I started my week by going to a shelter-like dog cafe, and honestly, it was everything I needed. After so many months in Southeast Asia, where the dogs are not entirely trustworthy, this place was a breath of fresh air. Alex and I had the chance to snuggle with some dogs that needed human connection, and were learning to be calm. We fell in love with a chihuahua and a Frenchie. The rest of the week I spent working as much as I could before my ski weekend. I spent my days at our workspace: WeWork Osaka. I took some meetings from our apartment when they were very late.
On Thursday, I left for my ski weekend in Hakuba. I had spent hours researching the right place for me to ski, and I landed on Hakuba because it was accessible by train, and it was a bit of a sightseeing checkbox — the Winter Olympics were hosted there, specifically the ski jump.
My journey to Hakuba was quite long. I took four trains, including local and Shinkansen trains, but fortunately, they were all on-time, comfortable and everything was easy to navigate. I decided to stay at Masion de Sasagawa, a homestay-type place right next to the main ski gondola, and within town near the restaurants and shops. Once I arrived in town, Yoko, the owner of Sasagawa, picked me up at the train station. We picked up her son from school and then made our way to the hotel. She gave me the lay of the land with a map and recommendations (and discounts!) to local rental companies and ski passes. I ventured out into the village for dinner and landed at Unjaune. I wanted something simple, so burger and fries it was. HOLY MOLY these burgers were giant, I immediately decided I needed to split it and eat the rest for breakfast. I stopped by the rental shop to get everything sized. I was so grateful that they had goggles for rent - a rarity in most places. I walked back to the hotel to get some rest; I planned to hit the slopes early the next morning. I had to be careful on my way back because there are snow monkeys in the area - I, fortunately, never met one, only saw them from afar.
On my first ski day, I picked up equipment and started up the gondola around 8:45am. It was the longest and highest I had ever been on a gondola - I arrived almost 15 minutes later to the top. I started down a cat-track (my first one), and it was a lot tougher than I expected. It was narrow and long, with many switchbacks, and probably not the best way to start my ski day after a three year break. Nonetheless, what goes up must come down, so I decided to take a break after about a half hour at a cafe. I think I looked very exhausted because an old man gave me chocolate with a reassuring face. I finally made it down the mountain by about 10:30am and decided to snag some hot cocoa and a croissant (about $9/1000Yen) near the Sakka trails. This boots-off break was much needed and I got back on the slopes rejuvenated. I decided to call it quits at about 2pm, and headed to Cubanos for my very own apres ski. I got a beer and light snack for about $15/1500 yen. It began to snow, so I asked for a hot toddy to go and explored the nearby shrine. It was magical.
I headed back to the hotel to rest and shower before going to get some ramen at Yamagami Syoudou. Since I was by myself, they sat me at a counter and I brought a book. I was starving and ordered some sake, ramen and edamame for about $19/2500 yen. The following day, I took a shuttle to Sakka and arrived at the slopes at around 9am. I skied a few of the trails in the area and took a break at 10:30am. I tried the Kitaone track - another cat track - at around 12pm, and was quite beat after this so I wrapped up at 2pm again. I headed back to the hotel to rest and ended up eating some more leftovers for dinner.
Yoko gave me a ride to the train station on Sunday morning. I traveled all the way back to Osaka just to unpack then repack for our upcoming adventure on the Nakasendo trail!
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