Nozawa Onsen

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Last weekend was a great snowboarding trip at the ski resort beside Nozawa Onsen. Despite the name Nozawa Onsen, we ended up skipping the fantastic onsens altogether which was a pity. By far this place had the best facilities, overtaking Shirakabako which was great for snowboarding previously. Eventhough Sunday was only my 3rd day of snowboarding, I was flying across the hills and crashing into white, soft snow that keep piling up as it snowed rather heavily from early morning till the time we left at around 4 pm.

Given that fresh snow was stacking up rather rapidly and visibility was greatly reduced, the long runs were mostly abandoned and I had almost the entire run to myself. Ample space to practice and great snow to cushion the fall and this accelerated my improvement from a retard greenhorn to an amateur. It was by far the best snowboarding session of the 3 that I had. The only set back I had was that I had missed the last gondola down and had to take the intermediate route down the mountain. Scary but I made it with all the basics I had...not willing to attempt it again unless I miss the gondola again.

Alrite, here's the more indepth entry...

26 Jan Sunday, the beeping of my Casio's at 0545 hours followed by alarms from various cellphones broke my light sleep. Curled up on a lightly padded seat not wider than my body's width, I went downstair to wash up and prepare myself for the big day. Crashing in the same 2 storey school in Komoro (My Boss's school) was Grant, Eric and Ashley. We had all staked out the nite in Komoro since Sat for the much anticipated snowboarding trip in Nozawa Onsen on Sun.

Maki and Kosuke joined us at around 0630 in Komoro and from there we roll out in 2 cars to Nozawa Onsen. I was riding in Grant's car which was equipped with 3/4 worth of snow tyres as he was too lazy to fit the last one so we were pretty much fine for the journey. Took the Joetsu Highway which was THE fastest route to Nozawa Onsen as we were flying thru 6km long tunnels and greeted by unbelievable Alpine Glows from the mountains in the distance. Cruising at 110 to 130 km per hour, the 2 lanes highway became nothing more than an endless guiding line to our destination. As we approach Nagano City, it began to snow and somewhere along the end of the highway, there was a road block to turn away vehicles not equipped with snow tyres as the last part of the journey, black tarmac roads were simply non existence.

As we exited the highway which took us 1 hour odd and a total damage of ￥1850, it was simply a time VS. money battle as the normal route would have taken us more than 4 hours and God knows how much fuel. Alrite now we are in a little town called Iiyama which will lead us to some of the best ski resorts in Japan, namely Shiga Kogen and Nozawa Onsen and I have come to love this little town more than anywhere else in Japan. The reason being snow of course. There was simply so much snow here in Iiyama, the roads thru towns were sunk between 2 ice walls on both sides of the road towering at a metre odd. Huge Caterpillar machines with wheel diameter above the roof of my car was shoveling the snow off the road which expalins why the metre high snow walls. Other weird machines were dropping salt pellets on the roads to melt any black ice and everywhere else was a scenery of lush white trees, houses and mountains.

As we approach our destination, the raging snow storm refused any mercy and we were forced to drive up the winding mountain passes covered in more snow. And yep I was delighted as usual and I closed my eyes and whispered, "Please don't stop snowing till I tell you to."

As soon as our 2 cars pulled up into the parking lot, I was strapping up in my new boots and ready to fire up with my new bindings and tuned up board. It would be my first time riding in my own set of equipment other than the hefty rental and long queue times. The only essential gear that I was missing were my gloves...you see the mid range gloves that I got from Burton, which supposedly was the best snowboarding company SUCK BIG TIME. And if Jake Burton were to read this I would tell him, "Go back and pitch snowboards. Quit churning out MADE IN CHINA crap that rip!"

Once again I have proven my point and have justified myself that stuffs that are Made in Crap China just don't make the cut. They are simply a waste of time, money and effort so if I can avoid, I would definitely boycott crap like these. My gloves ripped on the 1st day I use them and I had to send them to the shop to get it replace with hopefully not the same crap model.

Yep I am pissed but let's go on...borrowed Eric's mitts (shells only) and took the lift up to the mid section only to find myself getting my ass whipped as going down the winding mountain passes proved too much for me after my 2 weeks break. Finally after much struggling, I managed to reach the mid section where I went to the "Lost and Found" section, first to bluff for a pair of gloves and when it failed, try to pitifully borrow a pair of gloves. Well the bluff failed but the pathetic act worked so I ended up not paying only for the lift tickets and nothing else.

Too bad I can only take the memories of this wonderful place with me as I simply wasn't good enough haul my camera up. But I am pretty sure if anyone who comes visit me in winter would have a chance to come up here...

And so that was it, an entire day of snowboarding in heavy snow to put a nice smile on my face for the entire week. This Sunday I suppose we are going up to Nozawa Onsen for another round of crazy snowboarding...haha.