Winter Ski trip

 We have been to ski trip to Japan almost every year.

This year, my son and I went to Shiga kogen.  It is the biggest ski resorts in Japan, contains 18 ski resorts, including the highest ski mountain Yokote mountain.

We stayed at Prince hotel west, with all mountain ski pass, you can access all the ski resorts and all the lifts and gondolas.

I took a 4 hours lesson with a young instructor from UK.  I am still struggling with parallel ski, but was able to go down the red slopes easily, and tried once in black slope.

The snow conditions are super, Shiga kogen is not as crowded as Hakuba or Niseko, it was a peaceful ski trip for us.

After Shiga Kogen, we met Dad and my daughter in Karuizawa.  My daughter wanted to wait for her O lever  results, so they came later.

We also did one day ski in Karuizawa, but it was so much more crowded, and the snow was man made.  But at least they opened more lifts then 24's December.

We also love Karuizawa, it is very nice, and peaceful, the hotel we stayed has super lovely onsen, their staff are all very friendly.

Petra enjoyed Karuizawa, as she found an Olympic size of ice ring, which only took us 20 minutes by the city bus, we had the whole ice ring to ourselves.  That was the highlight for Petra.

In total, we stayed about 2 weeks in Japan for this winter holiday, next year, I plan to stay even longer to improve my ski skills and enjoy the lovely winter scenery.