Snowing in Shiga Kogen

Woke up a little bit earlier today than I usually do. I was catching an early train to Nagano to go snowboarding with some friends. As usual we met at the Nagano station and rode by car to Shiga Kogen.

By noon we’d had lunch and were hitting the slopes. It was snowing a gently the whole afternoon. But it was still good visibility and easy snowboamrding.

We were riding together the whole afternoon. The seven of us. 3 girls and 4 guys, 2 snowboarders and 5 loosers on skis 😉

Around 4 pm we had enough and went back to our rooms. Cleaned up in the artificial onsen (hot and outdoors but not natural), together with a whole lot of other people. Then had time to relax and talk in the room before going for dinner.

The restaurant was in the building next to the hotel so we had to walk aoutside for 25 meters. It was snowing, and quite beautiful. The food was Chinese and I had a chance to try Brian’s Sudden Death Sauce, a gift from Hachobori-san. Tasty. And HOT!!!

After dinner we all met up in the guys’ room. Drinking (sports drink for me and stronger variants of what everyone claimed to be sports drinks, though I am still doubtful ;-)). Talking. and having a fun time.

Shiga-Kogen – Day 3

I had managed to convince the other (most of them) that we should try the slopes today as well. Just before 8 am we were on the first lift up under a blue sky 😎



We were riding for 2 hours before we went back to the hotel to checkout. Then we drove towards Nagano, but stopped midway to have a final lunch together.

We had stopped here a few years earlier too. The food was still good. Buri-yaki (grilled yellow tail) with ton-jiru (kind of miso soup) and rice. They cook the food on old style stoves. Yummy!




At 1:47 pm I was on a Shinkansen back to Tokyo. The only fun thing about that was to meet Chie again.

Shiga-Kogen – Day 2

At 7:55 am we were all waiting at the lift. We were on the second lift up and could have a wonderful ride on an untouched slope 🙂

The first 2 hours were great. Then it got a bit crowded and you had to slaloming around slow skiers and snowboarders. It was still good, but more because of the good weather. Most of the time the sun was shining on us… Except for 30 minutes or so before lunch time.



Once we had lunch all wanted to take a rest from skiing, except me. I continued skiing by myself. Exploring the area. It was great fun. Fresh air. Great weather. What more can you ask for?



Well you could ask for it tomorrow as well 😉

Shiga-Kogen

Friday morning and I woke up earlier than usual on a work day, which Fridays usually are. But today I had a day off 🙂 Still I had to be an early bird to catch the Shinkansen train to Nagano.



At Nagano I and Shimizu was picked up by Saito-san and the three of us was on our way to Shiga-Kogen. About an hour’s ride and we met Mash-san and Hachobori-san at the Prince Hotel West in Shiga-Kogen.



First things first… We checked in. Rented a snowboard for me. And had lunch. Then we were off enjoying the slopes on a very fine day’s afternoon.