Today wasn’t exactly a planned day. By the time we rolled
into Nagano last night it was about 10:30. Fortunately we’d booked a hotel that
was within walking distance of the train station (like 200m tops). We wrangled
the luggage and a well-tired group into the hotel and tried to work out what
the following day would look like. We needed to end up at our destination, Madarao,
but the timing of transport and the need for sleep were competing to determine
whether there was likely to be any skiing when we arrived.
With some of our ski gear approaching a venerable age, we
needed to procure some goggles and figured we’d have a better chance at finding
the balance between price and quality in Nagano than we would on the mountain, especially
as we hadn’t been up here before to know what was available. That meant
delaying departure until the shop opened at least. Then there was the question
of Shinkansen versus local train (17 mins vs 50ish mins). None of us were
capable of planning out such things after the epic day of travel we’d had. So
we slept on it.
This morning we scrambled the troops, left the luggage at
the hotel and ventured out in search of breakfast and goggles.
Train stations tend to be well populated with take-away food
options around here, so we headed in the direction of the station (especially given
it was so close) and wandered into the Mi Do Ri that is attached to it and
found a bakery. After all but inhaling the food (though I passed on the pizza with broccoli) we found the local sports store,
bought some goggles* (yeah, of course it was as simple as that – not).
Next to the sports shop and conveniently located for a
little peek was a Don Quijote (a
discount store) where you can buy just about anything:
Food, electronics, makeup, luggage, toys, clothes, funny costumes … the list
goes on. We weren’t really looking for anything, but sometimes its just nice to
appreciate the fact that if you’re caught short, there’ somewhere to buy your
next fix of purple sweet potato flavoured kit kat, or if you’re thirst, a handy
four litre bottle of whiskey!
And when they say funny costumes, they’re not kidding, especially
if you head into the tiny back corner on the very top level, the one that you
have to pass through a curtain with a big 18 on in order to access it (as opposed to the general public merchandise pictured above). That’s where
things can get very interesting. As tempted as I am to go into details, I won’t,
that might spoil the surprise for you if you ever happen to head into one. I
won’t even mention that a member of our party may or may not have, out of a sense
of burning curiosity bought a souvenir. I certainly wouldn’t be so crass as to
post a photo of it!
I didn’t even getting a pillow upon which to rest my weary
head as we travelled around.
With the fun of the Don out of the way, we headed into the
train station, determined that the slow ride to Madarao was going to work best
for us (as it gave us a chance to actually buy some lunch to eat on the way).
So we whisked back through the food section of the Mi Do Ri, grabbing some
sushi, some pork cutlets and for Michael, mandatory
gyoza. Having successfully managed that we boarded the train and headed up into
the mountains.
There was no snow on the ground in Nagano this time (there was
the last two times we were here this time of year) but fortunately as we
ascended any concern about snow volumes was quickly left behind. The view
became whiter as we climbed the mountain and it snowed pretty steadily all day.
We checked into our accommodation, waiting patiently for the
group of about 20 checking out to actually leave so that there’d be room for us
to get our luggage in. Then we thought we should do something about hiring skis
for the boys. One of the guys that we’d had to wait patiently for had been kind
enough to hand over two lift passes and so Caroline and Emily headed out for a
quick ski while I navigated the ski hire with the boys. It turned out to be pretty
easy given that Madarao appears heavily populated with Aussies.
We were booked into a place two doors down for dinner and
once again it turned out to be a quite small little restaurant, but it did a
roaring trade. Dinner was a mixture of western and local cuisine with Sam and I
opting for burgers, Emily for chips and karaage and Caroline and Thomas for soba
and sashimi. Michael had dumplings. Michael’s penchant for dumplings led to me challenging
him over dinner to keep a holiday dumpling count. I’ll keep you updated.
Now we’re back at the hotel, ready for an early night so
that we can hit the slopes tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a bit of sun and a lot
of fun.
*The purchase of goggles involves
a) us spending money and
b) kids (adult or otherwise) that
have opinions about the sort of quality that they’re going to get and the
actual practicality and functionality of said goggles in the expected snow
conditions.
a) the tight arse criteria of the
parents and
b) the needs, wants and desires
of offspring
is not a task for the faint of heart and involves much
haggling, whining, demanding and occasionally begging. Being such old hands at
this we the parents clearly come out of top of such transactions. Hah!
Michael's dumpling count: 40
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