Japan 2019 - Day 12

Sadly today was about leaving the snow. With our skiing done and the holiday drawing toward its end, it is time to head to Tokyo. Most of the morning was spent packing everything back into our bags and arranging for the ski equipment to be shipped to the airport to await our final departure. 

Then, with snow falling once again, we trekked to the bus-stop to make our way back to Iiyama where we could catch the Shinkansen to Tokyo where there’s little doubt that Michael will be seeking out every claw game in existence.

When we made it to Iiyama, Caroline went to secure seats for us on the Shinkansen only to be informed that all the reserved seats had been taken, which meant we’d have to try our luck in the non-reserved free for all (along with a horde of other tourists departing the snow with their luggage). Given the fun we’ve had squeezing all our luggage onto trains where we’ve had reserved seating, we weren’t really looking forward to that challenge, but were quite lucky. We managed to board the train, find spots for our reduced number of bags and find seats within spitting distance of each other (not that we tested that proximity measure!)

There was simply so much snow in Nozawa Onsen and as we wandered around, there was one activity that seemed to be continuing endlessly. The clearing of snow. In all the snow-laden places I’ve visited, Nozawa Onsen was different in one manner – the amount of running water. One of the reasons there’s lots of public onsens is because the village is built on or over a fault line or the like. There’s clearly plenty of water and it is used to help manage the snow, with it being piped or hosed out over parking lots to melt it away. Thomas tested it and it’s not hot water, but it’s clearly above freezing.

With the volumes of snow that the place gets at times, its clear that they also work to move the snow continuously so that it doesn’t build up too much. In the four days were around the place over a metre of snow fell, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from walking about town. You even see people walking about on the roof tops moving the snow off them! No sign of any safety equipment, because you know, what could possibly go wrong walking around and on snow-covered roofs three storeys off the ground?

We left the snow the way we arrived in a heavily laden pack through falling snow, though notably the one thing that changed was that Sam was in long pants. While we were in Matsumoto he acquired a pair of tracksuit pants, currently the only pair of casual long pants he owns (to add to the suit he owns).

We alighted from the train in Ueno and then simply had to navigate our way to the hotel. We could catch a number of different trains or walk for about half an hour. The boys opted to walk while Caroline, Emily and I opted to go by train. We took the scenic route and the boys beat us by a comfortable margin. We only got on one train going the wrong way, mostly because it arrived just as we got to the platform and hadn’t quite worked out which way we were supposed to be going yet. We worked it out quickly though and got off at the very next station. Then we went a bit out of the way while walking from the station, but hey, we got here and that’s the main thing.

Having checked into the hotel, there were only two things on Michael’s mind. Food and claw machines, so we headed for Akihabara. We avoided the first lunch option (at 3:30pm mind you) which was looking like being Burger King and instead found a little basement restaurant where we managed to have a good feed. Then we hit Akihabara with all its noise and lights. Along the way i spotted a group of locals all hanging out at a local shrine, every single one of them looking at their phone. There was only one thing that could be going on. A Pokemon raid! Sam confirmed it and joined ... just for a little while.

When we hit Akihabara, we spent a while trawling through Yodabashi Camera and then the Sega entertainment store where there was three floors of claw machines. Three floors. 

Commence the spending of money. Michael flirted with a couple of machines and Emily took me on a tour pointing out all the anime characters that she knew. We agreed that if we were to play a machine that there was one figure that we’d go for. We didn’t drop any money though. We toured the rest of the place. Then Emily asked me for a hundred Yen. Even though she knew it was impossible to win the game with one shot, she had a go. Then I decided to have a go as well.

One of the surprising things about the place was that when you were seen to have spent some money and were stuck, the attendants would either give you a clue about what you should be doing or even re-position it so that its moved from a position that’s unlikely to proceed. I don’t think I can claim claw master status anymore because though I did indeed extract the toy from the machine, I had help three times! And I certainly spent more than it was worth to do so. Call me sucker.

