053 Solo Snowboarding Trip to Nagano

I recently went on a solo snowboarding trip to Nagano, so in this episode, I'll be talking about some thoughts I had on the trip, as well as a few silly stories of things that I noticed. As always, I'll be speaking at a "Kuli English" level (about 700 TOEIC), which is perfect for easy background English listening practice.

Chapter Bookmarks:

00:00 Start

02:04 Deciding on a hotel

08:52 The buffet and the girl who doesn't like miso soup

16:41 No shower, but yes sento

30:31 Final thoughts on the perks of a solo trip over a group trip

Transcript

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Kuli English Podcast. As always, it's me, your host, Chris. So today is episode 53, and I'm not really sure if you've noticed, but my voice is a little bit lower than it normally is.

And it's not because I'm sick or anything like that, it's just because I'm recording this podcast a little bit earlier in the morning than I normally do. And I think after I wake up, I don't know if this is the same for everyone else, but just for me, and it's always been like this for me, every time I wake up, probably for the first two or three hours, my voice is a little bit lower. And then, you know, as the day passes and it's in the evening or something, then my voice kind of returns to normal.

And I might also sound a little bit more nasally, so nasally meaning it sounds like my nose is kind of stuffy or something like that. But it's actually not because I'm sick, so I promise you I'm feeling fine. And in this episode, I want to talk to you about, I guess, my recent trip.

So I took like a solo snowboarding trip. Solo meaning by myself, and then I went snowboarding at this place called Shiga Kogen. And it's a little bit later in the year, so it's not really like the main ski season.

Like the main ski season is like during normal winter time, you know, like maybe December or like January, February. Even March is kind of like ski time. But then in April, like things start to change and, you know, the prices go down, but the snow also goes away.

So I'm going to be telling you about not just the snowboarding part, but also, I guess, the solo trip part, because I haven't really been on that many like solo trips in my life. And I spent like, I guess, a week just by myself and I didn't really talk to anybody. So let me go ahead and tell you about that.

But as always, first, we take a short little music break. 

Okay, so let's go and talk about the stuff. So first of all, even before I actually went on the trip, I guess before you go on any trip, you always have to plan it, right? Well, maybe there are some people that don't do any planning, but I think most people, they try to do at least some planning.

So, you know, I want to know like what days I'm going, how I'm going to get there. So am I going to like fly or am I going to take a train? And then like, where am I going to stay? As in, like, where am I going to stay overnight, like the hotel? And I guess uhh, normally I travel in groups or like at least one other person. And so like a solo trip is kind of different.

I mean, I feel like as I say this, most people will just think, oh, that's of course, that's how it is, like a solo trip, you're by yourself. So, of course, you plan it by yourself.

But like I've never planned like a kind of a longer trip by myself. And so it's actually pretty easy. You just like kind of look at your own calendar and then you decide the days.

And normally, like if you try to plan with a group, you have to ask everybody. And so, you know, if there's like one other person, you got to ask that person like, hey, are you free on, I don't know, like April 8th or something? Are you free on the weekend of April 12th? Or you have to ask and they have to respond. And they'll say like, oh, I'm not free the 8th, but I'm free the 12th or something like that.

And then you have to kind of like pick a time that works for everybody. And it's so much harder if you have a bunch of people. If you have like, I don't know, four people or five people, then you have to like double check.

OK, does this work for everybody? And you have like a group chat and you have to wait for people to like react with a thumbs up or like they have to say some message. It's kind of annoying. But I guess if you're traveling by yourself, you only have a group of one.

So you just talk to yourself and then you say, oh, do I want to go this week? Do I want to go next week? And then and then you just you're like done. Oopsies, I hit the cord. But so that's like pretty easy for the timing stuff.

And then and then I guess I don't know. I feel like when I plan trips, I feel like I have to put a certain amount of effort. So if I don't put enough effort, I feel like I'm not doing my job or something.

