But first:
Since New Year is, as mentioned before, similar to our Christmas and thus a family activity, New Year's Eve is one thing: Boring. Indeed there are plenty of people around and enough alcohol present, but still it's hardly comparable to our New Year's Eve celebrations.
For my part, I spent the 31st at my host family's and in the evening I went with Simon to Sannomiya. After an excellent dinner in a side-street restaurant (the main courses are grilled on small spits and served) we went to an English-Pub for the turn of the year. As mentioned, midnight was by way of comparison unspectacular, but the realisation that here the New Year is already being celebrated whilst it's only 4 p.m. at home and on the American West Coast it's actually still the morning of the 31st, was a strange feeling.
Following that, I went to Tokyo, and on January 4th I set out for the ski-trip to Nagano. It was organised by the exchange-students-center, meaning that the 35 participants were all exchange students, so regrettably, except for the custodians, no Japanese were with us. Although since half of the people were comprised of Chinese and Koreans there were enough occasions to practice Japanese.
The first thing that stands out in Nagano: Snow. SNOW! and really lots of it. And minus degrees (ed. Celsius). Magnificent!
Sorry, I need a moment to collect myself ... okay, I'm alright again.
The rooms in the hotel were kept in the Japanese style (Ryokan 旅館), which means the floor was comprised of Tatami-mats and for sleeping one had to use futons instead of beds. A futon is a thin mattress (actually just a big, little bit thicker blanket) for spreading out on the tatami floor, as well as a pillow (in that case filled with beans) and a blanket (thin during summer, thick during winter) to cover oneself. A futon is meant to be put away into the wardrobe after sleeping for reasons of saving space. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of the room but one should also get a rough idea from this one.
The table in the middle is being put away when you get the futons out.
There were four people in each room, whereas men and women, as is common in Japan, were not only separated by rooms but also by floors (except for families and couples, those were on another separate floor or section, respectively).
For breakfast we were presented with Western style food (ham, sausages and scrambled eggs), but the large dinner was of course pure Asian (Japanese, Chinese) and downright big and tasty.
An example
We have been to the Shiga-koken skiing region, where the slalom and giant slalom slopes of the Olympic Winter games of 1998 are situated (unfortunately not the downhill piste, I would have liked to see the section from which Hermann Maier started his flight). The nice thing was the fact that the participants, contrary to the norm in Japan, could act completely free and autonomous and hadn't had to be in a group. With exception of course for the skiing-beginners course but naturally those were glad to be in a group.
Japanese mountains are, as one can see on the pictures further down, because of their formation from volcanoes, in general comparable "gently inclined" and above all have rounded peaks, even at greater altitudes (2000m and above). There are rather less jagged cliffs and hardly pointed peaks (like in the Alps), therefore the better part of the slopes consists of green (at home: blue) and red slopes. However, of course there are black pistes and sections (or else an Olympiad would hardly have been possible), but in my opinion there's a problem with those in Japan: Japanese seem to be under the impression that black slopes are only being used by professionals and crazy freaks and for such kind of persons a simple piste is not the right thing, so in over half of all black sections they integrate a mogul slope. Completely without warning or any chance to avoid it at the edge of the slope.
Personally I HATE mogul pistes. In my view, and apparently in the view of the better part of advanced skiers, moguls ruin otherwise great slopes since the disrupt the flow, are especially bad for man and material and are simply unnatural. There are people who like going down these and I don't mind at all if occasionally sections of pistes are prepared as such but come on, not the whole width on every second nice black slope.
Something I've encountered in a ski hut on a peak by chance:
A ordinary service sign, but note the sticker in the right corner.
Correct! A sticker from the Ötz Valley in Austria, complete with village names in German (unrecognisable in the picture)
Unbelievable, in the middle of Japan in some small ski lodge.
As usual with such events (trips etc.) in Japan, this time there was once again, organised by the custodians, a party in the evening. A more in-depth description of the structure and progression of such parties will be given in the column.
At any rate, it showed that Asians, first and foremost girls for their petite build, sometimes have problems with alcohol. Thus a Chinese girl was completely "done" after consuming (in practically one go) a can of a Japanese sweet alcohol mix (loosely comparable to so-called Alcopops), with not quite the alcoholic strength of beer.
The Germans at work
Nagano is famous for its apple farming lands (reminds me on my home village) and for its soba noodles. The apples we've seen on sale were really giant, which questions their farming methods but interestingly they weren't artificial flawless like one sometimes sees in Austrian super markets, they actually looked like normal, proper apples.
All in all it has been 4 full days of skiing with a 9 hours bus ride each forth and back. Despite this endeavour it was simply wonderful and was worth it by all means.
Interesting (and funny) facts/opinions about Japan:
Parties in Japan. It is common in Japan that on trips, longer conventions/conferences and larger internal meetings at companies, a party will be held. They range from small ones with only snacks and a small selection of beverages to large buffets with all kinds of alcoholics. As one can discern from the last sentence, alcohol is always an important ingredient although the fundamental idea is of course the get-to-know, to foster contacts with colleagues, and to relax in a relieving atmosphere respectively. To not give anyone wrong impressions: The actual consummation of alcohol is one of the few things where peer pressure is very low (it actually seems to be lower than in Austria), but one should maintain "non-drinking" throughout the whole party. Corporate and officially organised events are nearly always for free whereas at a private party the custom is that every guest brings a small part of the beverages and snacks, or a small fee is to be paid respectively for larger errands run by someone specific.
Whether solely private or business, all Japanese parties have three things in common:
1) They last for a certain amount of time or end at a specific, prior determined point in time (in case of the ski-trip party, this was 22:00 hours). At that point a party has officially ended and it is expected from the guests to leave the site of the event.
2) Directly after the ending of the party, everything will be tidied up at once, whereas it is expected from the guests to lend a hand (at least from those, who are still able to), all of the waste gets picked up and the event-site will be left the way it was before.
3) All non-consumed food and beverages are distributed among the guests, which means, that every guest is allowed to take home whichever he likes of the leftovers, with no need to regard to who brought what.
Remark: The above presented "rules" and manners of conduct are only applicable for parties, which are not held in private space (house of a host), but in rooms, which are specially designed for events and meetings. At a party held a in private space the rules can, according to the host, slightly change. This is insofar important as Japanese often celebrate "away from home" and quite contrary, it is a great honour, a big sign of friendship and bond respectively, if one gets invited by a Japanese to his home.
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