Last night we ended up playing a never ending yet entertaining game of Uno with the Americans staying at the lodge. Since it was their last night here before leaving for Nozawa Onsen (where we’ll probably meet them again) the owner Kieren treated us with some 42% Chinese rice wine and after that someone came up with the great idea to go for a hike in the amazingly bright light from the full moon. So we geared up and even got Kieren hyped up to join us so he guided us on a pretty long hike up in the valley to a place with an amazing view over the other side of Tanigawadake that’s not visible from the ski resort-side. It took about one hour and a half to get there and another hour to get back down so everyone was pretty exhausted afterwards but it was well worth the effort – the view of the mountains lit up by the full moon was incredible and we got some epic turns down a short chute in the dark on the way back. It was such a cool feeling to ski down there without seeing much, even though we had headlights the smaller trees and bushes were almost invisible when coming down in full speed! I can at least say that we all slept pretty well that night!
