Snowboarding

I went snowboarding recently all by myself because I wanted to practice. My first snow of the year！ I have finally mastered carving (turning back and forth) (^o^)/
However, I fell pretty badly and suffered a bruised rib (--;) This made sleeping uncomfortable for a few nights, but I’m almost better now... ready to go boarding again！ (^-^;
In other news, my best friend, Jen has left Japan. Obviously I'm sad,  hope I can see her again someday, somewhere!!!


p.s. This was my first blog entry via my smart phone; apparently it doesn't allow for high quality photo uploading. Unfortunately my camera is broken.

Snowboarding and Matsumoto

Snowboarding with Aeon staff Kaoru, Aki and Simon

 

 Such a beautiful view!

I'm getting better at snowboarding, but never has my bum hurt sooo much from falling down!!! And the muscle pain which lasted about 3 days left me practically paralyzed in the mornings. Maybe I need to improve my warm-up stretching routine..

Sightseeing in Matsumoto - 松本旅行

Since Jen and I visited Nagano city last Winter holiday and saw the Snow Monkeys (click here to re-read) we've decided to make it an annual destination. This time we visited Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture as a day-trip. 

The 500-year old castle is considered a National Treasure of Japan. Although during the 1500s several hundred castles were built in Japan, only 12 survive intact to this day due to earthquake or fire. Unlike European medieval castles, Japanese castles were built mainly of wood.

Unfortunately, on the day Jen and I visited, the interior wasn't open to the public, so we just walked around the grounds and admired it.

 

Drinking warm amazake, sweet rice wine

 We wandered along the traditional-styled streets, populated with stalls, shrines and frog statues.

Golden Week Part 4

Monday 3rd May: Snowboarding After catching the night bus, I got off the bus at a service station on the highway, and was picked up by Ryuta, Yuki and Simon in the early hours of the morning.
We drove to Marunoma Skii resort in Gunma Prefecture. It was one of the last skii resorts open, and a lot of the snow had melted when we got there :(

So long, snowboarding- until next year!!!!!

Snowboarding

I went snowboarding with my coworker Simon and a student, Koichi in Kagura, Niigata Prefecture. It was awesome with amazing views!

Eating sasadango- rice cake wrapped in a bamboo leaf

I am the snowboarding ninja!

Afterwards we went to a hot spring, where I had the women's bath all to myself in the snow!

I Won't Get Board of Doing This!

Snow Park Oze Tokura, Gunma Prefecture 

Thursday Feb 11th is National Foundation Day a.k.a. a day off from work. Some of my coworkers (we were a group of 7) and I met up at 5am Thursday morning to drive to Gunma Prefecture, some 250 km NorthWest of Tokyo.
I borrowed wear from my coworker, and hired the boots and board.

We started at 8.30am, and walking up the side of the baby slope in heavy boots was a challenge itself! But the real challenge for a first-time-boarder was actually getting up and being able to stand on the board! It's not easy when you're not used to it!!! It took me a lot of practice, energy, abs muscles a whole hour to finally stand up for the first time!! The next challenge was staying up on the board!! I was extremely thankful for the bum padding I was lent!!

Once I was able to get up, I found the actual snowboarding and balancing bits quite easy; I've been ice skating several times and that balancing instinct helped a lot.

We hit the tallest mountain and I managed to board down it only falling down three times! I zig-zaged my way down down for a long distance, though the that was very challenging for my leg muscles! It was extremely enjoyable to snowboard in the snow with beautiful, misty scenery :)

The weather turned after we stopped to have lunch, and the face of the mountain was resurfaced with fresh powder snow. This produced a new challenge as this increased my board's speed dramatically and I initially found it harder to control the board, but at least it made for a softer landing!!

We finished boarding at 3.15pm. Our minds wanted to keep snowboarding, but our bodies were already aching and crying out for us to stop!!

At home, I had a long hot soak in my Japanese-style bath ofuru (a short, deep bath), as it is a Japanese tradition to usually go to a hot spring after boarding.

Today at work, having three energetic kids classes was very tough on my stiff, achy body!! But even so, I can't wait to snowboard again!!

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Multitasking when snowboarding is a bad combination.