TASCI skiers home from Japan

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 3, Issue 35, 11 February 1986, Page 20

TASCI skiers home from Japan

I Raw fish, seaweed, rice and lots of skiing was the daily diet for nine Turoa AlpineSki Club (TASCI) skiers just back from three weeks' ski training in Japan. The group, which left New Zealand on 7 January, included Tipa, Jeff and Dean Drayton, Jacqui Wilde, Huntley Wright and Warren Scott, all of Ohakune, Shawn O'Malley of Auckland, and chaperones Cassandra Wright and Petra Specht. They flew to Tokyo and then spent 1 1 hours in a mini bus on a slow drive to Mt Shiga Kogen where they stayed at 'Villa Ichinose'. The villa was 100 metres from a ski lift and according to Huntley Wright, was "real Japanese-style." "We slept on the floor on small mattresses with rice pillows," he said. They trained all day, from 9.30am until 4pm, and as one of their coaches, 'T oshi', could speak very little English, 'Kazy', their second coach, interpreted for them. The weather was much colder than on Mt Ruapehu during winter, but according to Huntley, it was a different sort of cold. "It was a very dry cold, it could be snowing all over you and you wouldn't get wet," he said. The ski runs were straight down with trees on either side, "which could get a bit boring if you were skiing the

same run for the whole day," he said. But the group had 79 runs to choose from, so it was hard for them to get bored. The group was split up for a week when they stayed at the homes of Japanese members of the Mt Shiga Koge'n Ski Club. Warren, Huntley and Auckland TASCI member, Shawn O'Malley, spent time with two different families including three days at the home of Hiraswas-San, who owned his own skifield! During their stay with these families, the travellers were expected to try all food which was offered to them. "Some things were a bit distasteful but we'd get used to them. . .some food took quite a bit of getting used to," said Huntley. The children they stayed with were "pretty shy" and "could speak little English,

but Huntley said their were no major problems with the language barrier. In the evenings, although they were usually tired from their race training, the group attended special dinners, Japanese baths, or sometimes just tuned their skis. Huntley said they did not go out very much as everything was so expensive. "Five dollars for a can of beer, and three dollars for a piece of cake!" said Warren. During the last three days, the group had a 'challenge card' where they had to ski all 79 lifts on the mountain. All accommodation, food and lift passes were free to the group, as it will be for the Japanese exchange skiers when they stay with TASCI members in mid-August. Before catching their return flight home, the group spent half a day touring the sights of Tokyo.

They visited a Japanesestyle garden, saw a 'green tea' ceremony, went up the Tokyo Tower, saw pearl oyster cultivation and visited the Ginza, Tokyo 's highclass shopping area. There were no accidents on the trip except that Cassandra Wright, one of the two chaperones, tore a ligament. She and Huntley returned to New Zealand a week earlier than the rest of the group and in Auckland Cassandra had a knee operation which will leave her in plaster up to her hip for another two weeks. Cassandra said being a chaperone for the group was no problem as all were wcllbehaved and made the most of the trip. "They were all willing to try everything, even the raw fish and green tea," she said.