So if there's like a group of people, then I'll try to like look up stuff a little bit and suggest a couple of things. That way I'm like contributing because I don't want to be like a freeloader. A freeloader being someone meaning like someone who just doesn't do anything and then other people do stuff for them.

But so like I planned like the days of the trip like really easily. And then I was like, OK, well, maybe I got to I have to do more work planning because like something about me feels bad if I don't do enough planning. So then I was looking at a lot of like I guess different hotels and places to stay.

And normally I don't look that much. But I think I think just because I felt like I had to do something. I like looked at a bunch of different places and then I finally picked this place that was like apparently it's a ski in.

So ski in, I guess it means that the hotel or the place that you're going to stay, it's so close to like the snowboarding area to the ski area that you can just walk from your hotel and then you can start snowboarding or skiing. So that's called ski in, ski in, ski out. And it means like you can kind of ski from the path that you normally ski and then kind of go to your hotel or like the place where you're staying.

So I picked this place that's like a ski in place and was based on the ratings and stuff. And there were a couple other options, but I spent so much time like choosing between them that I think afterwards, I actually I was kind of curious how long I spent looking at it. And I think I spent like like three hours just looking at hotels or something like that.

And then I thought to myself, maybe this is too much. I think in the end, if I didn't spend that much time like looking at this stuff, it's probably also fine. But I really like the place.

And it's not even that because I looked at a lot of places, I picked a good place. Like I think a lot of it is just luck. So I happened to pick this place because the pictures look nice.

In particular, the buffet. So like I guess the stuff that I cared about was like location. So I wanted it to be kind of close so that I can go snowboarding.

And then I also want it to be like a reasonable price. I don't want to have to pay like twice the price of other places and also the food. So like I looked at the pictures and it was like, oh, we have like food.

So every morning we give you breakfast and it's a buffet. It's not like, you know, you get a small little piece of bread and some yogurt. It's like a full on all you can eat buffet.

And I do like buffets. So there was that, not just for breakfast, but also for dinner. And then, oh, man, like when I actually went, let me tell you, the buffet was was great.

Like I was super happy with the buffet. And I booked it via this app called Agoda. So this is not an advertisement.

I don't do advertisements. But like, you know, you have a couple different options for booking things. You can book it directly through the website, which is usually the best.

Or you can book it through, I don't know, maybe like hotels.com, Expedia. And then I use this app called Agoda. And Agoda, I also had credit in Agoda.

So that's why I booked this one. So I can use that credit before it expires. And then like through Agoda, they had some special deal where they were like, oh, if you book with Agoda, you also get like free meals.

So your breakfast and your dinner is included. So no lunch, but you get breakfast and dinner for free, like every day that you stay there. So then you'll never guess what I ate every single day.

I just ate at the hotel. And I ate as much as I could because it's an all you can eat buffet. And I think at first I wasn't really expecting that much.

But like, well, the first day I went, it took like four hours. So like I left my door. And then like until I actually got to the hotel, it's about like a four and a half hour trip.

And this includes like taking the train. I have to take the train. I have to transfer to take a Shinkansen.

And the Shinkansen goes to Nagano. And then in Nagano, then that's where like the mountain is. So then from the main station, I have to take like a bus.

And then I take the bus to the place. I have to walk from the place that the bus stops at to the actual hotel. And the whole thing takes about like four and a half hours.

But I was a very hungry boy. I forgot what I ate that day. I think I had a little bit of soba.

So it wasn't really that much. I had a little bit of soba in between like the transit. So after I got off the Shinkansen and I had to get on the bus, then I had some soba.

And I'm like, okay, this is probably fine. And then dinner started at 6 p.m. And then I ate so much. I think every single day I ate so much.

Normally, I don't eat that much. But I don't know. I guess I was just tired from like taking my snowboard and like my luggage and stuff.

And I just ate so much. So then, yeah, it was pretty great. So actually, let's take a short little break here. And then I'll come back and I got to tell you about some more stuff. 

Okay. So I want to tell you about the snowboarding trip, but the most important part of this is probably the food.