When we managed to extract everyone from that shop we went, you guessed it, into another one. This time I resisted all temptation, but Caroline and Michael found a machine set to ‘easy mode’. They both one a plush Pokemon toy on their second attempts. By that time though it was definitely time for some dinner so we began the wonderful game of find somewhere to eat in Tokyo.

We found a couple of likely looking spots where they couldn’t fit us in and so kept going. We passed one place where the guy out the front touting tried hard to lure us in. We were reluctant, but he claimed they had an English menu and given it was yakitori, we decided to give it a go. We were ushered upstairs and squished into a corner and Caroline took on the role of food orderer.

There were a couple of items that we didn't order from the menu.

It started coming out and was suitably delicious. Two Japanese businessmen were sitting at the table adjacent to us and had a ridiculously large plate of fries delivered. We’d missed those on the menu and decided that we needed to add them to our order. We tried to discuss with them whether they had ordered more than one serve given the size of the plate and were told it was three. Based on that and the fact that we’d already ordered a heap of food, we ordered two for our table.

When they arrived, they appeared as big as the supposedly three serves. We chowed down happily. We’d just managed to get through them all when the second serve arrived. We nearly died. But we still ate them all. It would have been rude not to.

Michael's dumpling count: 105

Japan 2019 - Day 11

We weren’t sure what we’d wake up to this morning. After the massive dump of snow the day before, the forecast said that we potentially faced the same again. Fortunately when we did wake up, it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Given it was likely to be our last day skiing (unless we opt for a half day of skiing on the day we travel out from Nozawa Onsen).

 With the weather being as good as it was, and with better knowledge of the options to get back down the mountain I was willing to head up the gondola almost to the top. We’ve found Nozawa Onsen and odd spot for us to ski, mainly because finding a combination of runs to ski to suit the varying degrees of ability/willingness from a single lift has proven almost impossible. It meant that we decided to once again split the party after a brief flirtation with the runs near the top, with Emily and I skiing simpler stuff at the bottom of the mountain while Caroline and the boys skied all over the place. One of Caroline’s favourite runs basically involved skiing all the way from near the top to the very bottom of the mountain. True leg-testers given the distance involved.

We met up again late in the day and took the gondola back up and skied that run on our way out. It was hard to call it a day given that we have no idea if or when we’ll ski again, but the boys had to return their hire equipment and there really wasn’t anything all that desirable to ski from the lifts just up from our lodge. So call it a day we did.

We sorted out the ski gear and decided on somewhere to have dinner and walked into the village. Unfortunately when we arrived at the restaurant, we ran into a not uncommon problem. It was full and there were six of us. The place only had space for a bout 25 people, so we moved on and started to play one of my favourite ever games. Find somewhere to eat in Japan.

It’s a challenging game because of aligning the combination of a restaurant with space and more importantly, a menu that all six family members are willing to eat from can be a difficult task. Between some people wanting authentic Japanese (especially after pizza the night before) while others are happy to opt for French fries or rice, there’s no guarantees that we’ll satisfy peoples wants and desires.

So after wandering around the village for a good 45 minutes, surveying and rejecting menus or confirming a lack of space within those that looked promising, we ended up back where we’d started. Fortunately the people that had been occupying it when we first went to eat there had moved on and we were able to get seats. Fortified with dinner, spirits were revived and crepes for dessert helped.

On the way back we discussed the fact that we hadn’t yet been to any of the public onsens for which Nozawa Onsen is known. As our hotel had a small private onsen, we’d bathed there rather than leave the hotel to walk about in the cold and return again. We decided that we couldn’t leave without doing so though, so Caroline, Emily, Thomas and I set out to experience the public onsen.

