From Fukuoka to Echigo Yuzawa

So this was my first trip to Kyushu and a chance to meet some of my Japan-based colleagues. Leave aside the work stuff, it's the cultural stuff that's important.


Such as yatai dining - sidewalk ramen tents in Fukuoka, a local specialty.


On to meet the Tokyo boys, who have a sake shop just around the corner from the office. This guy's aunt is a Toji, a very rare thing indeed.


An isshobin of Dassai 23. Oh. Yeah.

The evening was only getting started, the Japanese do enjoy their nights out. And my buddy N. likes to use the entire day, as he appeared at my hotel at 7AM the next morning and says, "Wake up, we're going skiing."


Breakfast, 8AM, aboard the train: A fresh slab of maguro and jars of Ozeki OneCup, my friend's idea of a sake joke. Note the empty can of coffee. It took several of these to prepare me for the day. I want to buy one of those vending machines to keep at home.


Turns out the destination was a curiously Japanese creation, the Gala Yuzawa ski resort - you take a shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo Station to Echigo Yuzawa - the final station IS the ski lodge, with all the rentals and even the lift starting right at the station. Refrigerators full of sake, slopeside ramen restaurants and a sento (thermal bath) all on site. Only 90 minutes from the heart of Tokyo, and, some of the best snow I've ever encountered. Unfortunately, skiing in Japan is no one's secret, so this close to Tokyo you find sizable (but unfailingly polite and efficiently moving) crowds. I will definitely venture further afield in the future.


Of course, we also had a slab of tuna to snack on slopeside. Note the jar of Echigo Yuzawa sake.


THIS is skiing. To finish off the day, after a hot soak and more sake on the train back to Tokyo, we hit up my favorite Tama no Hikari izakaya. An awesome day.