Well I’ve skipped out on the blog a few weeks now, but I promise to write about everything I’ve been up to in the next couple blogs. It may be a little out of order though.
So, right now we are out of classes for a few weeks for winter break. Last week, I went with two friends, Lisa and Yaeeun, to Nagano for a skiing get away. If you didn’t know, Nagano is where the 1998 Olympic Winter games were held, so it was awesome going there to ski. It was absolutely beautiful!
We took a night bus (which is very common for trips across Japan) on Monday night and arrived Tuesday morning. It was pretty funny, because we booked our trip a few days before we went, so none of us really knew the exact details of the trip, so when we were dropped off at the edge of our ski resort’s town, Nozawa Onsen, we had no idea where to go, and it was snowing like crazy… We looked like a couple of fools walking through the snow without any of our gear on.
We finally found our hotel (old Japanese Style hotel called Genbe) where you take off your shoes at the door, and wear slippers throughout the building. The rooms have no beds when you walk in, just a small table in the middle. The table, a kotatsu, is low, wooden frame covered by a heavy blanket, on top of which is a table top. These are very common in to have in family rooms because they keep you warm in the winter, since many houses, hotels, and buildings in Japan don’t have central heating. Oh, and since there are no beds, you would open the closet to find your bedding and futons.
We skied for three days straight on the trip, which made us extremely sore. I was even more sore, because I was skiing with two girls that have gone skiing almost every year since they were about 5 years old, so their ability is far superior to mine… and let’s just say, they didn’t quite realize my lack of ability so the first day I managed to fall down the mountain… Ha. I was so sore that night and the next day.
Me falling down the mountain...
Also, everything on the mountain and the skiing gear is very similar to what you would find in Colorado ski resorts. The only difference is the food and drinks, which is primarily Japanese-style cuisine. And, I don’t think there were any places for beer, at the top of the mountain, like you always find in Colorado. Otherwise I really felt like I was skiing in Breckenridge, until I would hear someone yell in Japanese and then I remembered where I actually was.
After skiing each night, we returned to our hotel, showered, and had an amazing dinner which the inn keeper made for all of the guests. It was very traditional Japanese food, but it was so delicious. We made plans to go out on the town the first night, but after eating so much, and sitting under the warm kotatsu, we crashed by like 7:00. Each morning we were awaken by the inn keeper over the intercom for breakfast at 7:30, so I guess it worked out that we went to bed so early. The breakfast were also very different than American, but so delicious. Then, after breakfast, we’d go upstairs and sit under the kotatsu more, before heading out to ski.
Dinner Day One
Dinner Day Two
But, I must mention, I was with two fluent Japanese speakers, which helped out with arranging all of the trip details, and communicating with the inn keeper. However, one morning, we were just hanging out… and I guess here is the conversation that took place between Yaeeun and I. (She is from Korea)… so not an English native speaker.
Me: “Wow look at this view of the mountains out the window, and sitting under this warm koFAtsu… it doesn’t get much better than this.”
Yaeeun: “It’s koTAtsu, you blonde dumb!”
Me: “It’s DUMB blonde, Yaeeun!”
Yaeeun: “It’s koTAtsu, you blonde dumb!”
Me: “It’s DUMB blonde, Yaeeun!”
Haha, the mixups between two people with different native language are always funny.
Sorry again, for leaving you all without posts to read for about a month. I will update again in a few days. Happy New Year to everyone, and I'll see you in less than 2 weeks! =]
With all of my love from Japan,
