Dean had come down with Tim's cold, meaning I didn't get much sleep with his snoring. I tried to get back to sleep as long as possible, but by 4.30am, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I decided to head downstairs to blog and go into the onsen while it was quiet. Eventually everyone made it for breakfast, with some fairly traditional Japanese stuff on offer. I like to try stuff, but with a lot of things either fish based or soy based, I find that it upsets my stomach if I go too radical with my taste buds.
Today we were off to Maiko resort, as I had won a free ticket from the SnowJapan forums. I had originally intended to spend the half-day there upon arrival to Yuzawa, but between fetching bags with Mum and Tim, and Dean coming down with sickness, it didn't happen. We had organised to meet Tim and Kerry at 8.15am at the train station, but this was perhaps a little optimistic, considering lunch was only served at 7.30, plus we still needed to get ready, prep the boards, and get down to the station. Needless to say, we were quite a bit later when we met a worried looking Kerry. Tim had been sick and sleeping all night, and had decided to see how he felt later on. We walked through the station from the West Exit to the East Exit and after some broken Japanese, found the bus to Maiko.
The bus ride was largely uneventful. The area around Maiko was blanketed with snow, some up to the second story of the houses, and the bus driver weaved the bus around the narrow curving streets lined with snow banks. It took about 25 mins to reach the base station of the area, and we went inside. Although I had read about it previously, I had forgotten that Wednesday's are Girls Day at Maiko, with females receiving a 1000Y discount on the day's ticket. So Zoe was happy. This also meant there were tons of snow bunnies on the slopes, ranging from complete beginners, to more experienced girls. :)
After getting onto the lift, we had to skate to where the slope started. It was a fairly flat slope, so probably a good one for teaching Paul and Zoe on, but between Paul not positioning himself properly on the board, and Zoe being wobbily on her feet, it took about 40 mins to get down. We lined up again, and Zoe did much better this time. Paul followed soon after (he was adjusting his binding angle) and we made it down in about 20 mins. The only problem was, right at the end of the run, Zoe wanted to stop, but didn't want to hit her back/tailbone (it was hard-packed), so used her arms to stop her fall, which jarred her shoulder. She seems very good at injurying herself, but I suppose all of us jar shoulders and tailbones when we first learn. Paul was still having problems, as his body wants to continually centre itself, so putting weight on one leg, and leaning forward wasn't happening for him.
I had promised Zoe a beer and a crepe when we got down the bottom, so we all unstrapped, and went inside the main building. Because I didn't have to buy a lift ticket, I was already up money, so I got Zoe, Paul and I a special choco-strawberry custard crepe. Oh my goodness, I never eat enough crepes when I'm over here. After sinking my face into that, and washing it down with a beer, I was ready to go. Zoe was feeling a little better as well, although her shoulder was a little sore. But we grabbed out boards to head up to the lift. I told Paul to try my board, as he is roughly the same weight and height, but is using his brothers board, which is a 157. After walking off the lift this time (both previous times, Paul and Zoe had skated off without incident), we strapped in at the start of the slope to head down.
I don't know how Paul was riding at all. The board was unwaxed, and virtually uncontrollable at the length he was riding. Whereas I would usually be slashing and carving, without hiccups, I felt uneasy and the stance was hurting my legs. Paul got down to where I was and said that he hated my board, that he didn't feel stable on it. Oh well, there's no accounting for ideosyncracies.
We made it down the run again, but Zoe stacked it, and accidentally put her thumb under when falling. This signalled the end for her day, and Paul as well. We headed back into the lodge to sit for a while, and after getting Zoe bandaged up we ate some hotdogs. Then Kerry and Tim came in (Tim had met us on the slope before we got the crepes and beer). They had done a few runs, but overall, come to the conclusion that "this place is crap". I felt bad, because I was being tour guide, but the conditions were quite warm, and I don't really have a say in that. I originally had only planned on spending a half day here, so between that and the main gondola not running, it wasn't as varied and powdery as Shiga had been.
The guys wanted to head back, and we were of the same mind, but the next bus was 30 mins away. Kerry bought a vanilla crepe (doesn't like strawberries or banana??) and smashed it down so hard, he immediately went and grabbed another one. Then Kerry, Zoe and Paul looked in the shops, with Kerry buying a sticker for his board. As we were waiting, it started snowing lightly. Because Maiko doesn't have a lot of elevation, it was quite wet snow, melting nearly as soon as it hit the ground, cars and pretty much everything. When the bus arrived, it suddenly decided to turn it on, because the flakes grew from rain-drop size, to full on massive flakes. They were still wet, but were the type that build up quickly, so in the 2 or 3 minutes that we were waiting for the bus to take off, a layer of white developped on the cars.
Winding our way back to Yuzawa, I was on the other side of the bus this time, so saw a few things we didn't see on the way here. There were fields and houses that were absolutely blanketed by the whit stuff. I'm sure if you tried to walk through, it would have been about 3 metres deep, but it made for a cool site, although pictures taken from a bus don't really do it justice.
We made it back to Yuzawa and walked through the station, and with various places selling yakiniku (bbq meat skewers), Kerry felt the need to just go and grab one, which went at a quick pace. We got to the other side of the station, and bid Tim and Kerry farewell, organising for them to come to our hotel tomorrow morning to go boarding closer by.
We then phoned the hotel to come and pick us up where we found Dean in full "I'm sick, I'm dying mode", (actually, he was sleeping), and Mum and Whitney had been pottering around the shops in town and found the best Creme Caramel. It was only 3pm, but with not much doing, we sat around blogging, watching TV and getting in the onsen.
Dean was feeling like meat for dinner, so we got the driver to drop us off at the 7-11, and we walked back along the street to where Dean had seen a Yakitori place during the day. It was closed, so as we kept walking, we came across a place called Heaven. It wasn't. We had some drinks and a plate of chicken and the bill was 5200Y????? They had charged us for the edamame beans and this weird root vegetable that we didn't even order. We also had to sit on the floor on cushions. Usually I'm ok, but with my knee and ankle being cactus, it was actually painful to do so. After not being very satisfied and feeling like we'd been stooged for being foreigners, we walked back towards the station, where the crepes and yakiniku had closed for the evening. We decided that gyouza was the food of the day, but varioius restaurants in the station were all closing (it was 7.30 at night). We knew there was a ramen place across the road from the carpark/taxi rank, so we headed there, hoping to find gyouza. Whitney was tired from being translator/spokesperson, so it was my turn to try and ask for stuff. I asked and he did have some, so we all came upstairs and sat down.
While not the best gyouza and ramen we'd ever had, it was far more satisfying than some measily bits of chicken or green beans. For 5 plates of gyouza, 4 biiig bowls of ramen, coke, beer and stuff, it was 6120Y. Much more reasonable as well. We then went back to 7-11 to grab vitamin c and other things, before calling the hotel. I must have got the only clerk who didn't speak any english and whereas it's only taken 10Y to make a call to get the Hiace to pick us up, I went through 20Y and still was no where. Whitney then phoned and asked, but was then informed that it was after 6pm, so the shuttle wasn't running... But we did it later the night before... Dean needed to get out of the cold, so we bundled him, Whitney, Mum and Zoe into a taxi, whilst Paul and I walked. It isn't that far, perhaps 1.5km, so it takes about 20 mins to walk the distance. In the journey, we looked at various cars, checked out the snow banks that had formed near the less fancy lodges, and just generally chatted, so it didn't seem that long at all. We met the others in the library, and headed up to Dean and my room, where we sat around drinking scotch, eating cheese and salami and stuff. We were getting tired by that stage, so by 10pm, we all turned in for the night.
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