Day 139 - You should go to Nozawa Onsen

So this totally looks like I've taken photos of postcards and then put them up but this is for real.  This is Nozawa Onsen and I did not want to leave. Its a small village in Nagano (think 1998 winter Olympics) and it is as picturesque in real life as it is in the postcards.  The town is famous for powder snow and 30 free onsens in town.  The second picture was our 'local'.  And after 4 days in this town I am in the routine of  sleeping, onsening, skiing, eating, skiing, onsening and eating and then doing it all over again!

I went up on the Wednesday night and got there a bit after 8pm and was taken up to Nozawa Cottage while Melon, Karina, Dre, Duncan and Kristian were arriving from Tokyo. So the owner of the cottage invited me down to a local bar to celebrate Australia day and kill some time while I was waiting.....The gang arrived at about 12:30am and I was a little tipsy but very excited to see them! cottage which is right on the edge of the slopes, just 150m to the main gondola. 

In the morning we had a look around town, got our bearings and then headed to the hire shop to get some gear and hit the slopes.  Kristian and I were skiing and both hadn't been in over 10 years so we had a 2 hour lesson (with a hot Swiss instructor).  It was great to ski again, but I really had trouble trying to relax into it.  I would go super fast and then freak out a bit and then either crash or slow right down and come to a complete stop.  Or I would just plough the whole time.  So my aim was to try and get better turns and maintain some consistent speed.  It too me a good 3 days to do it but by the end I was much better.  I think that I wanted to be so good at it but I was trying too hard.  Yes, I am a big fat try hard.  Anyways, I've found that this sport really tests your personality.  I am a control freak and I don't like heights, so being unable to control my speed and getting on chairlifts was a bit of a test.

The first day Kristian and I were heading up the baby slop to practice a run or two before the lesson and it was my first chair lift ride of the trip.  We are going up and I am getting a bit anxious because there was no bar.  Or at least we thought there was no bar.  We get over half way up and my knuckles are white clenching the side of the chair and melon yells out from ahead, 'put your bar down'.  I felt so much better when we had the bar down.  Obviously.  Then on day 2 there was a single chairlift that really didn't have a bar.  It was fine for most of the time, until I opened my eyes and got kind of dizzy. So I made it to the top but then coming down was another story.  This run was quite steep compared to the other baby run we were on.  So I was headed for the powder snow going kind of fast and then planted face first into the snow, it didn't hurt a bit but I managed to lose a ski on the way down.  I started freaking out thinking that's it for my ski experience but thank god Karina was nearby with her snow borad and managed to dig around for my ski while I was freaking out about losing it.  By this stage, the confidence and energy levels had taken a bit of a knock and it was a rough afternoon.  So back to the baby slopes and had a couple of nice runs because i thought that was my last day and so I just relaxed into it and it was great.  Saturday was a day off and the other guys went to see the snow monkeys but I was buggered and stayed in the village with Karina.  We had a stroll around town, ate okonomiyaki and saw the cooking onsen,.  Then went home for a nap.  We went to the crazy little izekaya for dinner and ate some great food and drank sho-chu.

I had to head back to Tokyo on Sunday but I had just enough time to get in half day skiing before i caught the train and It was great.  We stuck to the baby run but it was great all being on the mountain together and skiing and I really finally relaxed into it.  Had better turns and was maintain a more consistent speed.  Still not a great skier by any means but I feel like by day 3 i finally got it . And I would totally go skiing again.  Especially where there is onsens.  After a long day my body was so tense from trying so hard.  I thought i would be worried/nervous about getting naked in front of friends but it was not a problem.  Like it was the most natural thing in the world.  Get undressed, wash yourself on the side of the bath, acclimatize and then sit in the bath... so relaxing. 

Anyways, enough ranting on, but nozawa onsen is a great place to learn how to ski + powder snow (so you never hurt yourself) + great food + onsens = the most relaxed I've been in 6 months.

Day 133 - Saying Goodbye Already

It's been a little hard the last couple of days saying goodbye to students when  I am not quite ready yet.  It feels real now and while I am excited to be going home, I feel a little sad to be leaving some of my favorite students/clients....

These are a few presents and a beautifully written card from one client that, 3 months ago was very shy and un-confident with his English.  Now he has blossomed and he can't talk fast enough for his own liking and he is attending English seminars at his company.....onward and upward....plus I love the fact that he said many Japanese are 'allergic' to speaking English...it goes in the 'best phrases box' along with one client who came to class on Saturday and said he had an 'alcoholic headache'!

Check out the pressies below, one of my clients works for a major dental company.  He gave me some toothbrushes, a toothbrush shaped pen, toothbrush mobile phone decoration and some hello kitty tooth stickers and told me that healthy teeth are very important.  FYI, chewing also helps activate your brain.  Who knew!

This last one is Hina Matsuri dolls, they are very Japanese and celebrate girl's day on March 3rd.  

CHO KAWAII NE?

Day 131 - I mean Day 113 (retro-post) - Sou Fujimoto

 

 

So I totally forgot to put this up and today seemed like as good as day as ever because it was from day 113, but today is day 131, so both days have a three and two ones.....

Anyways, when Bridge and Jules came to visit we went to the Watari-um Museum to see the 'Forest, Cloud, Mountain' exhibition by Sou Fujimoto.  In such a small gallery over 3 floors we were kind of in and out in 20mins. The best part was the top floor where he had constructed one model, which took up the whole room.  It was a small piece of Tokyo with a pathway carved through it and it had small moments where he proposed his visions of the future.  I also like the floor with all his dog models and drawings.  Not everything was so 'beautiful'.  the bottom floor was ok, but had these strange plastic dogs in the space.  They freaked me out.

