Want to get away?

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog...we've been heading out for many trips. Recently we went to the Nigata Prefecture, which is in Northern Japan. The trip was meant to be an overnight ski trip. But it turned out to be an amazing experience. We started out on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train), which traveled over 200mph. We arrived in Nigata about two hours after departing Tokyo and found ourselves in a winter wonderland. The area was covered in snow and the snow was still coming down. Our ryokan (Japanese-style hotel) was located a short walk from the train station. We were greeted at the ryokan by a person asking us to remove our shoes and to put on the hotel-provided slippers. The hotel did not have size 12, but I managed squeeze into what felt like a size 7. Because check-in wasn't available till much later, we quickly put on our ski clothes, tagged our luggage to be placed in our room when it became available, and headed off to Kondatsu (Pine Ridge ski resort). Kondatsu is pretty small by Northwest standards, but the knee-to-chest-deep powder made up for anything the mountain lacked in elevation. We found a tree run that continued to provide Evan (fellow student) and me with fresh, untouched lines to run all day. Most Japanese skiers and riders do not veer off of the groomed runs and almost never enter the tree runs, bonus in our favor. We took a short break for a crepe on the mountain and then headed out for more snow. After a full day of riding, we headed back to the ryokan. The hotel staff had placed our bags in our room, which was spectacular. The room was complete with tatami mats (straw mats) and a back massaging chair (the massage chair is probably not a traditional item). Our hotel even had an onsen (natural hot spring) for us to soak in after the long day of riding. The hotel also provided special robes for us to wear before and after enjoying the onsen. This onsen was not as hot as I had heard most onsens are in Japan (scalding hot); fortunately we were able to spend about a half hour in the onsen before heading to our room for dinner. A really nice woman came to our room and prepared it for dinner. She spent about a half hour setting up our dinner for us and another twenty minutes explaining what each of the dishes were. As you can see from the pictures the dinner was nothing short of elaborate. Notably we had fugu, which is Japanese blowfish. If the fugu is prepared improperly, the poisons in the fish's organs can be fatal to humans: thankfully we had capable hands preparing our fugu. In the morning we were served another elaborate meal in the room. But for some reason, fish just doesn't seem too appetizing in the morning. This was my first ski trip in Japan, and I was definitely not disappointed.