So I'm going to tell you a couple different stories that I noticed about like stuff when I was like on this trip. And then also, I'm not sure if you've noticed, but probably my voice is now starting to lighten up. Lighten up meaning like it's not so deep, probably because, you know, some more time has passed and it's not so early.

But anyways, let me tell you about this buffet. So in the buffet, I guess it opens at 6 p.m. for dinner, right? And so, you know, I was a hungry boy. So then I go there right at 6 p.m. I actually went a little bit before and I'm like ready.

I'm like, where's my food? And then I was there and I was the first one in. So, you know, of course, I got to take a little video. So I took like a video.

I'm like an Instagram girl. Mm, I got to take a nice video. So then I take a video of all the food.

I walk past all the food. And then they have like this area called the performance corner. And by the way, the hotel of this name is called Hotel Ichinose.

So if you ever want to like pick a place in that area and you like these stories about what I'm saying, it sounds like a good place, then you can stay there. But there are a lot of options. But anyways, like I took like a video.

And then, you know, as normal, then I like take my food and then I sit down and then I'm like happy. I'm like eating. And then something I noticed was actually this hotel, there are like very few Japanese people staying.

And most of the people staying like they're not Japanese. So you can kind of hear from the language that they speak, like they speak to other people in Chinese or they speak to other people in English. And in the English that they speak, you can kind of hear a different accent.

So it's like, oh, those guys are from Australia. Oh, those guys are from the UK. Oh, those guys are from the US.

And I also heard kind of like a Scottish accent, which I think is a little bit more rare. But I remember hearing all this and then thinking like, well, that's cool, but I'm not going to talk to them. Just, you know, like there's no reason for me to talk to them and be like, hey, I heard your accent, like you must be Scottish! I don't want to do that.

But something that I noticed was because most people are, I guess, foreigners.

It's always weird saying that because like I am a foreigner. Like I'm not a Japanese person and I'm living in Japan. But then I guess after living here, a lot of people say like, you know, Japanese and foreigners and they're like opposites.

But then like for me, technically, if I'm in the US and I say foreigners, like that includes Japanese people. So it's kind of weird for me to say that. But what I mean is like non-Japanese people.

So this hotel has a lot of non-Japanese people. And then the non-Japanese people, you can see their reaction to like Japanese food. So there's like the classic stuff.

So at this buffet, they always have, I think they always had like French fries. So French fries is a universal thing. Okay, so everybody knows French fries.

Everyone's like okay with it. Nobody's going to be like, oh my God, you're eating fried potatoes. People don't have that kind of response.

It's a very known food. And then they have other stuff too. And they have like, you know, this Japanese like steak part.

And they have this one section where they just have a lot of like meat. And I guess like, you know, steak or meat is like, I think everybody kind of knows that. Of course, if you're vegetarian, then you don't eat it.

Or if you're vegan, you don't eat it. Or maybe you have some kind of like, you know, religious preference where you don't eat it. But like they have steak and then you can see the reaction, right? So I'm looking at this like white family.

And there's like a white family of like five people. And then you can see the reaction across the age groups. So there's like the parents.

And the parents look at the fries and they're thinking like, oh, I'm not really that interested in fries. I want like this Japanese steak. Oh, yeah.

Japanese steak. This is rare. And then you look at the kids' reaction.

And the kids' reaction is like super easy to understand. And the kids, they look at the fries and they're like, dude, I love fries. And they take a bunch of fries.

And so they have a plate. And it's all you can eat. So you can take as much as you want.

But the kid, the little girl, she's probably like, I don't know, seven years old. And she like took a bunch of fries. And I'm like, oh, I understand that because I also, I used to super love French fries.

And if it wasn't all you can eat, I would eat a lot of fries, of course. And then the little girl, she goes and looks at the Japanese steak and says like, oh, okay. It's just Japanese steak.

Whatever. Fries are better. So her plate is like mostly fries.

