Skiing in Hakuba

Jimmy really wanted to ski, like super bad, so we went to ski on Friday in Hakuba. We woke up super early and were at the train station by 6am to buy our tickets. Then it was 1.5 hours to Nagano, where we then got on a bus for another hour or so that took us to Hakuba. By the time we settled in the lodge, changed, rented skis and made it to the slopes, it was 11am. Mike and Jimmy bought all day tickets and Claudia and I just got the half day ticket, which started at noon. SO we had lunch while the boys went off to ski.

Now we are all off to go ski and we definitely had some fun. The sun was out and it wasn't that cold until the late afternoon.

After the boys skied with us (only 2 runs) they went off again to ski the mighty black runs and the Olympic courses. Here is one of them with some views from the top.




At about 3:45, when claudia and I were about to get on the lift again, we saw Mike laying on the snow. He said he was done for the day, but did come back up to take these pictures of us at the top of the mountain. After that, he headed to the lodge while we waited for Jimmy and came back down the mountain.
Here is Claudia waving from below...she couldn't hear when I told her to wait.

I really wanted this background in my picture


Here we are coming down the mountain....make that "S"

Yay, for Claudia

YAY, for me...


After skiing, we returned our skis and decided we were going to go to the "onsen." We called to see if they had any private ones available, but nope. So it was to the gender divided onsen for us. Definitely an experience and the japanese women did not use the small towel to cover up the private areas and just walked around naked. not what I expected. The hot spring spas were amazing and better than hot tubs in the states, but yeah, definitely different!