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Saturday, December 30, 2006
Trip to Nisseko (15th - 24th December 2006)
Day 0 - Singapore - Narita- Haneda - Chitose (Sapporo) Airport - Prince hotel
Weather : Snowing
Arrived in the evening, tired but relieved. Was shocked to discover that hotel room only had one table and NO BEDS. After hunting around the room, found some mattresses in the cupboard n proceeded to lay them out. 1 hour later hotel people came to make beds for us :) Me, chris n yang2 occupied one room, parents n cons in other. Rented equipment from good sports and had a very nice buffet dinner at hotel. Steak n sashimi. Mmm. Slept like a log.
Day 1 - Yang2 learns to snowboard
Weather : Snowing
Y2 attended morning lessons. Did not learn much other than how to put on board. I went to explore hirafu side with the rest but did not go to peak as snowing heavily and windy up there. Met for lunch, rested in hotel room, and went to slopes to teach y2 how to pendulum down beginner run, just outside hotel (night skiing). Also lay in snow and enjoyed the flakes coming down. More steak and sashimi, and some tempura for dinner. Slept like a hog.
Day 2 - Char goes to the Onsen
Weather : Clear
Morning buffet breakfast - discovered the joys of "egg boiled in hot spring" and how to operate toast machine. Taught yy how to glide with one leg out of the board, then practised getting off ski chairs. Spent the day practising penduluming and trying out turns on beginner run. Established that y2 is DEFINITELY regular. Y2 gaining confidence on the slopes. Did not snow so ground was slightly harder, but y2 persisted despite the falls. Exhausted but happy. Had coffee break at other hotel. After coffee break at hotel, brought him up the orange chair to green run with a slight cat track in front, but flat otherwise. Other than cat track, could handle it well. Also had a very nice lunch at that hotel. Met mom and cons there. Generous portions, giant pork cutlet. Had dinner at hotel, scallop sashimi yumm. After dinner, yy wanted to practice so we went back on the slopes for an hour or so, and he started to link turns after introduction of the pointing method.
Met dad coming up from onsen and we decided to try it out. Took off contacts and went there, was quite lost at first due to partial blindness but figured things out, got a basket, strip, and jump into indoor pool. Followed people thru door to discover outdoor pool. Unfortunately no nice view like guy's one. Cannot moon people. But very relaxing. Removes aches n pains, especially bad whiplash that i got on day 1. Slept VERY well.
Day 3 - We go higher
Weather : Clear
After another scrumptious breakfast + coffee break, brought a quivery y2 up the quad chair. Did a VERY nice run called silver birch - lots of soft powder, green run, not steep at all, with slight levelling at the end. Also very quiet run, nice change from beginner slope. Best of all, yy had ample practice of gliding on "cattrack" (flat bit at the end) and became pro at it. Did a few times and had a very nice lunch at the ace pair hut. Ate their shrimp pasta and also shared a fish and chips with yy. We were ravenous! Went onsen after and discovered that I can just bathe there, then go back and sleep. Did just that :)
Day 4 - Exploring new ground / Cons Birthday
Weather : Clear
After the usual scrumptious eggy breakfast, booked tmr's horse riding at the reception. Parents + cons left early to go on their tour - snowshoe up mt yotei the volcano, visit sake brewery n museums etc. Went with uncle and another family to prince side, by taking quad chair up then hike over. Was easy green runs over there, but the last part cat tracks was quite difficult for yy and we ended up taking off board to walk. Sadly, the other family's younger son fractured his wrist and our party was more than halved after lunch. Went to rest at hotel and then went back for night skiing. Y2 practised very hard on beginner run and was able to link turns very well at the end of the day. After onsen, decided to try more of the local cuisine so went to eat at big cliff, barbeque food. Yum!
Day 5 - Horseriding!!
