Yamagata Zao

Conor and Dylan, and what's left of the Ice Monsters, March 2012

This is a great place for families. We stayed at the Zao Astraea hotel, which practically sits on the Yokokura Slope, on the far side of the resort. It's well situated next to a series of short lifts that lead to the big gondola, or rope way, that takes you to the summit where you'll find a whole mess of Juhyo, the area's famous ice-covered monster trees. It's because of these monsters that this resort draws busloads of tourists, and they don't need to be carrying skis or a snowboard to gain entry to the top, and in fact it's those folks who get to go to the front of the line. So in a way we were lucky that by the time we made it to Zao, the second weekend in March, the scenery was past its prime, there were few tourists about and not that many skiers either. No waiting for the rope way from Juhyo Kogen station, or any other lift for that matter.

In photos, the Juhyo look pretty incredible, like something out of Lord of the Rings, all lumpy and twisted and hunched. In person, having shaken off some of the snow, the trees still looked pretty cool and Tolkien like. Doesn't this one (below) look like a wizard in a white cloak?

 

How they form: extremely wet snow from the Sea of Japan is carried by the Siberian jetstream over the Asahi Range, where it is compressed and cooled, turning into particle ice, which then slams into the central Ou Range and glues itself on to these Aomori fir trees. What we didn't see:

The boys were not that impressed with the summit until we pointed out the Jizo statue, buried up to its neck in snow, the tip of his sceptre poking out next to the offering box. If you pat the head of a Jizo, does it bring you good luck?

The same Jizo in summer:

From the top there we skied the Zangezaka Juhyogen course, and ended up doing a stretch of moguls that turned out to be part of a black diamond run - a first for the boys.

The other side of the resort had some decent runs as well. We found a ski school for Conor and Dylan at the Zao Base lodge Jupeer, next to the Uenodai Slope (marked No. 5 on the resort map). Their instructor, Yoshida, whom we called Yoshi-san, spoke excellent English, though we paid a premium for that - 15,000 yen for 2 hours, private.

Before he could get started, though, he had to coax them out of this ice cave.

To get to Zao, we took a JR train from Ebisu to Omiya (40 min on either the Saikyo or Shonan-Shinjuku line) then transferred to a shinkansen on the Tsubasa line. From Omiya to Yamagata takes about 2 hr., 15 min., and you stop at Fukushima along the way (the city, not the troubled nuclear power plant). Here's what looks like a taxi waiting area outside Fukushima station:

After arriving at Yamagata station, you can take a coach bus directly to the resort, only 980 yen per adult, 490 yen per child for the 30- to 40-min journey. Take the East Exit to bus shelter No. 1, and a guy in uniform will put your luggage in the cargo hold and point you to the ticket office. (I'm sure this was way more comfortable not to mention cheaper than if the four of us had tried to cram into a not-quite-big-enough Japanese taxi.) The bus dropped us at the Zao Onsen bus terminal, a small place with restrooms and vending machines and an info desk. We called the Astraea hotel, and somebody sent a van to collect us and take us 5 min. further down the road.

 Killing time at the bus station

We slept in Western style beds - four singles in one spacious room - and our package deal - 21,800 yen per adult, 15,900 yen per child - covered the room for one night, lunch and dinner on the Saturday, breakfast on Sunday, 4 hot coffee tickets redeemable at any restaurant on the mountain, and lift tickets for 2 days.

Dinner was Japanese Cuisine 101: tuna and salmon sashimi with shredded daikon and chiso leaf; broiled eel in a brown sauce glaze, stick of ginger root lying on top; cold soba noodles swimming in sweet soy with rings of green onion; fatty slices of raw pork on a bed of cabbage, ready for boiling in the shabu-shabu pot placed in the middle of the table; a basic white fish and shrimp, fried tempura-style; and plenty of pickles and white rice. The boys would only eat the pork shabu-shabu and rice, so Terry and I let them have at it, as there were enough other dishes to go around.

