Hakuba 白馬

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Two weeks ago we took a weenend ski trip to Hakuba in Nagano prefecture. Our weekend started on Friday night when we caught the overnight bus from Kobe. After an hour bus ride from Kobe we had to switch busses in Osaka. There were about 60 busses in a huge parking lot near the Expo '70 park, and tons of people as well. After picking up our ticket package at a service desk (temporarily set up in the lot) we found our bus and settled in for the 8 hour ride. Along the way the bus stopped a few times at rest stops, and we were dropped off at our hotel at about 7 a.m.
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We stashed our belongings in a coin locker in the hotel and picked up our lift passes and a quick breakfast before hitting the slopes.
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The view of our hotel from part way up the bottom of the hill.
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Skiing on Saturday at Hakuba Goryu. The snow fell all morning, but became heavy around 11 am, so we headed in for an early lunch.
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Covered in snow! Behind me is a New Year's Decoration.
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We had a quick lunch of Mos Burger (a popular Japanese fast food chain) before heading back out for the afternoon.
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Joe at the top of one of our favorite red (blue) runs. Most of the markings were the same as in the U.S., except blue squares are marked as red.
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Above is a view of the valley from about half-way up the mountain, below is Joe riding the gondola.
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We took another break from the snow in the mid-afternoon. Here is Joe drinking a Kirin, "brewed for good times."
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Our lift passes were computer chips that we put into a pocket of our coats and scanned over a sensor pad when we got onto the lifts, as I am showing below.
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At the end of the day we were able to ski up to our hotel, all we had to do was cross the street. This is the view of the mountain from our hotel room on Sunday morning. On Saturday evening we had dinner at the hotel and hung out in our room, as we were still pretty jet lagged and both of us were tired from a long day of skiing.
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Fresh snow on Sunday morning!
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At the base of the green hill across from our hotel.
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Snowman next to the lift.
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Sunday brought us clear weather and beautiful views across the valley.
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An area near the base where three lifts and the gondola merged.
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Sunshine and powdery snow.
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Riding one of the lifts early on Sunday...
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Joe on the lift...
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Me on another lift. The main difference in the lifts was that they were much closer to the ground than those in the U.S. This was a disadvantage for tall Americans like Joe and I, as the lift would hit the top of our boots (yes it was that low) when we would get on. By the end of the day it was pretty tiring to stand up from such a low chair as well!
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On Sunday we made our way over to Hakuba 47. The photo below is where the two ski areas of Hakuba 47 and Hakuba Goryu meet near the top of the mountain. On Saturday it had been too windy at the top because of the snow, so the two areas were only connected by bus.
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Joe at the top of a long cruiser run at Hakuba 47.
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Waiting for our pizza lunch on Sunday, drinking an Apple Chuhai.
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In case we had forgot we were in Japan, bamboo sticking out from the snow in the forest alongside one of the runs.
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The map of 47 at the gondola. At the bottom, the red (intermediate) run is labeled, "for the middle-classes."
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I think this is Alien vs. Predator (Joe took the photo). These were at the top of the 47 gondola. Apparently the staff has a sense of humor.
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The 47 gondola.
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On Sunday night we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Uncle Steven's. The restaurant was really tasty, but also funny because Joe has an Uncle Steve, who lives in Colorado, likes Mexican food, and with whom we went skiing last year. A funny little flashback.
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We boarded the bus again on Sunday night and arrived back at home on Monday morning. Our trip was a bit on an expiriment, as it was our first time using a Japanese travel agent. Back in December we booked through an agency in Miki, which was a good language challenge. It was also our first time skiing in another country and our first time taking the overnight bus in Japan. Generally everything went smoothly, and we have booked another trip for February. Here's to lots of snow!

Home for the Holidays

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Outside of Christmas and our anniversary, the rest of our two week holiday in the U.S. was spent with family and friends, hanging out with our pets, shopping, and generally relaxing. While our cats took a little while to warm up to us, our dog was so excited to see us that she knocked us to the ground. Below is a photo of some of my high school friends after an afternoon of catching up and chatting.
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On New Year's Eve we decided to take it easy, so we went down to the touristy Navy Pier to watch the Chicago fireworks display at midnight.
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While waiting for midnight we had a drink an listened to some blues at one of the restaurants on the pier.
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As midnight approached we headed outside. While a complete corporate plug, I like this sign reminding us that we are over 6,000 miles from Japan.
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Joe with the ferris wheel.
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2009!
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The pier had a very diverse crowd, people of all ages, types, nationalities, styles. These are the people we were surrounded by at midnight, to our right was this group of kids from China. They popped open champagne at midnight and drank from picnic-style wine glasses...
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Behind us was a group of people from Chicago. I liked their Obama hats (we saw alot of Obama memorabilia in the U.S.). They were roudy in the Chicago tough-but-friendly way, and they made alot of cell phone calls.
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Part of the skyline as seen from the pier.
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Fireworks!
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Leaving the pier. It was so cold! I think it was about 18 degrees F.
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After a quiet New Year's Day we headed down to the Field Museum with Joe's family.
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The purpose of our visit was to view the exhibition The Aztec World.
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The exhibition was highly approachable and included alot of information without bogging the visitor down. Some of the objects were simply fantastic, like the large ceramic death diety (below). While I am not very well read on Meso-American societies and history, I found the exhibition especially interesting after reading Charles Mann's 1491 last summer. In the book, Mann questions many of the assumptions that the public has about life in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans (for an interview with Mann click here).
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We also viewed the Underground Adventure exhibit (about soil), and of course Sue the T-Rex in the main hall (below).
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The Field is on my list of top five favorite museums anywhere, and I could easily wander the classic exhibition halls for days (my favorite are the Native American halls and the Pawnee Earth Lodge). We decided to head out after seeing the shoe display though, which exhibits shoes from various times and cultures.
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Meanwhile, our cats had warmed up to us over the course of the holidays, and I feel that they deserve some photo recognition here...
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In our last weekend we spent an evening cooking dinner with my parents in their American-sized kitchen.
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The dog asking for a helping of salmon, brocoli, or au gratin potatoes.
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We also spent a day of our last weekend skiing! I was able to break in my new skiis before brining them back to Japan.
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On the lift with Joe and Shana.

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Scenic Alpine Valley Wisconsin!

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I grew up skiing at Alpine, and learned to ski there for the first time around age 7 (I think), but I hadn't been back since skiing in Minnesota, Colorado and Oregon. While the hill was pretty small and the lifts slow and rickety, it was still a great time, and a super-fun day trip from Chicago. Plus, I can say that I skied the "black diamond" courses there, even though they were quite easy by comparison.

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Some more skiing shots...

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At the end of the day.

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As our trip came to a close we finished off our shopping for things that are hard to find in Japan (like shoes in Joe's size) and enjoyed some American food like that at the delicious vegetarian restaurant, Blind Faith Cafe.

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On our last night we had dinner with Joe's family at a California Pizza Kitchen in downtown Arlington Heights before packing up and heading back to Japan.

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