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Intermediate's 1st ski trip to Japan: Nozawa Onsen, Nagano (28th - 31st December, 2018)

ornatewrasse

Diva in Training
Thank you for this incredibly detailed and thorough report! The images really made your descriptions of the skiing and of the resort come alive, thank you for adding these to your report.

I visited Japan in about 2005 when visiting my nephew who was teaching English in a Japanese high school near Tokyo. While in Japan, I had the experience of visiting an onsen. It was definitely an experience not to be missed. I enjoyed "reliving" the experience when reading your report.
 

Cantabrigienne

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm so glad you had a good visit, Alison!! When I lived in Japan, I found it hard to decipher the piste maps (and regular maps too, for that matter) - they have a very different spatial sense I guess.

For others reading this post who have a hankering to ski in Japan, there are a good handful of resorts that have a heavier orientation towards international skiers and more English language infrastructure/offerings (Niseko, Rusutsu, Furano, and the Hakuba valley for starters.)
 

alison wong

Angel Diva
@ornatewrasse and @Tvan : When you visited Japan, did you remember the fancy Japanese toilet seats?
When I first visited Japan with my parents 20+ years ago, I remembered people in our tour group were so "fascinated"by the toilet seats, they spent hours in hotel rooms playing with them. I see these toilet seats in all restrooms, guess they are the "standard" now. Way back then, they were considered a "novelty'.

Such a great sense of adventure you have!
Thanks. Nah, I don't think I am adventurous, I am just curious and wanted to ski in Japan bad enough that I decided to go alone.

Your comment reminded me the questions this Immigration office asked when I returned to the U.S.: "Where did you go?" "What was the purpose of your visit?" "How long was your trip?" When I told her I came back from Japan, purpose of my visit was skiing and it was a solo trip. She did not really believe me.

I'm so glad you had a good visit, Alison!! When I lived in Japan, I found it hard to decipher the piste maps (and regular maps too, for that matter) - they have a very different spatial sense I guess.

For others reading this post who have a hankering to ski in Japan, there are a good handful of resorts that have a heavier orientation towards international skiers and more English language infrastructure/offerings (Niseko, Rusutsu, Furano, and the Hakuba valley for starters.)

So it was not entirely due to my poor sense of direction or map reading skills. There were times I was holding the trail map upside down, side ways, trying to orient myself the same direction as the map, still could not figure out where I should go....... At times I overthink too much: "If this trail is on the left side of the chair lift, do I go the opposite direction, to the right ? or I should go the same direction as the map?"......

For anyone who is interested in visiting / skiing in Japan, this aussie website: www.ski.com.au, Japan forum has wealth of information about travel & ski in Japan. I visited their Japan forum frequently, posted few questions there also. Folks are knowledgeable and their answers are usually to the point. Honestly, my trip would not have been materialized without the helpful info. from that forum.
 

Tvan

Angel Diva
@alison wong - oh yes...my host family had a very fancy toilet seat, and a wonderful soaking tub. Your trip report has caused me to be very “homesick” for Japan! I’m trying to convince Mr. Tvan that we should go. :smile:
 

Cantabrigienne

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
@ornatewrasse and @Tvan : When you visited Japan, did you remember the fancy Japanese toilet seats?
When I first visited Japan with my parents 20+ years ago, I remembered people in our tour group were so "fascinated"by the toilet seats, they spent hours in hotel rooms playing with them. I see these toilet seats in all restrooms, guess they are the "standard" now. Way back then, they were considered a "novelty'.


Thanks. Nah, I don't think I am adventurous, I am just curious and wanted to ski in Japan bad enough that I decided to go alone.

Your comment reminded me the questions this Immigration office asked when I returned to the U.S.: "Where did you go?" "What was the purpose of your visit?" "How long was your trip?" When I told her I came back from Japan, purpose of my visit was skiing and it was a solo trip. She did not really believe me.



So it was not entirely due to my poor sense of direction or map reading skills. There were times I was holding the trail map upside down, side ways, trying to orient myself the same direction as the map, still could not figure out where I should go....... At times I overthink too much: "If this trail is on the left side of the chair lift, do I go the opposite direction, to the right ? or I should go the same direction as the map?"......

For anyone who is interested in visiting / skiing in Japan, this aussie website: www.ski.com.au, Japan forum has wealth of information about travel & ski in Japan. I visited their Japan forum frequently, posted few questions there also. Folks are knowledgeable and their answers are usually to the point. Honestly, my trip would not have been materialized without the helpful info. from that forum.

Nope, you weren't overthinking at all, fear not. Restaurants/bars/shops all have to put little maps on their business cards so you can find your way back (the address system is difficult to decipher - they're written from largest to smallest scale as city-ward-neighbourhood-block within neighbourhood - building on block - even for Japanese people.) I used to emerge from subway stations with restaurant card in hand, turning it all 4 possible orientations to figure out the starting point. Usually I would just phone a friend and they would have to fetch me from an obvious place (and then you'd still get conversations like "I'm standing outside a Lawsons opposite a branch of Mizuho Bank" and they'd go "but I'm here already, I don't see you" and then after a few mins you'd realize the north and east exits of a train station BOTH had that combination, but that north had a conveyor sushi spot and east a McDonalds.....)

