Still winter in Shiga Kogen

The winter is still with us in Shiga Kogen. During the night, we registered -6℃ and 12 cm of fresh snow in Hasuike.

More snow is expected during the day and it's cloud at the moment.

Warm up and have fun!!!

Good news!!!

As we expected, the day started with some snow today in Shiga Kogen.

It was just a light snow about 9 in the morning at Hasuike but it's becoming better right now! Looks like it will be a cloudy/snowy day today... and becoming colder than the previously days. So, if you are planning to go out on the slopes, be prepared wearing warm clothes.

Cloudy today...

this is the boathouse of Kidoike, this morning. You can notice a fresh thin layer of snow on the trees.

It's cloudy and foggy today
The good thing is that we had some snow in the morning...
and we are expecting for a bright Saturday tomorrow!
Enjoy!

Saturday morning at Yokoteyama

Saturday started very cloudy at Mt. Yokote... These trees are between the Yokoteyama Sky Lift 2 and Yokoteyama Sky Lift 3.

And that's the view from Yokoteyama Sky Lift 2.

Saturday, March 7, 2009.

10:16 A. M.

Yokoteyama, Shiga Kogen, Joshinetsu National Park, Nagano, Japan.

White White Birches

The day started cloudy and with light snow today...

And the White Birches are still snowy and beautiful!

This is Ichinose Family yesterday night.

Here you can ski or snowboard everynight, until 21:00.

Enjoy!

Lots of snow!

A great day for those who were lucky enough to go out and enjoy the snow on Monday!

Fresh snow all day! Bad visibility but a great day anyway!

Pictures from Yokoteyama on Monday.

more 10

Last night's snow fall add more 10 cm to our ski runs.
It's very cloudy today and we hope we can see more and more snow registered here!
So far, we have registered 116 cm in Hasuike.

This is Higashitateyama viewed from Hasuike this morning.

and this picture was taken yesterday, at the end of the day, in front of Hasuike Ropeway Station.

Perfect Day!

Yesterday was a really great day in Shiga Kogen!!! Light snow in the morning and them sunny until the end of the day.

This is Maruike (Maru Pond) yesterday, about 1:00 P. M.

And that's Sun Valley area.

It was a good day to go out and enjoy the snow, skiing, snowboarding or just taking pictures...

Lots of images from Sun Valley coming soon.

Pursuing Powder Snow

Today I met these snowboarders on my way to work and they talked about their favorite places in Shiga Kogen.

Will Koh and Alex Lee, both 27 years old, are Malaysian and live in Australia. They are spending 2 weeks in Shiga Kogen snowboarding and so far, their favorite place is the run which starts at Terakoya, at the top of Mt. Higashitate and you can choose to go through Takamagahara or Ichinose Family. It’s where they found the best powder snow.

They like Shiga Kogen because it’s a huge resort and you can find courses for snowboarders of all levels.

Will and Alex were very happy because today started cloudy and cold, and it seems that they will have fresh powder snow soon.

Things to do in a very bad weather day

Ok, you have been waiting for your holiday for a while, planning and dreaming about your days skiing or snowboarding...　And when you are finally here, your day starts like this!

Here are things you can do:

-Hang around in the hotel common areas. You probably will meet someone else who is skiing for a while and you can exchange valuable information about places to go, different techniques, brands... Or, if you are here for a while, you can give some tips about a nice view, your favorite area to ski.

-You could meet interesting people, chat and maybe play something. Ask at the front desk, maybe they have card games that you used to play. Even if you dont remember the rules, playing with people from different countries makes for fun times! Everyone may have different rules ;)

-With lucky, you could meet people from different countries and learn a lot about their traditions, or places you never heard about…

-Snowshoe hiking. Today could be a day that you enjoy the snow differently. Lots of people are snowshoe hiking at the moment, even though it is foggy today. Having fun!

-If you like ice skating, go out and enjoy! It's free! But take care... you have to be fine when the fog and rain has gone!

-Come on, you are in Japan! Try new things, new tastes... So far, Kit Kat Pepper and a Shiga Kogen beer - Caffè espresso taste - are the most unusual things I have found here. But if you want to try something more traditional, why not natto (納豆 - fermented soybeans)???

-Take different pictures. We usually wait for a clear day to take gorgeous pictures. But today can be an opportunity to go out and take completely different pictures. Mysterious images, old looking, sometimes almost sepia, like a draw or a dream…

-Or just rest at the onsen and save energy for having fun when the weather is better!

But I have to say that I saw lots of ski/snowboard lovers going out anyway... who cares if it's not sunny and the sky isn't blue today?!

Carpe diem!


*picture taken about 1 hour ago, as you can't see, this is Hasuike Ropeway Station.

Feb 14, 2009.

9:10 A. M.

Saturday.

* How about you? How do you like to spend a rainy fog day in the mountains?

Cloudy Friday...

It's hot again in Shiga Kogen... and we all hope the Japan Meteorological Agency are wrong and instead of the predicted rain we have a nice snow this weekend.

























It seems like someone had fun at Maeyama yesterday ;)

Sunny Cloudy day...

As you can see in the picture taken this morning, it's cloudy today, but it's changing, so the sun is shining from time to time.

You can see Maruike (Maru Pond) and the Sunvalley Ski area in the background.

Cloudy Tuesday

Yesterday was cloudy all day...

but we received the visit of this beautiful dog...

He loves to eat snow :)

Yakebitaiyama summit on Sunday

Outdoor: Snow and cold

Dip in temperature, 10 cm snow fall registered during the night...

Shiga Kogen looks like Shiga Kogen in the winter again!

Outdoor, temperatures dip during the day, which is very good news for all ski and snowboard lovers!

Hotaru Onsen Area, Saturday,

7:00 A. M.

Jan 31, 2009.

melting Friday

Just a few snow could be seen here on Friday... The day started with some light rain, but a nice snow fall was expected during the weekend.



Yakebitaiyama, Jan 30, 2009.
Friday, 8:20 A. M.

WHAT TO DO IN A SKI RESORT BESIDES SKI?

Thinking about how someone could spend the day besides skiing, I thought snowshoe hiking could be the best alternative to enjoy one day in the middle of the snow. In the end of the day, I was sure about it!
Before we start, at 10 in the morning, I was almost given up hiking because the day was cloudy and I thought this hiking thing would just be beautiful in a sunny day. I couldn't be more wrong!
The beauty of the snow, the snowy trees and the white sky in the background were amazing! And the fog coming and going, showing a little more of the local nature from time to time was magical!
And snowshoe hiking it’s not just about walk and contemplate, at least not where I was hiking, in Shiga Kogen, about 3 hours from Tokyo, in Nagano Ken. Since I don’t have snowshoes or anything, I decide to hike with the local guides and they hire snowshoes and poles, and showed me all the beauty hidden in the summit of Higashitateyama, a mountain 2.000 m above sea level.
With those genki women, we found footprints, I could smell Christmas trees, learned about local nature and tradition, slide down the mountains and could even taste the flavor of the nature… but there are some details that I believe it’s just better to discover by yourself.
All I can tell you it’s worth, even in a cloudy day!

You can check how much fun we had in this pictures and here, here, here and here. And read about it in Japanese from someone who was hiking at the same day.

Snowshoe Hiking...

So much fun in the middle of the snow!

Shiga Kogen's Guides are great! So nice!!!