Sapporo: Day Three...

Thursday, our third day in Sapporo, was all about the skiing...  The girls were super excited!

First we enjoyed another fantastic hotel breakfast.  No fish for me this time.  Then we entered the underground labyrinth that is the Sapporo subway...  This picture doesn't do justice to the vast number of people.

We rode the train for 25 minutes, then got on a bus to take us to the resort, maybe another 20 minutes.  Not bad, we thought.  This resort, Bankei, or BanK, was the one recommended by the nice tourist info lady.  She said it is small, but where the local families go.  B is a fantastic skier, but I, although I'm from the home of the "greatest snow on earth," have only gone a few times, and never progressed beyond the my-hips-are-killing-me-snow-plow stage.  I prefer cross country.  So I did not ski.  This was the first time for the girls. 

I had read a bit about this resort, and thought that they did not accept credit cards.  So I paid for the lift tickets and equipment rentals with cash.  Since I had forgotten to top off at an atm that morning, that left us pretty short for yen.  Bear this in mind for later... 

The very nice resort boys helped the girls on with their boots, I'm sure marveling at  the large size of their feet along the way, and we got ready to go.  I bought sunscreen and slathered them all with it.  Repeatedly!  Usually I forget to reapply, but today there was only one sun casualty, and that was me... 

The girls' first walk in their ski boots.  I should have filmed instead; they looked extremely ungainly.

Here is a view of the lodge, and the almost imperceptible hill B had them practice on at first.  I spent almost the entire day down there by that snow covered deck back there, looking up at them practicing.  Thus my sunburned eyes...

Here is the translation of the day, from the lodge bathroom.  What is a voice cliff?

B tried to teach the girls to snowplow, herringbone up the slope, and get up after they fell.  Two girls then learned how to snowplow into a turn, then straighten up their skis in between turns.  This one was not one of those two...

Miss A caught on, so B took her up on the lift once, and came down with her.  Then she was turned loose to go as much as she wanted.  I stayed by the deck watching the small ones practice their turns (in Miss M's case), and barrel straight down the little slope (in Miss R's).

Then it was Miss M's turn to go up with Daddy.  R kept speeding straight down the little hill, while I tried to tell her to turn.  Like I have any clue how to do it!  My inept advice had no impact on her, and she kept herringboning up, snow plowing straight down, and falling backwards to stop.  Over and over.  I should have put my fit bit on her.  I bet she climbed the equivalent of Everest going up that little slope.

 B took Miss R down once too, then he needed a break.  So I took the girls in for lunch, while he went on all the runs.  He said there were not many real black runs, at least not by Rocky Mountain standards. 

I was worried about lunch.  I had two thousand yen left, or around $20.  With what I remembered of US ski resorts, I thought that would about cover two orders of french fries.  Maybe.  I had gone into the lodge earlier to ask if there were any atms close, which there weren't.  Back down by the train station was the closest, and B didn't want me leaving the extra girls alone while he was up with them individually on the runs.  I explained to the workers that I had used most of my cash on the gear and tickets.  Turns out I could have paid for those with a card!  It was only the restaurants that didn't take them...  I should always ask if a card-o is ok.  So when we went in to lunch I had a long look at the ordering machines in the lodge.  Luckily they had half orders of ramen for 500 yen each.  The girls each picked one, and they ended up being pretty huge!  Also, like most eating areas in Japanese malls and food courts, they had a place to get glasses of water for free.  I got a curry bun for a hundred yen, and we were set.  B didn't want anything to eat, so we ended up having extra cash.

After the girls and I ate, we walked over to see Japan's largest half pipe.  It was huge!  They don't look that big on tv, but this one is 180 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 6-7 meters deep.  We watched a few people go down.  It was fun.

After lunch B was ready for a fresh attempt at teaching three vastly different girls how to ski.  He said later that he had forgotten the biggest rule in teaching skiing:  everything is better after lunch.  He said that each time he has taught a kid to ski, it has been torture all morning.  They just never get it.  Then they go in to eat, and something magic happens in their little brains, and they come right out and can ski.  And so it was this time.  So the afternoon was quite nice for all of us.  The girls were free-range, and I sat in the lodge next to a heater and read. 

I popped out every once in while to take a photo and see how everyone was doing.  But it was very cold...

 I asked B what he thought about how the girls were learning, and he said that Miss R was hands down the fastest.  She rode up the lift, skied straight down the mountain without a hint of a turn, and did it again.  And again.  I could always spot her, not just because of her bright pink coat and pony hat (crocheted by the marvelous Miss Melissa back in VA) but because she looked like a starfish with her appendages all splayed out as she rocketed down the hill.  Miss M was the very slowest.  But B said that she had the best skills, and would be the best off long term.  Miss A was somewhere in between. 

They had a wonderful time, and it was a great day.

I liked the signs on the lodge doors...  Nothing says "welcome!" like facing a sumo wrestler head on.

The same nice boys were there to pry the boots off, and we headed for the bus.

Unfortunately, we got on the bus headed in the wrong direction...  It came six minutes before the bus we wanted, and I wasn't paying attention.  This was not good, since we were all fairly exhausted and wanted nothing but to be home in our rooms, warm and dry.  Thank Heaven for google!  I watched on the map, and found when the bus got close to a train station, and we jumped off.  So it worked out ok in the end. 

I was still chilled when we got to the hotel, so after we got the girls in bed, I hopped in to the tub for a nice long hot reading bath.  It was lovely.  Until...

   
My first real earthquake!  I would much rather I had not been sloshing around in a tub for this experience though.  It was crazy.  I have always been fascinated by natural disasters.  I studied them extensively in college.  I have also watched many documentaries about them.  In one, about the 2011 Japan earthquake, you see footage of people in an office in Tokyo.  When the earthquake hits, they stand around, but don't really do anything.  Every time I have watched that I wondered why they don't get under their desks, or try to exit the building, or do something!  Now I totally get that!  I know, forgive me, but really quite a lot about earthquakes.  And I was struck motionless, not knowing how long was it going to last?  How big was it?  Had the L waves arrived?  Was more going to happen?  I'm heartily sorry for all those office workers I had been judging all this time. 

We did not grab the girls and evacuate the hotel.  Which turned out to be a good thing.  But in the mean time, a hotel worker got on the PA system, and while another person spoke panickedly in the back ground, spoke very loudly and urgently in fast Japanese.  Then they left the speakers in the rooms on, while they conferred about something, and people screamed in the background.  I kept asking Brigham, while I threw on clothes, should we get the girls and go?  He wanted to wait, not wanting, I'm sure, to leave his nice comfy bed, and realizing that it was best to stay put.  It's not like we were in dodgy cinder block construction in Haiti or something.  Japan has the best earthquake preparedness in the world.  I went to check on the girls.  The two oldest were awake.  Not because of the earthquake, which they slept right through, but because of the loud voices on the PA.  Miss R never did wake for any of it.  Eventually someone did come on and gave an announcement in English, for which I was very grateful.  There was no need to evacuate, everything was fine.  But the elevators were not working, and would take some time to re-set. It was an exciting evening!  And that was day three.