After spending Saturday at the monkey park, we drove up the mountain to the ski resort area. We stayed at the Prince Hotel (West) and skied Shiga Kogen! It was rad.
Nothing like a hot can of cocoa from a vending machine on a cold day
Now, let's all remember that I am a born-and-raised southern California beach dweller...so every single place I looked while staying up on the mountains was jaw dropping. This was the view from the elevator and I was slightly freaking out..."OH MY GOSH. IT IS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!"
Shiga Kogen is an awesome place to come skiing because it is still quite untouched by foreigners (aka less crowded) since it isn't close to a main train station. I mean, from Nagano station you have to take a 2hr bus ride just to get to this area! I liked that it felt very quaint, full of local Japanese peeps, and had so much fresh snow!
beautiful day out!!
This was my first time skiing so I'm not sure if this is the case for every ski resort in every country...but here in Japan there were some TINY kids skiing like professionals. Seriously, every few people coming down the mountain was a 5yr old child going so fast. I saw one family where this little boy was skiing down the mountain with his dad behind him...his dad pushed him once in the back and said "GO STRAIGHT!!! FASTER" haha!
the bunny slope where I played with the kids and practiced skiing haha.
Is this guy skiing with no poles?
Quick shout out to Emiko (read HER BLOG!) for this amazing dutch company's bag.
tiny cutie!!!
At the kids area they had these cool bikes with skis on them!
So we skied Saturday night and Sunday morning...and then I had to catch a bus at 4pm Sunday afternoon to head home.
The bus stop I waited at! haha...am I in Antartica right now or what?
Thanks for a good stay Prince Hotel!
My journey home...2hr bus ride to Nagano station---1.5hr shinkansen to Ueno station---35min train ride back home to Kita-Kashiwa station. Good thing I had a bento dinner and fresh apple juice on the ride.
Such a jam-packed fun weekend. I was so thankful to have spent it with great friends out in God's beautiful creation. Staring up at those incredible snow covered mountains I couldn't help but thank the Lord for His beauty and majesty. What an awesome God we serve!
p.s Check out Nathalie's photography BLOG! She's amazing!