Kuma no Yu

Some pictures of the ski area "Kuma no Yu", taken on December 08th.

Yokoteyama

Beautiful view of Mount Yokoteyama (picture taken on December 04th).

A lift has begun to work.

In Kumanoyu ski area,
only the second lift started service
in a course of 600m, on Friday, November 19.

First Snow in Shigakogen

Ski lesson

The Hudson Family, staying with us for 3 days are from Cairns, Australia.
Today they went on a skiing lesson with Kasadake ski school. They had good weather conditions, with the snow turned ice (from the rain we had over the weekend) turning back into snow by about lunch time.
They did very well their instructors said, and they even went all the way to the top of Yokoteyama. By the end of the day I would imagine they would be enjoying their much awaited hot spring time.

My parents stayed for 4 days here.

My parents came over for 4 days stay for my birthday.
I received a snowboard and binding set for my birthday, I now have 3 weeks left to use it as much as I possibly can before I finish up here.
Today they were going back to Tokyo before making their way back to Australia.

I taught them both how to snowboard, which was pretty funny to start with.
They did however go home with brusies all over them, thankfully no borken bones!

Thanks muchly Mum and Pete.
I know you will be reading this!!

Sunday the 8th at the Snow village

We went to the Snow village on sunday night.
There was fireworks, food stalls, snow slide and also a outlet market.
At 8:30pm there was also a raffle and the first prize winner had the choice of a ski set or snowboard set. The winner chose the snowboard set!

The night ended at around 9:30pm with Meg and I buying around 6 crepes from one of the food stalls before it shut and we went home!
It was a very good night

Snow festival

The snow slide is nearly finished!
This is one of the enjoyments you can have at the snow festival, along with fireworks on the 7th 8th and 14th of March.
There is also a outlet market and food stalls during this period of time.

Shuttle bus services are avaliable to and from the snow village on the 7th, 8th and 14th of March ONLY

Japanese Elementary Ski Comp!

Ski competition held at Nishitateyama.

Shiga Kogen, backcountry ski tour 2009

Photo taken at the top of Yokoteyama.
Before the start of the Shiga Kogen, Backcountry ski tour for 2009

Snow Village

We went and saw the lights at the snow village.

The 2nd Snow village started on the 21st of February and goes until the 14th of March.

The snow is back!

At Hasuike there was about 25cm of snow last night.
And it looks to keep snowing. currently it is -10℃
Hopefully it continues to snow this week, to replenish the snow from the other night when it was raining.

Staying with us again this year was Andrew, this time he came with friends.
They were here for 1 week, and went snowboarding most days.
As for next year, they will be back!

Guests from New Caledonia stayed with us for 6 nights.
Snowboarding almost everyday, they also went saw the monkeys and went sledding.
They also enjoyed chatting with people from Japan, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong, America, Finland and England.

We have a guest!

This was out the front of the hotel this morning.

Beautiful weather today.
These snowboarders are crossing the Hasuike pond (Hasu pond), to the Ropeway station

Mt Asama smoking peacefully

Meg went up the top of Yokoteyama today, good conditions for seeing Mt Asama.
It seems to be smoking peacefully on its own!
I have not been able to go up myself on a day with such fine weather.

Thanx for the pics Meg

Kasadake viewed from Yokoteyama


Yokoteyama is all ready for tomorrow.

After the snow

Shiga Kogen after a weekend of snow.

After a nights snow, it all has to be moved in the morning.
This is the car park at the front of the hotel, during the clean up!

All the way from Cairns

Holidaying in Shiga Kogen, was the Diacko family.
Coming from Cairns Australia, to holiday in the snow.
From here they were going to Tokyo, hope the girls were surprised by Disneyland!
Hope to see you again some time.

Our Brazilian friends

They have stayed here once a month this season.
This time around they cooked brazilian food and made drinks for us.
It was very enjoyable.
Cant wait till they come back again this month!

Was great weather again today, has been sunny all week.
The snow seems to be melting a little bit though, hopefully the forecasted snow will come over the weekend.

This is a picture of Mt Kasadake, it can be accessed by Kumanoyu.

Going for a Ski lesson

During our lunch break the girls decided to take a ski lesson. (Although 2 of them had previously tried snowboarding.)
Decked out in rented ski gear, and lift passes in hand they started off towards Mt Yokote. I went along as the camera man!!
When we got there they were taught how to get onto and off the lift.
As they all got on they screamed!

Once at the top the lesson began.
I however had to trek back down the mountain as i had to go back to work.
How they went i do not know. Hopefully they didnt hurt themselves.

Tiffany

Snow shoe hiking

Today Meg went Snow Shoe Hiking.

Although it started out cloudy, the weather got better and it turned out to be a good day for hiking.

It started at 10am and finished at 3pm.
She highly recommends everyone to go on the hike.

ps will uploaded pictures soon!

Okushiga kogen.

It was my day off today, so Meg and I went out for the day.
We caught the bus to Hasuike and then caught the gondala from there.

Went went all the way to Okushiga kogen, on the way we had lunch at a ramen shop near Prince hotel.

We then caught the bus back here which took an hour.

It was a good day for sight seeing.

Tiffany

Photos from Monkey Park

Photos taken by Meg.

The weather was great today, so I thought I would go snowboarding.
This picture is taken on the way up the Yokoteyama ski lift.

On a very clear day I have been told you can see Mt. Fuji.
Unfortunatley we couldn't see it today. (v_v)

Tiffany

A group of 13 people, (originating from India, living in Japan) came and stayed for 1 night.
They joined a group skiing lesson, but the next day only 2 of them went skiing. The others all went and saw the Monkeys.
At the moment the monkeys are very popular

Phir　Milenge！　　See you again

On holidays in Shiga kogen are the Vogan family. This picture was taken on their last day, they were making their way to Hakuba from here.
Hope you have a good time. Please come back again soon.

Happy new year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Taken at the Kumanoyu torch event