Kurodake pt iii

APRIL 22nd, 2007

KURODAKE

Off to "Black Mountain" after a night of Wrestlemania festivities. I love that I'm 30 yrs old now but I can still do this crap.

Worst Day Ever - Niseko

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....

Kiroro's Face Shots

MONDAY, MARCH 19th, 2007

KIRORO SNOW WORLD

JJ talked me into making the Monday bus trip and full day out to Kiroro. This season we've had nothing but great days out here, and with snow all day Sunday we knew it would be good. Weekdays on ski hills in Japan are great, especially in mid to late March, when many people consider it "spring time". This label doesnt work here in Hokkaido, as Spring doesnt really hit until May here, whereas its warming up now already in Osaka and Tokyo.

My penchant for cutting things as close as possible almost made this day not happen. I was on the subway by 753, changed trains, got to Sapp Station, ran with a board on my back to the JR ticket counter, argued that he was mistakenly overcharging me, then ran to the bus stop by 808, bus leaves at 810am! I only sweat for the first 10 minutes of the bus ride, then life was good. The deal is only 5300yen ($55), includes 90 minute bus ride there and back, full day lift ticket, and a hot spring after.

Kiroro didnt disappoint yet again. There were a few Irish folk with us as well as JJ's GF. The Irish guys were just happy to have a little snow on the groomers, and when we pulled Ed into the trees for the deep stuff he was overwhelmed. Once again we stayed at the Nakamine area of Kiroro exclusively. The tree runs along the runs A, B, and C (original titles I know) were all stellar, but we soon couldnt hold off any longer and had to go into "the stash". We thought of alot cruder names for it last time with Sherri, but they can't be typed here. We rode from 1015 right until 430pm, and probably couldve spent another 2 full hours finding more and more untracked lines, there was that much.

The last run was the one though, the one where you can lean onto your back leg and just surf through perfect powder. Its our 'ski-out' route dropping down onto the wave course, and the perfect ending to the day. Actually the best thing after a full on day like this, is the onsen after, having a nice long hot soak, then a beer on the bus ride home while nodding off... solid day.

Teine's Deep and Steeps

THURSDAY, MARCH 15th, 2007

TEINE HIGHLAND

The snow has come back to this part of the world, and FF convinced me to make use of it. Hokkaido's snow in March can range from dry/perfect snow, to wet-unstable-layered snow, to rain falling and just drenching you before you can even find out the snow quality.

Up at 6am to dig out the Civic, then get my gear all strapped on, then pick up FF at the subway. We actually made it to Teine in pretty good time, by 910. Unfortunately, the ropeway still wasnt running. No reason was given, it wasn't the wind (it was almost non existant), but may have been too much snow at the top. The ropeway is getting pretty old, and there are times when the car gets to the top station where it drags against the snowbanks.

FF is still getting his bearings on the sticks so he bolted off to hit the groomers which were pretty good today too. I met a guy named Jerry from the UK and we ended up riding together for a few hours, turns out we have a mutual friend who used to live here. Good guy, showed me a lot of stashes on the hill. There was so much snow today, couldnt really go wrong. When the ropeway did open at 11, we bombed through the bowls but with 10-15 Gaijin on the hill it only took 15 minutes for it to be pretty run over.

The 4 hours pass(at about $36 is both a great deal and a great idea) ran out by 115. Just perfect to tire yourself out for 4 hours, rather than like in Canada, where you can either pay $80 for a full day, or $60 for a half day starting at 1pm when all the soft snow is long gone... I dropped Double F at his nearby station and he dropped his garbage into my car, nice guy that kid. Drove up to Otaru to my classrooms and a two hour company parking spot treasure hunt, before 3 classes of parent observations. At least it was a good morning....

AsahiDake

What a weekend yet again, up in the 'Kawa.

After lugging my boarding gear and avy gear through two subways and a mob of muppets to get to the bus stop at Sapporo station.... I missed it by 10 seconds.
I rushed up to the vending machine to buy my bus ticket (yes, everything you must buy at a vending machine, dont ask questions, this is good system yes?), and it took awhile to process, causing me to miss it by seconds. The next one isnt for 30 minutes. Well, the Bus Helper Man agreed to let me leave my gear nearby while I fetched some food.

As I get back up for the 630 bus, I realize that I have no idea where that bus ticket went after I purchased it. Its gone, vanished. I question whether or not I actually pulled it out of the machine in my haste. So I pleaded my case to deaf ears, first to the Bus Helper Guy, then to the Robotic Window Mic Lady. The Guy told me just get on the bus and look for it on there. I took his advice, but when I got to the Kawa 2hrs later, I still hadnt found it. I fair and square paid for that ticket, and was ripping NOBODY off, but the bus driver and his offloader chased me down and demanded an extra $20. I objected, bowed, bowed deeper, apologized, and believed that by being honest I would be ok. After a tense 10 minutes where I pretended to have no idea what they were saying in Japanese and pleading, they grunted and turned away.

