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.
