Today we skied the backcountry!

Today we skied the backcountry! We woke up early and went downstairs to breakfast. The breakfast buffet was great! They had so many options! I was focused on eating so I didn't take any pictures of the selection, but tomorrow I will for sure. I'm looking forward to it!

Breakfast!!

After breakfast we headed out to a rental shop to get skis. It was only a short walk away from our hotel. After that we dropped off our shoes in our hotel ski locker and hit the slopes! Our hotel is right next to a lift so it's super easy to access everything. It had snowed all night and there was fresh powder everywhere. However it was a bit foggy so viability wasn't the best higher up.

Our hotel

I actually had some goggle issues, so I went back to the hotel to fix them, while Harrison explored. We met back up over an hour later since Harrison was exploring the backcountry (which isn't covered by our travel insurance) and had to hike for 20 minutes back to a lift. He decided to show me where he went, and we left for a higher part of the mountain on a single seat lift.

Once we got to the top, Harrison took me to the backcountry where we had to hike a little bit, but soon found some nice snow. It was all powder and you kinda just floated down the mountain.

Most of the day we skied on fresh powered, however in parts it was pretty thick. I actually got stuck a few times. At around 2 we stopped for lunch at a lodge off of one of the chairlifts. We both decided on different curries and it hit the spot. After that we skied bit longer, but it was getting late and many of the chairs began to close. However as the sun was begging to set, the clouds cleared and we got to see the surrounding area.

Hamburg Curry

We think that is Mt. Yotei

I stopped going down the run to take pictures while Harrison pressed on. After another run it was clear that both of our legs were shot and we decided to head in for the day. We showered and decided to walk around to find a place to eat.

It's cold...

 

Our hotel room has a private open air onsen and I've been taking advantage of that. We are on the top floor of our hotel and our bath looks out to the mountains. It's so nice to just sit and look at the lights of the mountain.

Yes I'm sitting naked in our onsen taking pictures...

We started out by just walking around and exploring the area. We walked down some of the side streets near our hotel looking for a good spot for dinner. 

After much walking and finding many places to be full, we settled for a ramen shop near our hotel. We waited for a bit, but were seated quickly. The ramen was great and really hit the spot after a long day of skiing. 

kampai!

 

 

After we ate we returned to our hotel. It's wasn't too late here (9:30pm) but we were both pretty exhausted. A few minutes after we got back, I heard Harrison say "I could go to sleep now" and then suddenly as I was typing I heard snoring. I think I'll probably turn in too now. Tomorrow is another day of skiing, and maybe we'll hit up a different area nearby or explore the backcountry more. Regardless of what we do I know one thing for certain: I'm going to be sore.

Daily Step Count: 14,634

Total Step Count:  23,907

Today we flew to Japan!

Today we flew to Japan! Harrison and I started off our trip early today. My dad took us to the airport around 3am as our flight from Seattle to LA left at 5am. It was hard getting up since we stayed up late packing and making last minute arrangements for our trip. We both agreed that we wouldn't feel like we were truly on vacation until we reached our final destination for the day: Niseko.

Bye Seattle!

We arrived in LA a little after 7am and proceeded to our next flight. We walked to our next gate in the international terminal at LAX and checked in with the desk lady.

Arriving at LAX

Singapore Airlines!

 

We boarded around 8:30 and got seated in our seats. Luckily the flight was not that full so we had the whole row to ourselves! We took off and began our 11.5 hour flight to Tokyo. Overall it was a pretty good flight. We spent most of the flight watching movies, sleeping, or eating.

We were fed a lot. They gave us these nice menus and we got to choose our meals. We also got free wine! I'm unsure if was because the flight wasn't very full or the flight attendants were super attentive, but they just kept giving us food, water and/or juice. Once I got up to go to the bathroom and asked for water, and came back with a sandwich and Hershey chocolate bar.

The menu

 

After a long flight we finally arrived in Tokyo. Going through customs wasn't too bad, and we were able to easily check our bags back in for our next flight to Hokkaido. Right now we are waiting to board our next flight to Sapporo. We've posted up in front of a TV and we have a few hours to kill. We are basically the only people in the ANA domestic flight gate area.

TV exercises!

 

One thing I've noticed is that my Japanese has improved a lot since the last time I was in Japan. I was able to make a bus reservation over the phone, talk to the customs agent, check us into our flight to Sapporo, and make a phone call to our hotel. Thinking back to my time traveling with my friend Matt in Norway, whenever I talk to someone when traveling abroad the first thing I always ask is if they speak English. Sadly so far on this trip, whenever I ask that questions the response is "ちょっとだけ" or "only a little." Actually one person straight up told me no. However it seems I'm managing well enough now for both of us, and I'm sure this only helps my language skills.

Soon our little area began to fill up with people and we were getting closer to our departure time. The planes were parked a bit away so we had to take a bus to the plane. The flight from Tokyo to Sapporo is a little over an hour. Harrison slept most of the way, while I just sat there and nodded off a few times, but we finally made it to Sapporo!

We gathered our things and met up with our taxi driver. Due to some complications we had to taxi to our hotel instead of taking a resort bus. However after traveling all day it was kind of nice to have a private van. We have been traveling now for over 24 hours and are still not at our final destination. It is a long drive from the airport to Niseko, but we enjoyed it. I only wish it had been light out so I could have taken pictures.

From what I can tell, the scenery must be amazing during the day. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures on our way back. But the long drive did give me time to update my blog post for the day.  We still haven't gotten to our hotel yet but when we do I know we'll both sleep well tonight. Day 1 is almost over and I'm glad we won't have to travel this much in one day for the rest of our trip.

We finally made it to our hotel, but I'm too exhausted to update anymore.

Daily Step Count: 9,273
Total Step Count: 9,273