My next great adventure in Japan was to go snowboarding. There was Patrick, Ruben, Mike, Josh, Brian, Jo, Rylynn, and myself. We started the night by meeting up at the lounge at the Hotel New Yokosuka for some drinks prior to heading out for some grub for dinner. We headed to the Pepper Steak restaurant for dinner which is just off Blue Street on the way to Yokosuka-Chuo station. I had heard of the Pepper Steak restaurant, but I thought it was the nickname for the place like the Green Leaf restaurant that I went to. But, it was actually called Pepper Steak and they served different kinds of meat.
It was neat because you ordered your meal from a vending machine with pictures and prices for the meals. You put money into the vending machine and pick the meal you want. The machine then gives you a ticket and you take that to the counter with the waitress who asks what size of rice you want and what you want to drink besides the beer you can order from the machine. The meat and veggies comes to you in a hot black skillet still raw, but cooking. You turn the meat over and allow it to cook for 5-10 minutes on the skillet until it is ready. It was very good and you could definitely taste the pepper flavoring in the steak I got.
We left the restaurant and headed to the train station to head north towards Tokyo. We took the Keiku train from Yokosuka-Chuo to Shanagawa which is the loop line on the outskirts of Tokyo. From there we took the JR Tokaido line from Shangawa to Tokyo Station. From Tokyo station we caught the bullet train (shinkansen) to Jomokogen station which is near Minakami. Patrick bought the bullet train tickets for us, so that we could sit together but it did not work. We were all spread out within two cars of the train. The bullet train ride was interesting, but it was nothing special. It was a quick trip (1 hr 20 min) to our destination and since we were traveling at night you could not see much.
We arrived at Jomokogen station and got on a shuttle bus with a bunch of Irish guys. The shuttle bus took us 20 minutes from the station to the Canyons Lodge were we were staying. We stopped at the rental shop to pick up our snowboards, skis, and boots. We were prepared and had already provided the shop with our information, but we had to wait an hour for the Irish guys to get their gear. The Irish guys worked in Tokyo and spoke good Japanese, but were not the best of skiers. We finally got to the lodge around 11:30 pm. We paid 13,000 yen ($130) for three nights stay and three breakfast tickets.
The rooms were dorm style with three bunk beds. The beds had a very thin layer of padding that made up the mattress, a comforter, a sheet, and a thin blanket. The beds were very uncomfortable and I slept very little the first night. We realized after the first night that we were staying in a glorified hostel.
(Saturday, January 17)
We got up relatively early around 8 am to have breakfast at the lodge. I had a delicious french toast breakfast and some tea. We signed up for the shuttle bus to Tanagawa ski resort at 9:40 am in the morning. The lodge provided shuttle service to three different ski resorts. We headed to the mountain in a nice snow storm. It snowed all day long, which is funny since the lodge worker the night before told us that it was going to be a sunny day. The resort had a tram that went up the mountain and then three lifts that went up from there. The middle lift was a short lift compared to the other two, but the runs were short unless you went all the way to the bottom of the gondola.
It was a great first half of snowboarding at the resort. The snow was awesome, there was so much untouched powder to play in. Our tracks were being filled in by the snow that continued to come down. We were having a lot of fun and it was tough to stop for lunch. On our way to lunch we found an unfortunate event that occurred. One of our peeps, Josh, had twisted his knee severely enough to be carted off the mountain and taken to the hospital. That put a damper on the rest of the ski day.
That night while Josh was on his way back to Yokosuka, we partied down at the lodge. There were people setup to meet Josh along the way to get him back, so we were only worried about the long term consequences of the injury affecting his work. Back at the lodge, they had an Irish band that was playing that night. The Irish band had one Irish guy on guitar, an American on fiddle and vocals, and a Japanese girl on drums. They rocked the house. I ended up eating some Shephard's Pie from the dinner menu and it was tasty. The lodge and bar was made up of 2/3 English speakers and the rest were Japanese. I performed an Irish jig to the delights of the crowd.
