January
2014
Letter No. 215
Dear all,
OUR JAPANESE TOUR Day 9 - Tokyo to Hakuba.
Matthew, Jessica and I got up at 6am this
morning to go to the Tsukiji fish market, but Katie elected to have a bit more
time in bed. Tsukiji is the world’s largest fish market and sells an astounding
2400 tonnes of seafood per day. All manner of weird creatures are on sale. We
arrived at 7:00am but were told that tourists were not allowed in until after
9:00am when most of the day’s serious business had been concluded. This was a
bit disappointing so we walked around the back of the market and found a gate
without a guard and snuck in anyway. It is very much a working market with
handcarts and forklifts darting around in a high speed choreography that does
not account for tourists. It was really quite frightening how many there were
and how fast they moved. We spent nearly an hour wandering around looking at
all the sea creatures, alive, dead and all stages in between. The most
spectacular was the enormous blue fin tuna being carved up with huge lethal
looking knives. We were all really pleased we made the effort to go. We rushed
back to the hotel and had a quick breakfast with Katie and showed her all the
gruesome photos that Jessica had taken, before grabbing our bags and setting
out on the journey to the ski resort of Hakuba.
We took the bullet train to Nagano not knowing what time the bus left to Hakuba. Fortunately there was a bus in ten minutes after we arrived and before we knew it we were off up the mountain. We stayed at the Deer Lodge, a recently opened lodge owned by an Australian/Japanese family, and the owner met us at the station. In the afternoon we found out about lift passes, hired our ski gear and went to another Onsen, or Japanese bathhouse. It was a few hundred metres walk down the hill and was a really lovely onsen in a nice hotel. There was even an outside rock pool with heated water surrounded by snow on the ground, which was really nice. Matthew got out and walked into the snow and contemplated lying down it (but didn’t). It was odd being able to stand up next to the outdoor pool, stark naked and look over the fence onto the road below with people in full ski gear. It was quite crowded, with at least 20 people in the men’s and 12 in the ladies. It was a nice relaxing afternoon and then we caught a taxi back up to the hotel and had dinner at a local Japanese restaurant.
Day 10 – Hakuba --
skiing
Our first day skiing! Our hotel was really well
situated on the edge of one of the slopes and we could ski straight out, but it
took us a little while to find our ski legs. Jessie needed a bit of persuading
to feel comfortable on skis. At one stage, after she had fallen over one time
too many, she had a big hissy fit, announced that she hated skiing and then took
off both her skis in the middle of the slope.
Fortunately Katie managed to coax her back on to her skis and down the
hill. After a while Katie decided we were good enough to venture up the
mountain and on to some bigger slopes. Despite severe misgivings voiced by both
Matthew and myself, Katie insisted on taking us down an Intermediate Red run.
Jessica had another fall, followed by a major falling out with Katie, after
which we split up for the afternoon. Jessie and I went on the beginner runs for
the rest of the day while Katie and Matt did some more red runs. Jessica made
good progress through the afternoon and we did some quite nice long slopes and a
pleasant green run through the trees. We finished up around 4pm and had happy
hour in the hotel bar and then went on to a BBQ restaurant which had little BBQs
in the centre of each table to grill your own food.
Day 11 – Hakuba
The kids and I hit the slopes a bit earlier
than Katie, starting out with a nice green run through the forest where we saw
lots of snow monkeys. Unfortunately we had skied past most of them before we
realised they were there. We have worked out where they live so we will go back
tomorrow to have a better look. Everyone’s skiing steadily improved during the
day and by the afternoon we were all sailing down intermediate red runs. I
think I fell over more than Jessica. Matthew falls over all the time but that
is because he is a reckless daredevil and seems unfazed by it. Jess and I on
the other hand hate falling over and go slow and steady to avoid it. We had a
good day skiing, with ideal skiing conditions and a beautiful blue sky. The ski
runs are very quiet. There is never more than thirty seconds of queuing for
lifts.
Day 12 – Hakuba
We started to explore further afield on the ski
runs today. I nearly had a huge disaster just after lunch when I was half way
up a chair lift, looked down and suddenly realised I only had one ski on! Katie
was in the chair ahead of me and the kids were two chairs in front. I told
Katie I had lost a ski and she said “Oh no” really loudly. The kids looked back
and saw Katie in the chair lift by herself and both thought that I had fallen out!!
