Tasmania to Tokyo – Kyoto / Kiroro – Day 75 can be found here.
If ever there was a day when we needed to sleep in, it’s today.
There is no denying that we are starting to flag.
But we knew this was going to be the case, so we tried to plan around it the best we could. That’s why we’re here at Kiroro, where – instead of the typical “ON / OFF” switch that goes with port days versus sea days, we can instead use a dial to gradually add or remove activity depending on how much gas we still have left in the tank.
Well, we all managed over eight hours last night and we are at a ski resort – so we decide to give this whole downhill thing a try.
First off to breakfast, which follows the usual Club Med buffet model. I have some eggs, bacon, sausage and French toast:
It’s all ready more-or-less instantly, which is helpful on days when you want to get out the door quickly.
Next we head back to the room to try and cobble together some level of winter clothing based on what we have on hand. We initially planned to rent winter clothing while we’re here, but with it closing in on 15 Celsius (60 Farenheit) in the afternoon that seems unnecessary. I settle on wearing my rain pants, puffer coat, and ski gloves – with a merino buff in my pocket if needed.
Club Med Kiroro Grand provides us with ski passes that we can use while we’re here. They match up with your room, so you need to hand them back at the end – the penalty for losing them is a whopping 6,000 yen (roughly USD$40). Thankfully our gloves have their own little pockets, so we should be able to keep them well secured – so long as we don’t lose our gloves.
Club Med provides each room with their own locker:
Plenty of room for helmets, skis / boards and poles
The best part is that our gear is still here, and has not been confiscated and moved back to the ski shop! (We made the mistake of just grabbing random lockers during our initial stay at Club Med Charlevoix, as opposed to using the lockers that were associated with our actual rooms. We only made that mistake twice before we finally figured out where we were going wrong…)
Here the lockers are actually keyed to your wristband so you can’t even open the wrong ones (unlike our first visit to Charlevoix).
With our boots on and gear in tow, we head to the base gondola. Thankfully there is a staff member to help us place the gear in the correct slots – skis ride up on the outside of the gondola, while snowboards go inside but with protective covers overtop to prevent the steel edges from scuffing the glass.
We then attempt to decipher the map of the Kiroro hillside:
The system here is fairly similar to that used in North America, except that red squares replace the blue squares that we see more often.
You’ll note that there are not a lot of green circles. This may help explain why we’ve seen quite so many people on crutches since we arrived. Not kidding.
We start with the center express going down both Center A and Center B – and I won’t lie, they aren’t fabulous. The conditions aren’t terribly icy, but they are slushy. The presence of many of the ski school students doesn’t help either.
It is warm, though – we have no need of our extra buffs, and frequently unzip our jackets when it gets too warm. The chairlifts have special wind shields to keep you warm, but they prove completely unnecessary.
We notice some red splotches in the snow near the bottom of the hill. Maybe someone spilled their soft drink? (We really hope that someone spilled their soft drink.)
We then attempt the Kiroro gondola – and that is much better, particularly on the higher portion of the trail along the Asari Dynamic. The hill here has been groomed and feels solid beneath us.
We then branch off and attempt Asari Panorama – and it’s fabulous. Kudos to both of our kids:
They manage to shake off the rust in short order, and are soon carving S turns down the hill.
The runs are long, though, and the Asarai Panorama alone takes more than 30 minutes. We’ve now been on the hill for over 90 minutes – and we’re painfully aware that most accidents happen when you get tired – so we elect to head to lunch before the rush.
(But we’re already studying the map to try and figure out how to access the runs over by the Nagamine No. 1 and No. 2 Express.)
We reach the initial gondola up to the ski resort, and consider our options for getting back down to Kiroro Grand. We can either tromp up a small hill to the gondola, or attempt to ski down the Gateway Course. It’s a green run and looks quiet, so we decide to give that a shot.
Turns out that it’s quiet for a reason – the Gateway Course is largely flat, so we spend much of the time dragging the kids along on their snowboards. It’s not terrible, but it’s not exactly easy either. (It probably would have been fine on just skis, though.) Either way, we’ve definitely earned our lunch today.
