One often wonders what it takes for six people coming from five different companies to travel together. Not to make things even more complicated and troublesome, 4 out 6 of them are working in finance (including me) where one completely understands that finance comes with its own strict and cyclical timelines.
Had it not been for the persistent push and schedule reconciliation from one of my friends, Wisnu, we couldn’t have made this trip happen. It would have been some far away dream to roam the snow-capped mountain doing our very first skiing or to throw our picnic mat under the beautiful pink and white cherry blossom on the eve of spring in Hokkaido.
Thankful, we made those.
Japan has been our favorite travel destination for it packs with all the right mix of novelty and bits that we are hold so dearly, to name a few: cute trinkets and vast variety of gachapon, picturesque scenery in any season, USJ and Warner Bros studio for our loves in Harry Potter franchise, cuisines delicacy, and to my friend, Keke, Japan is her second home. Thus, it only came instinctively and naturally to plan our trip around here. But with little caveat, it had to be the place where we collectively agreed should be one where we hadn’t experienced before. This time we chose Hokkaido island.
As Hokkaido is famous for its white winter scenery and ski resorts, we planned to go in the span of Jan or Feb. However, due to a tight financial schedule and seemingly lack of research, we ended up landing ourselves in the month of May. We had high hopes that these sweet spots of days would match the sakura season and would also give us a short window for ski experience in Niseko before all that snow melted away.
Niseko reminds me of how luxurious life can be (should you have the money!). It’s a beautiful area of ski resorts with idyllic hotels and villas. Some reminded me to Cullen family house in Twilight, a stunning architecture house with tall trees and forest surround it. Some hotels there had their own gondola infrastructure built closed to its parameter to reach the mountain top, providing their guests with perfect ski or snowboard accessibility and one integrated experience (put it another way: to spend all their money only in the hotel itself).
May month is considered as an off-season for skiing, thus we found a good deal for hotel prices, even to our standard, we were able to afford a 5-star Hilton within our budget (nevertheless, one room for three people). My old-self in 2017, when I first came to Japan, wouldn’t imagine that someday I’d be showered with that luxury treatment, from an Alphard taxi to pick us up to a constant greeting and chatting from the hotel staff keen to know our experience there.
We did our homework to look for the remaining ski resort that was still open the week we came there. Fortunately there was just one, it was the Nook Annupuri. The mountain nearby the resort still had adequate snow level to ski or snowboard.
Arriving there, we were slapped by the reality of how expensive skiing is! The equipment rental, jackets, gloves, tickets to the mountain and the ski lesson. In total, we paid for JPY 33-35k or in IDR 4 million. No wonder the other more experienced guests brought their own ski equipment, in contrast to us who only brought nothing but our own self.
What caused the cost even higher was we registered ourselves for a ski lesson as we basically knew nothing about it – down to the smallest trivial bit of how should I put on the shoes? Well, we were not sorry to pay for the lesson part.
Skiing lesson with Yuki-san was so fun and really helpful. We were taught the very basic skills of sliding and gliding, and how to stop ourselves down the slope by turning to rotate our board-attached-legs into an A-shape, so they form the needed drag to a halt. We spent 1 hour per 3 people with her and I felt quite proud of myself for being able to control and feel the gliding movement sensation within 10 meters of the slide.
Whenever Yuki-san saw that we started sliding fast downward, she’d shout “A-shape! A-shape! A-shape!”. Then to our best of newly found ability, we managed to stop. Though in many cases, a stop was equal to a fall.
People were foolish, myself included.
1 hour ski lesson with Yuki-san had foolishly encouraged us to take the challenge even further. Us was Wisnu, Keke and I (fortunately this was not Keke’s first time skiing as she did it in her days in Japan in high school, while unfortunately it was Wisnu and I’s first time).
We dared ourselves to ride on a gondola to the very top of the mountain. My friend, Arga, came along to experience the gondola itself. The view from the gondola car was majestic, we were under the spell witnessing the whole of Niseko laid before our eyes with a snowy mountain range on the border. Arriving at the top, our guts however were diminished. The ski track suddenly disappeared on the edge of the mountain giving us the sense of how steep the track slope was. It was one for the professionals hence the impossibility for us.
Then, we went back down with the gondola.
Were we giving in? Surely not, people were foolish, and myself included.
We went back up again, this time we opted for the second type of gondola, called Jumbo, that took us to the mid height of the mountain. It was the type of gondola that had an open flooring, so we needed to wear our ski board from the beginning before we rode the gondola car and our legs would then be hanging mid air along the gondola track to the top. With this type of car, we were expected to be able to immediately ski once we reached the track up there. Knowing my just-learned skill, I immediately fell off when the gondola car door opened.
By this time, my legs were all hurting due to the tightness of the ski boots. We didn’t stop for any lunch fueled by spiked adrenaline for this first-in-lifetime experience.
