Chilling in Myoko...Literally





Of course you gotta check out the Buddha statues. They seem to be all over the place in the older towns. Very artistic!





My troubles continue while at restaurants. Many of the menu options look like this. What should I pick? In Tokyo this is not a problem. As many travelers know, once you get a few miles outside of major cities things change. It was interesting picking something and waiting to find out what it is. Surprises became quite regular in my ordering process.

Many of the foods I have eaten in Myoko are very special to the Niigata region and offer many unique flavors. By unique I mean shocking. Some of the pickles from the Niigata region take you by surprise! I won't ruin the surprise for you in case you end up visiting Japan so make sure you try some!

Having alot of fun so far exploring the small town of Myoko. Today I found some good shots of Myoko San (The big mountain). People saw me running along the icy roads and stared curiously. I would stare at someone running on ice too especially in shorts. CW-X half tights to be exact so I was pretty warm. I can tell the weather has gotten a bit chillier. I think this is a plus. More and more snow each day.

Mr. Yasushi waking up early as he usually does to clean the roads and dig his car up out of the snow as the over night snow fall is incredible. You go to sleep after the streets have been cleaned and the next morning it looks like a snow storm came through with the roads burried meters below. Around 4AM you would hear the snow plows coming by. Very loud so as expected, everyone is up pretty early around here. I found myself eating Japanese style breakfasts each morning accomanied by vistors coming to Myoko Kogen to ski on some of the best trails in Japan. Its funny the words Japanese use when they are in pain. After a long day of skiing one may hear an American, sore from the days duties attempt to stand up after sitting and yell, "ooooo". In Japan I have heard locals shout such sounds as "ta ta ta ta" and even funnier "ti ti ti ti ta". I'm sure that means nothing, but as you can imagine I laughed my butt off.

Race time approaches. Top competition will be from Japan, France, and Canada so the race will definitely be tough. Not sure what everyone else plans to do in terms of strategy, I plan on keeping the pace honest from start to finish!