain park to continue Stackarama. Michael was confident that with a well-prepared jump he'd pull off the 180, but apparently launched with too much speed. Half way through he reconsidered what he was going, attempted to undo what he'd started and instead went madly sprawling with skis and poles going everywhere. 

Thomas followed him and after jumping easily yesterday, must have decided that Stackarama was way too much fun to miss out on and crashed his landing instead, sending his skis and poles off in a good imitation of his older brother's. Sam was more circumspect, happy with his first contribution to Stackarama. Caroline and I chose not to participate; I don't think I'd quite bounce back up and go on skiing the way that the kids do. I still have scarred memories of pulling my calf on day one at Kicking Horse and having to listen to everyone tell me how good the skiing was. Instead I'm looking for a crash-free holiday. So far so good, even though I have have been getting a little more daring each day.

One of the very visible features around the Ichinose Family ski area is the man and varied ski-school participants. Each group skis around in matching outfits and most of them seem to well and truly be at the beginner level. Most of the time they are easily avoided, but every now and then you find yourself on a traverse or ripping down a green run to get to a lift only to find slow-moving snakes of far from confident skiers and boarders. Presented with this challenge on one narrow bit of green run, Emily decided to invent a bit of a new sport. Ski School Slalom. That's where you zip in and out of the snake of snow-ploughing learners, probably scaring the wits out of them, but having a bit of fun yourself. I must admit I did indulge a couple of times myself, but was at least kind enough to do it when they were well spread, not cutting the ends of their skis!

As we made our return trip over and around the mountains (its a good 1-1.5 hours work to get back as you navigate your way up various lifts and down runs to link back to where we started from) the weather started to come in. Initially we were above the cloud and presented with a fantastic view of the cloud down in the valleys. The closer to home we went, the lower the elevation. By the time that we were on the last run, we were well and truly in the thick of it. Visibility was down to tens of metres and Ski School Slalom was replaced with Ski-School Dodgems as groups of people would suddenly appear from the fog in front of you. 

(life above the clouds!)

Caroline and I gave it two runs before deciding that the effort of seeing at the top of the run really wasn't worth the pain and we called it a day.

Dinner beckoned and after booking in, Thomas gave the worried news that he'd seen them setting up and that it was starting to look a lot like the previous night's dinner. There are very few options other than to eat where we are once we're back for the day so we pressed ahead. 

It was a bit more successful than the previous night, though the tempura brought Michael unstuck when he thought he was getting a bit of capsicum and instead got a crab-stick. For a kid that doesn't eat seafood, it was a rude shock and I think it was ejected much quicker from his mouth  than it ever when in!

Now its time to rest up the legs for one final day on the slopes!

(Michael's new favourite drink)

Japan Adventures - Day 3

Today dawned with a lot of hope in the air. The sun was out, the wind was down and conditions were ideal for exploring the various mountains and ski-runs, which we proceeded to do with enthusiasm from all parties. A rare treat!

In fact, the skiing was so good that there was little in the way of complaint and predominantly consensus as to where we would go. Life was good. It's the way that I holiday is supposed to be. 

It was only around lunch time that we started to face our first challenge. Where to eat. We'd skied our way well away from where we were on the previous day and no one relished the prospect of skate-skiing back to where we had eaten the day previously. One of the less popular aspects of this series of resorts is that there's a number of up-hill traverses required to get between the different ski areas. Sam has been braving it all on my old skis which we should have had waxed on day 1, intended to get waxed on day 2 and have only actually managed to remember to have waxed ready for day 3. For a kid that likes to go fast, sticky skis weren't that enjoyable. 

Eventually we did find somewhere to eat, though the undulating terrain at various points meant that at times we had to go uphill; both ways! Sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch.

One of the things that the search for lunch did for us was strand us at a group of vending machines. Not really that uncommon over here, but we decided it was time for a drink. After almost everyone had chosen something I suggested that Thomas should pick some random Japanese drink and see how he fared. He went for the pink can with cute little characters plastered over it. Opening it presented pretty much the entire room with a sickly sweet grape aroma and upon drinking it, he found that it had little floating jelly bits in it. It was certainly different, but it was decided all in all that it was good and it didn't last too long.

This particular stop also brought back to front of mind the joy of star wars based toilet operating systems. I can't think of a time I encountered a toilet with more controls that an early video-game back home, but they're proving quite popular. It was Caroline that emerged from the rest rooms exclaiming with glee about the fact that she'd found the 'flushing sound' button. It literally didn't do anything other than make a flushing sound. Of course, such a discovery had to be witnessed and so I, and most of the family proceeded to file through the toilets to discover this marvel for ourselves! I haven't quite yet worked out what purpose it might serve (didn't stop me from taking a video though - I'll put that little treat on facebook).

(It said shower, but there was no way I was climbing in to try it out. I'll stick to the Onsen thanks.)

After lunch we hit the slopes again for what was in the main a very successful day of skiing. Finding the small terrain park helped with the moods as the kids tried out various jumps, rails and butter-boxes.

Stack of the day (at least the one that I witnessed) had to go to Michael on nearly the last run. Screaming down a nice black run he drifted a little too far to the side, found some powder, buried a tip and failed in the most spectacular of fashions. Skis, arms, legs and bits he possibly didn't even know he had went flailing through the air. One ski was buried to the binding and I swear there was a full-body vertical cart-wheel mid crash. Amazingly, he jumped up, ran back up the slope to his skis and was perfectly fine. I've told him a thousand times that if he's going to do something so spectacular that he should warn me so that I can get the video out, but no such luck. Kids are so disappointing some times! 

Thomas had a bit of a go, not quite nailing a rail and butt planting on it instead, but by comparison it was pretty tame. 