And then there was the onsen. I'm sure there are more traditional onsen to visit in the area - the resort is called Zao Onsen after all - but our hotel had its own, and it was more than suitable (I'll never forget the ladies kneeling by the famous but tiny village bath in Nozawa Onsen, using plastic basins to do the required pre-soak cleansing, as there was no place else to go - these hotel onsen really spoil you, with their individual shower stalls with big bottles of shampoo and body soap). Anyway, ahhhhhh... there's nothing like soaking sore muscles in a mineral bath after a day of skiing. That's something we'll surely miss once we leave Japan. (Funny, you get used to the nudity - women are with women, men with men, so it's no biggie.) Bathers had two options: a basic rectangular pool facing a big picture window with mountain view, late afternoon sun streaming in; or the pool lined with big rocks, exposed to the open air, also facing the sunshine. I chose that one, because it put me within an arm's reach of the snow and the trees (there was some fencing for privacy, but if you stood up you could see a parking lot). Usually these baths are way too hot for me, but the rocky one, steaming against the chill of the outdoors, was manageable.


Hotel Astraea 
Tel: 023-694-9603
info@aoastraea.com
Note: Only few on staff speak limited English; best to have Japanese speaker make contact.
Zao Onsen Tourism Association Tel: 023-694-9328
Zao Ski School at Jupeer, Uenodai slope, Tel: 023-694-9381, English language lessons available

Tip for viewing the ice monsters: If you're not staying at Hotel Astraea and are coming from Yamagata station by car, you can park near the Zao Sanroku lift station, marked No. 1 on the resort map, and take that up to the Juhyo Kogen station, and on to the summit from there.

Nozawa Onsen Pt. 3: the slopes

If you want to ski or board from dawn to dusk, by all means stay at Pension Schnee, which is on the mountain and a short walk from where you can rent your equipment and buy your lift tickets and take a gondola up to the top.

To go to Nozawa Onsen the village -- it's very charming -- from Schnee you need to take the moving walkway, or the "Yu-Road," which is just like the rolling sidewalks you see at airports. Only it stops operating around 4:30pm, so unless you want to walk uphill on packed snow for 15 minutes after an evening out, it's the pension's bar/restaurant for you. Which is fine, a cozy spot with an extensive drink and snack menu.

The whole setting is idyllic, really. We've skied in a few places around Japan -- Hakuba, Yuzawa/Niigata, in Hokkaido just outside Sapporo -- and I must say that Nozawa Onsen was the prettiest, with its many tall pine trees with branches sagging under enormous clumps of snow...

The area saw some heavy snowfall while we were there, which made for some nice and soft and fluffy-powdery conditions. The weather was wild, actually, shifting dramatically all weekend long. You'd have clear blue sky/bright sunshine/great visibility one minute, dark gray overcast sky /heavy snowfall and chill the next. The swings, so regular and extreme, were unlike anything I've ever experienced on a ski slope anywhere, no kidding.




On Sunday we took a few hours off from skiing/boarding to check out the town...
It's a pretty steep descent

shops on main street


Lunch at Wakagiri featured a full range of local cuisine: ramen, kappamaki, tempura and tonkatsu. And a menu we could read!


I ditched the group before they had a chance to order dessert and found myself in a "paper dolls and origami" shop. Proprietress Silvia, originally from El Salvador, makes some pretty cool dolls out of washi paper:
foot bath on the corner

On Monday morning we had a couple hours to spare before our train left, so the boys went to a public onsen for a free soak (they had to use Terry's jeans to dry off because towels were not provided and we didn't think to bring any) while I wandered around and ultimately found Memorial Hall. It was then I started to understand what the upcoming Fire Festival was all about...

ski trip to Ishiuchi Maruyama, Niigata Pref.

There's night skiing at Ishiuchi!

(that's Conor in the foreground, at left, with Dylan behind him and Terry in the background on the right)

This resort area-- and there are oh so many in this country! -- is less than 2 hrs. away, door to door: about 1 hr. 15 min. by bullet train from Tokyo Station to Echigo-Yuzawa station, and from there, another 10 min. by car, or in our case, hotel shuttle-van. (We stayed at Esprit, a boutique outfit, which was basically ski-in, ski-out, and was run by some very nice people who provided some very fine food plus free Wi-Fi. Oh and the owner drove me to the 7-11 down the road so I could use the ATM.)

