Nekoyama Snowboarding Trip

Snowboarding
January 12, 2008

On Friday, I scrambled to get a trip together for Tara and me to go snowboarding. It wasn’t impossible, just hard since I don’t speak Japanese. I had to enlist the help of some of my teachers and, of course, Naoko. It all worked out though and come Saturday morning, we were on the bus headed to Hiroshima prefecture to Nekoyama.

We left our apartment at 6:20 and had to turn around only once after realizing that I didn’t have my ticket. I was just so excited that I forgot to pack it. J Back on the road, we headed to the bus station where we leaded the bus (in the dark, mind you) and started on our 3 hour way.

When we got close to the ski resort, there was ice on the road. Being from Alabama, I was not familiar with this and it scared me. I swore I could feel the bus sliding off the road, but Tara (from Iowa) told me that we weren’t. It was so cool to see snow! I haven’t seen snow in so long and it was so pretty. I think a lot of it was fake (from snow machines) but it was still awesome.

We got off the bus and went to the lodge, careful not to slip in the icy street. In the lodge, we picked up our rented gear (boots and snowboards) and then changed into our snowboarding clothes. Thank goodness I spent so long in Mountain High Outfitters while I was in Alabama. I had everything I needed to look amazing and professional AND stay warm and dry.

Tara and I got some lessons at the resort. The lesson was for just the two of us and it was for two hours. It was great! The best part was when our instructor came out and looked at me and said, “I know you!” I did know her. I had met her before in my city when we had all gone out one night. She is friends with a group of people that I know. She is Japanese but speaks some English so she ended up being a great teacher!

First she taught us how to stretch (we should have done more of that). Then we learned how to strap ourselves into the bindings on the snowboard. She attempted to teach us how to walk. I was TERRIBLE at it. I kept sliding all over the place and falling down. It was quite hilarious, but frustrating at the same time. Then she taught us how to slide with two feet on the board, distributing our weight and using our toes to stay in control. It was hard but fun.

Next was the ski lift. That was like going on a ride at Six Flags. J I did a great job the first two times on the lift. When it was my turn to get off, I aced it! I slid right off and was really graceful. Tara, on the other hand, got off and fell. It’s okay though, we were beginners.



We walked our way to the top of the mountain and strapped in our other foot and then learned how to stand up on our snowboards. Then we were off. It’s all about balance, which is funny, because I could snowboard okay and control myself and stop and start pretty well, even though I can’t walk across a room without falling down. haha I would get going pretty well and do fine for a little while but then I would go fast and it would scare me so I would throw myself down in the ground instead of trying to stop. I did that for awhile until I finally got the hang of it and started using my toes.

We went down the mountain a total of four times. For beginners, I think that was a pretty good amount (or maybe it wasn’t, who knows). The first couple of times were really hard and I wiped out quite a few times. The last couple of times I did much better and even had some long runs on the snowboard!

I am so glad that I got my first time over with and had lessons with Yoko. When I go to Hokkaido next month I will be ready to try again. I will also know to take a HOT bath every night because of the pain that I am in today!!

Sweet Home Alabama

Leaving Japan for a Much Deserved Vacation
Saturday, December 22, 2007

Tara and I did not go to bed last night, but instead we spent the time cleaning, doing last minute packing, and just staying awake. Our theory was that if we stayed up all night, we would be able to sleep through the whole plane ride. Here I am on the plane…not sleeping. That’s not really fair to say though because I have slept about 6 hours of the ride which is half.

It was so surreal actually making the journey to get to the station. It wasn’t like just driving to the airport at home; it was much more extensive than that. First we have to go to the train station in town. Then we rode the Shinkansen (fast train) to Osaka. From Osaka we switched trains to a local train line that took us straight into the airport. That took us about two hours.

When we got here we had to go pick up all of the luggage that we sent ahead. It was well worth the money I spend to send my bags earlier in the week. They were so big and bulky that trying to ride and change trains with them would have been a nightmare.

We got in like to check out luggage. Between the 6 of us going to America, there were 15 pieced of luggage. I am not going to tell you how many of those were mine! That was terrible but we did it. We thought we were going to have a long time to shop around duty free, but by the time we grabbed lunch and got through security, it was past time to board out flight.

Tara and I didn’t fare too well with security today. We had SO much stuff that had to go into separate trays…cell phones, computers, our liquids baggie, coats, purses, etc. It was comical. Then Tara kept setting the machine off. She has to undress piece by piece…belt, shoes, scarf, etc. She STILL was beeping so they had to do the wand. While that was going on, I was setting the thing off with my shoes. I had to take off my shoes and go back and forth through the thing. Finally I stopped beeping and then he had to run my shoes through. Tara and I were thinking, “We don’t want to hurt anyone. We just want to shop duty free!!!” That idea was shot though; there would be no duty free shopping in my future today. :( Probably for the better though.