March 26th, 2007
NISEKO
This is one main thing that really turns me off about Niseko, the weather. You can drive out for 3 hours and arrive only to have nearly the entire mountain shut down due to winds, then what are your options? Suck it up and ride the ice, or drive back. It's a hit and miss resort area, so for someone who has a week vacation planned there it's allright, because there's a good chance that you'll have at least one near epic day.
I drove out Terry and Jen the night before, and as is usually (always) the case with me, I got lost. Somehow found 2 dead ends and one wrong road before finally arriving at their hotel after 3 1/2 hrs of driving. The next morning it sounded like hard rain outside, but it was actually just melt, and wind. Adopting the "shoganai" attitude, and this being the only day we could ride together, we went for it. 4g for the lift ticket, and we got maybe 3 hrs of runs out of it. The only open area for us was the bottom 1/3 of Annupuri, so like the title says, worst day ever. Being spoiled here in Hokkaido with the deep snow, I'm not so into having to ride the ice like today, scrape out a turn, hold onto a tree in the wind, and curse the weather gods. On the bright side, I did find a pair of abandoned bling goggles in a gulley, so at least I made some money back on the lift ticket.
Off to an onsen afterwards, and apparantly miscommunicated with the front desk about it being seperate bath or mixed. Never having been in a mixed bath, I didnt want my friends first ever onsen to be co-ed and awkward. Sure enough though, as T and I sit down to crack a tin we look over to see a granny soaking a few metres away....
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