I recently spent Christmas with some friends in Hokkaido, the northern-most island of Japan.
Of the 8 of us going to Hokkaido, 5 of us decided to take the more environmentally friendly travel option and train it to Niseko, and thus spent pretty much all of Sat 22nd of Dec travelling. Our journey involved taking 4 trains (5 if you count the subway from Myoden - my station - to Tokyo Station) and travelling through the Seikan Tunnel, the 54km long tunnel joining Hokkaido to Honshu island.
Witness my amazing Paint skillz.
While the journey was a long one, it was actually rather enjoyable, as we had good company and cards, books, music and most importantly, many beeru. Plus, the scenery on the way up was amazing, as it got snowier and snowier. Some pics from the journey north:
This shot would be better if you couldn't see my camera reflection in the glass *grumblegrumble*.
All up, from the time Jasmine and I left the house to the time we stepped in the door of the lodge, we'd been travelling for around 12 hours. Needless to say, by about hour 6 we were becoming restless. I submit to you exhibit A - "Scarf Communication"
On the two-car train from Oshamambe to Niseko, Jasmine first dared Kerry that she couldn't climb onto the luggage rack of the train. When this didn't really work on Kerry, she then dared Chris that he couldn't climb up faster than Kerry. Thus I present Exhibit B - Kerry and Chris in the luggage rack.
Upon arriving at Niseko station it was snowing!!
Thus we had the obligatory first snowball fight while waiting to be picked up by the people from the lodge.We stayed at Black Diamond Lodge, which I think all of us would highly recommend - they drove us to onsens, convinis, helped organise our rentals, and were able to help us with any queries we had. Plus they had a hot tub.... but more on that later.
This is the scene we awoke to the next day:
So much snow!! Needless to say I was very excited. After eating a huge breakfast (need to keep your energy up while skiing - that was my reasoning for the large amount of apple strudel I ate. Oh! Another thing - the Brits (all 7 of the people I was travelling with) didn't know what apple strudel was. Surely they should have more of an idea than me?) and organising our ski gear ("Does this ski suit make me look fat?" "Yay! Rainbow ski poles!"), we were off!Now, everyone I travelled with had had SOME exposure to skiing/snowboarding - this exposure varied from "a little but I'm a ridiculously fast learner" to "I feel like part of me is missing when I take my snowboard off". My skiing experience was somewhere around "which ski goes on my left foot". Once this little problem was sorted out, and I had a ski on each foot, the right way around, my sensei Nicole taught me how to stop. I'm not sure I'd ever used those muscles before. We then caught a ski lift up to a fun a quarter of the way up the mountain, cause where else to learn to ski but down a really steep slope! Needless to say I ended up walking down a great deal of it.
Anyway, for most of the first day I just practiced sliding on my arse down some quite steep slopes (honestly, I tried walking down, slipped and slid most of the way down, and realised this was actually a much better way to get down). My only big mishap (there were MANY small mishaps) occurred when I failed to dismount a ski lift (it was a solo lift, so there was no one there to tell me when to stand up!) and in a panic jumped a metre or so down to the ground, skis still on, and landed with a thud (and yes, apparently a scream) in the soft snow. Apparently to those who saw it (ALL of my friends, who'd gone just ahead of me) it was simultaneously hilarious and terrifying, as they couldn't see where the ground was and so thought I was jumping into an abyss. I managed to eventually get up, with most of my pride intact (although they stopped the ski lift for me, how embarrassing), and shaking a little.
Me decked out in my ski gear - oh yeah, green ski glasses, ooh baby.
Dave and Nicole - aren't they adorable?
Mt Yotei - on the clear days every time I saw this I wanted to take another picture - have SO many photos of this damn mountain. Oh, it's actually a volcano!
On Christmas Eve we had a huge Christmas dinner, with the other guests staying at the lodge. First time I've had a hot Christmas dinner (that I can remember), so was quite strange! There was soo much food, and so delicious.