They had a good laugh when they saw me with only one ski on. Katie, as the best
skier, said she would ski back down the chair lift to try and find my ski, but
we were a bit worried about whether she would find it.
Getting off a chair lift with only one ski on
is quite a challenge. I promptly fell on my face under the chair lift! Luckily
Katie yelled “duck”, as I was just about to be decapitated by the next chair as
the operator had not stopped the lift. I crawled out of the way, with Katie’s
help, and she was just about to go and search for my ski when the lift operator
said, “Wait, ski coming”. A few more chairs and then a man appeared carrying my
ski. I was very lucky. I mustn’t have put my ski back on properly before
getting on the lift and it had fallen off just as I got on.
That night we went to a restaurant called
Sumo-tai. We walked down to the restaurant. It was snowing REALLY heavily and
was quite fun to walk in. The restaurant is owned by an ex-sumo wrestler. He
was there when we arrived and posed for photos with us. We ordered a meal which
was the same portion size that a sumo wrestler would eat. It was a delicious
stew with meatballs, chicken, beef, vegetables and noodles which was more than enough
for all four of us.
Day 13 - Hakuba
There had been lots of snow overnight. More
than 40cm so it was a winter wonderland in the morning. We did lots of new red
runs in the morning. It was snowing quite a bit and really foggy at the top of
the mountain so it was like skiing through milk! We decided to stay on the
lower runs. After lunch we split up. I stayed with Jessica and we did some nice
easy red and green runs before Jessica decided to do a black run. I reluctantly
agreed to do it with her. All was going well until I misjudged a mogul and
ended up sliding down the mountain, head first on my back with my legs all tangled
up. I slid for a long way, in fact most of the way down the run, before finally
coming to rest. I did get down it as did Jessica who only fell once. Jessica
quietly told Katie and Matthew afterwards that I fell down “quite a lot”! Afterwards
Jessica did it again with me doing the green run that joined it at the bottom
and stopping to video her. She was so
determined to do a black run before Matthew, because she is envious that he is
a faster skier than she is.
Day 14 – Hakuba
A relatively fine day today made for much more
pleasant skiing. We were all stating to do Black runs. I skipped the mogul
fields after my experience of the day before but the kids and Katie gave them
all a go.
Day 15 – Hakuba
Out last day skiing. Our mission for the day
was to get right to the top of the mountain. It was snowing heavily again but
we did make it to the top. Unfortunately it was a total whiteout again, but the
powdery snow was really thick and soft, a bit like snowing through sand with
zero visibility. It was a red / black run
down from the mountain top and I was quite scared that I would ski off a huge
cliff by accident. Katie led us down in a little group, and we made it down
safely; it was quite fun actually.
Matthew wanted to ski by himself for a while so
he set back off into the blizzard and agreed to meet us for lunch. We were a
little worried when he was half an hour late. We were just about to panic when
he turned up covered in snow and ice having been right over the top in zero
visibility again! We had a nice warming Japanese curry lunch and a last
afternoon ski before we went back to the hotel. We had a huge snowball fight in
the waist-deep snow outside the hotel, made snow angels and then built a snow
man which Jessie named Bob.
Day 16 & 17 –
Hakuba to Tokyo to Gold Coast to Brisbane
Today was the start of our long trip back home.
We left at 8am and took the bus back to Nagano then bullet train ride back to
Tokyo. We went to Ueno Station and put our luggage into lockers. It was much
warmer in Tokyo – about 2 degrees. It had been -8 degrees when we left Hakuba. We
had five hours to do some sightseeing before our train to the airport so we
went to the markets just across the road from the station. Everyone was hungry
so we stopped for lunch at a sushi train first. It was very local and no one
spoke any English. We had to point at what we wanted and then explain that the
children didn’t want wasabi. When the chef finally got it he whipped up new
dishes for us before our eyes. We walked on into the markets. It was a very
busy and very eclectic mixture of stalls -- raw fish, designer handbags, fruit,
pets, live seafood, shoe shops – all side by side. We got new shoes for the
kids and a handbag and purse for Jessica.
