Tasmania to Tokyo – Kiroro – Day 78 can be found here.
Thus dawns our last full day in Japan.
These days always feel strange to me. On one hand, we have now figured out our way around the resort and know exactly how to find what we need – a recipe for peak relaxation.
On the other hand – packing.
But not yet, because we first need to decide whether any of us are going to hit the mountain today. It’s damp, and foggy, and it’s rained much of the night – but the rain has cleared off, leaving a faint trace of fog in its wake:
The verdict from the others – they are done with the mountain, but my wife kindly offers to mind the kids if I want to head out for a few runs. And I do, very much.
First a hearty breakfast:
And then out to gondola. There’s a line for the Nagamine quad lift, so I take the Kiroro gondola instead. The fog soon gets worse:
But the runs themselves aren’t too bad. Slushy, yes, but not too crowded. (And I will admit that – as much as I love skiing with the kids – its nice to be able to choose my own runs and set my own pace every once in a while.)
I start with Asari Dynamic, and then head over to the Nakamine lift once more – and it’s much quieter. Up to the top of Nagamine No. 1 and then Nagamine No. 2.
It’s otherworldly up at the top:
I take some video, but my camera is angled too low – and besides, it’s better when someone else is in the frame. So you’ll have to be content with photos and narration today.
I go to the right side of Nagamine this time, as opposed to the left – which had gotten us in trouble last time around with its black diamond cut-through. It’s better this time, though difficult to spot other skiiers in the fog.
From here, I head over to the Yoichi lift. Looks like there’s some sort of snowboarding competition on today:
Once at the top, I head down a gentle green run to the far side to a little two seater lift. It’s very pleasant. I wish we’d gotten out here sooner – but you don’t know what you don’t know, and it takes time to learn a hill.
I then come down the other side of Yoichi toward the resort. I’d started with Yoichi 1B, and I’m ending the trip with Yoichi 1A.
We started our visit to Japan with this haunting view:
And I end my adventures on Kiroro Peaks with another:
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Off for lunch – I grab a couple of burgers, but they’re not fabulous. These are more pre-built patties rather than the handmade burgers offered a few days earlier.
It’s then time to return our rental gear. I go to check the rentals office is ready to receive it. They are, so my wife and I bring it over one set at a time. Easy peezy.
Then it’s time for packing. We’re flying Jetstar on the way back (groan) so we need to conform to strict limits in terms of weight – or pay accordingly.
After carefully weighing and categorizing everything, we elect to upgrade our carry-on bags to a 14 kg limit per person and add an extra 45 kg to our checked baggage – all at a cost of roughly USD$145. It’s not cheap, but it’s done – and that’s what matters.
(Jetstar does weight limits per person, as opposed to ANA and LATAM which had a weight limit per reservation – just to make this extra complicated.)
Thankfully, Air Canada shouldn’t care what our carry-ons weigh provided we keep our checked bags under 23 kilograms (50 pounds) apiece. We have therefore packed accordingly as their overweight baggage fees are considerable.
The kids sit down for one last round of homework and – they do it! Homework Zero! They are caught up before they even arrive home. It wasn’t easy, especially when you consider that our son is rapidly approaching high school and that our daughter kept up a blog of her own throughout this trip.
We will undoubtedly have to do homework again from the road on a future trip, but this is the longest stretch of distance learning we expect to face as a family – and that I do not mind one little bit.
The kids head off for one last round of Teens Club, while the adults continue with reading and writing before we head to Kakurega, the secret speakeasy.
It’s quiet, but the busiest we’ve seen it yet. At least 14 people come through the hidden door this afternoon!
I try a Sakura Moon this time around:
I am typically one day behind with the blog – but at this moment I (briefly) catch up to the present. That will make life easier tomorrow, when we will need to do some blog writing while enduring an extra-long 36 hour day.
Time for dinner – steak Rossini tonight, complete with foie gras and with some Hokkaido crab thrown in for good measure.
Very good indeed.
It’s still a while til the kids are done, so we do a bit more packing and then I head to the onsen for one last dip in the hot springs. I arrive just as someone else is leaving, so I get the whole place to myself.
Then back to the room to welcome the kids back from their last foray into Teens Club. They’ve loved this time here, and they wish we were staying longer – but all good things must come to an end.
We pack some bags and weigh them, then take them downstairs so there’s less to deal with in the morning. I then head to the bar to pick up one last round of drinks to take back to the room. A GO-turned-circus-performer is spining from a rope as “Skyfall” blasts over the speakers. But it’s not too loud, and the performer knows what he’s doing. The audience is enthralled.
“One beer and one white wine,” says the bartender.
In the elevator, I meet a father bringing a plate of fruit up to his kids. “They’re like bottomless pits!” he says. “They can’t get it, so I have to get it.”
“I’ve hardly seen ours all week,” I said. “They’ve been at Teens Club.”
“Our are six and five,” he says. Then pauses. “Wait. Seven and six. I can’t keep up.”
“Four more years, and they can go too,” I say.
Then it’s his stop.
“Have a good night,” he says.
“Cheers.”