And then this is a part that I thought was kind of funny. And then they went to this part where it's like the miso soup area. And then they have like this just really big container.

And it has a lot of miso soup. And there's other toppings like mushrooms and seaweed and then like green onions. Like it's like a pretty classic fancy miso soup.

And you kind of, you scoop it yourself. And you put in however much of other stuff that you want. So if you want a lot of mushrooms, you can put more mushrooms.

If you want a lot of the seaweed, you can put that. Or, you know, no green onions. You don't have to put that.

That's fine. And then so the parents looked at it. And they just like walked past.

I think they read it and they didn't even look inside. And then the little girl, she probably, I don't know if she could like read it and understand like the name card that says the actual name of the food. It has like the name of the place and then like miso soup.

And maybe she hasn't heard of miso soup before. So then she went to go look at the container. And she like opened the container.

She looked inside. And her reaction was like, ughh. Like she seemed very disappointed.

And then like there's also off to the side, there's like a staff employee. And her job is to make sure that all the food is not empty. So if, you know, like all the fries are gone, then she'll like walk past the fries.

And then she has a walkie-talkie, like a small little phone that's not a phone, that says like, okay, we need more fries. And then like somebody will come and bring out more fries. And then so the staff, she saw the little girl's reaction, which was the little girl looked at the container of miso soup, looked inside and was like, oh.

And then like walked away without like doing anything more. And so the staff thought that it was empty. So then the staff like kind of runs over to the miso soup.

And she's thinking like, holy crap, like, you know, we had a lot of miso soup. If it's all empty, that's really bad. Like we got to take care of this.

And so the staff looks inside and sees that, oh, it's full. And then like she looks again at like the little girl. And then the little girl, she already went back to the french fries area.

So then like the staff is like, oh, okay. So this girl just has no interest in miso soup. It's not that the miso soup was empty.

It's that she has no interest in the miso soup because she's going to go get more fries. And actually, if you look at the little girl's plate, like it's already like more than half fries and she's going to get more fries. And so the staff was like, okay.

And then I think the staff member felt like a little bit embarrassed or something. So kind of looked around like, oopsies. And I saw it.

And the staff also saw me seeing the staff. But I didn't say anything. I just like looked down and continued eating.

But I thought that was pretty funny. But, yeah, the food was just really great. Like they have a bunch of food and then they have like a dim sum area.

Dim sum meaning like, I guess, Chinese food, like dumplings, like gyoza kind of stuff. And then they also have like a fruit section where they always have some fresh fruits. So I think they had strawberries like every single day.

And then sometimes they had a couple of different other fruits too. For example, like kiwis or like pineapples or something. And fruits in Japan are like considered a little bit expensive.

It's considered a little bit premium. So, of course, you know, I got to get a bunch. And then they have like yogurt.

They have like a little salad bar. They have a bunch of stuff. It was great.

Actually, let's take a short little break here. And then I'll come back and continue in a second.

Alright, so let me tell you more about this hotel. And I swear, eventually I'm going to talk about the actual snowboarding part, but I want to talk more about this hotel. So in this hotel, I guess it's because it's a solo trip for me, then I guess when I go out to eat, well it's not really out to eat, I like go down to eat, it's on the first floor.

But like when I'm leaving my room to go eat or something like that, or if I'm going to go get some water, then I'm not really talking to anyone. And that's because if I were here as a group, if I were here with my friend or I was here with a group of four people, then probably when I would go to do stuff, I would probably talk to other people along the way, like talk to my friend while we're getting water or something. But I would be socially busy.

But then because I'm alone, I hear a lot of other stuff. And I think once I went to get water, and I think basically every single time I went to get water, there was this one lady and she was always working on her laptop. And I felt kind of bad for her because she's supposed to be on vacation at this retreat in this hotel, supposed to be snowboarding.

But every single time I went to go get water, I would see her on her laptop working. And then she has a daughter. And then it's always interesting because when I see these kinds of families, I guess I relate a little bit where the parents, they are not like native English speakers.

