Appi Skiing

Over President's Day weekend, we took an overnight trip to Appi Ski Resort. We purchased a package that included our hotel room, dinner and breakfast in the buffet-style hotel restaurant, as well as tickets to the Onsen. This was our first experience at a Japanese hotel (other than the airport hotel in Tokyo), so we experienced a few "firsts." Our room had two pairs of sandal/slippers as well as robes to wear around the hotel and to the restaurant. Of course, we didn't know this until we got to dinner and realized that we were some of the only people wearing our street shoes. We decided to try out the sandals the next morning at breakfast. They were surprisingly comfortable, even if a few inches of Matt's feet hung off of the back.

Although the dinner buffet was predictable Japanese fare, we weren't really sure what to expect for breakfast, as the Japanese are typically content to start their day with rice and other foods that us westerners would consider dinner food. Our breakfast consisted of croissants and jelly, smoked salmon, yogurt, cereal, apple juice, milk, and fried noodles. We passed on the boiled tofu and rice. We also decided to do as the Japanese do and took turns visiting the Onsen, essentially a hot spring spa consisting of two indoor pools (one hot, one ice cold), a sauna, as well as a hot outdoor pool and very hot outdoor foot basin. As with many experiences in a foreign country, it was a little bit confusing the first time around, but now we know how it works and would be open to trying it again.

Appi is one of the most well-known resorts in our region of Japan. It is considerably larger than the other resorts we've visited this season, offering 21 runs of varying skill level, two gondolas, and many other chair lifts. Matt enjoyed honing his jumping skills on four different jumps in the ski park, and the highlight for me was skiing a nice and easy 5.5 km (3.4 mile) green run with our friend Jan. Here are some of the pictures Matt captured on the mountain.