18 February 2011

It looked as though Emily and I would be enjoying the delights of Naspa Ski Garden on our own for a while: we waited on the platform at Tokyo station in vain for Julia & co to show up, boarding a couple of minutes before the Max Toki slid out of the station on its way to Echigo Yuzawa and beyond. After half an hour Cliff finally called to say that they had just missed the train but managed to get seats on the next one. It was only a 75 minute journey, but as we were on the downstairs part of the doubledecker carriage we couldn't see much of the view over the barrier fences so I struggled to entertain Emily. But in any case, the last half hour is spent in tunnels, as the line punches through from the Kanto plain to the heart of the mountains. Before the tunnels there was no snow in evidence, but as we emerged and pulled into Echigo Yuzawa we found ourselves in a winter wonderland, and indeed it was snowing heavily; this continued unabated for the rest of the day.


We waited for the others to catch us up at the station, then took the shuttle bus to the resort hotel, only a mile away. Emily and Charlize were chattering away in a jumble of words, sometimes having one of their comical 'conversations'. After a prolonged check-in we had lunch then let the girls work off some of their energy in the small playroom there. The resort has a Pingu theme, and this room was amply supplied with character toys, cushions and posters. Both Emily and Charlize had brought their Pingu soft toys; there was ample opportunity to buy them anyway in the on-site shop. Finally, we were told that we could go to our rooms, on the 23rd floor of the tower annex. We had a suite each - a bit of a splurge, but it was not actually much more expensive than a regular twin, though far more than we really needed as it was nearly as big as our apartment (mind you, that would not be hard).

We changed into winter wear and headed out to the bottom of the piste.



Here was a special fenced-off childrens' play area, even having a mini-travelator and variety of sledges. We spent 45 minutes riding up and toboganning down.



After one ride together, Emily insisted on going it alone. The gradient was enough for her to pick up quite a bit of speed, but I was pleased that she was being adventurous. Despite a few spills she did well, bombing down really fast.







Unfortunately the area closed at 4pm so we went back indoors. With time to kill before dinner we all went to the hot spring onsen, but none of the baths were cool enough for Emily to get in. Our stay package included a buffet dinner, and for once it was both generous and of a decent quality, with a mixture of Japanese and western food. Emily did not eat very well and complained of being tired, so I did not really get a chance to tuck in. Probably for the best.



Just as we were about to leave, Pingu put in an appearance: a six foot version, who happily posed for photos.





I got the girls ready for bed while Julia and Cliff took care of Serafina. It took some time for Emily to go to sleep in her double bed. As always, it was far too hot in the room, and also she had a hacking cough that took an hour to wear off. Later, Julia dropped by for a drink on her way to the baths, and I wished I could go too but couldn't leave Emily. Nick finally arrived at eleven, and we stayed up for a couple of hours chatting and watching the snow fly past the window.