The Jumbo track was not as scary as the other one, and the slope looked manageable by our standards. On my first try, I easily and immediately stumbled thanks to the painful legs. It took me some time to get back stand up, assemble the ski board and start skiing again, while Wisnu and Keke were far ahead in front of me.
I slid for several meters and soon I fell down again.
On my third try, I finally gave in. Tired and pain were all over me. I knew that was my limit and I couldn’t go any further, ski or otherwise. Keke suggested that I climb back to the gondola point and ride it down to the resort. I agreed, but before I said anything, she and Wisnu were gone and skiing their way.
I climbed back to the gondola point. Every step of the way was painful and I had to make stops every ten steps or so, catching my breath and rearranging the ski equipment, boards and poles, which were heavy and hard to carry. Arriving at the gondola point, I was denied to ride it back down. Unfortunately, this type of gondola, one with the open flooring, was designed to carry people up only.
“Sumimasen, then how should I go down? I am too tired to ski” I asked the staff.
“I’m sorry, you have to walk,” said him.
No way.
I was dumbstruck and stunned looking at the vast sea of white snow. I couldn’t imagine the journey ahead. It was practically a hiking walk from a mountain by foot that was already too tiring and too painful with heavy ski equipment on hand.
Disbelief with my luck, I had no other choice but to start the journey down. Step by step, pain by pain. Agony was an understatement.
My math head was thinking that, actually, I was better-off sliding the ski however slow it would be, rather than doing the painful walks. I assembled the ski board and focused myself on the A-shape formation to slowly but surely slide. A-shape, A-shape. Ensuring myself that I wouldn’t go too fast.
Several meters then I fell. I got up and reassembled.
Another meters then I fell again. I got up and reassembled back.
I skied for another meters and reached a considerable steep slope, but this time it was different. I fell and I couldn’t stop myself.
I slipped and skidded all the way – whole of my body and those ski equipment – for I didn’t know how many meters down. I moved my body and legs around, to the left and right, to find a better footing to reach a certain drag so I could put myself to a halt. My rental pants and jacket were all soaked in snow (it was a lovely powdery type of snow where in another situation and universe I’d be so keen to make a snow angel). It was hard to catch my breath as the air was thin and the feeling of hopelessness started to overwhelm me. I checked my phone and the battery was at 6% for the whole day I had used it intensively for taking photos and videos. I got no signal either for I left my wifi modem device at the safe locker on the resort. I was practically stranded.
For all of the honesty, I really didn’t know what I should do. I was alone and there was only deep snow and winter-dried trees around me (might as well be a kitsune or a bear hiding behind those trees). Should I keep walking with all the pain on my legs or should I wait for the rescue team, if any.
After some contemplation and drinking my half-filled bottled water, I chose the former one. If by some chance that someone would come and get me then I didn’t want to be a person who conceded to the situation and did nothing. I made up my mind to strive to keep going and walking however painful it would be.
Along the remaining track, I realized that it was indeed not the one for the amateurs like us. Winding turns and slopes that were openly bordered by trees, an easy way for you to get stray should you were not able to control the speed and the movement. It was almost deserted. There were only one or two people passed me by with their own fast ski speed (some even managed to some mid air jump), it was a stark contrast to a slowly walk that I did on the side track.
On the last turn, there I finally felt some hopes. On the far I saw some tiny houses that were the resort’s complex. I could make it after all. After some meters and another painful walk, I started to see tiny people moving afar.
It was my friend who came to me in a rush bringing my shoes (thankfully I brought the running one). They forced me to change to increase my speed walking down.
Little did I know, Keke was surprised when she found out that I was not in the resort thinking that I already went back with the gondola. Little did she know, Jumbo gondola was only able to carry people up. Expectedly, panic started to rise (since I haven’t made any contact with them due to signal unavailability), they asked for help around on some patrol to search for me. Their ask was ironically welcomed with chuckles and grins from the staff. They assured my friends that by the time the resort closed, they always had a team to comb out the whole track.
I was relieved and ever be grateful to reach the resort back. Happy to see those familiar faces of my friends without needing to cause any unnecessary panic. Though I was terribly thirsty and my energy was all drained (again, no lunch with bare minimum water intake). When I stripped out those rental jacket I could see my clothes were all soaked wet with sweats and snow. Then when I lifted my pants I understood the cause of my pain. My calves were all blistered and bruised, on some part of my skin it was totally raw mimicking burn scars. Some parts formed these bubbly water plasma ready to burst at any moment. I was so wrong by wearing jeans in the first place for it had a harsh texture. Some parts of my calf were not all covered with my pants as well directly exposed to the hard shell of the boots.
Here I learned and was reminded that accepting the balance between your physical limit and your great desire was ever so that mattered. Never to forgo the tenet of this life as a grand and long marathon, it was not and never be an impromptu quick sprint where you excelled once but then lost oblivious in the aftermath.
People were foolish, and myself included.
Yet people are learning, and myself included.
R
Journey on Journal 