Dave had this sweet little deal sussed whereby if we bought a shinkensen ticket we got a heavily reduced day pass for one of the ski fields aligned with/owned by JR (Japan Rail). Anyway, 3 of us,
Dave, Shinya and Me decided to do it.
So, the "MISSION" began! It entailed the three of us getting up mighty early, before the crack of dawn, and leaving Kamogawa at about 3 am. Our first mission was to locate the JR parking building (underground) by the Tokyo station and the ticketing office where our electronic reservations would be confirmed and our tickets collected. this proved to be remarkably easy given the rabbit warren of streets that crisscross there way through downtown Tokyo. To celebrate this little achievement, shinya shuffled off to the Kiosk on the Shinkinsen platform and bought 3 big tall cans of Kirin's best.
Nothing like a beer at 6am! Suprisingly, on the train, we were not alone. I think the only ones not drinking were kids!!!!!!Once there, the snow was lightly falling and we changed into our gears. The base station has a hot spring attached for those not inclined for the thrill of adventure sports. At the top there was more snow and a bit of wind, but not too bad.
Everyone had a ball and plans are underway already for next years excursion. Hands up anyone that wants to join us....
2 comments:
Hot spring sounds particularly good when I look at the swirling cold mist!! Did you make it into the hot pool?
No. Afraid not. we were making the most of the time available to do as many runs as we could. Maybe next time. I definitely could have used one the following day though!
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