We just got back so this post is to be continued...

Hakuba 47

saizu

The boys, skiing the long and windy beginners' trail at Hakuba 47 last weekend.

Bought Terry this ski jacket at Lafuma the other day and was reminded yet again of how an average size American is considered gargantuan here in Japan. The tag spells it out: U.S. size: MEDIUM. European size: LARGE. Japanese size: X-LARGE.

For the boys' ninja costumes (a popular choice for Japanese Day at school - more about that later) I went to Muji and bought black turtlenecks and black leggings in a women's size small. It was a near-perfect fit.
At assembly. Conor is the one holding his hand to his face.
With his buddies Edmund and Joe, outside the classroom

the hotel, and onsen!

For last weekend's ski trip to Yuzawa we stayed at the Naspa New Otani, which is next door to the ski school and about 200 yards to the nearest chairlift. We opted for a Japanese-style room: tatami mats on the floor, sliding screens in front of the windows, low table with legless chairs, and extra robes and slippers to wear to the onsen downstairs.


In the onsen, or hot springs bath, you check your modesty at the door. No bathing suits or even towels are allowed, though you can carry a "humility towel," a small hand towel to hold against yourself while you make your way to the shower and then across the stone deck and into the water. I noticed that some people wrap their hair in the small towel while they soak; others rest it folded on top of their heads. I left mine in the locker room. I guess I am humility-challenged.

So the onsen itself is....hot. Very hot. Not bubbling like a jacuzzi, just a shallow, clear, hot bath. At this particular place you could soak in the large stone one inside or a smaller stone one outside. I preferred to be outside, where the air was cold and you could really see steam coming off the water, and it wasn't quite so hot, and you could see a bit of the snowbanks and a tiny glimpse of mountain scenery. But I couldn't take it for more than 10 minutes. As I sat there, wondering, as I often do, how did I get here? (with that Talking Heads song playing in my head) I could feel myself fading. Later I noticed my pores were so wide open it looked like someone had taken a black ballpoint pen (and a pot of rouge) to my cheeks.

It did make me feel good all over though. They say the water is mineral rich and so has healing powers; it definitely feels restorative. The reason Japan has so many onsen (3,000, according to one Japan Times article I read) is because of the volcanoes. The country is 75 percent mountainous, and many of its peaks are volcanic; most of the springs are heated groundwater near those volcanoes. Some derive their heat from something else, though: the decay of naturally radioactive elements going on inside the Earth's mantle (Word of the Day: geothermal). Going to the onsen has always been a big part of Japanese life, a bonding ritual to be enjoyed with family and friends; I saw lots of little girls in the hotel onsen with their mothers. There's a Japanese expression, hadaka no tsukiai, or "naked companionship." True friendship means getting naked and going to the onsen together. It's where you can relax and take a break from the formality and social restraint. That's not to say that it's party time in the onsen; everybody was still pretty quiet and reserved sitting there in the bath. I suppose it's difficult to chat while you're boiling yourself.

Anyway, after the onsen (the boys went to the boys' one, I went to the ladies'), we went to dinner, to the family-style buffet, which had big signs directing you to "Japanese Food" (sushi, grilled crab legs, tempura mushrooms, miso soup, udon noodles, pickled daikon, a savory egg custard) on one side and "Western Food" (broiled fish florentine, chicken, steak, pasta, salad bar) on the other. The boys made multiple trips to the ice cream case. While we were eating, somebody came into our room to roll out and make our beds, turning it into a scene from a tween-age slumber party. The beds were actually quite comfortable and of course the kids dug it.On Sunday morning we had a little Easter egg hunt. I put tiny cookies and 10-yen coins in our plastic eggs and T hid most of them inside slippers and snowboots. Here the boys are looking over the bounty and discussing what they are going to do with the 300-plus yen they've just scored.

Mickey takes our picture

March 22, 2008

Naspa Ski Garden

Yuzawa-Machi, Niigata

more skiing

It's official: the boys know how to ski. It's amazing how quickly they picked it up. They can now get down the mountain without incident, as long as they stick to the beginner slopes. (I mean, they still take an occasional tumble, but there's no drama; they're pretty good about getting up and moving on.)