I think that parent was Chinese. And then so that parent will speak Chinese to the kid. And there's a kid, another kid, not the white kid that was eating French fries, but a different Asian Australian kid.

And then the kid, I guess she grew up in Australia, so she talks in English and it's like a native English accent. It's a kid. And so she talks a lot.

And she's like, Mom, Mom, did you know? Like if someone asked me to stab someone, then I would just stab them with a pencil. It's called finding a loophole. Like these like random things.

And then the mom will respond in Chinese like, yeah, yeah, sure, whatever, whatever. And then the dad comes.

And then the dad like talks to the mom in some Chinese. And then like the kid will say the exact same thing. The kid will say, Hey, Dad, did you know that if someone told me that I have to stab somebody, I would stab them with a pencil.

And not a knife. It's called finding a loophole. And then the dad is like, what? The dad, I mean, you know, like he's like showing some interest.

He like doesn't care. And you look at the expression of the mom. And the mom's like, I have to deal with this every day.

So there's like this kind of stuff. But also for this hotel, something that I should mention that is potentially a downside. A downside meaning like a part that's not good is that you don't necessarily get a private shower.

So I think a lot of hotels, they have like an expectation. Like if you book a hotel, you expect, you know, I get a bed. I get like a sink.

I get a toilet and I get like a shower. I think those are pretty like basic expectations. But then in this hotel, I mean, they say it on the front page.

It's like the restroom is like public. Well, so you have your own toilet and you have your own sink, but you don't have your own shower because they have this like sento in the basement. So sento meaning kind of like an indoor onsen.

It's not actually an onsen. It's different. But it's like this really, really big like public bath area.

And this is kind of a thing in Asia, I think. Like in Korea, people know it. In Japan, people know it.

But it's not really a thing in like in the US, I think. I don't really know why. It's just like a difference.

But I really love the sento. And I think, I'm not sure if I've talked about this before. Maybe it was in a previous podcast, probably somewhere in the earlier like first 10 episodes or first 15 episodes or so.

I talked about how my apartment here in Japan, like once I didn't have hot water for like a month. So then for one month, I had to go to like the public sento like to go take a bath with naked old men. And then it's like gender separated.

So if you don't know what a sento is, it's like it's gender separated. And then they have these really, really big like warm hot water baths. And it's like pretty hot.

So you go there and then you just kind of relax. And it's different from your own bathtub. I remember once someone was asking at Japanese school when I used to go to Japanese school.

Like someone was like, hey, teacher, like what's so good about the sento? Why can't you just take a bath at home? And then the teacher was like, I guess it's like because it's just really big. Like your own bathtub, you can like maybe, you know, lay and sit down. But you can't like spread out all your limbs.

But at a sento, you can because it's like huge. It's huge. It has a lot of water and the water is like warm.

Whereas at home, maybe, you know, messing with your hot water, you have to choose the right amount of hot water. Like you don't want it too hot and you don't want it like, you know, not hot enough. But the sento is usually just right.

It's usually a very consistent temperature. And then you can sit there, relax for however long you want. And then, you know, whenever you're done, you can shower there.

But I did notice that in this like a hotel, because it's mostly foreigners, because it's mostly non-Japanese people, like I think a lot of them don't actually like the sento. And I love the sento. I'm a changed man.

I think like three years ago, I don't even know if I had been to one before. But then, you know, after living in Japan, it's like I got used to it. It's really nice. 

I actually like it more than like a shower. Like if I could go every day, then yeah, I'm fine with that. And that's what I had to do in this hotel because they don't have like a private shower.

So I had to go to the sento every day. And what I would notice at the sento is like sometimes there's like one other like old Japanese man. And it's always an old Japanese man.

There's no like young people that like were there. I think that was just me. But then sometimes you see like non-Japanese people.

And they always come in and they're wearing like a swimsuit. So they're going to like take a bath or a shower. But they want to wear a swimsuit.

