On Friday, February 7th, we were ready for our trip to Japan, for 10 days of skiing/snowboarding and sightseeing with our ski club from Ohio, the Chagrin Valley Ski Club. Kevin picked us up bright and early to drive us to Los Angeles to catch our 10:40 am flight to Tokyo. When we arrived at the Narita Airport in Tokyo the Club members were there to meet us, especially Karen Moyer (but sadly no Bruce), and we all boarded a bus for the 6 hour drive, 270km northwest of Tokyo, to Hakuba. The town of Hakuba is located 44km west of Nagano in the Nagano Prefecture, on the island of Honshu (the main island of Japan). “Hakuba Valley” is the large area that encompasses 9 ski resorts, 135 lifts, over 200 runs  and various villages. Happo One Ski Resort and the Happo Village is the most popular area, and we stayed at the Hakuba Mominoki Hotel, located within a few minutes walk to Happo One. We checked in at the beautiful front desk and went off to find our rooms in different areas of the hotel, we had a standard room with a tiny bathroom. Continue reading →