(Sunday, January 18)
We woke up Sunday morning with slight hangovers, but we still attacked the morning breakfast. We headed back to Tanagawa again since we had so much fun the day before and there was probably still some good powder. It was not snowing today and the weather was quite a bit warmer on the slopes. We snowboarded pretty hard most of the day, but we did find some time to goof off at the top of the mountain where there was shrine gates. We also hiked up to a picnic table on top of the hill nearby where we were able to get a couple turns in some fresh powder. The tree skiing was quite a bit different here since the trees are deciduous and not evergreen like in most places I had skied before in the West.
We stayed at the resort until 4 pm or so and then headed back to the lodge. We were in dire need of some cash since we had spent most of it the night before. The closest ATM was at the 7-11 which was all the way across town. We could afford to take the bus from the lodge to the Minakami train station, but we did not think we could afford to make it to the ATM. We started walking towards the ATM and walked for about 30 minutes before we pasted an onsen that we wanted to check out. We combined our money to pay 500 yen ($5) a piece to enter the onsen.
An onsen is a Japanese bath house that has a hot tub with piped in hot spring water. There are three bath houses in an onsen including one for men, one for women, and one for a family. We split up into boys and girls to head to respective onsen. You go through a door into a bathroom/locker area where you undress completely. From there you head to the next room where the Japanese showers and the hot tub are located. A Japanese shower involves sitting on a stool and using a low hung shower nozzle to completely clean yourself with soap and water. After you are clean you can step into the recessed hot tub with is super hot.
We stayed in the water for as long as it took for our fingers to look like prunes before we got out. After leaving the onsen well relaxed, we headed towards 7-11 and money to pay for dinner. We got to 7-11 about 15 minutes later to load up on money and snacks. After that we headed to a cow-meat restaurant for dinner. I got tonkatsu which was breaded pork with an A-1 type barbecue sauce. After filling up on food we caught taxis back to the lodge for 1000 yen ($10) each.
Back at the lodge we started playing cards (up/down) and drank saki until it was very late at night.
(Monday, January 19)
We got up at the regular time to find out that the lodge did not serve breakfast on Mondays. We walked to a liquor/convenience store to buy snacks and drinks to have for breakfast. We then caught a shuttle to the Minakami train station. From the Minakami train station we took a bus to the Jomokogen train station for 600 yen ($6). We purchased our bullet train tickets for 5200 yen ($52). We got non-reserved seat tickets, but we only saved about 500 yen ($5) from getting the reserved tickets.
Upon out arrival at the Tokyo station, I departed from the group to try and get back quicker so that I could talk with Denise before it got too late. They stayed around to have lunch and hang out in Tokyo. This was the first time that I have taken the trains all by myself. I made it back to Yokosuka with only small issues finding the right train track in Shinagawa. I got back to my apartment about 3:30 pm, so that I could talk with the love of my life!
The only energy I had left in me was used up in talking with Denise. I was wasted tired after the weekend, so I watched The Dark Knight and went to sleep shortly after.
(Tuesday, January 20)
I finally purchased some new jeans today at the exchange. I have been in dire straits with my old pair of Eddie Bauer jeans since they had a nice hole developing in the crotch area. I can now put those pants in the burnable trash bin. They were great pants for the amount of time they lasted, so hopefully my new Calvin Kleins can hold up to the challenge.
(Wednesday, January 21)
I love short weeks because it gets me closer to the time when my lovely wife flies out. I can't wait to see her, hold her, and kiss her when she gets here. I did find out that she purchased her airline tickets to come out here on February 7. I am super excited now and she is super worried with everything she needs to do before coming out here. Tonight, I talked to Denise on her cell phone via Skype which works very well and does not costs too much.
After talking with Denise I headed to the lounge to have a drink prior to heading out for dinner. I met up with Patrick, Kevin, Mike, Trevor, Bill, Norris, John, and some other dude who I forgot his name. We headed to a Thai restaurant across from TGI Fridays on a side street of Blue Street. I got a fried rice dish with green chile paste and chicken. It was tasty and a little toasty with the spices. I can't wait to bring Denise there once she gets here since we both love Thai food so much. The best part was dessert which was a raspberry jello dish with ice and frog eggs which was surprisingly good. It is an authentic Thai dessert.
That is all for tonight. Hope you have enjoyed this long winded story session I have provided this evening. An hour of typing is plenty enough for me.
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