Last week our family took our first international family vacation up to the north island of Hokkaido for some skiing and to enjoy ice and snow festivals.
First we spent three days at a ski-in/ski-out resort in Niseko, Japan. Niseko's powder is supposed to rival the best in the world and our experience affirms that claim. During the 3 days we were there, it snowed 10-20 cm a day. And the best part is that Niseko is a little know secret that even most Japanese don't know about, such that we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves and found pockets of fresh powder until late in the day. Charlie and I took turns watching Nathan while the other one skied. Fortunately for me, Charlie ended up meeting a couple of awesome Aussie telemarkers who let me tag along with them since I was unfamiliar with the terrain. They were also good for a night of drunken revelry for Charlie. To top everything off, there were an on-site natural hot springs or onesen that was awesome for soaking and soothing sore muscles at the end of the day.
After the wonderful skiing, we traveled back to Saporo for their famous snow and ice festivals. Hopefully Charlie will post some of his photos of this soon. There was one festival of snow sculptures of cartoon characters and huge murals and then a completely separate festival of smaller scale ice sculptures. Unfortunately we couldn't stay outside too long for either one because I was so worried about Nathan getting too cold despite his cozy snow suits!
On the right is Ross, an Australian now living and teaching lessons and organizing international skiing trips from his home base in Crested Butte, Colorado.
Hokkaid
Happy boy with cold cheeks!
Nathan's happy with a dusting of snow! Unfortunately we were so worried about him getting cold that we completely forgot to let him sit in the snow and see what his reaction might be to touching it :(
Nathan sitting at the coffee table in the lobby of our hotel in Niseko, killing time waiting for our bus.
1 comment:
He looks so happy!
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