Lost in Limbo

Hey All,


They don't discriminate in Tokyo
 - they do label you though :P



Wish I could be writing on a happier note. It's bittersweet being home... we get to see friends and family, but we yearn to be back. To summarise the story we have told about 547 times... we had just finished skiing, felt a wobble - the story unfolded on CNN and BBC ... we flew back to Tokyo the next day (Saturday), took Kickass shopping in Ginza and Omote Sando on Sunday (business as usual in Tokyo) and then Monday we lugged 9 suitcases to our new apartment, set up two beds, and unpacked two boxes... then we got the call to pack and head to the airport.

Skip to two weeks later... we're still here. On the upside we can hit the courts with MTC buddies at Beverley Tennis Tournament over Easter and visit an architect to get the ball rolling on our Wembley Down project. We're likely here until mid May...



Handbag department in Ginza...
love the hanging lights



All I can really blog about is the delightful 5hrs Kickass and I spent shopping in Tokyo. We were very restrained due to Kickass' suitcases at capacity, and I thought I'd be back the following weekend :( The biggest purchase was a beautiful Marc Jacobs purse... hopefully it's not the last! The department stores in Tokyo have ALL the big designers, plus quite a few French labels... my department is clearly demarcated...see pic above :) Most goods are similar prices to Perth... maybe minus GST, and a hundred times more variety! I like H&M, Banana Republic, GAP and Zara... they seem to cater for the "tall & large" a little more discretely :)

Please all say a quick prayer or cross your fingers that things improve in Japan so we can go "home" and set up our apartment for all our visitors to come :)

xoxo

Karate Kate

Hirafu (un)Happy Hoppers - Day 6

on top of the world

It's difficult to be chirpy on such a sad day. Prayers go out to Japanese families on the North-east side of the country.

Our day started out as usual, with heavy flowing snow - geez, we are spoilt! We were pressured by this being our final day so we set out to conquer the longer, steeper runs. Kickass manned the Family slope whilst Ninja and I took two lifts up to almost the top of the mountain. We then traversed across and headed down towards Niseko village, near the Hilton - we travelled about 5km down to the bottom... we took it slow and the snow plough got a bit work out. We then took the luxury gondola back up the mountain to then ski down the Hirafu side... since when are 30degree slopes "green"!?!?!? oh well, I was proud of us. The wind was pumping up the top and through adversity comes excellence :P ha ha... we were like two slow moving targets... fortunately Ninja only took out one snow boarder... apparently she deserved it :)

Duration: 3hr 20min
Distance Covered: 11km
Calories burnt: 1,400 Cal

10 mins after we arrived back to the appartment, I got out the shower to hear Ninja and Kickass talking about a slight tremer ... they googled it... and the rest is history - we've been glued to BBC new for hours... took a 2hr break to go and have fabulous steak and drink a bottle of champers and red, which helped.

We fly back to Tokyo tomorrow and hope to hit Disneyland on Sunday... could be a bit ambitious... hopefully our furniture in Yokohama bay was ok and ready to move in Monday morning!!!

Love to all

xoxo
Karate Kate

Hirafu Happy Hoppers - Day 5

Yes, Ninja is growing another beard... Day 6

How the mighty have fallen... I forgot to report yesterday that I had my first and second fall... Ninja and Kickass had made friends with the snow early on in the week and I was trying to remain un-smug about my nimbleness... doh! It was the foot deep snow that did me in the end... twice I'd traversed across a slope to a new area only to discover that no one else had taken the path and the snow was knee deep - splat! Ninja took a few tumbles too - just to make me feel better... but I have a feeling his were a bit more graceful.

Today we were faced with similar blindness - snow was "puking"down as Taurus calls it. We waited until - 11am and then hit the slopes... minus our Kickass Kelly - she surcumbed to a mystery ankle soreness and took a "rest day". We were also fuelled with a breakfast burrito which was AWESOME... how did they get so much cheese in there?!??!

