Adventures of Trent & Jane

 While the first few days had a bit of a scrambly feel to them, due to the wind keeping the upper lifts closed, the last few have been seemingly quite relaxed. The wind dropped and the upper lifts are operating which means we can move from resort to resort on the hill. One of the side benefits is the busses are less busy so are easier to use. It continues to snow, there is always a layer of new powder every day. Sometimes only a few inches but sometimes a foot or more. With the upper lifts going it is easy to reach a whole new playing field! Trees and steep pitches. There is another benefit, there are fewer lower level skiers/boarders up high.   The other bonus to the lighter wind is we can actually see what is around us. It’s a little disturbing to learn that the world is bigger than you imagined. It’s kind of funny to see buildings right nearby or beside the road that you didn’t know were there because of the conditions. The weather is breaking and we can see for miles from ...

 Trent is having a great time celebrating his 70th.  We went to Hazanozo and found some great powder in Stawberry fields. This felt like KoPow. For his Japanese birthday (16 hours ahead) we headed for an onsen. (Mineral springs), this is a mixed onsen so we could soak together, lucky we where the only ones there.  found amazing pizza for lunch.  We headed into HIRAFU and stopped at a couple of wine bars and had French fusion for supper. A very nice restaurant with a range of dishes. Jane had local duck and I had local venison. There are a lot of deer around here. We chose a Japanese wine for dinner, very full bodied red with taste of berries. They have a lot of wineries in Japan, even here on Hokkaido. Who knew? The French wine here is amazing since the in the 50s the emperor loved it. Apparently he was a huge Burgundy fan, there are really excellent wines from my favourite areas in France. The other  surprise is the amount of olives on menus, never associated...

 Early to rise. We are doing ok with the time change with the only anomaly being we wake up really early. Usually between 6:30 and 7. It has some advantages though, breakfast is from 7 till 9 and the lifts open at 8:30. The daylight time here is a little weird, the sun comes up around 7 and sets around 4:30. It takes a little getting used to to have it pitch black at 5:30 in the evening. Another day on the slopes. More fresh snow! They have a lot of specialty equipment for moving snow. Small, relatively,they look like mini Zambonis with teeth,  snow blowers then there are front end loaders with specialized blades and then there are these: It seems we hit the perfect storm! Apparently today is the Monday of a long weekend, the wind is high so many of the lifts are closed, there was an accident on the highway to Hanazono so the road is closed. The result is; - one lower lift at Annapuri running, we met some people from our resort coming back from there at around 10, who said it ...

 We have made it to the lovely area to Niseko for our first week of skiing.  The valley is located 2 hours from Sapporo, we had contemplated renting a car but heard the roads could be hazardous so chose an airport shuttle and glad we did.  It was like driving to Fernie a single lane road on a snow covered road  with 4ft snow banks and no shoulders.  We didn’t get pictures as the bus was fogged up!  It took a while to get to the stop as it was raining and the uphill road had turned to ice, the bus made it halfway and then had to back down and take a run for it, driver did excellent but added to the excitement.   We are staying at a lovely pension, the Chalet Banff, in the Sunshine room, how ironic, bit in Japan they would say we have good luck Our first day of skiing was near the resort.  Snow was nice and soft on the groomed runs we found a few runs with deeper snow and enjoyed them as well.   Learning the bus system which takes a few tries b...

 It seems there are differing opinions on Tokyo. I like it, Jane not as much.  Although we are neither of us big on large cities, this one seems a little different to me. Busy, but not obnoxious. Crowded, but not claustrophobic. Old, but somehow young.  There are several different areas, all once upon a time, separate cities. Each has a character very separate from the other. Hard to explain that part! Lots of activity, lots of food, lots of shopping, lots of bars etc. in the day it’s all tourists and sightseeing, or so it seems. At night everyone comes out to play.  Well enough of that BS. Ask me about it later. We enjoyed food, a Kabuki and Ninja show and a couple Guru Walk tours.  This one was to the Shinto Shrine dedicated to the late emperor Meiji. He was the person who opened Japan to the west. They refer to it as the Meiji Restoration. He brought Japan into the mainstream of the world, introducing the Japanese to wesrern culture, and introducing the world...

 Kon’nichiwa from Japan!  It was a while in coming and we weren’t really sure it would be real but we made it, skis and all. Three nights in Tokyo for starters. Long flight, some generalized confusion but we got the skis shipped to Nisekoat the airport and made our way to the Shinjuku Prince Hotel. Shinjuku is supposed to be a lively location with plenty of food and nightlife. We tried to stay awake as long as we could to get over the lag so we wandered a bit. Lots of restaurants and bars within walking distance. A bite to eat, some wandering then to bed, tomorrow is another day! Good morning, after a pretty good sleep, made it to 7:30, so feeling pretty good. Had a time finding breakfast since things are arranged differently here. The 7/11 can provide but not what we are looking for. We do have a schedule you know, there is a Guru Walk booked this morning so we have to get there. As an aside, the 7/11 has ATMs. Only 1% service fee, not bad! Since they are everywhere it makes ...

 Happy New Year,  We have been busy since returning from Europe.   In August we celebrated our extra daughter’s wedding, cheers Christine and Blake.   Then off to Victoria for Wyatt’s (Great Nephew) 4th birthday In October we bought our new home, a bungalow in High River.   We were happy to unload the container and put down some roots.  We hosted Christmas Eve and had 12 family and friends come, great time had by all.  Today we are off on Trent’s 70 birthday trip to Japan!