Coffee and Soba

Hi all. Sorry for the long delay in posting, but we spent the last few days in Japan at Ryounkaku (see links to right) a place with (gasp) no internet connection. No cell, no email . . . off line. Heaven. Anyway, there has also been a call to get to the skiing shots. Patience, patience. To keep this chronological (and logical for that matter) here are a few shots from the day off. There was a "unusual" that started on the day of skiing below and kept up that entire night. There was a bunch of snow, but more unusual was the wind. It was absolutely dumping but unfortunately, mostly horizontally. There were gusts of 60+ mph and huge drifts everywhere. More on that later. When we awoke the next day (Feb 23 I think) both the roads to the ski area and the lifts were closed. Apparently, in Niseko when they decide to close the lifts in the morning, they stay closed all day, and as Murphy would predict, after that decision was made, the winds died down and the snow stopped. The sun even started peeking out. So, what to do?

Well, while the weather cleared, you could find MJ and I sitting in the little restaurant in the lobby of our hotel, the Kanronomori drinking coffee.



A note on this place. It was so great I cannot hope to express it here. The staff was super helpful and friendly, the onsen was super nice and food was over the top. The first night we arrived we had an amazing traditional seven course meal (kiseki I think). It was so good that I figured it was basically a welcome dinner. But, each night after we had a similar seven courses, with all different dishes and better every night. Unbelievable. Check out the links on their page for "spa" (which is the onsen) and the restaurant. This is all about a 5 minute free bus ride from the lifts. As further evidence of how cool Konronomori is, this is in the lobby next to the front desk.

Due in part to the amount and quality of snow they get, Hokkaido is the cradle of snowboarding in Japan and the size and shape of the boards is telling. The boards on display were all made by a local shaper who is one of the grandfathers of the sport in Japan. When I first arrived noticed the majority of the guys riding big guns. Lots of swallow tails and all with stances set way back. I soon as shown above and below, I soon learned why. Poke around Gentemstick for further info.

So, once the weather cleared out, we all headed out of the hotel. There were no buses running and no one on the road, but there were a few places to walk to.
Kanronomori is not right in town, but we walked by a few place on the way. The final destination was a soba noodle house that was open for lunch. This was a cool little cabin that was set a little off the road by a small pond. MJ has some great pics on her blog at ZJean Here are Pando and MJ at the entrance.
Never too early for a little sake:

When you order, the proprietor takes a head count and cuts a lump of dough out of the bowl you see to the left. The picture is him rolling that lump out flat.
He then folds the flattened dough slices it into noodles. The noodle making in process below.
Those are then boiled and served in awesome broth with some veggies and tempura and a little more sake. Pretty fresh. The couple who were running the place were awesome to us, and my thanks to them. If I could have read and translated the name I would post it, but you are ever in Niseko you have got to stop in.