The rest of the evening turned into a blur, booze and catching up with the rest of the BK. We entered the twilight zone though later on, around 1am when walking to the Den. A random drunk(was he?) disturbed man was yelling obscenities to us in Japanese, then mumbling, then blocking our path even. In the end a soft shove dropped him and we ignored him the rest of the walk down the center street. We could hear him yelling still.... it turns out though, that the yells were actually at our other friend who was walking 2 blocks behind us, and the disturbed man actually pulled a pocket knife out on our friend! Thankfully he was ok and escaped..

Well onto the riding. We got out to Asahidake by 9 or 10, but the ropeway was closed due to high winds. Adake is the highest mountain (and an active volcano) in all of Hokkaido. It gets some very harsh weather. We hiked up a ridge to play a little, then checked in again... by noon the ropeway opened and we were on our way. From the top, we hiked up and to the right to get to one of a few great (but dangerous) avalanche bowls. Most of us were at least equipped with the gear, and had transceivers all on and working. The ride was amazing, deep turns, soft, and lots of room to open it up a bit. We rode the lift up one more time and hiked up to the next bowl for our last run, and it didnt disappoint either.

The afternoon I had planned to rip back to the city for hockey, but instead ended up visiting my buddy with a busted femur for 5 hrs or so, then caught the train back, home by 11pm. Even the train ride was a pain, with old couples sprawled out taking up double the seats until I dropped the hammer on that plan.

Unfortunately had to cancel on my Monday plans with some friends, but I was mentally and physically tired and starting to get sick... full on weekend.

Kiroros stash

Kiroro is usually known as being 'flat', but this season it's been one of my favourites. Took the great bus deal out there (includes the bus there, full day lift ticket, onsen after, and bus ride home where you can fal asleep) a few mondays this season with JJ and Hardcore. HC provided some classic falls and turtle like stuck moments, while JJ did his best tree dodging impressions.

We did find one amazing stash of powder (am I going to reveal it here? hell no) that we repeatedly raped (its just a phrase) over and over. Amazing snow, great tree run galore. For the final run of the day JJ and I pulled a traverse over to some uncharted territory and found THE exit run of the year.

All told, amazing days out there and a great onsen to top it off every time!

Kamui Shiri Dake

FEBRUARY 4th, 2007

KAMUI SHIRI DAKE

Today was a day out with the "hard core old timers" hiking group in Asahikawa. They're a group of very active 40-60 somethings who are weekend warriors, regardless of the challenge or the weather. Some of my trips with them the past 3 years have been up Tomuraushi Dake, Asahidake, SandanYama, Tokachi Dake, Yotei Zan, and today we were slated to go up a lesser "hill", Kamui Shiri Dake.

The group was HUGE today, 17 in all I think. I was the only foreigner again, but its good practice for Japanese. Its also good practice for my second hand smoking, since most puff on 3 dollar packs of Lucky Strike at any break or slowdown. The hike up wasnt bad, only about 2 hours (less). I hiked near the back with the other snowshoers, Yokota-san and Yamaguchi-san.. It seems the 3 of us end up hiking together whether its summer or winter.

Once we reached the summit (I think it was a paltry 600m), we all set to work on a massive bench/long table for the lunch break. Its almost comical how much food they always bring, as well as sake and beers. Today though the other 'younger' guy An-chan invited me to do some avalanche tests for practice. We dug a few snow pits and it seemed not bad, as far as stability goes. Anchan, myself, and 3 others boarded down that back valley, foregoing on the lunch. There were a few decent turns there, then we had to hike back. I went ahead then stopped, thinking they could easily see my prints in the deep snow on a clear day like today. But it took awhile before Anchan showed. While we waited for the group, he hid his avalanche transceiver and then yelled "go!" so I could perform a few mock searches with my own. I was pretty lucky today and had them out in 30s or less.

Just as we were about to reap the benefits of our climb up in the nice untouched powder, the roar of 10 snowmobiles overtook us and in an instant they were next to us, as we strapped in preparing to go. Without even a nod, bow, hello, or anything, they tore off ruining our one powder line that we had HIKED up! Poor etiquette... as they had been flying around the other mountain sides all day (we could hear it, noise pollution). There was plenty of snow for them, but they decided to shred ours up without a hint of concern.

The ride down then was less than thrilling, but not bad. Our mini groups stubborn leader, the Keebler Elf, took us down too far and almost got us lost by following those same snowmobilers tracks. Thankfully we turned back when we did...and then I saw the proper trail after about 25 minutes of hiking.