We parted at the door, the girls going left while Thomas and I went right. Unlike the private onsens we’d used, there was only a single open area with storage spaces along the outer wall and the onsen in the middle, a small wall that you could see over dividing the two. In the private onsens, there are shower heads where you wash with hot water before getting into the pool. In this onsen there were only taps. I turned one on and waited for the water to get hot. It didn’t. The thought of pouring cold water over myself before getting into what we’d been warned was very hot (44C+) wasn’t appealing. Thomas was of course no wiser than I was. We were saved from that fate when a Japanese gentleman came in, stripped off, sat beside the onsen and scooped the water out over himself with a small tub. With that revelation, we joined in, finding out that the water was in fact bloody hot. When I thought I was going to be able to stand it, I set the tub aside and slipped into the onsen itself. And good lord was it freaking hot! I found that if I sat very very still I could stand it, but that if I moved even just a fraction, disturbing the water seemed to expose me to the heat anew. I lasted about five minutes before clambering from the water and towelling off.

I waited outside for Thomas and Caroline and Emily emerged shortly before he did, also remarking on how hot the water was. When Thomas joined us and we talked about how hot it was to sit in the water, the girls didn’t believe it. Apparently they’d found it so hot that beyond dipping feet in that hadn’t managed to get in the water! They told us that a heavily pregnant woman and small girl had managed to do so in front of them and had found that just a little humiliating that they hadn’t managed to handle the heat.

Michael’s Dumpling count: 105

Japan 2019 - Day 10

We woke this morning to find that it was still snowing. It wasn’t snowing again. It was snowing still. And it wasn’t snowing lightly either. I believe what they say is that it was puking snow. Apparently there was about 60cms dropped overnight. Visibility wasn’t all that great either.  On top of that I was feeling kind of broken. I was moving okay, but far from confident about getting out and trying anything reckless or even slightly adventurous. 

It meant that I let go of my desire to be on the mountain early and accepted a slow start, taking a stroll to a small Swiss bakery near our lodge to pick up some fresh bread for our breakfast. The bread wasn't ready, but he was just pulling some sourdough out of the oven. I grabbed two loaves and we scoffed them down. A big win to start the day.

Emily wasn’t enamoured of the conditions either, so she and I decided to stick together and basically ski a green run all day or at least until we got bored enough to stop. That’s pretty much what we did.

It didn’t stop snowing the entire time we were skiing and there was at least one point we were going up the lift and the snow was blowing upwards into our faces. It wasn’t particularly pleasant. Caroline and the boys set off to see what the rest of the mountain was like and managed to have a bit of fun, but we were all ready to call it a day reasonably early.

I did get to see Thomas head down one of the mad black runs late in the day and was quite impressed with the insanity. I think they days of even contemplating such a run if not already past me, will never eventuate. And I’m okay with that. I was happy to have managed to ski the day out and survive.

It made for tired legs at the end of the day and everyone was happy to head down to have pizza given it was just down the road. The boys weren’t quite sure why there was some need to add seaweed to their teriyaki chicken though!

Given there wasn’t much more than that to write about I thought I just add this little bit to today’s post:

On Japanese Toilets

I think I covered the toilets here pretty well over our last two trips to Japan, but I have to say that there’s always a new surprise around the corner. We were around the corner from our hotel at a shopping centre and I discovered this little bad-boy in the corner of the stall.

After all, if you’re a parent alone with your toddler and have a need come on, why not have somewhere secure to put them while you go about your business. I’m sure it wouldn’t be weird at all to have your young one watching the stress and strain of your face as you go about your business. Kudos for this being in the men’s toilets though. I can only assume they have them in the ladies as well.

Also, given we’re visiting in winter, I am totally appreciating the warmed toilet seats. And a happy bum is one with access to a warm get of water set to max!

