January 2010 - Hakuba Ski Olympics

After the peaceful little Japanese ski town of Nozawa, we headed off to the site of the 1998 winter Olympics, Hakuba, in Nagano. En route, we stopped off to see the famed snow monkeys - who, very sensibly, keep warm by soaking in the hot springs. Hakuba is big and Westernized and we have a plethora of ski fields to choose from. Every day was a bluebird day and we mostly have the runs to ourselves during the week. We skied hard at Hakuba 47 (crowded), Goryu- Toomi (challenging), Happo-One (icy) and even Iwatake (deep powder) and Tsugaike (wide and family friendly). My favourite would have to be Tsugaike, mainly because it was our last day's ski, the weather was unreal and, well, i did my best skiing that day. What an amazing holiday - the heady days of powder, hard skiing from first run to last and the nights starting with a soak in the hot springs to rest weary limbs, followed by bouts of of karaoke, sake and awesome Japanese food. Skiing in Japan rocks and it was so much fun because of the excellent group that we had - Banzai!