2020年1月24日金曜日 - 
Kira - New Year
This New Year's my family
from South Africa visited me. It took over a day for them to get to Japan, ten
hours from South Africa to Dubai, then ten hours from Dubai to Osaka. I was
very excited because we booked a few nights in Hakuba, Nagano. (I asked my
students for a great place to go snowboarding and many recommended Hakuba due
to the snow being like powder.)
My family and I have never seen
snow before, so we couldn't wait to see it. It was our first ever winter
Christmas. (December in South Africa is summer and in the UAE, where I've also
lived, it's never winter.) We arrived in Nagano via the bullet train and a
small town called Itoigawa. It was such a small town that the trains only
arrived every two hours. Once we got on the train it was a ninety-minute ride
to Hakuba. It was the most beautiful train ride I've ever had. The deeper we
got into the mountains, the more the countryside filled up with fluffy snow. It
was everywhere: on the trees, cars, road signs and all over the giant
mountains. It felt like I was in a winter wonderland.
We arrived in Hakuba and
got picked up to stay at our hotel called Mont Blanc. Since we'd spent the whole
day traveling, it was night time when we arrived and minus 5 degrees Celsius.
Still in awe of the snow, we were told that the town was small so everything
was in walking distance. We walked to a traditional Japanese restaurant, where
we had a delicious hot pot and made friends with the waiter! His name was
Kazuki and he said the next day he would teach my sister and I to snowboard.
The ski slope was a
five-minute walk from our hotel. We got up, rented some gear and met Kazuki for
our first ever lesson. Instead of being taught on a small slope, he pointed to
the top of the big ski slope and said, 'We'll go up there'. My sister and I
were frightened as we'd never snowboarded before but we agreed because we
wanted an adventure. Kazuki brought three friends along and they all helped. It
was actually very easy and by the end of the day we were learning mini jumps!
We then ended the night with a beautiful hot spring bath that was half inside
and half outside so you could bathe with the snow all around the edge of the
bath. It was magical!
The next day we went to
visit the snow monkeys. It was a one-hour bus ride and a thirty-minute walk in
the snow to see the snow monkeys, who love to relax in a hot spring. It was
beautiful and the monkeys were so cute.
That evening, we heard
there was a DJ playing at one of the bars. And the bar was across the road from
our hotel! So my sister, my mother and I went along. After a few drinks, we
ended up dancing and making friends with some other tourists and locals until 3
am!
I was sad to leave as I'd
found a love for snowboarding and made friends with some wonderful locals and
eaten such delicious food. It definitely was
a winter wonderland and I will hopefully be back soon! I recommend Hakuba Goryu
for a ski trip!
booked: 予約した
via: ～経由で
bullet train: 新幹線
filled up with: ～でいっぱい
fluffy: ふわふわ
giant: 巨大な
awe: 畏れ
walking distance: 徒歩圏
frightened: 怯えた/ぎょっとした
hot spring: 温泉
ended up: ～で終わる