The only other thing I’ve pondered while sitting the throne here this time around is just what people get up to in order to prompt a sign like this to be posted:

And finally, some advice for people thinking about skiing into deep powder territory and warnings about going off piste (Click to enlarge):

Michael’s dumpling count: 101

Japan 2019 - Day 9

Today was a ski day. With a brand new mountain to explore I expected everyone to up and buzzing, ready to go first thing in the morning. Apparently I didn’t communicate my expectations very well though. We were awoken by a message over the lodge’s intercom (didn’t even know it existed) that breakfast and coffee for those who had booked it. Given we hadn’t booked breakfast it was mostly just an annoyance. It was enough to get me roused and thinking about getting out and hitting the snow, injured or not.

Movement from the rest of the family wasn’t forthcoming so easily. As we hadn’t booked breakfast, that was something that we were going to have to organise, as well as collecting the skis we’d hired for the boys which were a good 15 minute walk away. In my mind, everyone would have been up and gunning to get on the slopes as close to the first lift opening as possible. Boy was I wrong! It meant that I was frustrated and angry by the time we were actually out the door and on our way (something akin to herding deranged and troublesome cats). One positive that came of it was discovering a little Swiss bakery not far from where we’re staying (close enough that carrying my skis there was a bit over the top).

I think we finally made it to the line for the Gondola some time well around 10am. Given how I was feeling post-crash, I wasn’t that keen on getting anywhere near the top of the mountain, especially without knowing what my options for getting down were. But there are things you do so that someone can get a photo from the top, so that’s where we went.

Being a grouchy old shit for the morning wasn’t the best start I’ve had to the day, but then we started skiing down. I was being cautious and skiing well within my limits. The family had stopped and waited for me and so I went to pull up with them. Now with six of us stopping on a run, there’s a fairly sizeable group to see. Apparently we weren’t big enough for one young snow boarder to see though. Even though I was practically stationary, he crashed straight into me, knocking me off my skis. It hurt like a bitch. It wasn’t like he hit me particularly hard, but given the extent of how I was feeling from my crash from several days before, I was done. I appreciate the irony between me clipping a snowboarder and being hit by one. By I only clipped the guys board. This little bugger cleaned me up. Even Thomas who witnessed the whole thing couldn’t understand how he’d managed to plough straight into me. I was done.

Emily and I proceeded down the mountain where we skied a nice easy green run for awhile before breaking for lunch. I managed a little more skiing in the afternoon, but was struggling to lift my left foot enough to turn properly so we called it a day.

Surprisingly the rest of the tribe weren’t far behind us and so Caroline, Thomas and I decided to explore the village a little in pursuit of happy hour supplies ahead of dinner which I’d booked at a Japanese BBQ restaurant.

One of the delights we discovered were steamed apple buns at Haus St. Anton. Warm, tasty, delicious and perfect for a nice cold afternoon.

As we were leaving for dinner, someone suggested that we might like to take an umbrella because a bit of light rain was falling. We opted not to take umbrellas because the rain was minimal, but any rain when you’re in the snow isn’t a good thing.

Having enjoyed our Japanese BBQ, we stepped back outside to see that the light rain had become heavy snow. It was pumping. The apple buns we’d tried earlier in the day were good enough that we decided it was worth a walk up the street to give them another taste, then we just had to walk all the way back to the hotel in the pumping snow, slowly turning to snowmen along the way.

Japan 2019 - Day 8

(More pics to be added when the crank the wifi speed again - apparently it hits a slow down about this time of night!)

Today was all about the castle. After being in town for three nights it was time to actually go and see the inside. Now the thing about castles is that some of them are an utter let down. Depending on what has been preserved inside or the state of repair/disrepair. Matsumoto Castle was not a letdown.

Part of the plan for the castle was to take Emily to a local shop where you can hire a kimono and dress her up so that she could wear it during our tour. Unfortunately in waiting until Tuesday so that the Museum would be open, we’d waited a day too long and the kimono hire shop turned out to be closed on Tuesdays. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

We passed through the gates of the castle and proceeded inside where we were required to take our shoes off, which isn’t unusual, but we weren’t provided with any alternative footwear. Other than the fact that it was about 2C it wasn’t really a problem. The interior of the castle was quite amazing, though most of the levels had been left open rather than with the screens that would have walled off certain portions of it into walls. It enabled you to see right through the floor level but not really comprehend what the layout would have been like when it was lived in. There was a significant firearms display throughout the castle that had been donated by a single collector. An impressive collection too!

