Our destination was Nozawa Onsen, about an hour and a half from the Winter Olympics town of Nagano. The village is very Japanese, unspoiled by tourism, with at least 10 locals to every Westerner, and narrow, winding streets nestled into the bottom of the mountain, lots of great eateries, and sights to see. The locals are unfailingly happy, polite, and helpful, which made for a wonderful two weeks of skiing and soaking up the local culture. Interestingly, the people of the village own the ski hill, many working on the resort during the winter, and growing crops on the slopes in the off-season.
Well, as luck would have it, they had their worst season for snow in about 30 years, with warmer than normal temperatures and much less snow than normal. Cover at the top of the mountain was about 1.5 metres, way down on their usual 6-8 metres, with much less at the bottom, so we didn't get the legendary stuff we had come for to improve our fledgling powder skills, but we still had a great time.
On a couple of warm days at the end of our first week, we decided to leave the skis racked up and go sight seeing. First day we got a bus and train into Nagano and then another bus up nearby Mt Togakushi, where we checked out a pretty cool temple, some very large and old trees, and had a fun lunch at a restaurant specialising in Soba noodles. Nagano prefecture is the birthplace of Soba noodles, made from buckwheat, and they're pretty good.
During our wanderings, a local guy in a suit, who seemed to be some sort of boss, befriended us and took us into the "inner sanctum". He told us if we went down an underground passage under the temple, we would find the "Key to Enlightenment". Well, once we'd gone 10 metres into the passage, you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face. We felt our way along the 50 metre long timber panelled passage - Susie and Carol missed the key, a metal handle recessed into the wall, but Ken and I both found it, and so became "enlightened".
We enjoyed our day around Nagano. Nice city.
Back in Nozawa Onsen the next day, the weather was still warm so we had another day off, just wandering the village, checking out the local temple, village cooking onsen (sorry, no tourists allowed!) and visiting the very good Museum of Japanese Skiing.
During our 2 weeks, we visited the local Onsens, or hot spring baths, nearly every day. There were 14 of these Onsens dotted around the village, so they never got crowded. Men's and women's are separate, and protocols must be observed. Shoes off before stepping onto the timber floor, then sit on the tiles and wash and rinse off away from the hot pool before immersing yourself in the fairly hot, but oh so nice mineral pool. A few westerners, but mostly locals, lots of smiles and nods. One local guy sitting beside me in the pool looked at me and said, "You must be Yul Brynner!" After I stopped laughing, we had a chat of sorts. I hadn't seen one even slightly overweight man in the village, and asked him why. He just smiled and said, "Work". I suspect it's a combination of that, and no junk food. There wasn't a Macca's or KFC to be seen, just little family owned eateries serving healthy Japanese tucker. Long may it be so!
We ate a lot of good food during our stay, but the standout was a restaurant just down the hill from our lodge. Can't remember it's real name, but we just called it the Two Red Lanterns. We went there 3 times. All the cooking was done by the boss/chef on a hotplate in front of us, and it was sensational. The local wines were nothing to write home about, but the beer was good and we found some well priced Chilean red which filled a need!
Over the last few days of our stay we did get a few inches of new snow overnight and then about a foot the next day, so were at last able to get that floating feeling, if only for a short time.
Perisher Blue, August. Can't wait.