And there is a sign outside that says like, you know, don't wear like clothes. Like in the Japanese sento, you're usually supposed to go butt naked. Butt naked meaning you're not like wearing anything.

So no underwear, you know, no bra, no anything. And so I see these people and they come in with like their swimming trunks like they're ready to swim. You're not supposed to do that.

But I guess I don't really care. And then when they go in, you can kind of tell from the way that they like look around. Like I think like Japanese people, when they go into the sento or like if I go into the sento, anyone who's like experienced with going to this, like you go there and you just go straight to wherever you want to go.

So if you're going to take like a short little rinse or a short little shower, you just go to that. And then after that, you walk into the like the big tub of hot water, which is the nice part. And then like you just do your stuff and you just relax and it's fine.

But then sometimes you see these non-Japanese people. And you can tell it's like their first time in a place like this. And they come and they look around.

They're like, am I supposed to take off my clothes? It's like it's kind of like the look that they're giving. And then they take off their clothes and then they have just like their like swimming trunks. And they're like, you know, walking all kind of embarrassed.

Am I supposed to just go in like this? And they go and they sit down and they take a shower like with the swimming trunks on. And then they like always look around like, am I doing the right thing? I see all this because I'm already inside the like the big hot tub area. And I'm just like I don't have anything to look at.

So I look at like the person walking in and then looking embarrassed. And then I don't know like showering or something. And then I'm just like, okay, so that person probably doesn't like the sento.

So it did make me think that this hotel, I think it's great. I had a great time. Like the food was great.

And also I really like the sento. But if you want a private shower, you might not have that. Like it depends on your room.

You could probably get a room that has a private shower. But I had a room that wasn't a private shower. And it ended up cheaper.

And also it's fine because I'm going to go to the sento. And after I go to the sento, I can shower right after that. So like I was totally fine with that.

All right. So that's enough about the hotel. And now let me actually tell you about the snowboarding part.

So if you haven't been snowboarding before, I guess I'll try to explain everything as if you have not really snowboarded before or skied before. But basically when you go snowboarding or skiing, like you have kind of two main choices. You can either rent at the place, and that's easier because you don't have to bring your gear.

Or option two, you can bring your gear. And because I have my own gear, I have my own snowboard stuff, my own helmet and things, like I would bring my own stuff. And then like when you go, you have to buy something called a lift ticket.

So the lift ticket is what allows you to like scan and then go up the lift. So the lift is like the chairlift or the gondola. It's the thing that you ride on.

And then it takes you really, really high up. And then to go down, you go down using snowboarding or skiing. And then so I think usually most places when you buy the lift tickets, you have a couple different options.

It's like, oh, do you want to buy the, I don't know, like the one hour lift ticket, which allows you to ride as much as you want for an hour? Or do you want to buy the four-hour ticket? Or do you want to buy the one-day ticket? Or do you want to buy like a multiple-day ticket? Like you have a bunch of different options. So it's actually, it's a little bit hard to pick which one's the best. But if you know what your plan is, like, oh, I'm going to snowboard the whole day and then I'm going to go home, then it's probably the one-day pass is the best.

Or if it's like, oh, I have to take the bus in like four hours, then just buying the four-hour pass is like perfect or something like that. But also depending on each place, and this is hard for even people who have gone snowboarding a lot, but it's hard to understand like which places are actually like which lift tickets. And like when you look things up, it's hard to find that information.

So I will say like in my research, I say research, but I mean like just when I was looking up where to stay, like I was trying to figure out, wait, so which are the places that I want to go to? And then which ones are connected to each other? And if I stay in this hotel, which one's the closest? And like these questions are not that easy to answer. So like, you know, I did a bunch of research online. And then I found out that actually it's kind of in the place they are usually connected.

So you can ski between them. So there's like three different mountains, and they have like they have one lift ticket where if you pay, I think it's like 7,000 yen, then you can go to like all of them. But if you only just need one area, then it's like 6,000 yen.

