Yesterday was a beautiful clear day. After my morning ski, I decided to forsake my Canadian bath soak and check out the view from the top of the gondola.
Unlike most, I went up with no skiis! Although there is a green run down, I had heard there was a patch of ice near the start and I knew it would freak me out. Rather than ruin a good thing, I thought it a good idea to leave my new ski confidence intact.
I climbed into the gondola carriage with a Japanese lady and her two young sons. We had a stilted conversation about where I was from (my Canada beanie causing a bit of confusion). Her boys didn’t understand much English but were able to politely say hello when their mum explained I was from Australia where the kangaroos and koalas are!
This got me thinking……… are we still going to have koalas in the future? A symbol of Australia that has been so badly effected by the bushfires. Everyone back home seems to be doing as much as they can to ensure we are. There are some heartwarming stories of donations coming in and people making pouches and jumpers etc for injured wildlife. I am sure too, the zoos of Australia will have a job ahead with breading programs.
I had wondered in my ‘Australia is burning’ blog if I would see evidence of global warming here in Japan. As it turns out, there most certainly is. It is still quite ‘warm’ here for this time of the year and snow came much later than usual. One of the staff here at Club Med told us of how one week before the season started and paid guests arrived, they had had no snow at all.
A traditional Japanese healer was called to the resort. They performed a snow ritual (sounds like a rain dance!). Apparently some of the new staff were rather sceptical, but sure enough the next morning, snow fell for the first time.
As I reached the top of the gondola and looked out, I wished I could somehow scoop up all the extra snow now and dump it on Australia. Or perhaps send the Japanese healer down under. Imagine what a dump of snow could do to those fires!
The healer’s work here, is truely stunning……
I definitely picked the best day to check out the view. It was a lonely ride back down in the gondola, but a safe one! Incidentally, the two little Japanese boys didn’t seem to be too concerned about the patch of ice or long, steep run ahead, they flew off down the maintain, barely pausing to take in the view!
TTB
The Travel Bee 