Makado Skiing

This weekend, we drove about an hour to ski at Makado ski resort. As with the last ski resort we visited, there was a large lodge at the base of the mountain where we took turns hanging out with Hazel.

For lunch, we ordered and paid for our meal using a push-button machine.

We still never quite know what we're going to get when we order a meal. This time we ended up with an udon dish (thicker white noodles with a raw egg on top) and a more tasty soba dish (thinner buckwheat noodles with sliced onions on top).

Although this ski area was small (only three lifts) and had pretty basic skiing, it offered beautiful views of the Mutsu Bay (the same body of water we saw at Shipwreck Beach).

 

We feel pretty lucky to be so close to this ski resort, and definitely plan to return next year.

Okunakayama Kogen Skiing

We took our first ski trip of the season (and our first ski trip ever with Hazel) to Okunakayama Kogen (Park), located a little less than two hours by car from Misawa. It was the MLK holiday, so a flood of Americans literally took over the mountain, but it wasn't very busy nonetheless. These mountains are really small compared to the Alps in Europe, but we're still really glad that we went.We set up camp at the central lodge with a group of friends, so spouses were able to take turns skiing and taking care of the kids. My how much has changed for us since last ski season!

Lodge Exterior

Lodge Interior, aka the Kid Zone...

Future skiier...

These green leaves (possibly bamboo) scattered the perimeter and bamboo shoots were used to mark the edge of some of the runs, a funny reminder that we are skiing in Japan...

And here is a video of Matt back in flight...

Now that we've seen it is still doable with Hazel, we definitely plan to take more ski trips this winter!