Somehow these past 48 hours were even more chaotic then the last. I landed in Narita on Feb. 6th. Going through immigration was quite simple and my bag came out just in time when I got through. I looked for the nearest ATM and was faced with my first challenge in Japan. Getting cash was more of a struggle. For some reason my Wells Fargo card kept rejecting the request for cash. Thankfully I packed a secondary debit card from Honda Federal Credit Union. I booked a last minute hostel near the Haneda airport and made my way to via bus. I got a glimpsed on this beautifully lighted building as we drove to my hostel. I stayed the night at Plat Hostel Keikyu Haneda Home. It was quite cozy and came out to ~$32/night.

I had a flight the next morning at 6AM from Haneda to New Chitose Airport via ANA. ANA’s process was quite good and gave me a new appreciation for flying. They had machines where you cam check in bags yourself. The machines checked the weight, dimensions and then spit out a sticker for you to attach. Once attached the bag machine closed and the bags disappeared until we landed, as if teleporting. As I boarded the flight, I got to experience my sunrise of the trip and a good selfie! As we took off I saw a glimpse of Mt. Fuji in the distance.

I arrived in Chitose shortly after and picked up my rental car. Once I had my car I drove straight to Kiroro Resort. I had a bunch of friends who had been in Hokkaido the last few days hitting up all the slopes. I arrived at the ski resort around 12, about 2 hours later than I had planned. At this point I was feeling quite weary from all the travels I had done. I was thinking of just resting and hanging out with my friends for dinner. Starving, I hit up the cafe and got a Tonkatsu. The meal was quite good and the slice of pork was nice and juicy. After finishing my meal, I turned on slopes and tried to stalk my friends. They were off in the other building eating lunch. I chatted with them and was soon convinced to do a half day of snowboarding. I rented gear and clothes at the front and bought a pair of gloves. I took the gondola up and as we ascended it started to snow. The shop didn’t rent goggles. This will be fun. I got to top and noticed my friend’s Jeff. He was wearing his usual ski outfit. I called out to him and to his surprise he yelled out “KIM?!” My other friends weren’t far behind him and soon I got to see all of them. Ah, home.

I made my way down the slopes, squinting, stopping, and thankful that Slopes had a GPS and map. In some ways, I think the low visibility made me somehow less afraid, or just unaware of my speed. With this being my 7th time snowboarding, I was proud to see my average speed for the run at ~15 MPH. Usually my average speed for a run is around 7 – 10 MPH. The snow at Kiroro was a nice powder. There were sections where the snow floated as I cut through. After wrapping up I met up with my friends at their resort. Yu Kiroro. Wow. This place really has it all. Ski-In / Out, Onsen, breakfast and dinner included. My friend offered her room key so I went to the Onsen. It was quite good. The onsen had 1 indoor hot pool, 1 indoor cold plunge, a sauna and an outdoor hot pool. I soaked myself in each and sat in the sauna with some nice cold plunging between. I got to eat dinner with my friends and then drove down to Otaru where my hostel was. Morinoki Guest House. It was a cute cozy home with a cat, Momo, and dog, Hagu. They were my favorite amenities. I chatted with some of the other guests and then made my way to bed.

The next morning I headed off to O-spa. Being a little unaware, I followed the map instructions and ended up getting stuck in the snow. I spent some time digging out the snow and had a very kind local help push the car. No luck. He helped call the rental company as my calls were not going through for some reason. After some emailing, I finally got confirmation that help was on the way. I later found that I couldn’t just dial 81-NUMBER but instead that I had to include the + in front. Additionally, if a Japanese number starts with 0NUMBER then you need to drop the 0 and add the +81. After getting unstuck I finally got to O-spa 3 hours later.

O-spa was a much better onsen then I expected. There were 4 indoor hot pools, 1 cold pool. A sauna with timed water for some steam and an outdoor hot pool. After spending 3 hours there I went to the spa’s restaurant. I got some delicious pork and chicken skewers and finished the meal with a creamy soft serve ice cream. The ice tasted a little like condensed milk. After finishing the ice cream I made my way to the next destination, Kutchan. After a 90 min drive, I arrived at my next accommodation. Boken Kazoku. This hostel is located is rustic and cute. It use to be a school and was converted into a hostel.

Somehow this 3 month trip which I thought would be easy going has started out quite eventful. I’m glad I got to be with my friends from home though, and it was worth the chaos. I’m planning to checkout the town of Kutchan tomorrow, have some local food, go to a new onsen and relax.

Until next time, adventurer.