Afterwards a nice long onsen, then over to the house for some beers and photo exchanges..

Throwing Peanuts at the Devil

SetsuBun

February 3rd, 2007

They call it "Setsu-bun". By "they", I mean Japanese folk. It's a tradition, like so many others, that has a few strict rituals.

The word actually means "the division of the seasons", but it generally refers to this day, the "coming of spring", although I see a LOT of snow on the ground and ice on the steets, leading me to believe its not quite spring yet.

Around this time you can see many bags of peanuts, adorned with an Oni Mask (devil / demon). This being the year of the Pig (or boar), 2007, the person who is born of the same sign is the designated Oni that day, and had to face the others while wearing the devils mask. The rest of the group then starts throwing peanuts (the kind in the shell by the way) at the Devil, ridding the evils of last year, as well as the disease-bringing evils of the coming year. This can go on for quite awhile (the peanut throwing) depending on how much was purchased... I can only imagine this back in Canada, people would be getting bruised up and losing eyes. It doesnt have to be peanuts, traditionally I think that it was beans/mame. While throwing at the Devil/Demon/Ogre/Evil Spirit, everyone chants Go Away Evil Spirit, Come in Happiness (in Japanese).

Teine

January 3rd, 2007.

TEINE Highland.

Hit up Teine with Jim, he just got back from Hong Kong late last night but was primed to hit the slopes. The conditions are still pretty choppy with not alot of new powder. Add to the fact that the locals have managed to gouge out the main bowls in the out-of-bounds area, there wasn't alot left. Either way it wasn't too icy and good to get out for 5hrs of riding.

Kampai Tension

Some of the nicest things about Japan are the traditions, many pertaining to showing respect. There are always exceptions to the rule, I'll be the first to admit that, but one such tradition is the group "Kampai" (cheers!).

A major rule when at any drinking party is that everyone waits until everyone has a drink, then, and only then, can EVERYONE raise glasses together and clink yelling Kampai. Then the floodgates are open and usually at least one person passes out and another turns bright red, it's always good comedy nonetheless.

Usually one doesn't have to wait very long for the entire party/group/table to get all of their drinks, so it's not a problem. I was witness to a glitch in the system though last night.

I was at an all-Japanese bonenkai (end of the year party). It also doubled as a pot-luck meal. The party was due to start at 6 at a friends house, and since things run on time in Japan, I was ready at 5:30 after rushing like mad all day long. I should add, I didn't know many of the people there. So there was alot of nervous tension. Think back to when you need to break the tension meeting some inlaws, or at a high school get together, you drink. Well the food is getting put down on the tables, and the 6 of us that had arrived on time were sitting on the floor patiently waiting for the last 4 to show up.

I should remind you. Nervous tension+Booze=Everyone becomes best Friends.

But we could'nt open our beers, because not everyone had arrived. So Ive got a magically chilled tall can of Suntory in front of me, but I can't touch it. And I've got a spread of food (shrimp, guacamole, hummus, chicken etc) all in front of me, but I can only smell and ooh/ahh at how good it looks (standard practice), I can't eat it. At 7pm 2 more showed up. Then at EIGHT pm the final 2 had arrived.

Ill remind you again, 2 hours, nervous tension, awkward broken Japanese small talk, and no booze or food. It was almost comical, watching the Japanese folk with me try to save face and deal with this delay properly and politely. There were alot of "tabetaiiiii's"(I want to eat that!) and "nomitaiiiii's" (I want to DRINK that!), and awkward glances at the clock. I was passing out beers to the other guys there within 42 seconds of the last 2 people showing up, and I'm pretty sure I saw tears of gratitude in their eyes, as the strain had gotten to them too.

3 seconds after that, a round of cans popped open and a loud KAMPAI was shouted before the boozing began in earnest, time check, 8:05pm. The nervous looking guy across from me killed his beer in two drinks, and suddenly he was at ease, joking, telling stories, giving me thumbs up, and asking for another rum/coke (I should add, I was the only one to bring a 26oz bottle of rum, they thought it was interesting to no end). The other guy who nervously sat by his wife earlier, suddenly was drinking rum on the rocks, spilling rice, and laughing away. He lasted exactly 2 hours then passed out flat on the living room floor. He was covered up and a pillow put under his head, and the party went on with a body next to the table. I thought of what would happen in Canada, maybe one of the jokers would take crude pictures, maybe another would draw lewd drawings with a marker on his cheek, someone would definitely put his hand in a warm glass of water and giggle hoping he'd piss his pants.

Things just carried right on, no problem. On one side of the room a god awful SMAP concert DVD played with one lady (superfan) singing along, then at 1am an inpromptu yoga session went on (no, I did not partake in this). Anything goes, once the kampai tension has been broken.