Mackens in Japan: Skiing in Hakuba

The kids broke up from school on 18th Feb which gave us one week to go on family skiing holiday. I arrived back from business trip to Israel on the 19th along with Sasha. We had met up as I passed through Heathrow so were on the same flight back to Tokyo.

Saturday was spent getting ski kit together and recovering from jetlag. We got up early on the Sunday morning and set off for the drive to Hakuba. This is where we went in the summer only this time we were returning for the snow.

We were meeting up with 4 other families from the BST so in total we were 22 people including 11 kids, 9 of whom were boys. I am not sure the hotel knew what hit them especially as Japanese kids are rarely seen out. In fact most of the kids we met during the week seemed to be other children from the BST. Small world.

We were staying in the hotel Shinya which is inexpensive ryoken (hotel) in Happo. Hakuba has 7 ski resorts all within a few miles of each. Happo is probably the biggest of them. The hotel had mixture of Tatami(Bamboo mats)and western rooms. It also had Onsen in the basement (Japanese bath) We all soon discovered this was best option as the showers in the room only seemed to do cold water. 1st night boys started big water fight in Onsen but fortunately no other guests were in at the time.

The hotel served evening meals but most of the kids don't like Japanese food so we ate out each night. Plenty of places serving pizza, mexican etc...

We arrived in the resort before midday on Sunday and managed to hit the slopes by 1300. For four days we had brilliant sunshine. On the 5th day it was cloudy and the snow was very sticky so not quite so good. On the final day it was raining. We had only planned to ski in the morning so we gave this a miss and went to see the snow monkeys (see photos)

We then headed back to Tokyo for quitet evening in before Sasha and I started to prepare for the marathon

This is the view from the very top of Happo

Boys table at dinner

Girls table at dinner, much more sophisticated

....maybe not

Adults table at dinner. Sit with the kids, not us

Julie and Sasha looking glamourous at the lift station

Even more glamourous

Handsome snowboarder dude

View from the main gondala or gondora in Japanese

One afternoon I took the bigger boys skiing to the snowparks with camera stuffed in my coat. Prizes were awarded for biggest air and most massive wipeout. All prizes would be forfeighted for anyone who injured themselves and left me to explain to their parents

This is Felix's friend Flynn

Cool dude?

We found some bigger jumps. My advice to boys was take it easy until you get used to the sixe and speed of the jumps. Felix was obviously not listening at this point

Touch down

still going

really still going

And again

Wipeout!

This is at Tsugaike resort

We are heading for the black run with moguls....

We did it twice

On our way to find the monkeys

On the way to see the monkeys Felix found half buried pick up truck

The snow monkeys live up in the hills at night but during the day they come down the springs where they get fed and can take a bath in the hot spring. There are about 150 of them in the group and they are very famous in Japan. There are pictures in most of the guidebooks. Apparently this is the only palce in the world where monkeys take a hot bath!