Even if that lunch includes breakfast burgers:
Back to the rooms for a little bit more reading / writing / homework before my wife takes the kids off to cookie making:
It’s a standard vanilla cookie recipe. While there’s space for 20 participants only 5 show up. We’re asked to glove up although one of the youngest participants flat out refuses to wear the gloves and that’s allowed once he’s thoroughly washed his hands. You only eat what you personally touch so it’s not a huge deal.
The chef – or at least the person wearing the white hat – goes over the recipe and then proceeds to make the cookie dough herself. She then pops the dough in a nearby fridge and pulls out her pre-chilled dough and slices off portions for the participants to work with.
Everyone gets some to flatten out on their well floured surface and then use cookie cutters to make different designs.
There are mixed berry chips, mini white chocolate chips and chocolate sprinkles with which to decorate.
Finished cookies go on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet under your room number. You can ask for your finished cookies during dinner hours.
It only took 30 minutes and the kids quite enjoyed it as a break between homework and Teens Club.
The kids head to the Theatre early, not expecting to join Teens Club until close to 4 pm – but the GO spots them at 3:30, and enlists them to help round up the other kids who have also expressed an interest in joining today. (This is a welcome change, as it’s not uncommon for our kids to be the only ones in Teens Club – which they still enjoy, but not as much as when there are other kids their age.)
My wife and I use this as another opportunity to sneak away to the premium bar, Kakurega, which remains complimentary between 4 and 7 pm:
I try a new beverage this time, the Sakura Moon:
My wife returns to her previous favourites, the Yuzu No Kaze and the Silk Cut.
Maybe one day we’ll make it out to the pool or the sauna, but today is not that day.
Initially we’re told that we can only stay in the bar for an hour, but it’s not busy so the bartender kindly extends the timeline. It’ll be interesting to see whether it gets sufficiently busy over the Easter Weekend for those limits to be put in place.
5:30 pm rolls around, and the Excursions / Ski School desk opens up once more. My wife waits until the initial rush dies down, and then heads over to enroll our son in group snowboard lessons. Here are the criteria for deciding which group one should join:
Our son qualifies as SB3.
Our daughter is not as keen on lessons, as she would prefer not to go on her own with the younger kids. Fine with us – we’re quite happy to get a bit of extra bonus family time, particularly while skiing.
My wife and I then head off for an early dinner. I have the butter chicken:
While my wife has the roast deer (not pictured), which she says is fabulous.
The food is generally not on the same level as Silversea, but there’s a lot to be said for the variety and the speed at which these offerings are provided.
There is one exception however, and that is these strawberry macarons:
I would put this up against anything we ate on the Silver Moon over those wonderful 47 days. (And they pair very nicely with the cookies the kids made earlier, which Club Med set aside just for us.)
We briefly meet up with the kids during dinner, and they both are doing well. The did indeed recruit other teens for Teens Club today, so that’s a victory – another example of why you have to consistently run these clubs in order to attract participants. (Though in Kiroro Grand’s defence, they have run Teens Club every day we’ve been here – unlike our most recent visit to Club Med Charlevoix.)
My wife and I linger over dinner, then take some time to relax for a while. Back to the room – but first a few minor logistics, namely tracking down a robe and figuring out how and when we get our premium Gold member cocktail party.
Both prove easy enough – we are able to get one yukata (traditional onsen robe) from the Wellness Center, and Reception offers to send up another (which arrives a few minutes later). As for the cocktail party, it should be on Saturday night.
Meanwhile, the Transportation department texts us to note that they think our transfer is a bit too close to our flights departure. Would we consider moving it a bit earlier? Why, yes we would. Thank you for asking.
We’ve been genuinely impressed by the staff here at the Club Med Kiroro Grand. Whenever I’ve been standing around looking lost, someone has come up to ask if they can help me with anything. Any requests have been addressed quickly.
The kids return shortly after 8 pm, and we all decide to turn in for an early night. A busy day tomorrow as our son will be waking early to head to snowboard lessons entirely on his own.