Mid-March, and we have installed ourselves in St Esteve in Sud-Luberon again. It did feel a bit like coming home. At least Africa is firmly of this opinion. She sunk into her own bed and fell asleep immediately, thoroughly contented and happy.
Since January we have done a lot of travelling.
First to Japan, where we went skiing in a small village called Akakura, close to Myoko on the west coast of the main island. This was at the end of January – beginning of February. We – that is Filip and I and Oskar, Frida and Morgan – stayed in a ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. These inns were established in the Edo period, serving travellers along the Japanese highways. They feature rooms with tatami mats, communal hot-spring baths, onsen, and public areas where guests may wear yukatas, drink tea or coffee and discuss with each other or the owner. Our ryokan was very pleasant and had a nice onsen on the top floor, and an excellent restaurant.
But the main reason for travelling to this part of the world for skiing is the snow.
In the introduction to Yasunari Kawabata’s “Snow Country”, the translator says:”In the winter, cold winds blow down from Siberia, pich up moisture over the Japan Sea, and drop it as snow when they strike the mountains of Japan. The west coast of the main island of Japan is probably for its latitude (roughly from Morocco to Barcelona) the snowiest region in the world. From December to April or May only the railsroads are open, and the snow in the mountains is sometimes as much as fifteen feet deep.”
The snow is indeed easily 4-5 meters deep, but nowadays one can also drive to these areas. Some of the roads are closed in winter, and those open are like tunnels through the deep snow. But because of the latitude the season is short, and the ground is not frozen, so the snow melts quickly. Outside the hotels hot water is used to melt the snow, and underneath the streets i Akakura there is a constant flow of warm water. The snow from the streets is shuffled down there.
The skiing is truly fantastic. The snow is light and so deep one can easily imgaine getting lost in it completely.
We then spent four days in Tokyo, sightseeing, walking and eating in a fantastic teppanyaki restaurant on our last evening. Not yet time for cherryblossoms, but the plum trees compensated somewhat.
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O S M A F Frankenhaeuser 