Pleasure and Pain

Posted Ms Shallot
With ‘go hard or go home’ again the battle cry, we skied / snowboarded the slopes of Japan with the Landlords (same as last January).
Mrs Landlord (aka de facto Japanese tour guide) had researched the slopes and accommodation to ensure there was something for everyone. She did a fantastic job.
This time we were at Yuzawa, which is a great place for both beginners and advanced skiers.
We stayed in two ryokans with one being more traditional than the other. A great feature of a ryokan is they supply the outfit (yukata) for you to wear for your stay. It’s reminiscent of old style Japanese pajamas and you’re expected to wear them even to meals in restaurants as it’s assumed that you’ll soon be having another soak in the hot springs.
I love this idea.
Not only does it take the hassle out of what to wear, it’s convenient and when coupled with all toiletries being supplied too, you really don’t have to bring much with you aside from some incredibly warm clothes to ski in. In the summer months, people even wear them outside to other restaurants.
From Mr Shallot’s birthday, Mr Landlord had decided that we should all wear panda hats for our stay. While initially skeptical, this turned out to be one of the greatest ideas had for the trip.
It was easy to spot each other from the chairlifts and when required, we could ask at any ski area if they’d seen another panda head. While English wasn’t so common, the word ‘panda’ appears to be universal. On top of that, they are considered kawaii by the Japanese (it means ‘cute’, mispronounced, it means ‘terrifying’) so we received special treatment on a number of occasions and were remembered wherever we went. We are now on a blog post for one of the resorts we skied at as well as being able to have our photo taken with some sumo wrestling snowboarders.
The panda hats (combined with the ryokan and an injury) also enabled us to have a tour of a sake factory during the period when they are all closed (for brewing).

While Mrs Landlord is an advanced skier (same as her husband) she was on the more beginner type slopes with me due to a knee injury from badminton. Mr Landlord and Mr Shallot were on the more advanced slopes where they moguled and jumped.
On our third day out, Mrs Landlord decided to have a rest day, I had a lesson, and Mr Landlord and Mr Shallot went out together but lost each other along the way. Once my lesson finished, I was up and down the slopes like a speed demon – as you may be aware, I do have a good imagination and a healthy tendency to exaggerate, the ‘speed demon’ claim should be taken with a large grain of salt (now I’m craving chips) – to find Mr Shallot at the chairlift just before we were due to meet for lunch.
Mr Shallot said he thought he’d either dislocated or broken his shoulder.
He was partly correct. As I’d just had my lesson, and he was in shock, he encouraged me to keep skiing while he went to find a doctor. We arranged to meet at 1pm where we were to also meet Mr Landlord.
I made my way to the rendezvous point early. The time rolled around and another ten minutes passed. Still no Mr Landlord or Mr Shallot.
I went to the reception area and asked about the panda hats to be told that one had been down earlier and had gone back up the mountain for medical assistance. Hopefully this was Mr Shallot and Mr Landlord wasn’t also injured.
Both appeared separately with Mr Shallot informing us that he did need to go to a hospital and had a referral from ski patrol. Apparently ‘hospital’ and ‘beauty salon’ in Japanese sound very similar to the Australian ear so we called Mrs Landlord to see if she was back from her soak in a sake bath and could assist.
With that, we went back down the mountain to take Mr Shallot to the hospital (the beauty salon could wait).
X-rays revealed a broken collarbone. Snowboarding was over for Mr Shallot for the rest of the trip. Clearly in denial, he was confident that he would be able to go again in a couple of days. This was not to be.
The ryokan people were fantastic and helped by not only organizing the sake tour to take his mind off it and give us a break from the elements, but they also offered to help him with dressing when we weren’t there and gave him some easier food options.
The food was fantastic throughout the stay (photos will follow once the computer decides it likes me again) as we dined at a number of local restaurants and the ryokans too.
I enjoy Japan for a number of reasons – the people, the food, the culture, the bathing and also the gadgetry. One of the highlights for me of this trip was the sake tasting slot machines. We bought some tokens and selected which sake to try. We put our tasting cup underneath, pushed the red button and the sake flowed. I was impressed.
Having gone hard, we’re now back home in Hong Kong.
Mr Shallot now has a plate with six screws inserted into his collarbone and spent some of Chinese New Year in hospital.
His learning from the whole experience has been that the higher jumps are probably a bit too technical for his level of expertise.
Let’s see what happens next time.
* Thanks to Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals for the title to this post.

4 thoughts on “Pleasure and Pain”

  4. Yes, Amanda is dead. Long live Amanda. One of the other pandas suffered minor burning while trying to dry it on a heater. Looks like she's permanently smiling now in an odd kind of way…

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