Snow and Noodles

So now I've finally skied in Japan. However it seems to be my destiny to hit the winter of the century, in the wrong way, wherever I go. Last year in Italy was terrible as a winter, although of course I did have lots of fantastic skiing.

This year in Japan we're missing a base of perhaps 2-3 meters that should have been here now. There is snow, but since we're mostly skiing below the tree line the undergrowth that should have been buried is not which makes some parts impassable and others tricky.

Today was a relatively short day on the slopes, checking out the Akakura Onsen and Akakura Kanko systems and noting that a lot of skiing that should have been good was hard or impossible to get at. We did have an option to hike above the lifts, but we really did not feel like making tracks in 60 cm of new snow all the way, so we're hoping someone else will do the hard work for us in a day or two. The plan for tomorrow is to visit Myoko Suginohara and see what it has to offer for us and our guests.

Our primary job in Japan will of course to be provide the best possible skiing and service to the Active Ski guests arriving shortly, and then for a total of 4 groups. I'm here with Linus, who for the first part of the season will be the primary guide since he knows the area, and I do not. Yet. That will soon change!

Since Linus also is fluent in Japanese, the communication is easier, and we're also doing some immersing into the onsen culture, which are the warm baths Myoko is also famous for. They are heated naturally and the water is according to Japanese standards of excellent quality which means there's quite a high content of sulphur in the water.

The food is of course also great, and we've had various kinds of ramen soups as well as rice based meals. The breakfast was a bit of a surprise, it was an excellent buffet of many, many kinds of Japanese dishes both warm and cold. Not a traditional continental breakfast, but I liked it. At home I stick to a lacto ovo vegetarian diet with a few exceptions, but I early on made a decision to relax that a bit while in Japan. It's simply not really possible to be strict with that, not only because I don't speak Japanese. More, it's a case of lost in translation in the sense that the concept just doesn't really translate. Sure, they do have some vegetarian dishes, but you'll never know just what was put in the bouillon for example, because they don't see the point in keeping it strictly vegetarian. I do try to stay off the pork and beef though by not choosing dishes where this is advertised as a main ingredient.

Best so far was a small family run Udon place, which is managed by the same couple since about 1987. Udon is a typically thick wheat noodle, served in a broth with various additions. To drink with that, plum liquor of course! Really tasty and very nice with hot soup when it's really humid and chilly in the air. Also, restaurants here serve simple but great food but the buildings are not quite up to the standards we're used to. No real doors, and single pane windows that don't really shut that close either. In some places it's quite cold inside the houses in fact.

Linus is trying out the Plum liquor