Afterwards we went for a walk in the nearby
park. So many Japanese people have tiny, cute, fluffy little handbag dogs,
which they take out for a walk (or carry) in the afternoon sunshine. We were
constantly amazed how twee the dogs were, each one seeming more ridiculous than
the last! We followed on with the pet theme, as Matthew wanted to go to a Cat
Café for afternoon tea. This is a very quirky Japanese thing. The cafes are for
people who love cats and want to spend time with them, but aren’t allowed to
keep pets in their apartment blocks. People just go there and spend time
stroking them and drinking tea. Matt found one nearby and we signed in for 30
minutes. It was a small room with about 30 cats of every description wandering
around, with heaps of beds, toys and cat playthings. Jessie is quite allergic
to cats so she wasn’t allowed to touch them and just took photographs.
We caught the bullet train on to the airport,
spent our last Yen and boarded our flight back to Australia. It was an
overnight flight landing at 6:30am. I only slept for about ten minutes on the
flight. We picked up our car; unfortunately they had disconnected the battery while
we were away so all the electronics were messed up – back in miles and gallons
and the radio was locked! My heart sank thinking I needed to get an access code
from Ford in the UK to get the radio to work again but luckily, Katie found the
code in the glove box and managed to get the radio going before we got home. Dad
had dropped Molly home so she was there to greet us when we arrived home about
9:30am. I unloaded the car, had a quick swim & shower and went straight off
to work for the rest of the day. I don’t think I was very effective though!
JANUARY 2014 A couple of quietish weeks followed
before the kids went back to school on 28 January. On 17th January
we went to see an Agatha Christie play, “A
Murder is Announced” at the Queensland Performing Arts Complex. It was
Katie’s Christmas present to us all. Everyone really enjoyed it. The kids were
sitting in the audience absolutely beaming and trying to guess “whodunit”. So sweet.
We had a night out with some BBC families who
have boys in Matt’s year. Jessica refused to come out with a whole heap of
older boys and decided to go for a girly sleepover instead. I hope she holds
that opinion of older boys for a long time to come!
We had a BBQ on Sunday 18th January
with a different set of BBC parents and boys. Poor Jessica was the only girl again,
so she sat with the adults rather than with teenage boys. We had a nice BBQ.
Matthew’s reputation was enhanced in the eyes of his friends when a group of
teenage girls in bikinis came calling and invited Matt to a pool party. They
were his friends who just live up the street. Matthew politely declined but as
the afternoon progressed he quietly arranged for one of the boys to stay for a
sleepover and they both shot off to the party as soon as everyone left.
We went to see a couple of great movies. One
was The Book Thief, a sad story about
a German family with an adopted Polish daughter who hide a Jew during the Second
World War. The other movie was Saving Mr
Banks, a true story about the making of the movie of Mary Poppins, in which
Walt Disney was played by Tom Hanks. Both very entertaining movies and well
worth seeing.
Another weekend we went to Bribie Island with
our friends the Haughtons and hired a BBQ boat. It was rather a last minute
thing and we could only get the boat early in the morning. The kids and Katie
was a little appalled when we realised we’d have to leave at 6am! We had a
smooth trip and were on the boat at 7:15am and shortly thereafter frying bacon,
eggs and sausages for breakfast. We had a brilliant morning and saw dolphins
(including a baby), several dugongs, two stingrays leaping right out of the
water and lots of birdlife. Matthew had taken his huge inflatable boat and all
the kids had a great time playing in it. We just cruised around the bay for a
while until it was time to go back. Jessica will be starting school with Alisha
Haughton at St Aidan’s the following week, so it was good for them to catch up
before school started.
The next day we went to our favourite dog beach
in Currumbin. It was a little overcast but Matt really wanted to use his boat
again before the end of the holidays. We went for a cruise around the bay with
Molly, but she didn’t really enjoy the boating experience and shivered in
mortal terror. We had a nice lunch at our favourite café. A great last day out at the end of the Summer
holidays.
That’s all for this month.
Cheers,
Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly
Cat Cafe
No comments:
Post a Comment