Learning to ski in Japan

Despite being used to snow since birth in Denmark, Philip and Sienna have never felt the white powder under a set of boards attached to their feet. The move to tropical Singapore 4 years ago, postponed what became a long lost dream of going on a cold, snowy holiday - and learn to ski! Follow the story day by day, as Philip and Sienna reconnect with the cold and the snow, and try the slopes for the very first time.

Welcome to Philip AND Sienna's story from Tomamu, Japan - being told, as it unfolds!

Content by Philip & Sienna Juul Nyegaard / Written by Mathilde Moyell Juul

DAY 1 - reconnecting

Day 1 actually started on day 0. We left late at night Friday to get a night flight to Tokyo and then carry on to Tomamu on a domestic morning flight. But before departure, we all had a very hard goodbye to say... Our 'little man', 'little C', everyone's favourite Chris was not going to join us on holiday for the very first time. It had been a very tough decision for our mum and dad, as they had even chosen the very family and children-friendly "Club Med" hotel, so that Chris would also enjoy a skiing holiday (without the skiing). But.

First he could not go in their "petit club" (age 2-3), then there wasn't a petit club (hotel is only 3 months) and then there was one after all. A lot of talk back and forth, but in the end the conclusion was, that being 20 months, the long journey and the purpose of the holiday, wouldn't really make Chris or us particularly happy. Compromises, bad conscience, baby-sitting with strangers and not being a family on the slopes, like we'd imagined. If you ask my mum it was a practical solution, if you ask her heart, it completely devastated her to leave our brother behind. Anyway, we are here now and Chris is with his best friend, Emily, our nanny, who knows him and his routines better then anyone else outside of our family... And hopefully he will not remember this absence from us for too long!

Off we went, thanking Chris on the flight, as we now had front seats with a bassinet we weren't going to use, but a loooot of leg room instead. Our mum was watching a film. We can't remember her ever watching a film, reading a book or sleep while Chris has been in our family. So, perhaps, in that respect it wasn't so bad he hadn't come.

When we landed in Tokyo, we could already feel the cold, and getting onto the next flight, it didn't take long before we were crossing the, yes, SNOWY mountains!! We were already excited, we would be in those mountains so soon, and for me, Sienna, it would be the first snow (that I remember, it was apparently snowy when I was 2 and we left Denmark) and for me, Philip, 4 years ago, that I remember building a snowman outside our flat in Copenhagen... 1,5 hours later, it was all there, in huuuuge junes as we landed.

A snowstorm had just passed the night before, so there were literally metres of snow by

the side of the road, as we made it up the mountain in a bus for another 1,5 hours.

By this stage, we were hungry, we kind of missed breakfast, and when we arrived at Club Med Tomamu, it had been 18 hours since we'd had anything to eat! Thank God for understanding staff and a very big buffet with everything on offer! Phew, then we were able to think again and see our great family room (with a cot and baby bath, arrgh) and then get dressed to do those angels and jump that powder we'd mainly seen from the inside of the bus. First, we signed up for our ski-school and tried out the gear we needed and then, it was time....!

It was so much fun, when we put our feet into the snow, it came up to our hips! We had to crawl through it, that's how many lawyers had built up over the past few days and sometimes roll to get out. Sienna did her angels, Philip the jumps, it was everything we'd hoped it would be and more, and we hadn't even started what we were there for.

Another big buffet meal, a hot shower and then to bed. We were extremely tired after only about 4 hours sleep the night before (night flight is only 6 hours), and we wanted to be ready and fresh for the big day! We seriously cannot wait...

DAY 2 - the test

We slept 12 hours, and if dad hadn't woken us up, we might still have been in bed, that's

how tired we were! But we got up quickly, excited about what the day would bring!

After breakfast we went to our lockers - they day before we'd prepared everything: our boots, skis, even helmets had their own place with names on, and after we'd signed in along with 50 other kids, all we had to was wait...

The skis were were placed outside by the instructors, the snow was still meters high from the day before, our dad was going to go on a special trip where they go 'of piste', but their was just one problem. Yesterday it was -2 degrees, today it was +2. And as many of you probably know, this means that the snow, is no longer like powder, but it turns into slush - and it's harder to ski. But, as we never tried either, we were just happy to get out and get it on!

It was one ski on first, circling to get the feel. Then two on and the PIZZA! First ploughing on the small slope and later on a slightly bigger one, where you'd go on a snow-escalator to get up there.

I, Philip felt pretty confident, especially as I was told that I'd moved up to a new, more advanced class the next day. I, Sienna, thought it was hard, being the youngest in the class and falling over a lot, and making people irritated. But after a hot chocolate and sweet popcorn at the bar after a finished day, all felt better. We did 2x2 hours, so you can't expect to be pros, who knows, we might be the new Casper Dyrbye's! (Danish ski-guy who just entered the Olympics, despite the fact that Denmark have no mountains - I Philip, just did a project on him at school).

Mum and dad also went skiing, Tomamu isn't the biggest area, and because of the snow-rain in the morning, they had an easygoing day skiing the same hours as us, but also enjoyed it.

Club Med in Tomamu has quite a few things you can do besides skiing and loads of fun for us kids. After we chilled, we went to the big indoor swimming pool that has waves! But we'll tell you more about that one another time. But we love it here, so many kids and fun, all the food you can eat from the buffet, and every Sunday and Thursday night, a talent show where you can go up and perform in front of the others!