It was our second trip this weekend, and this time we went to Naspa Ski Garden, which is in the mountains of Yuzawa Town, Niigata Prefecture, only 80 minutes by bullet train from Tokyo station (like Penn Station) and so only about two hours door to door. The place is geared toward families with young children, with lots of bunny trails and no snowboarders (!). The boys had lessons with Mickey, a 20-year-old from New Zealand who's been skiing since he was three. The boys loved him. Here he is, the guy in the goggles. We caught up with them when it was time to break for lunch.

Mickey told the boys to "punch the way you want to turn!" and so they would throw a slow right or left hook to steer themselves this way and that. Mickey also told the boys to lean on the outside leg, which also helped. He showed them how to straighten themselves out and get up after a fall, and how to "skate" to get moving on flat terrain. They can get on and off a chairlift, do little jumps, and spray snow on your skis as they come to a stop next to you. Here are a couple more clips I shot (somewhat awkwardly) with my camera phone (it's no steady-cam, I'm afraid. In fact it's a miracle I didn't ski into a tree while doing this...). D, who turns six in a couple of months, is the one in the orange jacket. C, who's about 7 and a half now, is in blue with red snow pants.

2 of T's ski clips

These are better than mine, and short! In this first one, C takes a few jumps, and you can hear one of the bad J-pop tunes that Naspa had playing out on the slopes (you know it's bad when Seal is the highlight).

In this one you can hear the instructor, Mickey, instructing...

skiing

We took the boys skiing this past weekend, to a resort called Happo-One (hap-poh-oh-nay) in the Hakuba mountains, in Nagano Prefecture, part of the Japan Alps region of Central Honshu. One of the parents I met at school recommended it for the Evergreen ski school (English-speaking instructors) and Mominoki hotel located next door.

We really lucked out with great weather, great conditions and short lift lines, and the boys, who had never been on skis before, were into it too. While they had their lessons, we were able to get some grown-up runs in. Here's T tackling a short slalom course that, if we were reading the signs correctly, is a leftover from the 1998 Olympics (most events were held at another bigger resort nearby called Shiga Kogen...there are something like 600 ski resorts in Japan and who knows how many where we were).

After ski school on Sunday we had some family time at the "Magic Carpet," a slow-moving conveyor that takes the kids up to the top of the bunny slope where the classes are held. There is also a small sledding hill (here's a short clip).

We managed to survive the weekend without injury, save for T's sunburned eyelids. To see his photos, click here (you'll have to sign in to Facebook). Scroll down to see mine.

ski pics

Saturday, March 8: We traveled all morning to get to the mountain and now we've got our rental gear. We are ready to go!


No I'm not pregnant, that's just some new weight I've gained, something I like to call my ramen roll. (Seriously I've got a camera and travel wallet attached to my belt and the sleeves of a fleece turtleneck tied around my waist, and that's what's giving me this huge gut. I swear!)



After skiing for a couple of hours we return to the Kids Camp to pick up the boys. Here's Dylan with his instructor, Connor (great name), whose mission on this first day was to teach the boys how to do the "pizza and fries" move (when I was a kid, we called it the snow plow). Dylan wore tip connectors to help him maintain proper form.

Conorwas feeling ready to try out his skills on a real run, but as we prepared to get onto the chairlift, he slid out of bounds so the lift operator grabbed him and held him out of the way, but it left me no choice but to sit down and go without him. The operator plopped him down on the next chair and he ended up riding up alone. He was only a little bit nervous. The run itself proved more harrowing...


The day is over and we're all in one piece, and now we are heading back to base camp. Dylan seems shocked here that he is still upright. There's his brother in the background, calm and sorta confident, despite having spent much of the last run on his butt.

Sunday morning March 9: the boys are back in ski school and Terry and I are back riding the chairlift. Today we go to the top!




Cool clouds


A nice wide run. Better skiers fly by, spraying us with powder. Stand still long enough and your skis get buried.

After we collected the boys for lunch we went back to Kids Camp for a few final runs (then it was off to catch a bus that would take us to the train, that would take us to another train that would get us home... ) Here they are riding the "Magic Carpet" and having a Rocky moment...