The steps were steep and that’s where the lack of a kimono was a blessing. There was no way Emily would have been able to ascend or descend the stairs in a kimono, especially the flight near the top that were at about 61 degrees and about 30cm up for each step! Clearly they were built for defending from above rather than the convenience of those who actually had to use them nor to any modern building code.

It was quite a windy day and being cold, by the time that we’d reached the top floor, my feet had turned to ice. Not a comfortable feeling at the best of times and with the way my feet are currently it didn’t encourage you to hang around for too long.

We trekked back down the stairs and checked out the museum before setting out for our next ski-leg in Nozawa Onsen. That involved trains to Nagano (where we again lunched at Mi Do Ri (and replaced the backup cutlet)) and to Iiyama then a bus up to Nozawa Onsen.

First thing after checking in was hiring skis for the boys and with that tackled, we opted for dinner at a burger place that was about 15m from the door of the lodge because we were all pretty knackered. Other than them running out of chips (much to Emily’s disgust) it was tasty.

A quick visit to the onsen and we were ready to hit the sack ready for another tilt at skiing in the morning.

Oh and completely related to nothing, this is Caroline getting her very first vending machine hot chocolate!

Michael’s dumpling count = 101

Japan 2019 - Day 7

(Pictures to follow)

We basically had no plans for today. Entry to Matsumoto castle gains you entry to the co-located museum, but the museum isn’t open on Monday’s so we decided to leave that tour for the following day.

What we did put on the agenda for the day was a meal at a nice soba restaurant, a stroll around the castle at sunset, a trip to the local Aeon mall and collection of a pair of shoes.

Before we left Adelaide this time, I tried to reassure myself that we wouldn’t be doing a couple of things in Japan:

1.       Trooping all over Tokyo for shoes and

2.       Trawling through electronic shops for either laptops, tablets or phones.

The main basis of the first one was that last time we were here, despite the fact that the shoes were significantly cheaper (especially those like Timberland and Merrell boots) the sizing seemed to drop out about the point where my foot size began. Given the boys have similar sized feet, I thought we’d ruled it out. But early in our time in Matsumoto we stumbled across a shoe store and Thomas tried on a pair of boots. Depending on your view point (fortunately or unfortunately), they fitted. Sadly the one pair that they had in that size had a stain on them. They rang another store and they had one pair left. We didn’t immediately set out to get them but put that off. Today was the day that we decided to fit it into the schedule.

We walked to the Aeon mall after a lazy start to the day (we seem to be good at those when we’re not skiing) where we first stumbled on a stationary section and secondly found … claw machines. We managed not to get too caught up in that madness and kept exploring the mall. It’s a mall. There’s not a lot to talk about other than the pet shop full of adorable puppies. Oh and the fact that they had a section where I could get Japanese Whiskey without paying tax! Because we have to carry it around for the rest of the trip I settled for two bottles at this stage.

We had a late lunch and by the time that was done, realised that we were pushing things uphill if we were to get to the castle at sunset (like it simply wouldn’t happen). Thomas was frustrated because the shoe shop was in the opposite direction and he thought he was going to miss out on his shoes. Tensions were rising but we set out for the castle anyway. We didn’t make it for sunset, but we did catch the fading light and the castle was still spectacular. It just left us with a decision. Walk to the shoe shop that closed at 8pm prior to dinner or try and defer it a day.