Weather : Snowy
Woke up to beautiful snowing outside the window. Had an early breakfast, dressed up in longjohns + jeans + boots. Y2 spotted a "cowboy" like guy at the lobby and he fetched us to the horse riding village. We got to borrow cowboy hats n i chose a bright orange one. They had quite a few horses and they were very well-groomed and furry. Liked mashu in particular, a light brown colored horse who was HUGE. The top of my head only goes to his withers. In the end decided that y2 would ride robbie, a pretty dun -colored, 5 year old, and i went for a 12 year old dark brown horse shayan. They led us around the arena a few times to get the feel of stopping and turning etc, then we went to the "forest". The trail had quite a lot of up hill and down hill slopes, and we had to be on our guard as there was a lot of tempting bamboo shoots around, which the horses would suddenly stoop down to eat. Y2 suddenly called us to stop and when we turned around, was shocked to see him almost drooping out of the saddle. Apparently the girth had not been properly secured and the whole saddle was falling off! Problem was quickly remedied and we proceeded forth at a glacial pace. This guy ran around taking photos of us which we got to choose n print later. Also met the two pet goat wearing "labrador retriever" collars. Have pics of yang2 with the two goats :) Also got to pat the white shire horse, and the ponies in the other enclosure, including a 20 year old "dasanko" original japanese breed, and another piebald one that looked like a shetland pony.
Went back to hotel and took a nap, then did a bit of practising. Tried a red slope called centro on the other side of the quad chair from silver birch. Y2 could go down by penduluming. Mostly stuck to the green runs and took it easy as we were still quite tired. Had dinner at hotel, then went to souvenir shop to get some gifts. Shared a miso ramen in the store next door, was delicious if abit oily. We also got T-shirts for ourselves - a pink one for me that said fantastic snow, and a brown one for him with snowboarders, same as dad's. Very nice. Got a panda for mf and a owl phone chain for wl. Tired and did not go onsen that night.
Day 6 - Horsebite, not Frostbite
Weather : Light snow / clear
Went over to the hanazono side with dad, chris, and y2. Was a lot quieter at this side, and the snow was very good! Discovered the powder areas of hanazono, especially this very nice run called stairway to heaven. Aptly named, indeed! Even y2 thoroughly enjoyed it and we went down it quite a few times. There was an asahi beer tent set up and this guy was giving free samples of vodka - we went back twice :) Really hit the spot! Made us feel warm and fuzzy in the cold :) After that yours truly could not resist the horses at the bottom of the slope and ended up with a horsebite from an unpleasant albino horse, while the others had a wild time snow mobiling. Fortunately i was wearing 4 layers of clothing and the bite did not break the skin, but it left a bruise and teeth marks on my chest. However, that did not dampen my spirits and after many threats of horse sashimi, we continued to enjoy the hanazono side. Did night skiing with dad n y2 also - very enjoyable. Went up quad chair and took in the night lights, but it was a bit foggy and could not really see that night. Onsen and bed.
Day 7 - Grand Finale
Weather : Snowing heavily
As if to bid us a final adieu, it was snowing heavily when we woke up and after a hurried breakfast we elatedly made our way over to the hanazono side to take full advantage of the extremely thick powder. Dad, cons, chris, y2 and i had a fun time going down the red runs, but after 2 times cons and dad went back to try the prince side. Chris, y2 and i met uncle n family n joined them snow mobiling. I found it quite difficult to manoveur and ran into the bushes a few times, and my hands were burning at the end of it despite wearing gloves. Was being lapped by everyone.. Y2 was very sweet and stayed with me. After that we made a few more laps down and just managed to get back to the other side. By now, y2 had no problems going down red runs and could even link turns on them. We went back down jumbo, then down the king's bell side back to hirafu. It was really fantastic snow as it was snowing heavily the whole time. At the bottom, me n y2 took a toilet break n tried to get dad to come ski with us, but he was tired and he just went to the onsen, so we continued on ourselves a few more times down the quad chair runs. Could even see some night lights. Was really happy n enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, as even the usually icy bits of the runs were layered generously with snow. Had a last dinner buffet at hotel and a last onsen, packed our stuff n went to bed.
Day 8 - Prince Hotel - Chitose - Narita - Singapore
Weather : Heavy snow
Woken up at 3.30am to catch the 4am bus to chitose, then a 6.30 flight to narita. Our plane was held up as it was snowing heavily and the hotel only opened at 6am, and they had to desnow our plane. Almost didn't make the narita - singapore flight, had to run thru the airport. Our baggage was left behind but managed to recover it on christmas day. Had a good flight, and came back tired. Sent y2 home then came back to bathe and sleep. Had a thoroughly enjoyable, memorable trip. Thank you God!
Labels: Vacation
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