Hakuba Iwatake and Oze Iwakura

I've fallen a little behind in posting about my ski trips. Possibly because it feels like we take so many and I don't get enough rest between trips. Each trips leaves at some ungodly time in the morning....for Hakuba we left at 2am and for Oze we left at 3am.....we ride for four or more hours on an uncomfortable bus, ski all day long, then ride four or more hours back on an uncomfortable bus to get home by 10pm. Don't get me wrong, if we didn't leave early, it would leave us no time for skiing and snowboarding. We get there right as the resorts open and leave when some of their biggest lifts close. However, it does take a lot out of you. We got back yesterday at 9pm, went to bed about 11pm and slept until 9am this morning.

Well, I'll get right into it and tell you about the two places we went this weekend and the previous weekend:

Hakuba Iwatake

Hakuba  is a huge mountain area with several resorts at its many summits. The resort we went to was called Iwatake. The weather was pretty bad the entire time we were there. Lots of snow, low visibility and it was pitifully cold. To top it off, we got tired around lunch time and took a long break to sit inside a cafeteria and rest for awhile.

However, when the clouds did finally break in the late afternoon, it was beautiful. We could see the other ski resorts from the top of the mountain.

John on the lift.

My skis and John's snowboard.

One of the lifts at the top.

The lift at the top.

It was hazy like this all day.

The mountains in the background could be seen once the clouds started to break.

John plays around with my ski poles.

Oze Iwakura

For this trip we were supposed to go to Joetsu Kokusai. However, when we arrived at the Outdoor Rec center in the morning, we were told that Joetsu was completely snowed in and was not accessible by bus. Instead, we'd be going to Oze Iwakura. This ski resort is located in the Gunma Prefecture and is about four hours from Yokosuka.

The snow was perfect and the weather was perfect. The fun thing about Oze was a two mile intermediate ski course. The course was long, steep, and had a ton of fun features for snowboarders. We also got to ride a gondola to the top of the mountain, where the weather was not very good, and then ski/snowboard down to the village where the weather was sunny and a little on the warm side. Oze also had a great bunny slope for beginners. John won't let me spend all day on the bunny slopes anymore, but if I were still a beginner, I would have loved to spend most of my day practicing on their flat bunny area. I would love to come back here again sometime and spend more time on the two mile course.

John and his snowboard on the gondola.

View out of the gondola.

I look so concerned here, but really the sun was bright and I was squinting.

I'm not sure what part of the course this was.

John and his snowboard outside the gondola line.