Ski Trip in Hirafu, Japan

We have been contemplating an Asian ski trip for some time. Initially, we thought we might travel to Korea to ski because we had some friends that did that last year. But this summer my scuba instructor is a ski instructor in Japan during the cold season. He really sold us on Japanese skiing commenting that he had skied all over the world and Japan is his favorite. So with his help we started planning our holiday ski trip. We flew to Tokyo and then flew two hours to the Northern Island of Japan-Hokkaido area then took a two hour bus ride to the Northwestern side of Japan. Winter Olympics have been held here, they are known for their powder and the abundance of it!

We stayed in the village of Hirafu, Japan in a 3 bedroom Japanese cabin with traditional sparse Japanese furnishing but how about those toilets!!!! What is it with the Japanese and their toilets?? It is so strange to me that China, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand all still have many 'squatters' but the Japanese are all about their toilets!! I do have to tell you it was quite nice especially in the lodges when you were in all that bulky, snow, gear to walk into the stall, the lid automatically raises, the seat is sooooo warm and toasty, some artificial noises are provided if needed, the hygiene options are endless, and then after it automatically flushes it gives a squirt of deodorizer, so high tech!!! At times it was tempting to just set on that warm little seat and take a break from the cold outside!!!

Mark commented that this was one of his favorite holidays we have taken as a family. Everything went so smoothly and our tour company made everything easy. Our cabin was 2 blocks from the free shuttle to the slopes, 2 blocks from the small grocery mart and close to the restaurants that we took no advantage of! Japan is expensive!!! and of course, our timing seems to always be a tad off and currently the dollar is not doing too well compared to the yen. We stocked up with the groceries-I had brought cereal from Thailand and cocoa, we added some bread, butter, sugar, milk, some very strange peanut butter (it was sooo sweet) yogurt, ham, bacon, cheese, juices, coke and we were all set for the entire week.

I think that's why Mark enjoyed it so much, lots of family time. We would get up at our leisure, eat breakfast, head to the slopes, ski however much we wanted, eat a nice lunch in the lodge and head home to our warm little cabin. No one wanted to leave once we got all that snow stuff off. We played cards, read books, watched movies, listened to tapes and just hung out, sipping our hot chocolate and enjoying the wonderful snow. A great reprieve from the heat!! and no broken bones!!

We are grateful we chose to ski Japan and not Korea, especially at the moment with the unrest there. We haven't repeated any trips we've done in Asia but we all agreed we might want to experience the Japanese powder again???

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