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Hakuba 47- Nagano ski resort.
Ah, what a fantastic day we had! Up at five, on the Shikansen by 7, and on the slopes at Hakuba 47 by 11. Along the way , we had our troubles though. First the blizzard began! Then we got on the wrong bus from Nagano station and ended up a few km from our destination and had to pay the bus fare, which had we got the right bus would have been free. Stuck in a blizzard, a shopkeeper phoned a taxi driver for us and he sped us to our destination for a hefty price.
Anyway, once we arrived the snow abated and the clouds cleared a little. Hakuba 47 is a great resort - friendly, big and free from crowds. The snow was perfect powder and the slopes ranged from gentle slopes - a little too gentle at times - to steep inclines which ached the thighs!
Yoski and I made our way up to the very top of the mountain ( 1860m ) and snowboarded down beautiful narrow slopes which gradually opened up into wider areas. The snow was intermitant all day. At some points it became bitterly cold, but for the most part there fell just a light sprinkling of flakes which made for a stunning sight as we carved our way down. Most of the time, I found myslef in a state of euphoria and couldn't help but sing to myself or wave my hands around in the air at the snowflakes-I can't get the hang of "snowboard cool"!!
As we made our way up one of the chair lifts, we spotted a wild animal. We don't know what it was, but it kind of looked like a wolf. Yoski said it might have been a wild boar. We didn't tell anyone else about it. That was our little secret...
We spent about 4 hrs on the slopes today which wasn't really enough (although we were fairly tired by the end of the day) so we're going to go again next month.
All in all though, a fantastic day spent up in the beautiful forested mountains of Nagano.
I'll put some pics up soon. Got to recover first!
Ahhhh
posted by PA on Saturday, March 06, 2004
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