Time Away

We went to Niseko for the weekend.  Wow.  What fun!

We left the kids at home with my good buddy Kathy and our helper.  Hopefully Kathy will stay a good buddy after this experience!

We got to Niseko after a very long journey (started by champagne at the Cathay lounge though).  It was....snowing.  But there was still night-skiing.  We vowed to try it.

We were staying at a lovely house our friend Steven found.

We, of course, had to go for a drink before dinner, so we stopped at a little (little is not really the word for it!) bar for the first drink.

 

There was this interesting little game where you hammer a nail into a log.  This totally hammered guy came in and tried to hustle us.

 

 After the first bar we went to the 'Fridge Bar', which had a little fridge door you had to go through...

 Well, to sum it up, we ate, drank and made merry for the whole weekend, while fitting in some skiing in some of the deepest powder I've ever seen!  All the while, the snow kept coming.  The most adventurous thing I tried was the onsen, where you bathe and then sit in a boiling hot pool.  The one near our house had an indoor and outdoor one.  We sat in the outdoor one (just us girls!), sipping beer.  The first night we managed 45 minutes, but the second night we pretty much slugged the beer back so we could get out of the hot water!  It was nice, but soooo hot.  Night skiing?  Just a nice dream...

 

When we left, we had to relinquish our beer at the airport, as it was contraband...