Jet lag sucks no matter where you end up, but a copious amount of caffeine can keep it at bay. I arrived at my final destination in Hokkaido’s premier city Sapporo at about 22:30 Saturday evening, just in time to notice the revelry of the weekend is undaunted by the snow and ice this time of year brings. Bags in tow, I hiked into the residential areas (taking note of interesting shops and restaurants to visit later in the week) and met my neighbor, an ushanka-wearing Australian guy as tall as me and somehow perpetually four beers in – man I missed Japan’s nightlife. I dropped off my luggage and joined him at the noodle shop around the corner to get that authentic hole-in-the-wall ramen with pork while hearing about the hot spots around town and catching two songs I actually knew on the radio.
Even outside of Japan, getting up in the mountains for skiing is an endeavor so I headed back to crash before the 6:00 wake up to take the bus to Sapporo Kokusai, the prominent ski resort in Hokkaido. To my surprise, my rental equipment actually fit me and the prepaid tickets had no issue so I rode the gondola up to the summit. Powder was aplenty as continual snowfall and strong winds gave a whiteout condition I’ve never skied in before; fog in my goggles made visibility so bad I couldn’t tell if I was actually moving or not. Yet muscle memory took over and soon I was back in rare skiing form (in that I actually did well keeping parallel legs and swiveled instead of skidded down the slope).
I took a few falls from challenging Kokusai’s toughest routes, and decided to take a break in the mountaintop cafe where meat pies and whiskey-topped soft serve ice cream dulled the growing pain in my sprained ankle (received from running in socks through Charles de Galle and Minneapolis St. Paul airports last episode). I had a lovely chat with another Australian couple on holiday finishing the tail end of their own ski tour of the area, and got inspiration to try and hit up a “local” (geographically-speaking) hot spring, or onsen. Remember how I said at the beginning that jet lag always sucks? Well, it finally came to collect when I fell asleep and got off at the wrong stop in Jozankei, which is a sort-of onsen town but much more involved with inns and restaurants that all need a week’s reservation. With dwindling battery and cash (all buses are coin-operated or have a special pass), I managed to catch one last ride back to my place and attempt it tomorrow. Again, no real photos will be from the inside of the hot springs but I’ll try to convey how good it feels.
Ice's Travels 