nickelass

Then the snow started falling
We were stuck out in your car
You were rubbing both of my hands
Chewing on a candy bars

You said 'ain’t this just like the present
To be showing up like this'
As a moon waned to crescent
We started to kiss
And I said 'I know it well'

- Bon Iver, Blood Bank

I’m often my most content when the weather is cold. I would be bold enough to say I’m always happy when I’m surrounding by snow with a nearby hill featuring a lift to the top. I really think that at some point in my life I would benefit from a season on snow just breathing cold air, working some mindless job that leaves me a few hours a week to enjoy gravity + snow + ski’s. Seems like a very selfish goal… because it is. It also could well be a Utopian idea but as with anything in life there is only one way to find out.

I awake early with strong memories and images of the last night or was it the night before fresh in my mind? This trip is already blending into a mashed up moment in my life.
















We gather in the lobby and it feels like our collective brains are all at little scrambled. We all know that last nights memories will most likely end up in a power nap on the train. You cannot leave a city like Tokyo without a sense of being wrung out in a wash of people and in turn harbouring the secret desire to experience vast open space devoid of life.

The Super Azusa Train is according to Tony is a three-hour journey from Shinjuku to Hakuba. Turns out he cannot count and it ends up being around four. Journey commences with a run north by north west out of Tokyo. It is a clear and warm day with Mount Fuji looking over us, snow dominating its peaks. Soon enough we commence climbing the valleys and punching holes in mountains as the frost of the morning turns into a few centimeters of snow.



The journey reminds me a train trip I did as a young boy from The Netherlands to Switzerland. As we crossed the German Boarder the mountains suddenly appeared and I wondered how we would ever find our way through them. I was obviously new to the idea of tunneling.

Having been spoilt with Shinkansen trains, this express train feels slow. Still the high quality of service remains, hello cart lady!

Arriving at Hakuba we are not the only people stopping. The slowest ever Japanese family is in front of us. We nearly didn’t make it off the train! The town center is a little dead as we wait for our lodge mini-bus. Onto the bus we make our way to Echo-land, it self located between the two real resorts we want to check out, Happo-One (pronounced Happo-o-nay?), Goryu and Hakuba 47.

Stepping off the mini bus, crunch. I love that sound. No surprises I often feel like kissing the ground like the Pope when I first feel that sensation of snow underfoot.

We head off to the main street of Echoland to organise our gear and stock up the room with some essentials.



Echoland is pretty dead to be honest, everything seems to shut and as I find out later the so call place to be is pretty damn empty generally. I’d say this, if you are going to Hakuba, just hire a car or something, the bus system is a little broken and everything is really spread apart, similar to Perisher really. So with gear hired and essential purchased its back to the lodge to unpack and rug up for heading out to dinner.

That night we went for a wonder in search of some food. We ended up at this little place off the main street. End up sitting new an Australian couple (surprise surprise) that have purchased a lodge nearby. They seem nice enough and make some recommendations for food. Everyone is in the mood for a hot pot given the change in weather.



Belly full of hot pot goodness and Asahi we roll home for tomorrow we have some mountains to conquer.