Ski trip take 2...
This time (January 25th) we headed to APPI Snow Resort. It's a little farther away than Okunakayama and it quite a bit bigger. I agreed to go after seeing that they had a very long all green run. Perfect for me to get some more practice and try out my new skis! Found some used ones at a thrift store for a reasonable price and they're not ugly...score! Also found some cheap poles so all we needed to worry about renting from Outdoor Rec were my boots and I think they only charged me $4 this time. I should mention that the temperature here does not get nearly as cold as we are used to being from the Midwest. Today it got to about 50° F at the base of the mountain and some of the slopes were getting kind of slushy. We definitely dressed warmer than necessary! The average high for Misawa in January is 34° F and average low is 24° F. For comparison, the average low for Lincoln, NE in January is 14° F! Ten degrees may not seem like a big deal, but in my opinion it is! There have been very few days when I walked outside and thought it was "cold." It rarely gets below 20° F here and while we have the occasional windy day, those are not nearly as frequent as we're used to either. So back to skiing...
APPI Snow Resort.
Coordinates: 40.002180, 140.970368.
APPI is about 115km (70mi) from Misawa and depending on weather takes about 2 hours to get to during the winter and tolls are just over 5000¥ round trip.
Lift Tickets: 4900¥ for 5 hours, 5200¥ for 8 hours. There was a military discount, 4000¥ for 5 hours (I think), we had to go to the Information Booth inside the lodge to get the discounted passes.
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| Driving route from Misawa. |
APPI map...I stuck to the "I" run...green from top to bottom. Not very daring, I know.
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| The slopes as we arrived. |
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| Ski lodge and hotel. |
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| Would be really handy if we had a ski rack...but we make it work. |
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| Taking the gondola to the top. |
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| Street lights in a little village we drove through. |
Verdict: Better experience than last time. I actually enjoyed myself some of the time! Guess I was Happy at APPI! Still going slow and listening to Keenan tell me to go faster...blah, blah, blah. Haha! Learned that I should start with a bunny hill at the bottom of the mountain to warm up though. Got a little intimidated by starting off at the top right next to steep drop off with new skis. Took a few minutes to remember what I was trying to do!
From APPI we headed back to Misawa and tried Pizzeria Massimo, a restaurant in the Sky Plaza directly outside the base's Main Gate. All the pizza is baked in a brick oven.
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| Keenan's pizza. I think he ordered the "Salame," tomato sauce, mozzarella, garlic, Italian salami, Italian pepperoni and basil. It was really spicy!! |
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| I had the "Mais," mozzarella, corn, Italian ham and basil. Yummy, but might order something different next time. |
January 30th Keenan's Christmas present from my sister finally arrived! Something got messed up with the shipping so instead of coming quickly via United States Postal Service it got sent UPS or FedEx which means a long ride on a boat...oh well, super excited when he opened it!
Up next: Iwate Snow Festival
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