For the first 3 days there was no snow, and one of the ski areas was a bit of a nightmare. We went the main ski area that was the center of the Nagano 98 Olympics. It was really icy and it was beginner central. At one point you ski from the top of the mountain and as you get lower it becomes more steeper, and then for some reason the designers had decided to create a choke point about 10 meters across. Straight after that there is a mogul area - small bumps created by skiers turns. There was a dozen crashes down there and it wasn't good to be around.
So after that we decided that it was worth to go to Nagano city and check out Zenkoji temple. The main Buddhist shrine in the prefecture. Its a pretty impressive shrine. There were a dozen people celebrating the New Year. I saw people taking smoke burning from the incense and try to move the smoke onto their head. It was some kind of blessing. I saw people touching the head of a statue of the big Buddha and rub it on there head. Another kind of blessing.
Nagano is a wicked city, they have a club called the Jigger Club. Need I say more???
That night there was a snow storm strong enough that we had to dig the car out. We only had a few hours before the ski hills were shut down and we had to head back. We had to dig the car out again.
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