Day 6 : The 1998 Olympic Village
So obviously JJ and I had been sharing food and drinks the whole trip. We’re boys, we don’t really think about germs. Well, when I got to Japan he was just getting over being sick… and he passed it right on to me just a few days in.
The morning we woke up in Nagano, I could already feel it. My throat was rough and it was hard to talk. Not exactly great timing considering we were about to head somewhere even colder.
Originally we were supposed to go see the snow monkeys and then head to Nozawa Onsen village. But we missed the first bus, so we decided to just skip the monkeys and go straight to the village instead. There aren’t any trains that go there, so the only option was taking a bus up.
We actually splurged a little and rented a room at a ryokan in the village—basically a traditional Japanese inn. Tatami mats, futons on the floor, and a little table in the corner with tea. It was pretty cool. Not to mention the city was picturesque and beautiful, plus all the Olympic logo was everywhere. Although the walk up to our ryokan was an icy road that went straight up.
We spent most of the afternoon walking around the village looking for places to rent snowboard gear. Eventually we found a cute little shop that gave us goggles and gloves for cheap. Then we went to the rental place where you actually suit up and got a quote from them.
All in all it wasn’t that bad. I think it came out to about $130 for both of our gear rentals and $80 for both of our lift passes. $210 total isn’t too bad for last-minute rentals and passes.
Now back to the sick part. My only saving grace was the number of hot vending machines everywhere. I’m not exaggerating when I say every half mile we walked, I stopped and bought another hot honey lemon tea.
Dinnertime in this beautiful village finally rolled around, and JJ and I were excited because of all the places we had scoped out earlier in the day. Plot twist: every single place was reservation only for dinner.
We walked around for almost an hour before we finally found a yakiniku spot, which is cook-it-yourself BBQ. JJ said he’d never done it before, but I reassured him it would be great. Instant minus points for me.
I didn’t think we were about to get scammed so hard, it felt criminal.
We ordered what we thought was a regular cut of beef and some rice. When the food came out… it was barely a few bites. The bill ended up being about $70 after the yen conversion. We had never seen a price that high on the menu, so we just assumed it was all-you-can-eat.
Nope.
After our two bites of beef, we just paid and left—angry and still hungry. With no convenience stores around, we wandered into a small casual market. JJ grabbed some chips and microwave ramen, and I ordered a couple of steamed buns from a woman’s street cart.
Everything was okay at best and then BAM!!!
JJ slipped on an icy grate. His bag fell underneath him and he landed right on top of it. His chips exploded everywhere across the ground while he just sat there in defeat.
Three really nice Japanese guys immediately ran over to help him up and even helped clean up the mess. The funny part? I watched them scoop the chips off the ground and put them back into the bag.
And sure enough, later that night in the hotel, I saw JJ still eating them.
I still laugh at him about that to this day.