White World Oze Iwakura (Katashina, Gunma)

Got up early this morning and was out by 6:30am, destination White World Oze Iwakura in Katashina, Gunma.

Got on the always-popular Kanetsu Expressway at Shiozawa Ishiuchi and got off at Numata IC. Negotiated the rather busy Route 120 in Numata area, then was interested to see the new tunnel connecting Numata with the Katashina area. It really does cut a chunk off the journey which is nice to see. Photos at the bottom here.

My house to White World was just under 90 minutes.

White World is an interesting place. I agree with lots of what Gunma Boarder said in his review here:
http://www.snowjapan...ews/detail/1982
(I'll write my own sometime later).

Blue skies looking up to the resort, hazy in lots of other directions (though not as funky hazy as it was when I returned to Minamiuonuma this afternoon).

Snow was... well, I was a bit disappointed. It was snowing a bit yesterday there I believe and I was expecting to get lots of lovely cruising groomed runs in early morning. But they didn't seem to have bothered with the grooming at all. No corduroy that I could find. And it wasn't soft, my knees were taking some load there on the long cruising runs.

The lift system is not obvious here. I made a few mistakes early on even though I have been here before a few years ago. Worth studying the map before going. Even when I know them though, it's a bit disjointed but that's hardly unique in Japan! There's also a few lifts over the back that they have discontinued since 3.11 and they don't look like they'll be moving again anytime soon.

But I quite like lots of the courses here, and would have liked them better if there was more fresh snow and it had been groomed. (I wanted a groomed morning).

Also had a kebab. Though forgot to take a pic of that, before I knew it it was gone! Mister Donuts at Numata on the way home.

I quite like it here, though I'm not sure I'll be making the journey much.

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