Yesterday, Today and Possibly Tomorrow.

So after a typical snow resort breakfast, it was time for Dean and I to venture into the great unknown.

We walked up the road, and found a place that hired board and bindings for 6300Yen. So I did that, and then Dean paid for the lift passes which were more expensive (but still cheaper than Aus)

Once we got ourselves all organised, it was time to hit the slopes... Damn icy.. There was quite a bit of rain on Saturday and it had caused an ice crust to be formed on the surface... not the nice powder we had hoped for. Anyway we strapped up with board and bindings and headed down a green run. BAM.. Straight back into it. I went down the whole run without a stack, while Dean hit a bit of ice on the edge of the run and fell over. We explored around a bit and found that most of the runs were in similar condition, and the areas where the groomers had been looked like corduroy with ice in the gaps.

Stopped at about 12.30 for lunch, loaded up with some Gyuudon (beef on rice) and kept going. Explored some other areas of the resort and found a really fun green run with lots of hairpins, some sweeping turns and fences. I think I fell over once in this whole time but nothing major. We headed back across the valley to Ichinose Diamond area and did some smaller runs, but the icy conditions made it harder to enjoy. Dean also fell down hard on his knees, so he was in a little bit of discomfort.

We headed back over towards Family and Takamagahara because it was less icy and kept going for another couple of hours before stopping for a beer at about 3.30. We did this because carbs are good when doing a lot of exercise, and because the weather outside had started getting heavier. The wind picked up and the snow started falling. First sporatically, then heavier, until the visibility made things hard to see. We decided to head back up so we could get across to the area our hotel is. This proved a tad difficult as the only way we could do this was by heading across the bottom of a mogul run... Looks like bubble wrap, but is almost impossible for snowboarders to get down or across in. It took us a little time but after being toe side our calves were burning. We finally made it back to Ichinose Family a little tired. After unstrapping, we walked down to our hotel and packed up for the afternoon.

After the poor previous nights effort, we decided to skip dinner at the restaurant in our hotel. Dean was complaining of stomach pains, but we journeyed out into the snow and headed up the hill. We found a place called "Ethnic Beer Curry House" so decided that looked a goa (pun intended). Actually it turned out that it was a nepalese curry house and they had their own tandoor oven, and made the own naan bread. All of us at well and for only 5300Yen. Mum and I got the tandoori chicken for 700Y each. It was basically half a chicken each and we also ordered some naan bread. Dean and Whitney got the 2 curry set, which had 2 curry's of your choice, a gigantic naan and some salad for 1000Y each.

Getting back proved a tad chilly with the conditions getting a lot more snowy. We decided to skip the road as it was getting icy and headed across the bottom end of Ichinose family (all hotels are virtually ski in ski out). The snow had started to do its job, because although I had my snow pants on, I was only wearing my Etnies with a pair of anklet socks. They were fine, until the snow decided to be higher than my shoe and got around the back.. Nippy to say the least.

Went back to the room, had a bath then crashed out. Snowboarding tires you something fierce.

Woke up this morning and looked out the window. Looks to be about 10cm of new snow overnight (nothing on the roof yesterday, a great block of snow now). Should make for a better days snowboarding.

Well, I'll update again either this afternoon, or tomorrow morning, but I'll put pictures up when I'm not using the computer in the lobby.