Frosty Weasel 2011

This past weekend was the annual squadron ski trip. This year the normal location was closed so we got to spend two and a half days at Appi - one of the premiere ski resorts in the area. Below is a website if you wanna check it out.

http://www.appi.co.jp/foreign_country/english/winter/about/index.html

It's about a two hour drive south from here - which got interesting at times in the snow. Below are a couple of shots of the snow piled up on the side of the roads. Thankfully, they are pretty good about plowing the roads down there, and our car has all wheel drive.

The mountain at Appi is not nearly as tall as those in Colorado, but they had several decent runs. I can't ski or snowboard because the risk of falling and hurting my back is too great. But James had a great time snowboarding for two days.

Group photo!

The hotel was pretty nice, and fairly comfortable considering it's a Japanese establishment. (They're not big on comfort in this country). We had a nice big room overlooking the mountain. It had two small, hard double beds (Japanese standard), but the toilet had a heated seat which was AWESOME after a day spent in the snow. The staff were excellent - the usual Japanese excellence in customer service - with the added benefit of a couple English translators. They were even courteous enough to warn us that the steps leading up to the front door might be "slippy." hahaha. I love Japan.

The view from our room.

During the day, everyone (except me) hit the slopes. Then at night we would all come back together and hang out. Saturday night we all crammed into one person's hotel room and played games. Sunday night we all gathered in one of the conference rooms for a chili social. It was nice eating a hearty bowl of chili after a weekend of Japanese food. It's still not my favorite.

Sunday I got to try two new things. The first was snowshoeing. Since I can't ski or snowboard, my friend Beth offered to take me snowshoeing so I wouldn't be completely left out of the winter festivities. It's really just like intense hiking so I figured I could handle it. We drove out to the woods on the far side of the mountain, strapped on our snowshoes, and started to follow a beaten track through the trees.

Me and my friend Beth before taking off.

Me and my other friend Laurie with our snowshoes.

Note my SWEET snow pants. Normally they would

Seem awfully loud - but I fit RIGHT in with the crazy

Japanese fashionistas on the mountain.

We thought we were on a snowshoe track, but apparently it was just a short cut to the edge of the ski runs. We were just deciding what to do when two of our friends joined us on their way down the mountain. Within a few minutes, we had a big Samurai pow-wow going on. It was fun seeing them in action and taking some pictures for them in their gear. After they went on their way, we turned around and hiked through some super deep powder on a round-about track back to the car. I was a little sore by the time we got back but that was nothing my next new adventure couldn't cure...

Pure, pristine powder. Below, our tracks in the snow.

After we returned from snowshoeing, I took a long nap and then a bunch of us went for a long soak at the hotel onsen. Onsens are Japanese hot springs/public baths. They're a great place to go relax and have a little "me" time. However - they are different from hot spring pools in the States in one particular way. The onsens are divided in half to keep men and women separate because you can't enter the pool till you've completely stripped down and scrubbed your whole body in the provided shower area. My friends go all the time, but I've never joined them because I'm too modest.

However, the onsen tickets were included in our hotel fee and it was supposed to be really nice, so I figured I might as well try it out. Thankfully, my friends are very kind and put me at ease. It was a little awkward being in there with a bunch of naked Japanese people but - hey - when in Rome... The pools were too hot for me so I didn't stay long, but it did help relax my sore muscles. The bath house had several different pools - two separate ones indoors (one scalding and one cold) and then two outside in a brick courtyard. We went outside since the indoor pool was so warm, and enjoyed soaking underneath the gently falling snow. It was definitely an experience for the record books.

Over all it was a good weekend. I'm not sure it was worth the money for me. Aside from the snowshoeing and short trip to the onsen, I didn't do much this weekend. But James hasn't been able to snowboard at all since we got married two and a half years ago and he had a great time - so it was worth the sacrifice.