So it's a little bit cheaper if you say I'm only going to ski in this one area and I'm not going to go to the other areas. And then like actually in April, in April, then the whole system changes. So the prices change to be cheaper.

And then also the parts that connect the different mountains, like they stop running. So if you like are in one mountain area and you want to go to a different mountain area, then you like you kind of can't really get there easily. You have to like get out and then you have to put on like your shoes and not the snow stuff potentially, depending on if you can walk or not, carrying all your gear.

You have to take like a bus or shuttle and then like take it for, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes. And then you go to a different part and then you go up again. And that's kind of annoying.

So I don't think that's a really good thing to do. So what I generally did and probably everyone else also did the same thing is you just buy like one area ticket. And then the whole day you spend in just that one area.

And it's actually, it's not that big because in spring they close like a bunch of stuff. If it wasn't in spring, so if it was before April 1st, then a lot of the stuff would be open and you can just kind of go up any of them. And then because they're all connected, then, you know, if you know how to ski or snowboard, then you can like kind of follow the map and then like make your way to like a different mountain.

And then it'll all just work. You don't have to get on a shuttle or anything. You just go up a couple different lifts and then take a different path down.

So instead of going left, maybe you go right and then you go to like a different area. It'll have a sign that's like, oh, you are now entering the Okushiga area or something like that. So that's pretty cool.

But I guess because I went and, you know, this month is April, I went in April, then I didn't actually get to experience the full experience of like being able to go between the mountains. And that probably is really nice because, you know, I would spend each day in like one area. I pick like an area for the day and then I spend the whole day there, you know, snowboard there.

And then that's it. 

So I guess it's a little bit sad, but I still had a great time. Like the weather was kind of bad like the first day.

Like it was supposed to rain. But then instead of raining, I guess because the elevation is really high, because it's really high off the ground, it's like 2,000 meters or something. Then like instead of rain, like we just got clouds.

And there were like a bunch of clouds like blocking your vision. So, you know, when you're going snowboarding, you want to see what's in front of you. But because there's a bunch of clouds, it's like a really thick fog, like you can't see anything.

And then I was just like, OK, well, I'm not sure what to do. So I think that day, most of the people who were snowboarding, they just like kind of gave up and then went to the restaurant and then like sat there and did nothing because the fog just stayed for a long time. So the first day was kind of tough, but the next two days were fantastic.

Like it was like sunny and the snow conditions were better. So you could see very well. And seeing is very important.

You know, imagine like if you're going for a run and you can't see in front of you. Like that's really scary. And it's kind of like that.

But I guess snowboarding is faster. Skiing and snowboarding are faster than running. So that was a little bit tough.

OK, so actually maybe that's a good point. Let's take a short little break here and then I'll come back for the final section. 

All right. 

So let's make our way into this final section here. And in this final section, I know I said I was going to talk about like, you know, snowboarding stuff. And I did talk about snowboarding stuff a little bit.

But I want to focus on the solo trip part. So solo trip, again, solo means like not a group, but just one person. So you're alone. 

You're on this trip alone. And normally, I guess if you go on a trip as a group, then, you know, you have other people with you. Maybe they're your friends or maybe they're your friends' friends or something.

And like, I guess there's kind of some like unwritten rule where you kind of have to talk to them. You know, like if you're going to go eat, then you probably eat with them. And then while you're eating, you probably talk to them.

Like, you don't really go on a trip with people and then everyone just eats together in silence. I don't think that's like a very normal thing. But because you have like a group, I guess when you go and do other stuff, you always have like someone with you.

And having someone with you, there's this expectation of, OK, I'm like in a group. So I need to, you know, like socialize. I have to like talk. 

I have to like read their face. I have to like listen to what they're saying and then think about it and then like respond. So you have to like interact.

But on a solo trip, you don't have that. So I think on the solo trip, like for example, for me, I would go snowboarding. And then after I go snowboarding, I go back.

And then I don't really have anything to do. So I brought both of my computers with me because, you know, I got to run my cheating game on one laptop. And then the other laptop is for me to actually use while the other game is cheating.