We split the party. Caroline, Thomas and I set out for the shoe shop while Michael, Sam and Emily went back to the hotel.  Navigating somewhere you’ve never been before without everyone having access to the internet or good maps while all having different opinions about which direction you’re supposed to be going is a good recipe for rising tensions. We made it to the shop though and they had Thomas’ shoes so we chalk that up as a win. The fact that we’d already walked about 17kms for the day and that it was 3.5kms back to the hotel wasn’t so attractive to our aching feet. So we caught our first ever taxi in Japan. The shoe store manager was kind enough to call them. All it cost me was a pair of gloves because I wasn’t cold enough in the cab to realise I’d left them in the store.

Sam had booked us in to a Soba restaurant so we met the other half of the family there. Other than the fact that there was nothing on the menu that Emily was willing to eat and only one item (other than the sake) that Michael was willing to eat, the meal was excellent. It would have been the perfect time for the backup cutlet*, but alas, it hadn’t made it thus far and hasn’t yet been replaced! It was nice to have found a local speciality restaurant and to have eaten there rather than in a family style restaurant like we had the previous two evenings (even if there were no gyoza).

We headed back to the hotel and picked up some food for Emily at the supermarket next door, including a piece of cake that was apparently delightful.

Michael’s dumpling count: 85

*The backup cutlet.

When we travelled from Nagano to Madarao, we bought lunch at the Mi Do Ri as I noted at the time. One of the items that we bought was Pork Cutlets. Essentially it’s a pork schnitzel that is a delightfully tasty. They were cheaper in pairs, so we ended up with one that had no designated owner. We saved it because at some point someone was going to be hungry. It made it all the way to Madarao with us and Caroline arranged for the staff at the lodge put it in their fridge for us. Each time we stopped to eat either lunch or dinner, if someone ordered something that may not have lived up to expectations the offer was always made … there’s always the cutlet back at the lodge if you’re hungry. And so it became designated the backup cutlet. Unbelievably, the cutlet survived until our day of departure where it was eaten before it went off rather than through any actual need.

Michael’s dumpling count: 85

Japan 2019 - Day 6

I have a lot more photos to add to this, but need to transfer them from the camera rather than my phone. And technology isn't playing nice with me at this point. Anyway ... day 6 ...

After a long day yesterday, we had a bit of a sleep in ahead of a day of exploring Matsumoto. There were a number of sites that weren’t going to be open on Monday, so we decided to cram as many of them in as we could. With a route around town mapped out we set out first for the MatsumotoCity Museum of Art  which houses a collection by the polka dot famous artist Yayoi Kusama  and spent a couple of hours wandering around the exhibits.

We stopped by an old well

(nice 30 second diversion there) and proceeded to the Museum of Weights and Measures. 

Not something I’d come to town just to see, but somewhat interesting. It would probably be more so if there was more English available but I’m not going to hold that against them given we’re in Japan. The rear of the property was probably as cool to see as the things inside.

It’s located on Nakamachi Street which is recommended as one of the things to do, so we strolled the length of it, admiring the street’s aesthetics and peeking in shop windows.

That took us close to the Time-piece museum, but after the weights and measures we decided to give it a miss. We did admire there nice big pendulum clock out the front though. 

That took us close to Nawate Street so we had another stroll along there with Sam stopping to buy some Takoyaki to try. No one that tried them was a particular fan. I wasn’t feeling 100% so opted out on this occasion. I might give it a go in Akihabara when I can get some hot from a pan rather than reheated.

Our last two stops for the day were the Takahashi Family Residence, an actual Samaurai’s house from back in the day.

And from there, we walked over to the Kaichi Gakko Primary School, one of the oldest elementary schools in Japan having been completed in 1876, which again, had some English, but certainly not full translations of the amount if information available in Japanese. It certainly makes you wish you could read the language! Possibly the most interesting item in the school was an old pair of ice skates. Imagine getting out on a frozen lake on these babies!

