Lost Weekend

Miss Alixkid’s write-up of her Austrian ski adventure reminded me that I hadn’t posted about our recent one. For this time we did have an adventure of sorts.

Mari and I went to Nagano and stayed at the Risonare, Kobuchizawa. It was a building that looked like a modern art museum; all bendy concrete walls and weird lighting inside that made you feel as if you were being brainwashed. The food was fabulous, the myriads of hot spas were relaxing, and the artificial beach with wave machine that was in the basement was something every home should have. As recreating the world in Japan is popular at resort hotels, it came attached to its own mock piazza that was a snow-covered ghost town at this time of year. Weird.

On the second day we went to Fujimi Panorama ski field. I really liked this ski field; the slope was just right for my level and the snow, although a little slushy, was certainly fine for skiing. We skied away the morning to our heart’s content, and then because we were starting to get a little wet and hungry decided to have one more run before breaking for lunch.

Big mistake. With the end of the lift in sight there was a power blackout. We were left dangling in what had become freezing cold rain/snow for 50 minutes. After a while a resort employee came along to explain the problem, then a doctor to see if we were all ok, then finally a rescue team with ropes and a sling. However by the time they’d arrived we were both well and truly frozen through. At one point I took off my gloves and wrung out the water. It left me wondering if it was better to leave them off.

After we’d been hauled off the lift one at a time like racks of frozen meat, we skied down to the darkened resort. Although there were no heaters, they still had some food left over on the gas hotplates, so we could eat some warm curry and rice. After about 20mins there was an announcement that the field would close, and that everyone’s money would be returned.

So on the bright side we got half a day's free skiing to compensate us for the loss of our fingers to frostbite.