Nozawa Onsen (AKA - Cliffhanger)

Its been a while eh? Between working like a mule and boarding like a lunatic I haven't had much time to update the blog. However, I couldn't not to fill you in my little adventure the weekend of the 18th.

Last Friday, a brave crew of seven boarders set off on a trip to the famous Nozawa Onsen village. Nozawa is north west of Tokyo near to many of the places I've already visited. However, the resort is famous for its many onsen (hence the name). We were also looking forward to some fantastic off piste runs as promised by our guide Eric (from now on referred to as GBE).

We set off on the Friday from work in two Subaru legacy station wagons. Stuart Croy tore up the road with the sport mode on the automatic gear box. I swear we used twice as much petrol getting to Nozawa than we did returning. But I'm grateful for it. We left the Rental place after 8.30 and had a five hour drive to look forward to. Its a testament to the lackadaisical traffic police in Japan (and almost complete lack of speed cameras) that we got there at 1am despite getting lost up some dodgy side road on the face of a mountain that looked like it was ready to avalanche any second...

Special mention to GBE for his ipod broadcaster and the "Tra la la" song. Words can't describe. No, hang on, they can. The lyrics went something like: "Ooh, you touched my tra la la. My ding ding dong." Now, imagine a greasy deep voiced camp lothario whispering that in your ear... no, not GBE - this was just the lyrics. I can't imagine how GBE discovered it, but its one of the stupidest songs I've heard. I tried googling it but didn't find anything that wasn't porn.

Anyway, we got there at 1am, crashed in the ryokan and got up bright and early for boarding the next day. The weather was very good. Bright, not too cold and no wind. Unfortunately that meant the pistes were packed and a lack of recent snowfall meant they were icy too. Undeterred we did a few runs between the trails and eventually met up with the eighth member of our party. With that, we set off down what I'm calling 'The Brown Streak Run'.

The plan was simple: From the peak, head down the right most valley in the resort, hugging the right face of the valley and eventually dropping into the powder bowl that leads back into the main runs. The execution of said plan was a complete disaster! We actually went down the valley next to our target. This means we were technically outside the resort. Take a look at the map I've uploaded. Our target is the pleasant green line. The route we took was somewhat similar to the brown skid-mark smeared to the right. To be fair, it was a very interesting run, with lots of scenery. For example:

1) The view from the top was amazing
2) About 10 minutes into the run we encountered a waterfall. Its lucky we didn't just go over what we thought was a short drop. After stopping Jay heard the water rushing below. We had to go around the waterfall hugging the side of the valley which was at about an 80% incline (check out GBE on his own trying to get round). Once we got round we discovered the waterfall was actually pretty high - maybe about 20ft.
3) A tree covered river run that we had to board VERY carefully round..
4) densely packed trees with only ice (not snow) covering the ground between the trunks
5) Avalanche damage. There were huge chunks of ice that had clearly formed by rolling down the sides of the valley in what experts call an 'avalanche'. These chunks were perfect for causing a boarder to fall on his/her head. Lucky I was wearing a helmet!
6) A twenty minute uphill hike through waist deep powder
7) Last - a full scale Olympic cross country ski course. Complete with a shooting range and a few trainee ski-ers trying to get round. We went down it the wrong way (i.e. downhill) and really pissed the ski folks off.

After the 20 minute uphill climb in deep powder I was totally beat. When we got back to the resort I had a headache and wanted to give up for the day. Fortunately, the wonders of Japanese food and plenty of water had me back on my board and doing jumps in the snow park. Pretty awesome stuff. There are no photos of me, but check out Jun going over one of the jumps.

We got back to the Ryokan at about five. Just in time to get dinner and go to one of the famous onsen. As I've mentioned before, onsen rocks. So after relaxing in the hot springs for about an hour, we got changed and went out to see the town. Nozawa is pretty cool for tourists so we ended up in a Karaoke bar (five guys singing karaoke you say? Nev - I can tell you are going to comment on this, well you'll be glad. We had a contest to see who could sing the gay-est song. My butch version of 'Eternal Flame' was a clear winner). At this stage Andy was abducted by a random Japanese guy and taken to another Karaoke room to sing Beatles songs with some crusty old folks. We left him to it and decided to get some snackage. Cup Noodles are awesome... Imagine a Pot Noodle that actually tasted like decent ramen. For people that allegedly can't handle their drink, the Japanese have good post-pub food.

Day two was a slightly subdued affair. We managed a few more runs in the morning but I was beat so went back to the Ryokan. The others actually made it onto the run we aimed for yesterday and reported that it was pretty good. Ho hum, I went souvenir shopping instead and bought some nice chocolates.

We left for Tokyo in the evening and got back just after 9, again, thanks to Stuart C's driving. We paid for the car, and with that,I went home, and promptly fell asleep.

Until Next time - SPIFF OUT.

ps, I'll quickly mention Snow Jam - the work Ski/Snowboarding event. We went to Shiga Kogen last weekend with the work. There were forty people and 6 serious injuries. Always wear a helmet folks. I'll also be buying knee pads, elbow pads and an ass pad for my next trip. Trust me, I've seen the bruises. It'll be worth it.