What we did find at the school though was a vending machine (apparently added sometime after construction) with just the drink that I needed:

With the list of scenic diversions ticked off, we headed back to the centre of town because Thomas wanted to try some shoes on that he’d seen the day before. While Thomas, Emily and Caroline looked at shoes, Michael and Sam decided to check out the claw machines on the top floor. I tagged along with them because well, shoes vs claw machines, right?

There were maybe 40 of these machines and we wandered around looking at them, watching people throwing their money into them when an attendant came up and gave us each a voucher for one free try. Well that started a different discussion altogether about the merits of the different machines and the chances of winning any of them with a single try. Michael and I agreed that we’d have a go at one that scooped ping pong balls and dropped them into a tray where two of the receptacles were coloured to indicate a win. Michael went first and failed, but I stepped up to the plate and managed to dump several balls in and won. Given that the prizes in the machine were photos of K-Pop stars, I opted to let Michael pick and keep it.

We watched a young Japanese guy work his way around the machines, pumping money in but slowly and successfully winning prizes, but we didn’t spend any money. I found the rest of the family and they came up as well, each collecting their voucher for a free go. 

By the time that those had been used, something had happened. Michael had decided he should try and get the rest of the K-pop band and Thomas and Emily had set their sights on anime figurines. Out came the money. Emily managed to move the box she had to collect closer to the drop point, but with her last couple of attempts, failed. She was crumbling under pressure. And that’s when they get you. You’ve invested money, got it close and with just a little more … surely success would be yours. Into the breach I stepped, dropping some money in and taking over. 7 tries later, we had nice little dust collector for Emily. She was happy as and I am now the self-declared claw-master of the family. Seeing that didn’t help deter Thomas, but to be honest I think what he was chasing was a lost cause. Michael managed to obtain one more member of his K-Pop band, but that was all. We managed to extract ourselves before we’d dumped ALL our coin in the machines and now I just have to find a way to keep the kids away from the other four billion machines in Japan!

Japan 2019 - Day 5

When the kids don’t oblige by giving you something to write about sometimes you just have to go out and do it yourself. That’s why this update is a little delayed, but I’ll get to that later.

We woke up yesterday to another bluebird day as they say, with the sun shining and blue skies over the ski fields. It was our last day in Madarao and we were only going to be able to ski for half of it before we had to negotiate our way to our next destination, Matsumoto. We packed, made sure everything was right for our departure, then made our way out to the slopes where the weather was truly gorgeous.

I decided that if I was going to do a speed run, I’d be best of doing it early in the day so I went for it on the first run. Now I think I wrote two years ago about the dangers of knowing how fast you’re going and the desire to push the boundaries. I’d told myself before this trip that I wasn’t going to worry about topping that last trip. But speed is a drug. On that first run of the day I got to the bottom and my watch told me my max speed was 98km/hr and I didn’t feel like I’d taken the fastest route down. It was teasing me, 2km/hr short of three figures. I had to give it another go. Just one more. How good would 100km/hr look? I decided to find out.

I went straight down the mountain, a drop of 1km in a minute on the run I was skiing on. I’d waited until it was virtually clear of everyone, but it only takes one person in the wrong place at the wrong time for things to go wrong. I was flying down, well clear of the few people that were in front of me when I noticed a snowboarder moving across the mountain in front of me, not really going down, just traversing. I started angling to get around in front of him, thinking that as we were getting close to the edge of the run that he was likely to turn or simply head back the other way. But he kept coming. I angled further away. Still he came on. At the speed I was going, there really was only a second or so in which to make a decision and I decided to keep going around the front of him rather than try and turn to go behind him which I would have done had I not been going so fast.

I clipped the front of his snowboard.

Now there’s no video of what transpired next and clearly I wasn’t in a position to process what was going on at the time. At about 95km/hr I’ve clipped the snowboard and come unstuck. Things went very wrong. If I try and put the scene in my head in words, picture an ageing, not very flexible rag doll spinning and pinwheeling about three axes, smashing into the snow, skis immediately unclipping and coming to a halt in slow motion as the rag doll tumbles another twenty metres or so down the mountain.

