Friday, Jan 13, 2012

Skiing 2

Update on Hakuba.

This is our last day, and I have actually finished, although the two boys remain on the slopes.  My knee has held out over the week and I certainly do not want to push things too far.

The whole resort is good – Hakuba-One, Hakuba 47, Goryu, Iwatake and Cortina (although why anyone would want to name a skifield after a very in distinguished car, I don’t know!

The weather has continues to be good – enough snowfall, but plenty of sunshine.  No crowds!!!  We have never had to wait more than a few seconds for a lift, and although the conditions are great, very few pele seem to be taking advantage of it.

The hotel has been excellent, about 100m to walk to the nearest lift.  We’ve eaten a variety of Japanese food, much of it excellent also.  Our day “off” skiing was spent going to see the snow- monkeys (macaques who have learned to keep warm in winter by using the hot springs!) and the biggest Buddhist temple in Japan.

So overall a great holiday so far.

Tuesday, Jan 10, 2012

Japan skiing

The Australian Coulsheds are currently in Japan, skiing in Hakuba.  A year ago our trip to Niseko was almost the first thing that went on this website.  So a year later here we are again.  Well not quite: Hakuba is a lot further south. One of it’s attractions is that it is only a 90-minute Shinkansen ride from Tokyo station (plus an hour’s bus ride to the hotel), instead of a flight to Sapporo then a three-hour bus ride to Niseko from the airport.Hakuba is much less Australian, which may seem an odd thing to say, but not after you have experienced the wall-to-wall Aussies in Niseko!  It’s also much less cold, and the sunshine is welcome.  We’ve had good weather here and excellent snow.  I (David) have had to greatly restrict what skiing that I can do, because of my recent leg injury and then more recent surgery.  However by just doing a small amount, only on very smooth slopes, and concentrating on the best technique that I am capable of, I have been able to avoid any worsening of my knee problems (I think).  What has been even more amazing is that after the new year holiday period was over (5th Jan) almost everyone seemed to leave, and the slopes have been almost deserted.  Ski lifts almost to ourselves.  Absolutely no wait for cable-cars.  Pistes completely empty in front of us.  No ice.  Fresh snow.

We’ll happily come here again!

So, here we are.

David Skiing

Sue skiing

Nick snowboarding