Water Water Everywhere.....and Some Snow Too

Ma posse

Little Nozawa village

As you might imagine - Nozawa Onsen is a little town famous for onsens.  There is literally so much hot water there, that it pisses out from everywhere - all over the streets, under the streets, off the side of hills. There are pools of scalding hot water coming straight out of the earth where the villagers cook their vegetables.  It's a pretty amazing sight to see.  Not so amazing if you tripped and fell in one of those scalding pools.  Let me just say that I was vigilant in assuring I didn't end up with a couple of poached three year olds......I guess late night drunken stumbles home take on a significant type of danger.  I was careful to watch my sake intake - co-ordination is not one of my significant traits.

Yo check the front side bitches......

Boiling pools where the sweet corn cooking takes place

It is also famous for having a shit hot snow resort located above it.  Most people who have "discovered' Nozawa Onsen Ski-jo think it's the greatest place they have ever fingerbanged in their lives.  I was of the previously unmoved camp.  That was until this trip.  The journey there was your usual drag-piles-of-your-crap through busy train stations type of thing.  There was also a "miss the last bus" situation and then a psychotic mad sprint for the last train.  That type of incident is becoming unpleasantly familiar this trip, and I can't say I'm loving it.

A very snowy little walk

Old Sherps escorts my most annoying piece of baggage

As the local, crowded, piece of shit 2 carriage train crawled over the landscape the snow grew heavier and heavier.  By the time we arrived there was a snowy situation like no other.  Piles and piles of the good stuff all over the place.  We could hardly walk through it, let alone drag piles of bags.  At times like this, as well as pretty much all the time, I long for a couple of Sherpas.  Seriously, would it be legal to get a couple out from Nepal to shoulder the burden of my luggage?  Anyone familiar with the immigration laws regarding this?  I'm sure no slack arse Aussie's would want the job, so that part fits the criteria.   I can already imagine introducing them to everyone "Ahem, everyone, this is my Sherpa "Huan",  - Huan, these are my friends Bob, Karen and Joey - anyone need a bag carried, anyone, anyone?".  God life would be good, I could pack at least five more pairs of shoes and another bag or two of cosmetics. Though, come to think of it, I guess I do have a sort of Sherpa.  His name is Mark Korman, and I married him so I could cut back on the expense of a monthly salary.  Our friend Simon also proved himself to be a capable Sherpa.  Who needs Huan after all?

Although this one plays the flute, so he could be entertaining as well as helpful

Ko and Cordi

We managed to load all our crap and eight people in a van and we were off to our guest house.  It's run by the charming Ko, and her extended family.  They are all very nice - although I previously mentioned  Sadako ( the scary The Ring-esque daughter).  I was a bit freaked out when I saw Ko washing her in the guest house's onsen last year even though she was about 17, and wondered whether she was one of Japan's "shut ins", known as hikikomori.  This is a phenomenon unique to Japan, where the pressures of school and/or society cause numbers of young, (mostly male) people to retreat to their rooms and never come out.  Sometimes not for years.  Their parents care for them, sometimes into their thirties, and put trays of food in their rooms etc.  But as time goes on, it becomes harder for the hikkomori to return to "normal" life.  Surprisingly it's common.  There are estimates that there are a million "shut ins" in Japan.  And although there was a case where a hikikomori kidnapped a 9 year old girl and kept her in his room for a decade (again with the happy tales), most of them just read manga or watch TV.   I did read of a case once where the parents of one recluse were so terrified of their son, that they strangled him (Oh god again! - sorry, I can't help it, I strongly belief that I am currently macabre obsessed - while I'm at it, has anyone seen any pictures from Mermaid in A Manhole?  The Human Centipede???? Seriously I just can't stop, please don't look up The Human Centipede, the mere description will never leave you.......).  Jesus.  Japan really is the kind of society that doesn't deal well with those who don't conform.  Poor little pricks.  It would be difficult to be a child or teenager in the Japanese school system.  It's pretty tough, competitive, and with lots and lots of pressure.  Apparently Sadako is going to art school in Tokyo, so she must have recovered somewhat from the state she seemed to be in a year ago.  Didn't see any parental washing, and there was minimal lurking this year too.

Not sure if I like the look on the old sword-holding Toshinobu's face - glad I'm not his Mum

A few mounds......

Cord gears up for a day on the slopes

One of last years shots on the "Moving Walkway"

But back to the snow.  After a short walk through the winter wonderland that is Nozawa village, we rode the unique 400 metre tunnel enclosed stair-less escalator to the top. As you can imagine, the following day on the slopes was unbelievable.  We were all in shock from the sheer amount of powder all over the mountain.  None of us could quite comprehend it.  Really really special.  Chalks and I had been last year, and although we loved the atmosphere of the place, the snow wasn't quite up to par.  Well this year we saw what all the fuss was about.  We too, were chanting "Nozawa Nozawa Nozawa!" as we rode those gondolas right to the top.  We got it all during those four days - piles and piles of powder, back country, fog, lost, excitement, bluebird days.  Even Valli and Cordi rode the gondola to the top and skied the summit,  When I say skied, that can be interpreted any way you choose.  Cordi seemed to be inside a hula hoop.  Whatevs, she was loving life.  We had a few adventures ourselves.  I don't know the mountain very well, so it was with a bit of trepidation that I led a group (along with a teenager and a ten year old)  down the back side of the summit past a giant red sign with a cross on it.  What can I say - no risk, no rush.  And it was excellent, extremely excellent.  Even when we thought we were lost , even when we wound up coming out on what we thought was another mountain,  it was bloody unbelievable.  In between the creaming of the JaPOW!! on a daily basis, we chugged those beerus down, bathed in hot chocolates, dropped mountains of sashimi down our gullets, and walked around in the dark looking for restaurants to fit in a bunch of uncultured gorillas.

I honestly thought they were bullshitting when they told me they'd been on the gondola

Pow Wow! ( wasn't that term an activity in Brownies?? the speaking circle perhaps?)

We also spent large amounts of time in the nude with a bunch of Japanese women. Taking the waters of course.  That cellulite has got to be warmed up somehow.  Because the blood doesn't flow through that stuff, it takes scalding hot water to heat it internally after a big day out sliding around on your butt cheeks.  The heated toilet seats, no matter how pleasant, do little to really get to the crux of the issue.  Although, let me just say, that there is nowhere that those warm seats are more appreciated than the lunch hall on the mountain.  Some people also like washing their a-holes with those mini jets of warm water, but I am always sceptical about whether the nozzles make anal contact with previous squirters, and if not exactly contact, has other's bum water rebounded back onto the tip of the fanny pipe?  As I said, just can't go there.  Too much thinking has been done on that subject as you can tell.

A four metre base is nothing to sneer at

But the snow eventually grew tracked, we grew tired of thick slabs of white sandwich bread and strawberry jam in the morning, and thus, we were ready for the next adventure.  It was time to blow that popsicle stand and head for the snowy slopes of Hokkaido.   Back to Rutsutsu, which I like to refinely refer to as Rooters.  It sounds like it's an easy mission, but it was actually a 12 journey that involved trains, a plane, a missed bus, a long wait in a airport and an 11pm arrival at our next point of adventure.  Chuck in a couple of irritating freaks (and that's just the Sherpas, I haven't even got to my hideous offspring and their antics this time) and we were all thinking "This had BETTER be worth it".

Of course, it was.

SO great to have some friends to play with xxxx