Japan - Day 10 - Lowell finally gets to ski.

29th December, 2007

I woke up today hoping for clear skies and new snow from last night.  Since it was raining when I went to sleep, I figured it must have turned to snow overnight.  Wrong!  It was still raining.  Hard.  I had already planned to wake up early and see if the conditions were good for the day.  One of the guys staying here, Malcolm, let me in on a secret resort just two train stops down the line.  It's a small family resort called Yanuba.  The cost:  1000 yen.  (Approximately $10.)  That's much cheaper than the 4600 yen I paid yesterday for my wonderful half day of skiing.  But with the rain pouring down, we decided to wait a few hours.  And we were rewarded!  The clouds broke, revealing clear blue skies.  So we caught the 10:01 train and were on our way.  Malcolm warned me that the walk from the train station was really long.  About two minutes worth of walking and we'd be there. 

Well, he lied.  It only took us about a minute and a half to walk from the train station to the ticket window.  We stored our stuff downstairs and headed to the lift.  Since this is a small ski resort, the lift run took about two minutes and we were ready to exit the lift.  Now the fun begins.  My first attempt at getting off the lift ended up with me planted on the slope right under the exit.  Very graceful!  I managed to get out of the way, and after dusting off my bruised ego, I was up and ready to go.  We had a nice leisurely ski down to the base and we were right back on the lift.  The line was very long.  We must have waited behind at least three groups of skiers. 

The views from the top were spectacular, and the skiing was great.  Parts of the mountain were a bit slushy, though, since the weather was warm.  This resulted in a rather comical episode.  While skiing down one of the runs, my left ski dug a 15-foot long, 1-foot deep gash in the snow.  (See the picture below...)  With my stellar balance and skill, I managed to tumble a few times while crashing.  This created another fairly large dent in the slushy snow.  I picked myself back up and managed to make it down to the lift.  Other than a few more tumbles, I had a great day skiing.  I only created one more gash in the snow.  And this time, I somehow kept my balance and didn't face plant.

My smile lasted all day as the skiing was good and the company on the lift was great.
 

Since I didn't want to break my camera if I took a few tumbles, I took pictures using a disposable camera.  You'll have to wait a while before I get them developed and can put them up here.  Trust me, if the pictures turn out, it will be worth the wait.  The setting was beautiful!  (Editor's Note:  Alright, the pictures didn't turn out all that great.  It was a disposable camera, after all.  But I added a few pictures here anyway.)

Here are a few pictures, including some taken with the disposable camera mentioned above.