Emily has banned me from face-booking the video I managed to get of her first exploratory attempts in the powder, mainly because at the point that she entered the nice fresh bit she decided that eating it would be a better performance than skiing through it. She's sitting here as I write this, so we'll see if she relents and lets me share it at all. Apparently not.

We finished the day off with something of a cultural culinary extravaganza. All the nights that we've been here so far, dinner has been set out as a buffet which has enabled us to be as brave or not as we like in our dinner selections. Despite telling myself before I left that I would be adventurous this time round, I have definitely struggled when some of the more culturally unique items have been presented.

Tonight's dinner was beautifully presented though somewhat mixed in its success at tempting various members of the family to try it (me included). The tempura prawns were delightful, the fish yummy. The tofu burger didn't quite make it to my chopsticks (I was lucky enough to win extra prawns from the non fish eaters in the family) and I had to definitely draw the line at the bowl of 'stuff' that appeared to have been sneezed from somewhere deep in someone's gut. Caroline tells me it was mushroom and given that I don't eat them normally, these particular babies were never going to get the chance to assault my taste buds!

All seemed ready to be forgiven when the table next to us was presented with truly fantastic looking apple pie. With mouths watering, we waited patiently for ours to arrive (the strange jelly having been only partially successful at being devoured). Sadly it must have been a special order and we were left with mouths watering and hearts and hopes dashed. 

Now its time to relax in our furniture bereft room for the evening and see what Day 4 has in store for us.

Japan Adventures - Day 2

Today was the first day that we woke up on the mountain and ready to ski. After a beautiful fitful night's sleep on a luxurious rather thin mattress on the floor (it is Japan after all) with a downy, soft, fluffy concrete block of a pillow, we were looking forward to seeing if the muscles would remember how to go about the whole swishing down the mountain thing.

We'd cobbled together ski gear from friends and from our time in Canada (the kids seem to think that growing out of stuff that was bought 5 years ago was perfectly acceptable) and hired a few extra skis and boots as required. A trip outside and brief 'discussion' about where we were going lead to a ride up the nearest chair lift and a trip back down. 

We survived a whole half a run before the first catastrophe. The zip on the jacket that Emily was wearing decided to disintegrate. You can bet she was happy with that. The wind was up and it was snowing (as it had been all night) and it was far from the sort of conditions in which you want to ski with your jacket open. So after one run, Emily and I returned to the hotel to resolve that issue while Caroline and the boys enjoyed a quick run. 

Turns out that the jacket that Emily was furnished with wasn't quite as right as she thought it was when she was standing inside. I'm sure at least 5% of that had something to do with the fact that it was purple, which according to the little princess is the most evil of all colours. (Given the whole Barney the dinosaur thing its hard to argue!). Another trip inside (this time Caroline took her) managed to resolve the issue and we headed off to explore beyond the run that's immediately outside the front door.

One of the challenges of Shiga-Kogen and its surrounds is that there is a string of small ski areas that blend into one another. Its a double-edged sword. On the up side there's lots of different areas to explore, but on the down side, you have to do a lot of lift up, ski down, traverse, skate ski and the like to make your way around.

Caroline earned Emily's further ire when she insisted that we should go to the highest point that we could, 'Maybe we'll get above the clouds and have an amazing view.' Optimistic? Certainly. Successful. Not even close. We ended up right in the face of the wind in poor conditions with Emily now struggling with goggles that fogged up so much that she could 'only follow Sam and only if he is like a metre in front!' We know this, because it was stated with such passion and volume that there may well be a new myth about Shiga-Kogen. Something about a banshee in a pink helmet. 

A rest, a bit of food and another attempt to actually do some skiing found us further over the mountain in the Ichinose region. Sam claims that its poorly named, because his nose didn't itch once, but ran plenty. By the time that we'd made it that far, it was decided that the day wouldn't be survivable without a new pair of goggles (which Sam managed to score as the others were cascaded through the family) and some lunch. 

(Miracles - the sun is out!)

During lunch, something remarkable happened. The sun came out! With full bellies and buckets of sunshine, everyone's mood improved dramatically and we found a fun little run with a bit of powder on the side that gave everyone a chance to enjoy the skiing. It was good enough that we spent what time we could afford there before having to navigate our way back to home base. Sounds easy, but it took some time, some questions and probably more patience that we really had in reserve at that point, but we did eventually manage it.

(Leave the boys alone in the snow and the sun for a few mintues  and they'll be sure to entertain themselves)

After playing some cards and eating dinner it was time to tackle the cultural experience that is the Onsen. In this particular location the Onsen means communal *if sexually segregated) bathing. You can imagine how thrilled the kids were when we arrived to discover that not only did we have a shared bathroom (toilet) but that the only place where you can bathe is the Onsen. 

Caroline and Emily gave it a go late on the first night, coming back to report that whilst they'd managed to time it so that they had the place to themselves, the bath was so hot that they couldn't get much more than a couple of toes in it. That didn't bode well for me given how much higher Caroline's heat based pain threshold is than mine!

There's only so long you want to go without getting clean though, so I suggested to the boys that we give it a crack. Thomas was up to the challenge whilst Michael and Sam opted to wait for a time when there was less likely to be anyone there. I think its highly likely they were also happy to wait for a time when there'd be a whole lot less Dad present. 

(He may be brave enough to try on the robe, but the Onsen remains untested by this one)

So Thomas and I stoically approached the place and had a go, happy to find that the water wasn't quite as close to scalding as the women's had apparently been and that we could actually manage to immerse ourselves. We didn't last much longer than 5 minutes, but we did outlast one of the locals. I don't think I'm going to cool down until I manage to get out into the snow tomorrow!

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As a foot note, I must say that the whole beer from a vending machine in the hall is rather convenient, if perhaps not the greatest way to police consumption by minors!