Life in Japan: Skiing in Shiga Kogen

Last weekend we celebrated MLK weekend by taking our first ski trip since arriving back in Japan. We went to the Nagano area, which was the location of the 1998 winter Olympics. The resort we stayed at is called Shiga Kogen. It is a huge area with many, many ski runs. We left our house Friday night (Saturday morning) at 1am and joined the Kanto Ski Club on a bus. After driving all night we arrived at our hotel at 730am and checked into our room. It was a Japanese style hotel so our room was tatami mat with futons on the floor. There was a small bathroom with a toilet. There was not a shower or bathtub in the room but there was an onsen (Japanese hot bath) on the lobby floor. The view outside the window was beautiful. The hotel was in the heart of the Shiga Kogen area and we could walk to the ski lifts. After checking into our room we had breakfast in the hotel. The breakfast was great with a mix of western style (eggs, sausage, hash browns) and Japanese (miso soup, rice, smoked fish, seaweed, natto beans) so there was something for everyone. Our hotel was right on the mountain and we were able to take a short walk to the ski lifts. The mountain directly behind us had green (beginner) slopes so we went directly to it. This was Madeleine's first time to ski so Vanessa and I did our best to teach her how to snow plow. She did great. After spending all morning teaching Madeleine we were all exhausted so we went back to the hotel for lunch. We had ramen noodles which are great on a cold day! After lunch we went back out and explored the area around the hotel. We had a fun time playing in the snow. The weather was great the whole time we were there. Lots of snow on the ground and it snowed every day so we had lots of fresh powder. After a wonderful dinner, we slept well that night. The next day we headed back out after breakfast. Madeleine showed great improvement so we tackled another mountain. She was a little intimidated by some of the steep slopes but by the end of the day she was starting to turn pretty well and we all had fun. We did what we called "family ski time" where we held hands with Maddie in the middle and skied together. We had a few "family falls" but overall did some pretty good skiing. The last day, we stayed on the mountain behind our hotel. Madeleine was really skiing well at this point and was pretty much on her own. At the top of the lift, the run is fairly steep but Maddie decided she would go it alone. She headed down the hill and got going very fast. She ended up turning but was going so fast she got scared and couldn't slow down. She managed to turn uphill and head to a snow bank where she finally fell down. It freaked her out a little but I'm proud to say that she "got back on the horse" and it wasn't long before she was back in fine form. We went up and down that mountain more times that I can remember! In the afternoon we loaded up our gear, checked out of the hotel and got back on the bus. We returned home about 10pm. Upon reflection, Vanessa and I got our snow legs back after a ten year hiatus of skiing and Madeleine learned how to ski so it was a really great trip. We loved the snow and look forward to our next ski trip at the end of the month. Enjoy the pictures!