Driving down Sanosaka in the snow.

It snowed today here in Hakuba, I needed to go to Omachi city by car. When I came back, it still snowed. Needed to drive down Sanosaka in the snow which was a little bit nervous thing. Soon after I got out of Sanosaka tunnel after Lake Aoki.

The Route 148 curves a lot here and it's a long downhill. So when I drive down here in the snow, I really need to be careful not to slip. Even if your car was a 4 Wheels Drive one with a set of stadless tyres, it is not useful if once it start slipping. Some accidents happen here in winter. When you come to Hakuba in winter by car, be careful to drive here.

Hayaokidori website

Hakuba Goryu ski slopes will open on Nov.23th 2007 due to a bunch of cold waves!

A bunch of cold waves have come, I felt it very cold when my feet and head was getting colder and colder.
Hakuba Goryu ski slope Alps daira gerande will be available from Nov.23rd 2007! Hakuba Goryu daily report (Japanese : just enjoy their pictures)
Special offer from Hayaokidori : Early ski pass packages

Hakuba Goryu ski slopes from North-East direction. The right side is Iimori gerande, there is a quad lift there which takes you to its top. The left one is Toomi gerande with Night ski equipments. Champion-expert course gets in Toomi gerande with that steep angle. Champion-dynamic and Grand-prix courses are located at the upper side of Champion-expert. I try Champion and Grand-prix sometimes when it's not crowded and well pressed conditon. Once Champ-expert couse gets like a mogul course, it's hard to expect it being a well pressed slope again.





Hakuba Goryu ski slopes from East direction. The long corse from the top is Grand-prix, Champion-dynamic and Champion-expert (Top to bottom). The Champion-expert has 35 angle steepness in maximum. If it's 35 in ski slopes, it almost looks like a cliff when you see the bottom from the top :o


Hakuba Goryu ski slopes from South-East direction. I see scenery there from this direction because I sometimes take a walk around here. Anyway, time flies so fast especially when you live in a location where you can feel the four seasons very clearly.

Hayaokidori website

Broadleaves and conifers

Broadleaves are easy to collect, we just need to use a broom. But conifers are different. Especailly if it's a gravel garden like our place, conifers get inbetween small stones. Brooms don't work good there, we need to use bloewrs which are like big hair-dryers.

Hayaokidori website

Not rain fall

Larch tree leaves fall down the trees and ride the wind when it's windy. It looks as if it rains. You can see this only at this time of the year.

Hayaokidori website

Green soybeans

Green soybeans. We Japanese often boil them and spread salt and call them "Edamame". Edamame is good with beer. When you get in a beer house or a beer hall whatever in Japan, you often find people order this edamame thing a lot.

But a lot of people don't know the fact that this is soybean! Because we use different words for "green" soybean and "dried" soybean. Edamame is a word for "green" soybean but we call "dried" soybean Daizu. No relational sounds at all. So if they don't see the process how green soybeans are dried to be "dried" soybeans ( Daizu ), they usually don't know the green soybeans and dried soybeans are same stuff. Maybe this misunderstandings does not happen among English speaking people because they use "soybean" for both.

A bunch of soybeans are getting dried little by little.

Completely dried , some "Daizu" show up.

Hayaokidori website

Cold rain

Haven't updated my blog for a while, being too lazy :(

It has been raining here in Hakuba for a couple of days, it snows at the upper ski slopes as you see. Stay tuned!!

Hayaokidori website

English names

There are many difficult linkages for me to learn abbreviations for English names.

Abbreviations -- Original names
Mary --- Elizabeth
Bob --- Robert
Dick --- Richard

I can find the Bob and Dick in my dictionary but can not find the Mary part. Actually I've learned it from an American guest the other day. I felt this earth almost went round the opposite when he told it to me! :o

I asked him"How can I notice Mary = Elizabeth!? "
He just laughed and said " No idea, some people just say that way".


If it's Eliza, it's easy and no problem. If it's Beth, still okay but..... why Mary! Grrr

There are some other interesting combinations around. Jay is for Jason, Jim is for James. When J for Jim is replaced into T ( Tim ), it's for Timothy.
Chris could be both for Christopher and Christine, Christina.
Steph could be Steve and Stephanie.

I know English is complicated because it's not my mother tongue. Wonder this kind of things are not tough for English speaking people or not ....

Hayaokidori website