Ninja on Silver Dream

We bussed to Hannazono which is a board park with a nice long (3.3km) slope called Silver Dream... it was in fact a nice dream and was over before we knew it - few questionable green bits - would think they were more like European Blue.. anyway we made it down the mountain with smiles and headed back up two chair lifts to get back on to the 'Holiday' run - madness that it took 20mins by bus and 1hr later we'd skied back to where we'd started! Ninja used is ïnerta"to his advantage on the Holiday run and was often waiting for me to catch up... guns are aching! we did a few runs on our regular trails, including video below, and called it a day.

Duration: 2hrs
Distance covered: 9.3km
Calories Burnt: 900 Cal

We hit the Dragon tonight for cocktails and a meal. We had lamb, vension and waygu - all good but a bit undercooked... medium isn't the same all around the world! back to Steak Rosso Rosso tomorrow!!! woohoo

xoxo

Karate Kate

Hirafu Happy Hoppers - Day 4



Snow fight - Kickass copped it in the head



Be careful what you wish for... Monday we were dreaming of snowfall and now it hasn't stopped for 24hrs! We spent the day on the An'nupuri slopes... took us a while to get there.. buses are every 40mins and it takes 40mins to get get to An'nupuri from Hirafu, with stops at other gondolas. The runs were a bit greener than Hirafu but still good fun - Ninja took some video of us going down...

We bussed back and did a few of the Hirafu runs for good measure!

Ninja at An'nipuri

Duration: 6hrs (minus two bus trips)



Distance covered: 13km

Calories burnt: 1708 Cal

Muscles weren't sore so I think that the massage did the trick! After skiing today we tried a different therapy - an Onsen! Kel and I went to the Vale Hotel onsen... fortunately no one else was in there for the first 30mins so we were comfortable with our nudie-ness. We paddled inside and outside and did the little 'sit on a bucket and wash yourself' before and after.

Another night of vegging is on the cards now... still heavy snow out there!

sucks to be a statue in this snow...

More slope adventures for the bunnies tomorrow!

xoxo
Karate Kate

Hirafu Happy Hoppers - Day 3

Bunnies at Steak Rosso Rosso

Appetizer - Deep fried cheese in avocado salsa

Rewind to Day 2 - it ended with a sensational 4 course meal at Steak Rosso Rosso... rather crass to blog pic all four courses, but damn it was good (thanks Claire) and we're hoping to go back on Friday. The fillet was local and was cooked so well... with a hot stone on the sizzling plate to cook your meat further as required. We had a nice bottle of Cote de Rhone Shiraz to accompany.

Karate's Entree - Giant Scallops (2") wrapped in bacon

Ninja and Kickass' entree - Asparagus springrolls

Hokkaido Beef fillet - delicious

Lemon and Mandarin sorbet

Day 3: We awoke to see snow falling heavily from the windows - booyah - just the motivation we needed after yesterday hard slog on the ice. We did a quick test run on the Family slope and then headed across Kogen and Boyo runs which we'd done the day before.. sooo much nicer when covered in powdah. I practiced on the bunny hop stretch and then we had the obligatory hot chocolate break. Ninja and I headed up the Hirafu Gondola and the Swinging Monkey... and then attacked the tail end of the Rinkan slope before heading to Holiday... which was a series of steep parts and then flats... good fun but hard work...


After a Udon noodle lunch we headed back up Boyo chair lift... Ninja and I tagged a 5yr old each... on the chair lift... Kickass politely declined the offer to escort a kid after yesterday's debacle. My new mate, Julie-Marie was turning 5 in the summer, her dad boards, her mum skis and it was her last day on the slope cos her mum needed to clean her ski outfit tomorrow before they head back to the US... her sister is 2 and is learning to ski already... Ninja's mate was less forthcoming with chitchat after he joked that she was probably a better skier than he was... ouch... ego at age 5.... she was an Aussie.