One memorable time the key landmark was a Wendy's and I was only just starting to learn the katakana characters used for foreign loan words. It took me a good 5 mins of laboriously sounding out "ooh-ehn-day" to figure out that meant Wendy's.....and once I got *that*, I knew to cross the road from the east exit of the train station, take the 2nd street to the right, pass the police box and turn left etc etc etc. Needless to say, all the things you were wondering about sound very, very familiar to me, and they don't signify that you can't read maps or have deficient spatial processing skills. Just that you didn't grow up in a Japanese spatial context!!
 

alison wong

Angel Diva
Thanks for another great report. We went to Japan last year for the first time and LOVED it. I can't wait to go back. One thing I noticed was that we had almost no jet lag compared to going to Europe. We'll probably explore Japan more before taking a ski trip but we'll ski there someday.

Did you talk about snow quality (did I miss it)? Was it far better than anything you've experienced?



This is very interesting given how closely the Japanese have to share space in other circumstances, like the subway, and how much of Japanese etiquette revolves around the fact that you are so often in close proximity to others (so no chatting on cell phones in public, don't blow your nose in public, wear a mask if you are sick, etc). You mentioned (not) chatting--that's something I have been told about the culture in general. Foreigners hoping to strike up conversations are probably going to be disappointed.



I love this.

Snow quality was good, much better than Val D'Isere in France.
But the comparison was only based on the one-time trip to Val D'Isere. Snow condition at Val D'Isere reminded me of east coast compact icy slopes. The year I visited, it did not have much snow fall, slopes got mogul'ly only after couple hours, underneath ice resurfaced.... I was not impressed with the snow condition at all.
As for Nozawa Onsen in Nagano, my understanding is, the snow is not powdery like Niseko because it has more "moisture". If I have to make the comparison, I'd think it is equivalent to Sunshine Village in Banff. I did not encounter any icy conditions, probably it was cold and never had that warm and re-freeze cycle.

Good observation about space sharing...... now you mentioned this, I do find it's a bit odd.. and I don't know why. Since I was by myself, at restaurant I felt bad that I had to take up one whole table, I made a conscious decision to take lunch late and dinner early, so I could avoid the crowd.

The song thing, I found it a bit cheesy actually...... not sure if other resorts do the same thing.
 

ornatewrasse

Diva in Training
@ornatewrasse and @Tvan : When you visited Japan, did you remember the fancy Japanese toilet seats?

OMG, Yes! I was originally going to write a whole paragraph about the Japanese toilets in my original reply but decided that was too much information to post here :-) But, since you asked.....

I simply could not believe the toilets at our hotel. I had never seen anything like that back in the US and it almost seemed like you needed a college degree to figure out how to use them :-) There were so many options on them for different kinds of sprays and whether they were directed in the front of your body or in the rear. And, of course, the seats were heated and were comfortable to sit on.

I became so fascinated by these toilets and their numerous options that I decided to get two of them for my own house when I saw them on sale at Costco. I love using them and the heated seats, especially in winter, are great!
 
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alison wong

Angel Diva
(the address system is difficult to decipher - they're written from largest to smallest scale as city-ward-neighbourhood-block within neighbourhood - building on block - even for Japanese people.)
I remember reading this in the Aussie forum, something about there are no street signs, westerners are not used to this.

they don't signify that you can't read maps or have deficient spatial processing skills. Just that you didn't grow up in a Japanese spatial context!!
It's one of those things that I am so deficient, I become unsure if it is just "me" or it is "them". Or it is the combination of both....
 

Christy

Angel Diva
Google Maps is really a game changer for visiting a place that doesn't use street addresses. You punch in your destination into Google maps, choose whether you're walking or using transit, it'll even tell you what subway exit to take. I was fully prepared to be lost and frustrated and that never happened.
 

alison wong

Angel Diva
Google Maps is really a game changer for visiting a place that doesn't use street addresses. You punch in your destination into Google maps, choose whether you're walking or using transit, it'll even tell you what subway exit to take. I was fully prepared to be lost and frustrated and that never happened.
Definitely! It is very handy especially traveling overseas. I totally forgot about that. When I travel overseas, I use Google Map for navigation (instead of GPS) when driving.
(Side note, except in China, Google is still banned, can't use Google map there. There is something equivalent but not as good.)
 

Cantabrigienne

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yeah, when I lived in Japan in 2002-3, it was imperative to know the phone number of your destination, because you could punch that into GPS as the destination even when you didn't know the address, which in turn meant you had to be taking a taxi if you were unsure of your destination - a rather expensive proposition. Thank goodness for the current state of mobile technology!
 

Artis

Certified Ski Diva
Awesome trip report! I should really visit Japan to ski sometime soon. Maybe see if I can plan a trip next season...
 

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