We're going to do 'Shape of you", or "Ghostbusters", we can't really agree - perhaps we'll do both! Ok. Goodnight from Japan!

DAY 3: The breakthrough

"I don't want to go skiing today...I don't want to go skiing today!!"... yes, they were my words (Sienna) and it's true, I really didn't want to go skiing. Philip had moved up to STAR1 - the higher level, and I was still a FLAKE - a beginner basically. But mum and dad made me go, they said "that's why we're here, and the more you learn, the more fun it becomes". Ok, so I did. And I had the same teacher, Huw, who is so much fun.

He made me laugh, and I quickly forgot that i was only a flake, and soon I was in the front doing pizza and getting jiggy wit it down the slopes. I actually did so well, that I moved up, just like Philip did, and tomorrow I will be STAR1!!

But of course....Philip moved up to.

So yes, I (Philip), had a great day, I love skiing and some of us did so well that we went up on the big hill with a chairlift and went skiing down the mountain! I made friends and had fun, and tomorrow I won't be wearing the pink bib anymore, I move on to the yellow - STAR1 !

And all while we were in ski school, mum and dad went off. They went in this gondola that ends up at the top of the mountain where there's a cafe where you see the view and get a hot drink and cook marshmallows by the fire! We were so jealous when we heard, but mum and dad insisted that they hadn't eaten any marshmallows, and that they would wait and do it with us one day...

In fact when I (Sienna) had finished ski-school, we tried to go there, but the gondola closed (at 3:30 already) right in front of us, so we went for a coffee next door instead.

Then I thought it would be fun to get the chair lift to the top and back, but then that closed in front of us...(4pm) and then I was upset. But mum saved the day, we went into the Petit Club (kids club for 2-3 year-olds) and borrowed these sledges and then we went sledging down the hill outside the hotel, it was so much fun and it went so fast!

Both Philip and I were happy now, I liked skiing now, and as if the day hadn't been goo enough, when we had dinner with some friends from Singapore, we'd bumped into, my instructor Huw sat down with us and had dinner!!

Apparently this is normal at Club Med, the ski instructors sit with the guests for lunch and dinner, and that made me happy, because Huw said that now I'd moved up, he wouldn't be teaching me again :-( That's what I thought anyway...

DAY 4 - THE MEDALS

We love our sleep at Club Med. We have a great big family room, where you can draw a curtain at night between us and mum and dad, if they want to read or work with the light on. And because we ski all day, we sleep so well, and getting up in the morning can be hard! There's also a lot of of fun happening with the other kids at "The Theatre" - the big bar/café area - at night, so we often get to bed late.

This morning we were both excited about our 3rd day of skiing though. And everything is so easy here. We have all our ski gear in the designated rooms and if we change teams, they even move it for you. Everything is in colours, so it's easy to see exactly what team you're in and this is also the colour the lanyard for your medal will be. Medals are given out Tuesdays and Fridays, and you'd be given the colour of the team you will be in the following day. So the question today was, what colour medal would we get??

Well, first nice surprise for me (Sienna), was that I was greeted by Huw in STAR1! Turned out he was teaching me again today after all! And all my friends from FLAKE2 were with me as well, so it was really familiar. And Huw even said, that we might get up on the mountain today, if we did really well!

STAR2 was great as well. I (Philip) was now in a yellow bib, and all time was now spent in the mountains! I was wondering whether it would be possible to advance to another level again in just one day? I guess I'd just had to see later on.

For mum and dad is was also SCHOOL TIME! They were both excited as the the snow was really thick and powdery and the sun was even coming out. Japan is known for it's amazing snow, but the reason it's that good, is that it snows a lot - ie. less blue sky than e.g. the Alps.

But today, was great, so dad went on the advanced 'powder' team, where they go outside the skilanes and 'off piste'. Mum went on 'Club 4', which is intemediate - she hadn't skied since she was (unknowingly) pregnant with me (Philip), which means 9 years!

Dad was in heaven, he said that this ride was worth every penny it costs to come here. And mum too, although she had to give in to buying goggles. Here in Japan, sunglasses does not work, when there's a snowfall! She did both morning and afternoon classes and whether she advanced or not,

I'm not sure - but we were told and at 4:30, it was time for the AWARDS!

All the ski instructors were on stage and team by team, we all came up there to receive our medals. I (Sienna) went up with STAR1 and the pink bibs, but received a....YELLOW medal! YES, I'm in STAR2 tomorrow!

...and guess what, with Philip! So yes.. I (Philip) was a little dissapointed, but I had been warned that it's hard to advance one class every day, so hopefully at the award ceremony on Friday I will be a new colour!

It was fun to be on stage, everyone was clapping and taking pictures, so much fun here at Club Med! ...even though we miss our little Chris...

DAY 5 - THE SUN

Japan ski ares are known for the snow, and a lot of it. But with a lot of snow, it has to fall right? So what Japan is not known for, is the sun. Today, one of our instructors said: We have a day like this 1 out of 12 days. And today was that one.

It was also the day where both Philip and I were on the big moutain all day. Being "Star2" we got to take the big express chairlift and we went down the blue pistes all day.

We bumped into mum and dad on the way, and they couldn't believe that this was only our 4th day skiing. My instructor (Sienna), even said that I could move on to Star3 tomorrow - but not sure Philip will like his younger sister to be in the team above!