Spring Skiing in Saga-ken

Yesterday, I went with a small school trip to a ski center in nearby Saga-ken, the next prefecture over from Fukuoka. There wasn't much snow, but frankly, I was surprised to find any snow in late February at ~33°N (roughly on a level with Atlanta, if you're keeping track back home).

The geography of Japan is interesting that way: the rugged, mountainous interiors of the main islands make for some strange weather patterns. For each of the main islands, the northern and western coasts are much colder in the winter than the southern and eastern coasts at the same latitude, because the mountains shield the southern and eastern coasts from the frigid winds blowing down from Siberia. In addition, the mountains are much colder than the cities, most of which lie at or near sea level on one of Japan's coasts.

We could actually see this phenomenon in action on our bike ride home: while the temperatures in Fukuoka hovered just around freezing for most of the winter, with little or no accumulation, we could see snow on the mountains to the south pretty much constantly since December.

This week, however, the weather definitely turned, and we were lucky to get to the mountain when we did. (I wouldn't be surprised if they were closed today--the slope was beginning to wear thin by yesterday afternoon.)

So what was it like, spring skiing in Saga-ken? First, the ski area was tiny. They were running only one lift, a two-seater, that serviced a gentle green a few hundred yards long.

Despite the small size of the place, however, there were many highlights to the day. First and foremost, the students had a blast, to the point that they're asking me to start a club for next year. The fact that the slope was so beginner-friendly was probably a major factor.

Second, the day was just breathtakingly beautiful. The first truly warm day since fall, and the sky clear and bright for the duration.

Third, the place had a goofy snow-making system of the likes I had never seen in the almost-quarter-century I've been skiing. Sure, they had the traditional hoses and water jets lining the slope, for use only when the weather was cold enough. But in addition, they had these huge ice-making machines at intervals along the run, which seemed to be making gobs of ice, chopping them up, and scooting them to the ski surface through noisy vacuum tubes.

It can't have been cheap to run them . . . and if the video below is any indication, they can't have been doing much to keep the place open.

So that's skiing in Saga-ken. Consider it a teaser for our upcoming spring break trip to Hokkaido!