Hi all,
It's about 5am here on Tuesday morning. I've been up since about 4.20, which is just wrong. But I couldn't sleep, so I decided to do some prestudy and blogging.
Yesterday saw me up early as well, but at a much more reasonable hour of 5. I had gone to bed at around 9.30pm, so it was enough sleep.
Yesterday, everyone just wanted to take it easy. I suppose dragging bags around and jumping on and off various modes of transport for the past 2 days had worn them out. But breakfast was being served at 7.30, so I woke them all up at 7am.
The place we are staying seems to be a more traditional Japanese type hotel. Although we have western beds with ensuites in our rooms, there are quite a few tatami matted rooms. Breakfast is what they serve you, rather than being a buffet style type thing that a lot of other hotels have going. In truth, I prefer to be able to choose what I want to eat, but the traditional food was quite filling anyway. It consisted of a piece of dried? salmon, some shredded pickled carrot and onion, a bit of egg omelette (looks like a yellow bar), a little plate of coleslaw type mix and tomato with a japanese dressing and some cold ham, a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of a thick potato, bacon and chicken soup. There was also a pot of rice that everyone could get a good bowl or 2 from and some thick cut toast with blackberry jam. So while I didn't eat the fish (I can't eat cooked fish, makes me ill), I filled up on everything else.
I headed back to the room first to ease nature, while Dean did some blogging, and Conrad did as well. By this stage all I wanted to do was hit the slopes. I suppose I'm just used to trying to get out as early as possible because of the limited time available, but we are here a few more days than normal, so I'll have to be a little more patient.
So while Dean and Conrad were tapping away, I decided to indulge myself with a little japanese children's TV. The first show that I just caught the end of show with a Samurai with a clockwork key on top of his head, and a sword with mochi balls on it. Then was a show we remember well from last year, "You've got a quintet", or Quintet for short. The theme song gets stuck in your head. It's got 4 muppet like characters that play violin, cello, trumpet and clarinet, while Akira plays the piano. It's a little silly, but it's a good way to liven up classical music, and have a song. I had to show Conrad, because up until now we haven't really had the chance to watch any japanese tv.
After that was on, I went downstairs to find Dean who was still tapping away furiously. Not that I mind him sharing his thoughts with the world, but I was getting antsy to be on the slopes. That was about 9am... We didn't even get suited up and out the door til 10....
I must mention too that it had started snowing. When I woke mum and whitney up at 7 it was just starting to fall, but very lightly and the roof outside our room was bare to start with. After breakfast it started getting heavier (bigger flakes, more of them) so by the time we got ready there was now about 2cm of snow on the roof. We got ready and headed out for the first run of the day, and decided to do the same run as the day before, because Conrad was still getting used to being on a board. We did one ore 2 runs of that, before heading across to Takamagahara. While neither me or Dean find the slope very interesting (straight down, with hard packed snow) Takamagahara has got a pizza shop so after getting down there we decided to stop for a bit of lunch at 11.30. Time for pizza and beer... I don't think Conrad had anticipated the amount of endurance needed for snowboarding, or the amount of food you feel like eating because of the energy consumption. Needless to say, he wolfed down the salami pizza and Shiga Kogen Porter ale he had, which for Conrad is a miracle, because he is a very slow eater.
After getting ourselves together, we caught the Takamagahara quad lift up to the top, then went for a green run towards Higashidate-yama. Personally I love this run as although it is a bit thin in areas, with trees either side, you can carry your speed well, and it leads to a few hairpins before you get to the bottom gondola. Dean had to race ahead while I stayed with Conrad, so we met up at the Gondola and had a hot coffee can. We then got in the gondola, and although me and Dean fit with our snowboards, there was simply no room for Conrad and his, so he caught the next one.
Up the top, we noticed that Conrad had a stupid amount of angle on his front foot. He reckons he set it at +15 deg, but it was closer to 30 now with the back being about -15. After fiddling around for a while we set the front foot back flatter to about +12 and the rear foot to -6 or so. This must have been a major source of trouble for Conrad because after being a little wobbly to start with, as he got used to the new settings, he found rocking from heelside to toeside much easier. We kept on going and after doing a run back towards Ichinose, then down Conrad's test run, he was stuffed, so me and Dean left him to have a drink and a rest then headed up for run by ourselves. You realise how much constantly stopping/slowing down and waiting for someone takes a toll on your calves, because me and Dean flew down the red run (a whole heap of ski schoolers were clogging up the green Conrad run) we didn't feel half as sore or tight as we do when teaching Conrad.
So far I haven't seen any english lessons (I know there are some) but the 1/2 on 1 teaching was probably better for Con because he was getting it much better than me and Dean did when we first started.
A few more runs and it was getting late, so we caught the last lift before it stopped and after a slow run down where Conrad fell over a bit (a sign of tiredness/lack of energy) we called it a day. Before heading back to the hotel we stopped at the Yamazaki mini convenience store across from the lifts, and Dean and Conrad trialled some new drinks, while I got some lip balm (Water in Lip!) then headed back to the hotel. By this stage we were all tight, so a quick soak in the onsen (its probably 50deg C water in there!) helped relieve some muscle tension.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the Japanese seem strange to us at times. They aren't cool with public displays of affection, but think nothing of nuding it up in front of other males/females. Fortunately as was giving myself a wash before going in (you have to clean yourself before getting into the onsen) the 2 naked guys left so there was just Conrad, Dean and I in our swimmers enjoying a soak. You also have to wash afterwards as well, so a wash off with some cold water (I was looking like a lobster by now) and I was feeling refreshed. Conrad must have been feeling really refreshed, because if we hadn't got out, I think he would have fallen asleep in the onsen! He was still hammered though, so he went to his room for a rest, while Dean and I went downstairs for some more internet. It was now getting on, it was about 6.30 and time to start getting hungry. After getting ready/rugged up, we headed downhill to the Austrian bar at the Chalet Shiga. It's a little bar with a big screen showing winter sports, but as the winter olympics are on at the moment, everywhere seems to be playing that. Me and mum ordered a 40th Anniversary Ale (It was very fruity, but boy it packs a punch), while Dean and Conrad got the Chalet set which is a pot of each of the 4 tap beers for 1000Y. Instead of the Shiga Kogen brewery beers they had last time, they had a few different ones. They had the Takashi Stout (which Conrad liked), the 40th Anniversary ale, a Pale Ale and a Draft Pale Ale.
For dinner, Conrad and Whitney got the spaghetti bolognaise, Mum got the spaghetti carbonara, I got the Penne Arabiatta (which was nice and spicy) while Dean got the mixed sausages and some fried chicken. This bar isn't the cheapest place to eat, but not too expensive either and the food is good. After a walk uphill, we stopped at the other convenience shop just up from our hotel. Mum and Whitney had come here during the day and got a Creme Caramel, which was supposed to be very good, but unfortunately when we had got there, it had all sold out. So I got a Coffee jelly with whipped cream, while I got Dean a custard thing that looked like a creme caramel, but wasn't caramel-y. We ate these, but by this time we were all stuffed, so lights out at 9.
I took a couple of photos, but they were all at night. I'll get some more of the slopes/snow/village today.
No comments:
Post a Comment