Japanese Unkai

On the top of special viewing point mountains at roughly 5 am in the morning you'll meet bunches of expensive super camera weilding Japanese folk waiting for the sun to rise above the clouds. When it does, you'll see a beautiful array of colours shining upon an ocean of clouds. Thats what "unkai" means, not to be mixed up with "unko" which means 'a shit'. Here at the ski school, it's common to see this. We wake up early and get out to have a bit of fun and snow testing before we take on students. It's quite disorientating starting with a hot sunny day at the top, freezing cold and misty day in the middle then rain at the bottom. It's just over a kilometer from the top to the bottom. The weather changes a lot between.

Japanese Unkai

Flamable and portable good luck resolution shrine

At night this shrine is going to be swayed from here to there then dropped into a house sized bon fire. People write their new years resolutions in hope that they'll come true.

Sake bearing stick people

When I grow up I'm gonna be a tank!

The cars around here have to wear tracks should they want to travel over the snow. This is the very first time I've seen one... except for the last times I've seen one.