by
Shanti Sosienski
Today's article is dedicated to all of those North Americans who think they've
stood in some pretty horrendous lift lines in their time. I'm here to tell
you that you haven't. Before I visited Japan I was one of your lift-line
whiners. It's easy to complain about having to wait a few minutes for a run,
especially around the holidays when the mountains really fill up. But after
today I will never again open my mouth while standing in a five minute lift
line.
Just one of the little lines we encounted in Japan. It seems like they're everywhere. |
To help those of you who haven't ever been to this part of the world and don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about I'll explain in detail my day at Tsugaike, the resort where the Jeff Fulton Snowboard Camp is taking place.
Tsugaike is a beginner/intermediate level mountain with a Vail-like feel. Like many Colorado resorts, the base of the mountain is a quaint town with twisting roads, many four wheel drive vans, and a variety of hotels and shops selling over-priced, touristy novelties. The mountain has two gondolas and 27 chairs. On the frontside of the mountain there is a six person gondola, which serves as the main access to the upper part of the area, and a handful of double chairs to supplement it.
On our first morning at Tsugaike, the parking lot was over-packed with cars and people. A majority of the snow utilizers at this resort are skiers, but there were a fair amount of snowboarders dragging equipment across the lot toward the gondola. According to Jeff Fulton and the camp staff, Tsugaike has never been known as a snowboarders mountain. The camp and the new snowboard friendly terrain have been added to the area to help increase this younger traffic and change the image of Tsugaike.
No matter where you go in the world, Gondola lines are notoriously the longest and slowest lines, this is to be expected. At a lot of resorts the gondola can be avoided by taking a couple of lifts, but this didn't seem to be the case at Tsugaike. And on this Easter Sunday (not that they celebrate Easter in Japan) there were about 1,200 people between us and that one way up the mountain. The line stretched from the gondola, down a flight of stairs, outside of the building, wrapped around the side of the building, and traveled a good New York City block up the slope. People stood patiently talking and jostling one another to pass the time.
Fortunately for us we were classified as "camp-o staff" which allowed us to walk up the back way to the gondola where we were ferried up the mountainside to the "Hit Park," the new snowboard park Tsugaike built in cooperation with the Jeff Fulton Snowboard Camp.
It was Sunday and campers were arriving the next day, so were up to inspect the park. One gondola ride and a chairlift later we were at the top of the "Hit Park" standing in yet another pack. Fortunately, because the whole concept of snowboarding at Tsugaike is still relatively new to the Japanese, the dropping line for the hits is no more brutal than an average park in Southern California. And once again camp-o status gave us the luxury of dropping in on all of the patiently waiting Japanese sliders.
Head translator Yuki Hirata doing a little morning stretch. |
When we were on the gondola, the guilt was hard for me to ignore. On the gondola we stared out from our plastic bubble at the faces in the front of the line who had probably been standing there over an hour waiting for the lift we just climbed into. I had to brush off the guilt with, "Oh well, the next one is theirs." At the hit-park it was a little more up close and personal because this was our tribe. We charged anyway and the local snowboarders seemed stoked to have us there, washing away any concern I had that we were making enemies. Moral to the story, it's really not nice to snake, but in Japan it's hard not to. If you're going to do it, pretend to be very American, very confused, and if all else fails act like you're a pro snowboarder even if you're not.
Patience is not a trait we Americans pride ourselves in having. We want everything here and now, whether it's getting a run or getting a loan for that new car. After being surrounded by Japanese culture for a few days I've seen one line after another and an incredible amount of civility and even-temperedness. We could learn something from this country. Then again I'm pretty stoked I didn't have to wait in that line of 1,200 people.
For more information on the Jeff Fulton Snowboard Camp in Tsugaike: www.hitpark.com