I came to a stop, conscious and in pain. The immediate and most noticeable pain was my right arm. I looked at it and my elbow was at ninety degrees in the direction it normally is, but my fingers felt like they were reaching out in a straight line from the elbow! It took me half a second to process that. My arm hurt like all hells and my fingers felt like there were in a position that when I looked, there were none. My immediate thought was that I’d broken my arm and it was hanging at ninety degrees to where it should be.

As a manly Aussie bloke I did what anyone else would do. I took a breath, calmly continued to inspect my arm and waited to see if it was truly done.  I yelled like all the demons of hell were chasing me!

At this point I should say that I actually feel sorry for the snow-boarder whom I clipped. It must have scared the proverbial out of him to have me come through at that speed. And he and his companion were kind enough to make their way down to me with my skis and wait with me. They didn’t speak English but they waited calmly.

I lay in the snow and pictured the rest of my holiday … a ride down the mountain with the ski-patrol, a trip to hospital, dealing with insurance … it wasn’t looking great. I had no idea what to do other than lay in the snow and wait for the ski-patrol so didn’t do much more, but did manage to rein in the howling as the pain ebbed somewhat.

Fortunately as I lay there something started to happen. Where my fingers felt they were started to align with where they actually were. Then I wiggled them! Funny how such a simple thing could be so relieving. I made a fist gently and after a couple of minutes could even move my elbow. I managed to get my, helmet off (glad that I always ski with one too!) and even managed to stand up as the ski patrol and an English speaking local arrived.

Apparently the local guy had heard me screaming from the nearby chair lift and had guided the ski-patrol to me. I’m very thankful for that if embarrassed at the fact that he said you were very loud. Such a subtle understatement. Happy that I wasn’t broken too badly and would live, I waved them away and managed to ski down to where the family waited (though noted just as I skied off that Michael had just run up the last 100m of the run to where I had crashed!).

I was shaken, in pain, but okay. My elbow was weak, but I soldiered on, got on the lift and went to the top of the mountain again. I managed to ski down cautiously and it was good enough that I kept skiing most of the morning. 

I wasn’t a lot of use with the packing, but we sorted ourselves out and managed to get on the bus where I was reminded of how lucky I actually was by the English bloke that had been working as a snowboarding instructor but was on his way home with a broken collar bone.

 We made our way to Matsumoto via a bus and a couple of trains and checked into the hotel. The joy of booking hotels on line is that you never really know what you’re getting if you haven’t stayed there before. We’re in a Premier Cabin Hotel and I have to say, the rooms remind me of cruise ship cabins only perhaps smaller. Finding out that the room for four people consists of two double beds is always a joy for housing four children. We’ll survive, we will survive.

We headed out after settling in (and down after the room discovery) to have a bit of a look around town and find some dinner. We walked down an alley where we found out where all the birds in Mastumoto go at dusk, then along a couple of beautifully lit streets and found a truly quaint little bookshop apparently propped up between its modern cousins.

We kept going until we found ourselves at the castle and had an exterior preview ahead of touring the interior in the next couple of days.

We then had the task of finding dinner which was starting to turn into a Tokyo 2015 affair. With time ticking away and no great success things were getting a bit tense and to be honest, I wasn’t feeling all that great which I put down to concussion. We were on our way back to the hotel so that I could lie down when we stumbled across a reasonable looking place with a big dumpling sign out the front. I agreed to sit through the joy of watching everyone eat and within moments we were inside and perusing the menu. Let’s just say that when there was an offering of 30 dumplings, Michael was sold on what he was eating!

Though by the end of things, after giving all of four away, he wasn’t looking quite as keen as he had been at the start of the affair.

With everyone fed we retired to the hotel early to try and get some sleep.

Michael's dumpling count: 85