But I guess I just like went to the sento, like the like the hot area. And, you know, because it's like free, right? So I got to get my value. So some of that is like because I'm cheap inside, but also just because I like it.

And then I sat there for like, I don't know, like an hour and a half or something. Of course, I take breaks. I come out, take like a small little rinse and sit and then go back in the water.

And like I think that's supposed to be good for your skin or something. But also it's just kind of nice. You like spend this time with yourself.

And let me talk about this phrase, like spend some time with yourself. You often use that phrase, spend time with someone else, like spend time with Bill or spend time with, I don't know, my best friend or something like that. And when you spend time with them, you like interact with them.

So you like talk to them, right? So if your friend is like, hey, hey, Chris, like, you know, how was your past week? And I would say, oh, yeah, it was great. Like I went and I played some games and then I won. And then, you know, something else happened.

I would like talk. So you talk and you interact. But then I guess when I say spend time with yourself, like you don't really talk to yourself because most people don't talk out loud to themselves.

Maybe you do if you're like practicing some shadowing stuff, some pronunciation. But normally, like when you're living life and not thinking about like studying language stuff, then you don't really talk to yourself. And so what happens is I think all the talking kind of happens in your own mind.

And it depends on the personality, but it depends on the person, of course. But some people, they maybe like that. And some people, they don't really like that.

And for me, I think I'm actually a big fan of that. I think it's really good to spend some time and then kind of be away from the normal stuff that you do. So for me at home, like in this home where I'm recording, I often spend a lot of like effort and like time thinking about like the podcast and thinking about like editing and thinking about the schedule of oh OK, so when can I squeeze in another recording? Do I need to redo that? So I'm like thinking about that. And then I have my distractions of like, you know, TV, like games and stuff. And then I don't know, I guess also the food that I normally eat, like I'm kind of used to it here.

But then like if you put yourself on like a trip, so it's like a new environment. So I'm like away from home, away from like the recording equipment. I'm not really thinking about it that much.

And then I'm just like alone in this hot naked bath with naked old men thinking to myself, talking to myself. I think it's actually pretty nice and it helps you kind of reset yourself. So I think like people always mention that, you know, going on a vacation will like reset you and then you can come back to work and you'll be refreshed.

Or people say, oh, you need a break. You know, you need a break from your studies as a college student. So like go on a vacation with your family and then like come back and then you'll feel refreshed.

And I think the truth is it depends on the personality. But I think some people will benefit a lot from not a group vacation because a group vacation is kind of like you're like working to play. You have to like work hard to play.

You have to plan out what to do. You got to plan out what we're going to eat for dinner. And then when you talk with your friends, you got to like, I don't know, like talk about stuff that your friends normally talk about.

And I'm not saying that's not enjoyable. Like I enjoy that. But also the solo trip is a different kind of enjoyable.

And this is I think it might have been my first. It's like one of the very few times where I've gone on a solo trip for more than a couple of days. And I actually thought this time I think I enjoyed it a lot just because I talked with myself a lot.

And then I do feel a little bit refreshed. Like I feel more like a little bit more at peace inside just a tiny bit. But, of course, it depends.

And, you know, if you don't really have anything to do, if I didn't have snowboarding, I would probably be a little bit too bored, which is not good. But just the right amount of boredom so that you can have just the right amount of conversation with yourself. I think it's actually fantastic.

So maybe that's enough for this episode. So thank you so much for listening until the end of this episode. Again, this is Kuli English podcast, and I've been your host, Chris.

And as always, if you want to support me, you can buy like subscribing or following. But remember, this podcast is for you. So if you want like more notifications, then you can subscribe.

If you don't really care, then you don't have to do anything. You can just listen when you want. Or if you don't want to listen, that's also completely fine.

You need to take care of your time. And as always, good luck with your English studies. 

Oh, and new episodes every Tuesday.

Of course. OK, now this is the end.