Elephant in the Room- Dealing with Trash in Japan

click to enlargeThere has been an elephant in our apartment for the last week or so here in Kutchan. Our elephant was closer to an actual elephant however. Ours was big, smelt and we had no idea what to do with it. It was our trash.

In Japan, waste is categorized into organic, combustible and non-combustible, and then an array of recycling sub categories. It is a seriously mind boggling exercise to sort trash here. Pleading forigner ignorance wasn't going to be an option for us becasue we had a trash flowchart in English. While it generally made sense, there was still a lot that didn't.

Determined to do our part and attempt to assimilate and respect the Japanese way of doing things, Stevie and I rolled up or sleves and went through all our trash that had been put into the "deal with later" bin more commonly know as the back deck.

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Skiing in Japan... Exactly

This is what skiing in Niseko is all about, all the time.

One minute it is like this. (actually most of the time)

The next minute, quite literally, it can be like this...

But it is always deep.

The Background Story

There has been a lot of blogging about Japan, but no background on what spawned this trip and who the characters involved are. Therefore, I'll give it to you now.

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Deep Times in Niseko POV

The last 2 days have been great, not especially epic, but deep none the less. Check out the helmet cam footage inside.

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Stevie Turns 30

Last night, and all of yesterday as a matter of fact was Stevie's 30th Birthday. The big dirty 30. It was a pretty mellow day. Stevie went with a film crew to the beach to maybe get some waves but it was too flat so they filmed the ocean and squid boats instead.

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My First Japanese Moment

My first real Japanese moment, as I like to call it, snuck up on me right out of the gray as it were. Looking back on it, it was staged from the beginning. Jetlag, Tokyo nights and ski touring had taken their toll, leaving me numb to the cultural contradictions flying by me at a great rate of knots.

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Hokkaido= Lots of Pow & Little Light

The skiing has settled down a little here in Niseko the last week after a furious start. We skied the remnants of the last system surrounding the hill, mostly touring off of Moiwa. I would go so far to claim that Moiwa accesses the most slackcountry terrain for such a small lift ever. At least in my experience. In comparison to the mega 3 of An'nupri, Niseko and Hirafu within a stones throw from Moiwa, Moiwa offers the best bang for your buck and the resort manager even invited us back to his place to his private onsen. Not as wierd as some of you might be smirking about. The Japanese are so generous and friendly that you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

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Commitment to Something

Stevie snapped this picture on the bus to the Hirafu ski hill yesterday. It is a Japanese boy doing his algebra homework in the condensation of the bus window. In down town Tokyo, I might not think twice, but on a bus bound for a ski resort, I really don't know what to make of this. Whatever I think about it is really beside the point, but for the record, I think it's great.

Sushi Extravaganza

Yesterday became a day off pretty quickly as neither Stevie nor I woke the other up. The weather was meant to get warm, and did, meaning yesterday was the last good day before the next storm, but we just didn't make it. The Sweetgrass crew essentially had an easy day also despite getting up to 4am to try and catch the sunrise, only to be back in bed by 7am. So, with so much time and many mouths to feed, we all threw in 1000YEN and bought supplies for a family dinner.

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The Swayzator

This is a little gem of absurdity a friend, Forrest Coots, sent my way. For those of you wondering what it is, this mythical creature is "The Swayzator". Obvioiusly. The Swayzator is half Patrick Swayze, half minotaur.

Forrest, a skier, and his friend on the US snowboard team have a bet that whoever folds on living the dream riding, and gets a real job with a suit and tie and thinks "Office Space", that person will have to get a Swayzator tattooed on their body.

The Swayzator pictured is tattoed on someones calf for all and sundry to see, and fear. There is so much going on in this peice of art that what stands out the most to my critical eye is the rainbow tieing it all together.

And the cufflinks...