Attack of the Clones and other stories

Japan is truly a fascinating country, with many extremes. One of them being on the hand the non-existing insulation in buildings, and thus perpetual cold but on the other hand, boy do they know how to build heaters when then need to! This is what I call a heater, or perhaps more properly a portable furnace.

Pretty sure you could melt the one ring with this.

The population of Japan is approximately 127 million, and it's falling steadily since the death rate exceeds the birth rate since 2008 while the average age increases. Currently more than 26% of the population is over 65, by 2060 estimates are that the population will have decreased to 86 million, and over 40% of the population will be over 65. The details in the figures varies from source to source, but the trends are clear. The population is aging, and decreasing.

Easily fixed you think, just like all other industrialized nations have with similar issues, by immigration. Here's the problem, the net immigration to Japan is zero, 0, nil, zilch. There's no increase in sight due to popular and political perceptions of Japan as "one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race". Yup, you read that right. One race. 

In fact it's easily seen as a visitor. In all western industrialized countries I've visited, including Sweden, there's a large number of immigrants doing various kinds of works. Here in Japan, everyone is Japanese. The bosses, the drivers, the cooks, the cleaners, the doctors, everyone.

I don't know what will happen, but one thing is for sure. Something will have change, either to keep other things as they are, or because of inevitability. In fact, the next decade might be the last chance to see the Japan that was.

It's kind of interesting to see how they work with large groups. Everyone gets kitted with essentially identical gear, including skis and clothes. Then, each one wears a bib with a number on it and as far as I can tell they with few exceptions ride the lifts in numerical order! Talk about organized.

Hotel gears up to equip a legion of clones.

I've seen one really terrible incident where a snowboarder rammed another one from behind at very, very high speed and stopped to help as best as I could. Not sure what happened with the guy being hit, I think he was pretty badly injured and most likely suffered a severe whiplash.

Yesterday, I missed the actual accident, but I was waved down by another bystander to help out with a Japanese snowboarder who probably had broken his hand. I put up my skis (my bindings and tails are not really made to put them in a cross easily, but I think I've got this figured out for next time), took off his snowboard, covered him up in my goose down jacket to keep him warm while waiting for the ski patrol. They arrived pretty quickly actually, although I'm not sure how they intended to get him down. He was in real pain, and I don't think sitting on a snowmobile would work. Anyway, the ski patrol took over and I left, as he appeared to be taken care of.

The snow patrol in action!

Today was another almost rest day, as there was essentially a hail thunderstorm during morning, and continued strong wind. I did get up one lift, but everything else was closed. On the good side any snow at this time is good snow, and I did get to ski-in to the hotel!

Ski-in and ski-out today!

The language is often a strong communication barrier, but some business owners know how to get down to the bare essentials needed. Cow, bird, pig, beer, stairs, open. That's all that you need to know!

One sign says it all.