Since the entire floors got stripped (see #2 Demolition), the entire floor surface of the ground floor had to be redone, starting with floor joys. A fluffy layer of glass wool in between the joys will keep our feet nice and warm coming winter.

Before we covered the insolation and floor joys with floorboards we took this opportunity to move all water pipes under the floor. No more pipes on the ceiling!!

Let’s move to the walls. To prevent the moist coming back in and after seeking advice from some local experts, we decided on a solid construction for all exterior walls, existing off:

• Foamboard
• Air layer
• A wooden frame
• A vapour barrier behind the wooden frame
• Glass wool within this wooden frame
• Fireproof gip board (which declares the beautiful pink colour:))

In total, this construction added 10 CM on the inside of the exterior walls!

Although we demolished a few walls, we have also built up a new one. We created a dividing wall between the new laundry room (that gives access to the boiler room) and the common area.

With all this amazing hard work being done, the walls were ready for some plastering! More about this in a later blog….

Downhill mountain biking

A summer activity you see in many ski resorts around the world is downhill mountain biking. Since the lift infrastructure is there it’s an awesome way to create some business in summer as well. In Japan, ski resorts slowly but surely start to realize this. Our friend Sam (www.gomyoko.com) is developing the region Madarao and Myoko region as a whole year around the tourist area. One of the things he is trying to draw more attention to is downhill mountain biking. The good thing about Madarao is that there already is a track and a bike rental! We definitely see a lot of potential for an awesome summer activity! Of course, we had to try it out ourselves first, so we hopped on the chair lift and zipped down the trail. A nice cooling down afterwards in lake Nojiri made it a perfect day off!

The Lamp

Having lived at Nojiriko last winter, guesthouse and restaurant The Lamp was only 500m away from us. A great place run by a nice crew of young people where you can just have a coffee and do some work, have one of their amazing burgers for lunch or go for dinner at night. During summer, being surrounded by the mountains and situated right at the lake, The Lamp appears to be a famous getaway to cool down from the heat, humidity and busy life in the cities. Next to sleeping and eating, they organize a yearly SUP festival and many other activities throughout the year. Join one of their SUP or Kayak tours during summer, or a snowshoe tour during winter. Another must-do on one of your nights during your stay in the mountains around Myoko and Madarao is to have their amazing Nabe (Japanese hotpot, make sure you reserve in advance). Even better, it includes a shuttle service from and to your accommodation which suits perfectly with their all you can drink add- -on;)

While we’re counting down the days until the first snow, there is still some work to do! In the coming weeks we will post more frequently, because the lodge is changing rapidly at the moment. Thanks for showing your interest in our project. We are getting more excited every day and hope to welcome you soon in the Japan Snowsports Lodge! The next blog, Merel will show you around in our kitchen!

The post Blog #4: floors and walls appeared first on Japan Snowsports.

Welcome to our blog and thanks for taking the time to read our first post! The first post of a series where we take you through our adventure of purchasing a ski lodge and starting a company in Japan. For the ones who haven’t met us somewhere in the snow yet: who are we?

Nice to meet you! We are Annemiek (Annie) and Merijn (Dutchie), a couple from The Netherlands. Regardless of the flat character of our home country, together we have 19 years of experience teaching skiing and snowboarding.

While following the snow, Annie works remotely as a ‘digital snowmad’, developing e-learning courses for companies all over the world. Dutchie has been teaching in lots of different outdoor sports since 2000 and passionate about teaching. He is always searching for new ways to make your turns feel better. His off snow career is located in the kitchen working as a chef for several restaurants in Amsterdam. Read more at the ‘About us’ page.

After having ‘lived the live’ in the ski industry all around the world, we had reached that age that you feel you have to decide what to do with your grown-up life. Since the snow is our happy place, it was clear that we wanted to stay in the industry. To be able to survive in the ski industry for longer than 1 gap year you have a few options:

1. You are good enough to become a trainer/examiner for the ski association.
2. You have to start your own business.

It was obvious for us we had to go for the second option. Another clear fact was that Japan was part of the long term plan. Japan Snowsports was born!

Part of the dream was to have our own place in Japan. Especially, since purchasing real estate in Japan was a better shot for us than buying a house in Amsterdam (yes, it’s ridiculously affordable but don’t spread the word please). The place would be a place to live in for ourselves, big enough to host friends and family visiting, and maybe some of our own customers. Wait a minute, what went wrong there? We fell in love with a lodge…

Sooner than expected an opportunity came up. It wasn’t just a house though but a lodge, with 11 rooms, in Madarao ski resort. We didn’t particularly focus on Madarao however when we started looking into the location we realized it is ideally located, centred in between the resorts where we like to take our customers. On top of that, the walking distance to the slopes of Madarao ski resort was a big plus. We decided to do an offer. Meanwhile, we set up a crowdfunding initiative amongst close friends and family. This went better as expected (for which we are incredibly thankful!!!) and before we realised we gathered enough to be able to buy the lodge! After having seen it in real life, the decision was easy. LET’S DO IT.

On the 20^th of June 2019, the previous owner handed us the key and we could enter our new home in Japan. The adventure began! Although, and most probably because we are coming to Japan for several years now, we knew this journey was going to become a challenging one for sure. Starting up a company and renovating a lodge in a country where you don’t speak the language, and where running from desk to desk to authorize some paperwork still provides many people full-time jobs. This is the journey we would like to take you on during these blog posts. Next to writing about the progress of the renovations, we will add in other information, like outdoor activities, culture and food we discovered in our little free time during our first summer here in Japan.

Hiking Madarao Peak

We have found out summer in Japan can be wet, hot and humid. Especially June and July. And then out of nothing, when August hits, it turns hot and dry. This is also when the Japanese schools have their holiday (Obon), the time of festivals (Matsuri) and the time to enjoy the outdoors.

Having the mountains in our back yard we had to enjoy those few sunny days in July. You can climb Madarao Peak from different angles. It’s an easy short hike and your effort gets well rewarded with awesome views over Lake Nojiriko.

El Bosco, Nojiriko

This week we highlight Hotel Restaurant El Bosco in Nojiriko. Surrounded by the forest and located right on the lakeside of lake Nojiri this hotel is a peaceful getaway from the city. The big windows all over the building allow you to fully absorb the beauty of the nature around it. The kitchen of the restaurant is lead by a Japanese chef who serves good quality French-style cuisine food, with a touch of Japan by using local seasonal ingredients. A perfect location to celebrate Annie’s birthday!

During the coming months while we are waiting for the snow to fall we will keep you updated of the progress on a regular base. The next post will be about: Demolition. We would love to hear a word from you in the comments below. Do you have a question about the renovation, the lodge, the snowsports school, or anything else? Post a comment, send us an e-mail or contact us via one of our social media channels.

The post #1 The purchase appeared first on Japan Snowsports.