Skiing - Naqua Shirakami

I've decided to embrace skiing. Prior to this year, I had only been skiing once, when I was 17. My neighbor, Laura, loves to ski. So I started tagging along with her. We went last weekend with a couple other girls to a really small place nearby so that I could kind of get the hang of it. This weekend, we went to Naqua Shirakami, a larger resort about 2 and a half hours away.

It's takes a full 2 and a half hours only because the roads look like this.

And these are the toll roads! I can only imagine what the smaller roads look like!

Actually, now that I think about it... I imagine the smaller roads look a lot like this as well... or they're closed.

So, two and a half hours later, and we reached Naqua Shirakami. We strapped on our skis, took the 15 minute gondola up to the top, and skied down to some INCREDIBLE views. Mountains, lakes, snow covered trees... it was gorgeous. I decided that I would try to bring the camera on the next run.

But first, we had to get some lunch...

Part of the reason I have decided to embrace skiing is for the ramen. There is nothing better than a gigantic, steaming bowl of ramen to warm up to after a long day of skiing (or, in our case, our first single run down the mountain). This is Miso Curry Ramen. Ramen noodles, pork, cabbage, onions and corn, flavored with just the right amount of curry. Oh, and yes, there is a big pat of butter on top. That helps too.

I was so happy with the ramen that I didn't even notice the snow coming in to totally trash our visibility. Major bummer. I had hoped to take lots of pictures of the amazing views so I could share them on the blog, but I didn't want to bring the camera out in all that snow for a few pictures of pretty much white-out conditions. Sigh. I guess I'll have to try again on the next trip.

So we took a picture inside, then I put my camera away and we enjoyed the rest of the day skiing.

Another amazing thing about skiing in Japan is all the flavors of ice cream you can try. Starting from the top left, there is blueberry, something (not chocolate) and vanilla, strawberry and vanilla, almond and vanilla, green tea and vanilla, cookies and cream (with real cookie bits!), banana, pineapple, grape, tiramisu, vanilla, caramel, melon and mango. I would have jumped all over the cookies and cream, but I had a sore throat and a cough, so I went with some hot lemon tea instead.

Hot lemon tea, from a vending machine. Yes, in Japan you can get hot AND cold drinks from the same vending machine. Wow.

So... ramen, hot tea, ice cream, and lots of ski runs... We had a great time, and I have almost zero pictures to prove it. On our final run down the mountain, the weather broke, and I got to enjoy one more beautiful panoramic view from the top... again, with my camera in the lodge. Bummer.

But I really did go skiing! Honest!

Misawa Winter

I haven't been blogging much lately... mostly because I haven't done anything interesting:) So far, my winter has consisted of snow shoveling, snow shoeing, walking the dogs in the snow, cleaning the snow off of the cars, and other less than interesting snow related things.

This year, the snow didn't really start until January. All of December, I was being lulled into a false sense of security. I thought to myself, "I don't know why people are complaining about Misawa winters! This is nothing! The temperature rarely drops below 20 degrees, and all we get is flurries! Why in the world did I have to get a 4-wheel drive vehicle with snow tires for this?"

Then January came.

The first week of January I spent about an hour and a half each day clearing my sidewalk and parking spaces. I'm not a particularly slow snow shoveler, I just had to shovel several times each day, so the shovel time added up. This picture is probably a half hour after I had just finished cleaning off the cars (again).

I spend a lot less time shoveling now... but mostly just because I've lowered my standards:)

The other issue with lots of snow is that there is often too much snow on the sidewalks to walk the dog. So I dug out the snowshoes we got last year for Christmas (possibly the best Christmas present ever), gave Chris' snowshoes to my friend, Alison, and we started snowshoeing in the golf course by our houses to get the dogs exercise.

Lowen and Huck don't seem to miss our walks:)

It's nice to have an entire golf course to ourselves.

Watching the dogs swim through the snow makes me appreciate having snowshoes.

I've decided I love Misawa winters.