snow in Tokyo!

It was snowing so hard when we woke up on Saturday morning that Tokyo tower, less than 1 km from my friend's apartment and bigger than the Eiffel Tower, was practically invisible. We worried that this would set our transport to Mt. Naeba way behind schedule (and expressed our concern by falling asleep immediately upon getting in the car and waking up only shortly before arriving at the resort).

From what I'd been told, this was the first 'real' snow in Tokyo this winter, dropping roughly 3-4 inches of snow on the city. While it was kind of nice to see some nature in Tokyo, I was worried that the gloomy gray weather would follow us to the ski resort. I couldn't have been more wrong!

I fell asleep to the wet, snowy Tokyo highways and woke up to crisp blue skies and beautiful mountain scenery. Our first day on the mountain was warm, windless and the snow was in great condition... we could hardly believe our luck. By the end of the day, though, it had started to snow again and everyone seemed confident that the cold, windy storm would carry through Sunday. I regretted not bringing my camera to capture the our lovely first day.

Sunday started out exactly as predicted, so everyone left their cameras, cell phones and other non-waterproof gadgets in the hotel...but almost immediately after we went outside the sun came out, the snow stopped and the wind disappeared. It was warmer and sunnier than Saturday with the added bonus of a few fresh inches of light, dreamy powder. We simply do not get snow like this in the North East. Ski conditions are either packed powder or some dreadful combination of ice, man-made snow and heavy, wet slush. I couldn't have imagined better conditions than what we skied on Sunday. To take full advantage we rode the "Dragondola" (reportedly the longest gondola in the world at just over 5.5 km) to the smaller peaks at the resort where conditions were unbelievably better yet. Also, being higher in elevation the other peaks supplied the MOST beautiful mountain scenery I have ever seen. Everyone was in agony over not having a camera. The air was so crisp and clear that it felt like you could see forever into the distance, and the bright white mountain ranges shone blues, pinks and purples in the sun. Amazing. No one could stop talking about how spectacular the day was.

We were exhausted and facing a long ride home quit sometime between 3 and 4. When I popped back out to take a few quick pictures the skies had clouded over and snow was falling again... meaning that my few pictures from this weekend are all dark and gloomy. *sigh* You'll just have to trust me that it was a beautiful weekend.


So beautiful, in fact, that I'm planning to go again in the near future. Then hopefully again after that.