Daisen Snow and Stay, or: Mackey turns 22 (plus an onsen aside)

Over my birthday weekend (that's Feb. 7th-8th for those of you keeping track at home) there was a large gathering of JETs at Mt. Daisen (the "Big Mountain" I hiked back in the fall) for a ski weekend. Daisen is the biggest mountain in Japan West of Mt. Fuji, and despite Japan being so mountainous there is not a ton of skiing to be had; Daisen is one of the better slopes out there. A group of maybe 20 of us (including some native Japanese friends) stayed at a ryokan on the mountainside on Saturday night (a ryokan is a Japanese-style inn: think a large, communal bath area*, tatami mat floors, and yukata--light cotton kimono. Wonderful after a day of skiing). Naturally, we had easy access to the hills first thing Sunday after skiing for most of Saturday.

I wish I could put Daisen in better context, but all I know is Dartmouth's ski mountain in New Hampshire--it's definitely a big ski area, with a few mountainsides contained in the "Daisen" ski resort. However, outside of some deep moguls at the very top of one of the mountains the area is generally a bunch of wide open ski fields, so the degree of difficulty was not terribly challenging. That said, most of us there were not terribly great skiiers (and snowboarders--the split was maybe 20-80 skis-snowboards, with myself in the 20), so the mountain suited us perfectly.

After half a day of icy slopes on Sunday I drove back to the Eastern side of the prefecture with some friends (about a 2 hour drive). Being my 22nd birthday, (and 22 being a pretty uneventful age after you've run the 16-18-21 significance gauntlet) I didn't have plans to do anything special but a friend insisted and we went out for some delicious dinner at an okonomyiaki place, and followed it up with some delectable cake from the inauspiciously-named Pandora's Box for a full weekend and a happy birthday.

*Easily one of my favorite facets of Japanese culture. In one's home you have a single bath which the whole family will use in a given night--you clean off before you get in, and then soak in the hot water to relax. It's blissful. Onsen--your bath houses or large hotel baths--are the same thing, but instead of a one-man bath it's a large open area.

Got to go to a really big one a couple weeks back--this one has the feature of being co-ed (bathing suits), and had a good dozen baths, including one outdoors, a small-sized pool complete with water slide (which was AWESOME!), sauna with a freezing bath to chill yourself right outside, and a massage bath with strategically placed jets you could use. America could do with some more bath time, I think.