The group at Christmas dinner (me with my mouth fool - classy. And I swear I can't help but make the V sign when I get a photo taken now, curse you Japan!). From left: Pete, Kerry, Jasmine, Chris, Ian, me, Nicole and Dave.
Chris at the end of his mammoth meal, exhibiting the "It's only wafer-thin" mentality.
We also swapped Secret Santa presents - I got a neck warmer from Kerry, perhaps the most useful present I've been given EVER! For some reason I decided to wear it on my head. Clearly not used to this whole "winter" thing.
Jasmine and the devils and angels on her shoulders.
After dinner we went for a (apparently) traditional Christmas dinner walk, to light the sparklers Jasmine received.
Invisible Bikes?
Christmas morning - we woke up to see it snowing! It was like a dream! So I took Beaker on his first walk outside in many months, and buried him in the snow.
I took this photo on Christmas Day, shortly after having a high speed crash down a run. I'd seen this beautiful shot on the way up on the ski lift, and luckily managed to stop (albeit rather dramatically) at pretty much the right spot). I think my favourite shot, ever. Snow is so pretty.
So we basically spent Christmas Day and the 4 or 5 days surrounding it skiing/snowboarding, and visiting the onsen nearby (they had an amazing outdoor pool, surrounded by snow-covered rocks. Best way to end a day of skiing, soaking in an onsen surrounded by snow) or the hot tub outside the lodge (to get to it you had to walk up snow-steps and then metal steps without your feet getting stuck) to soothe aching muscles. On the first night we used the hot tub Nicole lost a tub-wide game of Janken, and so had to make a snow angel in her swimsuit. I was intrigued by this (given my relatively little exposure to snow), and so by the end of the week I too had made one. Snow is cold. Very cold.Dave and Nicole disappearing into the fog on our last day of skiing.
You see many interesting things on the slopes:
Don't we look freakin' cool?
Creepy trees in the fog, halfway down a run.
On the last night we did some night skiing, as the snow was very powdery, and so much more fun to ski on (plus our confidence was up - I think my best skiing was definitely the last night). While going down the run Dave found a spot in which these three coloured lights made some very pretty shadows.
Finally after a long hard day of skiing, we went for a hearty ramen dinner.
Kerry guards her ramen:
On the last full day in Hokkaido, while the others continued skiing/snowboarding, Dave, Nicole and I visited the town of Otaru, about 30 minutes from Sapporo. Otaru is a port town, and has done a lot of trade with Russia, and so many of the signs in the town were in Russian.
Snow-covered landscape on the way to Otaru.
One of the main attractions of Otaru is it's canal.
Also a very nice temple at the top of a hill.
And shrines.
And mirror-plaques, photos of which look quite cool, like we've floating text around our heads.
There were many Western-style buildings in Otaru. This one I thought could have doubled for something from The Addams Family.
For lunch we had sashimi - cause you just have to in Hokkaido. This was tuna (the dark red at the top), salmon (pink), some type of fish egg (middle) and some type of white fish, on a bowl of sea weed and rice. The light green stuff is wasabi.
And so it was we spent our last day in Hokkaido gallivanting around a small port town, eating sashimi, drinking coffee and eating chocolate cake, watching glass-blowing and posing in churches.
And that was the end of our holiday! Or so we thought.
The next day we were supposed to start out 12 hour long train journey home at 9:30am, from Niseko station. However, it was an absolutely horrid day, raining and windy, and there was a train derailment at one of the stations we were supposed to pass through. So we ended up stuck at Oshamambe for 2 hours while they organised buses to take us to Hakodate, then stuck on a hot stuffy bus for another 2 hours (actually we got to see a lot more Hokkaido landscape). So we missed all our connecting trains we had reserved seats on, but luckily managed to scavenge seats on the trains we were able to catch, leaving Hakodate around 5pm with 6 hours left to travel. Jasmine and I stepped in the door of Kettle House at around 12:30, making it 15 hours we'd been in transit. Thank god for good company!
