Looking out the window this morning and it was overcast but there was neither snow nor rain falling. By the time the shuttle bus got to today’s ski fields, Happo One, the snow was starting to fall. There was rain forecast for later today but this snow was icy and not wet. Not to chance it, we bought morning tickets (Y4200 each) with Seniors tickets not starting until 70 on this resort. This will allow us to ski until 1pm which is still 4 hours.

We started to take in some runs and the snow was getting heavier and the fog was rolling in. It wasn’t cold and the runs were good. By 11am the snow was turning more to sleet and we were getting wet. After a break in the cafe to dry out, headed out to finish out the morning pass but only lasted 30 minutes before being soaked again. Still managed 13 runs with a total of 16.87 km.

We caught the 1pm shuttle bus back to the Hotel and then went for a soak in the onsen for an hour (new record). Spent longer in their with a group of Americans chatting about our various trips around this planet. The kids must be broken as they are in their room sleeping and relaxing.

By 330pm, the sleet had changed to rain. Not sure how much we will get but hopefully there will be some snowfalls overnight to counteract the damage the rain makes to the runs.

By 6pm when we got on the hotel shuttle to take us down to Echoland it was absolutely teeming. This is going to some damage to the snow so not sure how much skiing will be done tomorrow.

Our choice for dinner was Cheshire, a little mum and pop restaurant who even though they have 24 seats, baulked a little when the eleven of us walked in. They apologised that the meals will take some time but ended up it was quicker than some of the other places we have been. The food was good too.

Back at the hotel, we were sitting around when the earth moved for us. We were able to tick off another Japanese experience with a 4.5 magnitude earthquake centred 30km to the south of us. (https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us2000jjyw/executive). It only lasted for a couple of seconds but the place shook. Apparently there was another at the same spot an hour later but was only magnitude 3.0 so didn’t feel it. I wonder if the earthquake caused any avalanches.

A bit light on for walking today with only 4751 steps.