Explore everyday life in Japan
At least once a year, my extended family and I climb into two cars and head into the mountains for a day of sledding at a small ski resort less than an hour from my house. We have been doing this for the past five years, and during this time, our family has grown in both number and size. What used to be a day dedicated solely to riding an escalator-like lift up the kiddy hill and sledding back down has now become a balancing act of ski lessons for the eleven and four-year-old, snowboarding lessons for the six-year-old, sledding time for everyone including the one-year-old, and dealing with everyone’s hunger issues, gear issues, and the problems that ensue as everyone’s fatigue slowly sets in. In short, it is a full day with many challenges. That said, despite all the issues, it is always a fun day and, surprisingly, it doesn’t cost very much.
Japan has some great mountains for skiing and snowboarding, some with volumes of light powder snow and others with an abundance of heavy, wet snow. Regardless of the snow type, most ski mountains in Japan are very reasonable—a full-day lift pass for bigger mountains generally costs less than 6,000 yen (under 60USD) and, in many cases, children who have not yet entered elementary school are free.
At Tainai, the ski mountain I visited over the weekend, the parking is free and, if you don’t use the escalator-like lift, the sledding and use of the kiddy hill are free as well. All you have to do is bring your sleds and your skiing/snowboarding gear with you and you and your children can spend the day sledding, skiing, and snowboarding on the kiddy hill for free.
If climbing the kiddy hill over and over again sounds like a little too much work, which it often is when you are pulling, carrying, or doing your best to encourage young children to climb the kiddy hill by themselves, it only costs 500 yen for adults to ride the lift all day. Incredible, isn’t it?
From my experience, which is admittedly limited to only a handful of resorts in Niigata Prefecture, don’t expect many frills when you go to a ski resort in Japan. I have found the lodges here to be very basic, often providing only what is necessary--a large open cafeteria, restrooms, locker rooms, and one or two open, heated areas that have a few seats and some flooring space (where shoes are not allowed) for people to eat, get some rest, and warm up. While the cafeterias are quite popular places to get some hot food like curry or ramen and enjoy ice cream, beer, and/or coffee, many people also find themselves attracted to the variety of festival-like food stands that are certain to be found outside of the lodges themselves and sometimes very near the gondolas and chair lifts.
For my family, it’s not a trip to the ski mountain without a visit to one of these food stands.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.