Feb 9th – Shizukuishi Technique Day
After 3 days of continuous skiing (which was really fun!) my back was feeling in need of a rest so I had to take another day off. The guys weren’t feeling super energetic so they went out with Jeremy on the boards and worked on some technique.
Feb 10th – Geto Kogen
After a day of rest, I thought I was feeling pretty good again and we decided to hit the road and drive the 1.5 hours south to Geto Kogen. This is a mid-sized (for Tohoku) resort with 2 gondolas, 3 lifts and 14 runs. They have an active policy towards inbounds tree-skiing with several different tree runs and also backcountry access gates. The weather reports were calling for about 8cm’s of new snow but the GK Facebook page was reporting about 30cm’s of fresh. Sweet.
It’s a pretty easy drive (though long) on the express toll way. We arrived just after 9am and it was bluebird with hardly anyone on the slopes. That was a lot different to the last time we had been there, back in 2019. It was the weekend and it was very crowded. Mid-week was very different and we could only see a couple of people coming down the runs. We bought 4-hour tickets for about $35 and kitted up. Then we headed to the gondola which takes you to the top.
We headed out to the right and straight to one of the large tree runs called Shooter. It was untouched and knee deep. This was looking like being an excellent day! We found a nice treed ridgeline and took at down to an obvious traverse line out to the right. There were some bumps in there and a felt a bit of a twinge in my back when I hit one but all good though, I could keep going. We took the run out and made it onto the groomer and then headed back down to the gondola. We loaded up (skis have to come inside) and went back up for another.
Shooter still had plenty of untouched snow in it but we were on a mission to ski as much terrain as possible. Next up we headed to the other side of the ski area to go do a run down through another tree run called Beech. This was a lot tighter with the brush and harder to pick a clean line. It was definitely starting to warm up and the snow was getting heavier. I could feel my back getting sorer. The skiing was still nice but by about half-way down, my back was spasming and I could barely move. Grrrrr! That same muscle that had been seizing on me in my back gave out again.
I could barely move. The focus then was getting out safely and I could still bare some weight on my left leg, so I had to sideslip on my left side as much as possible. Grant took my pack for me (cheers mate) and I was able to ski out. That was my day over unfortunately. Dave was done too, after nearly a month of riding he was likely getting a little tired. He very nicely took my gear back to the van, thank you for that Dave. I found an onsen (in the resort) and went for a soak. That helped a lot and I could move again. We had some lunch together and hit the road by about 1:30pm. We were back by 3pm and I had a lie down and then a stretching session. I didn’t go to dinner that night and just took it as easy as possible.
Feb 11th – injured
I needed to take a day off from skiing but I was feeling a lot better than the day before, thankfully even though the muscle kept giving out, at least it would relax again quickly. No one wanted to ride so we got packed up and checked out of the hotel around 11am. We loaded up the van and made the 1-hour drive to Morioka city, where we would spend the last night in a hotel right next to the train station. We couldn’t check in to the hotel until 2pm, so when dropped our bags off at the hotel and then Jeremy and I dropped off the van. Then we walked across the road to the train station and headed to the JR ticket office to try and purchase our tickets for the next day’s travel to Tokyo.
Thankfully we could purchase our reserved seats the day before and also the NEX (Narita Express) tickets to the airport. It would take about 2 hours to get from Morioka to Tokyo Station and then another hour to get from Tokyo Station to Narita International Airport. All up, the total cost was close to $170 USD, so definitely not cheap! With our outbound travel reservations made, we could all relax a little. Then we had lunch in the underground mall and they had this awesome
Gyoza restaurant that was super cheap. For $8, I ordered 12
gyoza, a bowl of plain rice, some
karaage (fried chicken) and a bowl of chicken soup. That night, we headed out to
Yakinuku (Japanese BBQ) to celebrate Grant’s birthday.
Feb 12th – Travel Back to US
It was our last day in Japan and this would be a big one. We checked out of the hotel at 10am and then walked to the station, dragging our bags with us (there are no baggage carts at train stations). The Tohoku Express train to Tokyo Station departed around 10:50am and we were there early so we could be first in line so we could get our bags onboard easier. Unfortunately, the luggage storage area was almost full (the train came from Aomori) so we had to put the ski bags in the overhead compartments (I don’t like taking up all the room up high but thankfully, most Japanese people using the train are much smarter than us and aren’t traveling with a lot of luggage, so there is normally room up – we didn’t have time to ship our bags either).
The train arrived at Tokyo Station around 1pm and then we had just over an hour to make it to our next ride on the Narita Express to the airport. That’s a non-stop, express service to the airport. It stops at Terminal 2/3 first and then 1, where most international flights go from. Again, luggage space is limited but we made it work. We were there by 3pm and I had 3 hours before my flight back to Denver was departing at 6pm. I was happy to see that I had free entrance to the United Club lounge with my Star Alliance Gold membership so we had a couple of beers and some food, before I had to say goodbye to Eric and Dave.
I had also been lucky enough to book a seat in the brand-new Premium Economy seats (normally I fly Economy Plus) which I’d one totally at random. I believe the class hasn’t officially been rolled out yet and it’s only just been added to some of the 787 Dreamliner’s servicing the Narita/Denver route. I think it was the first time some of the stewards had been on this plane as they didn’t know how the seats work. It’s a nice idea in concept (the seats are bigger with a larger TV screen in front and are in the 2-3-3 configuration) but there’s still not much extra legroom. When the seat in front came all the way back, my knees were jammed into the back of the seat. I certainly wouldn’t pay the extra $$’s to choose this seat again as I don’t get anymore comfort than the regular Economy Plus seats. Anyway, first world problems….
It was a pretty easy 10.5-hour flight. I watched several movies and stayed awake the whole time. I was pretty tired when I got back to Denver, but was very happy to finally be home. It had been an interesting time (almost 1 month) in Japan. All the time off through injury had been frustrating, but I’d had some great powder days to make up for it. Seeing low-tide conditions in Hokkaido was interesting, seeing how different it could be was eye-opening, but given how bad the conditions allegedly were (some people said it was the worst season for 60 years), our groups still skied powder and untouched lines almost every day.
Thankfully Tohoku really delivered the goods and we found a deeper base and more consistent snow there. I wished I had been able to ski more, but all in all, even though it was a poor season in Japan, we’d still had a great time. Hokkaido was great but Tohoku was even better. We’d found more new places to visit and have a better plan for our 2021 Tohoku program. Visiting Hakodate had been fun too plus taking the Shinkansen (Bullet train) under the ocean was great to tick off as well. The food was awesome as always and we met many friendly local people too. Bring on 2021!
Japanese BBQ time!
Great views of Mt. Iwate on the way to Geto Kogen. You can see Iwate Kogen in the middle and then Amahari Onsen to the left.
Solid Majesty Skis representation at Geto Kogen.
Lost in translation. I have no idea on what this poster means.
Heading out towards the Beech tree run area.
My untouched line in Beech.
$8 for all of this at Morioka Station
The view from my hotel window in Morika. Mt. Iwate in the middle and then Shizukuishi ski area (where we had been staying) to the left.
Close up of Shizukuishi. The peak to the right is another abandoned part of the ski area and that is where they run the cat skiing.
The Tohoku Shinakansen
View from our platform as we wait for the train.
This train has two sections; the green train and then this red train pulled up.
That's the baggage storage compartment at the front of the cabin. Thankfully our ski bags fit in the overhead storage bins too.
Tokyo view (Tokyo Tower) on the way to Narita from Tokyo Station.
- Matt