We arrived in Kusatsu, Gunma the night before, a 2 hour drive from Takeshi’s parents’ house in Takasaki. Takeshi’s elder sister is a school teacher here and owns a personal log house of sorts where we stayed in for the next 2 days. Temperatures dropped to a mind numbing -5°C ; the coldest place I’ve ever been to; even indoors we were still exhaling copious fumes of water vapour.
(above) A view from inside the log house in the morning. (below) Shortly after we woke up and had breakfast ( left over Mochis from yesterday ), heavy snowfall began falling, blanketing everything in a thick sheet of fine, powdery snow, transforming the landscape completely in a matter of minutes.
(below) Enroute to the ski resort area.
Once outdoors getting good pictures proofed to be quite a challenge -the snow was bouncing so much ambient light all over the place, not to mention the freezing cold numbing my fingers and having to shield my camera from falling snow all the time.
(above) One of the bigger ski resorts in Kusatsu. We didn’t actually ski here and settled for a gentler sloping, less populated spot somewhere. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of us in action; By the time the four of us swung into full skiing gear we could only flap around awkwardly like penguins.
This was my first skiing experience and I was struggling not to fall for most of the time and rolling in the snow for the rest, but it very quickly daunt on me that once I let go of the fear of falling and took my mind off the intimidating slopes I started to enjoy myself much more. Fortis fortuna adiuvat !
Read Gunma Ski trip, Day 1 post here.
Related posts:
Gunma ski trip, Day 3
Gunma ski trip, Day 1
Takasaki Trip, 2006
Takasaki trip
Snowy day, Tokyo
Having fun in the snow… must have been pretty regal.
Also in your previous post, you had a picture of kinako mochi.
sounds fun. i’ve been through 2 winter times in here but never try skiing. i should do it this year
Wow… -5º? I can’t imagine being comfortable in a place like that. But the snow is really pretty.
Wow, a lot of people =P
I’ve never tried skiing before, though perhaps I shall give it a shot on my next trip to Japan.
Wow, great to see you have had a chance to get away on a break. There are two things I still long to do in Japan, go skiing (and see the Snow Festival in Hokkaido) and go snorkeling in Okinawa. MUST make sure my next trip includes one of the two. Until next time don’t forget…”Snow plow, snow plow” (that’s all I remember from the last time I skiied …cause it’s how you stop;-))
Kasumi – I absolutely love kinako ! By the way, can I ask where you are from ?
Shigues – Yeah I’ve never seen so much snow in my life ! Pity it was way too cold !
Chraen – You should. :] Its quite enjoyable…once you get over the falling down part…haha.
andrea – Snorkeling in Okinawa ! That’s next on my to do list as well. :] For skiing, the advice for stopping from my Japanese friends was to form the “八の字” with your legs, basically pointing your both your feet inwards to form an inverted V, which will slow you down.