Stats from today:
Duration: 4.5hrs
Distance covered: 9km
Calories burnt: 1525 Cal


After getting cleaned up (Ninja's clothes went straight into the wash), we headed to Kutchan, the nearby town for some Nurofen-gel equivalents and some supplies. Waiting 30mins for a return bus was a low point, but at least our milk was ok sitting in the snow!


Kickass and I then headed to a spa for a bit of TLC... Kickass had a shiatsu back massage, whilst I had a reflexology foot massage with some calf treatment... it was superb! We grabbed some Raman takeaway and cracked open Kel's red from her French friend from Anjou Villages... great end to another tough day :)


We're venturing to a few new spots tomorrow with some good overnight snow fall predicted and heightened confidence.


HALF WAY THERE!


xoxo
Karate Kate

Hirafu Happy Hoppers - Day 2

Despite the weather forecast, the overnight snow let us down... we had some slippery slopes to hop on today! Ninja and I did a few runs before our lesson (geeks). Ester took us and 3 others across to some different slopes... the hike across the carpark was a bit of a low point but it was good to be exploring new territory. The slopes were a bit steeper and icier than the Family slope. We mainly worked on weight movements in turns, whilst trying to no go sailing down the slope... parallel work would have to wait for another day! We did go down a passage which had a series of bumps which was good fun.

Highlight of the day was a ski instructor asking Kickass to escort one of his kids up the chair lift... Kel asked the 5yr old whether she knew how to get off the chair... she said she did... in the words of House... "everybody lies"... Kickass go off the chair, the 5yrs old stayed on and went around the loop to head back down the lift... fortunately the little Japanese chair lift guy saved her with about a metre to spare!

The calf massages have begun... Ninja remembering his NZ ski trip days and hammered mine... meanwhile my hands could only inflict so much damage to his big beasts!

Stats for today were:
Duration: 4hrs (I know, but we need powdah!)
Distance Covered: 5.8km
Calories Burnt: 1133 Cal

Off to Steak Rosso Rosso tonight on Claire's recommendation... hmmm steak.

xoxo
Karate Kate

Hirafu Happy Hoppers - Day 1

Karate and Kickass on the chair lift



The ACE Family slope



Today three ski bunnies (ok two bunnies, one hare) hit the slopes. We had a 2hr Level 2 lesson with Ester our Spanish instructor. It took some time to figure things out again... when do we do up the boots, does the helmet go on first, then gloves or leave some stuff off until the end. Anyway, it all came flooding back and we had a successful lesson with some parallel turns and lifting of the back leg by the end.

Our stats for today were:

Duration: 4hrs 30min

Mr & Mrs B

Distance covered: ~7km

Calories burnt: 1,600 (yes, I brought the heart rate monitor :P)

Bruised shins: 4... Ninja has no weaknesses :P

Tomorrow we have another lesson (Level 3 - booyah) and we'll venture out on to different lifts and slopes...stay tuned!

xoxo

Karate Kate



Playing in Powdah

Time certainly does fly when you're having fun... it will be 4 weeks on Sunday! 


Just a quick blog to advise that we will be moving from balmy 5C to icy -10C in Niseko for a week.

Skippers next b'day present... Dockers skiing onesie!

Kept Ninja, Karate Kate and Kickass Kelly will be hitting the Hokkaido mountains on Sunday... for Ninja it's been a mere 2 years since he was boarding through the Canadian mountain side, but for Kickass and Karate it been ~9 years since the Swiss slopes... what could go wrong?!?!


We will hopefully have internet so we can blog ailments and injuries... and my new Olympus Tough camera should provide some good action shots on the slopes... Ninja is also taking his camera toys.


xoxox
Karate Kate

Ninja - prepped and ready to attack... the slopes

P.S. I left one very important 'Goodie' off my last list... Moet is very cheap here :) good times

Mmmm Moet