I think its over now, it finished on the 16th January 2011.  Sorry. 

Photos by Jules Ong

http://www.watarium.co.jp/exhibition/1008fujimoto/index_e.html

Day 130 - I thank thee 7-11 for my dinner

It's a quiet Saturday night in and I am eating rice, tofu and gyoza and watching 'keeping up with the kardashians', season one (I have watched the other seasons).  I don't know what's worse....that I'm home alone on a Saturday night sans alcohol or that my entire dinner I prepared (microwaved) from the 7-11 across the road......My diet is white.

Day 127 - Ready for Skiiing...Sort Of

So I can't wait to go skiing with melon and co next week at nozawa onsen...I am heading up next Wednesday.  So, as per usual, I am totally disorganised... I have no ski gear but at least now I have some snow shows!  After much debating between stella mccartney for adidas, tiger and lacoste, I went for these, and they even have a slight wedge heel....what do you think?  Now i just need some clothes to go with the shoes...

Day 120 - Old Year and New Year

So its been a while since I posted anything and that's cause I just got back from the best few days ever.  Bridge and jules came to Nippon and i met them in Kyoto on the 31st December.  It was snowing.  It was cold but it was beautiful.  We went to kinkakuji (golden pavilion).  The next day we got on a train and went to hida takayama and the ride was amazing.  I don't know how many photos I took of the snow.  We got there and dragged our cases through the snow, (damn me for not having proper shoes) and got settled in.  It was super quiet in town, dead in fact, but we found a fun little place to chow down on some ramen after escaping out of a yaki-niku shop that looked super cute on the outside but like a hairdresser on the inside, super strange.  We took stroll through the picturesque town and it felt like10pm but it was only 6pm.  
Time went slowly in this town. Forced relaxation. 
So we headed down some stairs to a litltle izekaya that, from the outside, looked pretty trashy.  BUT, on the inside it was super cute, shoes off, we had out own little booth with lowered table and we had to ring a little bell for service.  No english menu but one with pictures, we made some good choices pizza, edammae, some skewers and then some bad choices, cartlege deep fried (it looked like popcorn chicken on the menu) and some kind of chicken gizzard.  So we put them to side and kept on drinking.  Then jules gets on his serious face and says 'i have a question to ask'. So i said,' this sounds serious, do we need another drink?'  he says maybe and then whips out a massive diamond ring and says 'what do you think about this?'.  I cover my mouth in shock and can't say a word.  Bridge starts giggling and says 'is this a gift?'  then she giggles some more and keeps eating edamame.  jules looks a little nervous now and i am sending bridge telepathic message 'say  something say something'.  then she says 'of course'!  Of course she said of course!!  So then she puts on the ring, she didnt know which hand and it was all very exciting, but the whole time i am wishing that i could shrink into the timber walls behind me.  i could not back into the corner small enough for my liking.  I yell at jules and told him, he could have waited until i went to the bathroom or something.  This is a moment that is for couples and i already feel like a third wheel on their tour through japan.  Apparently jules had been carrying the ring around for days and had been waiting to find the right place to do it.  he also had a speech prepared but that apparently went out he window when he decided to propose ina litltle izekaya in takayama!  love it!  so we celebrated an the rest of the Ong's came down to have a little drink....

The next day the town seemed to wake up so we checked out the local markets, sake breweries and the old town with traditional streets. it was so beautiful...that night we ended up eating at some random restaurant as the doors opened on us automatically and we felt we should go in!  it ended up being a great experience, we communicated though pointing at other people dishes and the waitress had the best laugh.  the next day we were off to Yokohama. 

So after walking around the block a couple of times we found the rose hotel pure 1980's.  pretty funny.  but great location, right on the edge of china town.  we dropped off our bags and headed for port terminal while there was still light.  Its still a great project, its aged really nicely and actually gets used.  mostly to photograph minato mirai and the Ferris wheel....We had read about a themed park style restaurant that is supposed to be reminiscent on 1920's shanghai so we though that sounded interesting for dinner.  we found it, but it was nothing more than a tacky food court and place where you could dress up and have glamour shots taken.  so we headed back toward some busy looking street stalls and got some pork buns and dumplings take away and headed back to the hotel....after getting addicted watching some bad meg ryan film and then the aviater, went to bed, ready to hit Tokyo the next day.  

A whirlwind three days....akihabara to look at electric town, through the CBD, imperial palace.  Shibuya crossing, Parco basement, 270bar for dinner and drinks.  (ps.  the desserts there are really good)!  
day 2, the fish market after 9am (no tourists allowed before 9am) , ate breakkie at a tourist sushi bars and downed a tasty (but overpriced) negitorodon.  Then to harajuku, to the sou fujimoto exhibition its open till the 16h January at the warati museum, and its worth a look.  
day 3, we met in ebisu for breakkie,  walked through daikanyama and then went to ginza to see the sony centre.  it was a little disappointing and i am not sure about the 3d tv's but it was worth a look. Then shimokitazawa for dinner.  we met at the station and in one of the tiny back alleyways we found a place for dinner which is a tiny yakitori bar, so super cute, we made friends with the girl that works there, i wish i knew the name!  so then we kind of bar hopped across shimokitaweren't quite ready to go home so we went to another bar (after accidentally going into a girlie bar and being told that it was probably too expensive for us!   but then it got to about 3am and we were all a little tired so after a stop at maccas we caught a cab back to shinjuku and after a little teary at the station i was home about 4am.

I had the best time with bridge and jules and did loads more sightseeing in 3 days than i have done in 3 months.  When they left, i was sad. But on the upside, its only a month till i can see them again.  xoxo