Tanigawadake Tenjindaira (Minakami, Gunma) - 24th January 2014

OK so I knew it only opens at 9am so only turn up at 8:50. Big long queue waiting for the lift ticket counter to open. You can see they are stood there actually waiting for 9am before they open up the counter. So it opens at 9am sharp, or should I say they start to prepare to open at 9am. So of course that takes a few minutes. Then there's only one dude doing the tickets. And of course, he's slow. So it's 9:15am before I can get on the gondola. I just missed one and so needed to wait 2 hours for the next one. Well, a few minutes. Blimey they only have a few gondolas going at the same time. And of course, it's ridiculously slow and I completed a novel and read a few books on the journey. Get up top and it's already past 9:30am. I see the main pair lift is still not open but see that the lift far left is moving so ski down to that lift. 'Mada desu'. Not open yet. We aren't sure when it will open, they said, so please use that lift up there... you know, the one you have to walk up to over there. Why are you so late in opening? Well, we staff only get up here 15 minutes before you do! I decided not to suggest that perhaps the staff could get up there earlier to prepare, but decided that it must just be a ridiculous concept. I saw quite a few people ski down to that lift like I did only to have to walk back up the slope to get the lift that was actually moving. No sign at all saying the lift was not open yet.

Every time I go, I get the feeling at Tenjin that opening a skijo is actually really bothersome for them.

Extremely annoying, like Japanese banks.

Note to self. Think of Tenjin as opening at 9:45am to avoid frustration next time.