(Insert witty title here)

So it had come to Friday. I wanted to get out as soon as possible after missing so much time yesterday, but my body wanted to sleep. So I pummelled it into submission. We went downstairs for breakfast, and although they had more eggs this time, they were cold. They also had gratin in a crabshell which looked interesting but I wasn't up for it.

So after fueling up, we got out, albeit rather slowly and went down the black run at the top of Ichinose. We wanted to avoid all the ski schoolers again, and as we got on, there were about 10 groups ready to pile on to the lift. Only problem was that the black run was a bit steep for Conrad's liking, so he slid down most of it on his bum.

We decided to head over to Yakebitai-yama, which Dean and I hadn't got to last year. We played around there for the morning, stopping for lunch at the Prince Hotel South Wing's restaurant. Food was overpriced compared to everywhere else around, so we decided to head over to Hoppo afterwards for a beer. Yakebitai-yama seems to burn your legs though, because although there are green and red runs, they're pretty much straight down (no corners or such).

It was good to get back to our favourite areas of Ichinose/Terakoya/Higashidate/Hoppo. We had a fairly good run down because all the ski schoolers had started heading home, but we were lacking energy. Dean caught an edge which caused him to stack, tearing his abs. Snowboarding works the abs and the legs like nothing else, so they were all tight already. But tensing your tight stomach muscles while falling is a good way to hurt yourself. Silly thing was that about 2 minutes later, I had a bail and did the same thing, although not as harshly as Dean. I've done it before though when we went to Perisher a couple of years back, so I know the pain he's in.

We stopped for a prolonged beer, before heading to Nishidate-yama. We hadn't really had a play here last year, but we were heading back towards Ichinose, so we didn't stick around. After flying down then getting across the bridge to Takamagahara, we caught another lift up. We headed back for Higashidate-yama, but at the end of the run it was no good. Dean was a broken man and I had run out of energy. After getting the gondola up, Dean headed back for the hotel, while I stayed with Conrad. We did a couple of runs before getting the last lift at 4pm. Just as well, because my body was calling time. We walked back to the hotel and rested/relaxed for the next couple of hours before heading to Kamoshka (nepalese place) for dinner. Conrad and I, and mum and Whitney share a tandoori bbq each which is quite filling. If the good amount of meat doesn't fill you up, the gigantic naan and curry will. Dean was grumbling again (understandable), so we head back to the hotel via the convenience store. A half an hour of crazy tv watching and we were ready for lights out.

Pics I took today are here (including some bruises on my arms)