Wizard Winter

Woah! Another two weeks since my last update! Where on earth did that time go. Ok well, I can partly answer that actually. The time went to freezing my genitals off in the depths of the Japanese winter. Thankfully my kerosene heater has been trusty in combating the low temperatures, but I'm certain it's starting to make me insane. Snow days have been sporadic. Allow me to describe a 'typical' - but short - snow experience here:

[ I wake up. My shoji screens are shut and it looks alarmingly bright outside, but it's time to get ready for work so I don't think any more about it. I open my front door and find the world is coated in white, about which, depending on how late I am for work, I am either joyous or not so. I head to the lump of white outside my house, expecting to have to spend 10-15 minutes chiselling my car out of it. To my surprise the snow resembles millions upon millions of tiny polystyrene beads (!), and although thick and heavy, is easy to remove. Fast forward through the day and I'm leaving work, the sun having been out all day. 90% of all snow has melted and evaporated, with only chunks of ice laying in sunless areas of the village, under thick trees, etc. The following day there is no sign that snow covered everything the day before. ]

So, wizard weather here in Japan. Some days I expect to find a bespectacled kid wandering around and waving a short pointy stick while muttering to himself.

Other recent shennigans:

Mardi Gras Party - 13th Feb

A few of us southern Nagano JETs congregated around Marions for a celebration of Mardi Gras. I never knew what Et Tu Fais (sic?) was before, now I do. I didn't know Mardi Gras colours were officially purple, gold and green. And I never knew that if your party is too loud a neighbour won't bother knocking the door, they'll just call the Police. Thankfully the officer who came by was polite, understanding, and very nice, so we got away with the loud members of the party making asses of themselves. Thankfully the incident wasn't repeated or exacerbated.

Valentines snowboarding - 14th Feb

Without my Valentines to hand I decided to go snowboarding with Bryce and Kasumi in Hakuba. Once again I managed to land on hard ice, my left arsecheek breaking my fall yet again. I wish I could somehow swap it with the right one, I'm sure it'll be nerveless by the time I'm finished!

Snowboarding II

Last Sunday we headed to Nozawaonsen for the lengendary slopes of white. I came away with a profound feeling of accomplishment, and also a profoundly bruised set of ribs. Picture me flying down a really steep and difficult slope (ok, that was my fault), managing it onto a flat, then pitching forward face down into packed ice. Very painful. I'll stick to the intermediate slopes next time. Or was it intermediate I was on...?

Still, some good snaps of the wintery wonderland...

First snowboarding trip

Yikes, it's been too long since a blog! That's post-christmas laziness for you. Right ok, January then...

On the 9th Jan I arrived back at my village in the early evening after a half hour drive, three hour bus journey, two hour train journey and a twelve hour flight from the UK that was delayed by an hour. Less than an hour later I was heading out for a three hour car trip to a resort in Niigata for my first snowboarding trip.

The UK had been (and still is slightly) gripped with cold weather, the worst it's seen for a while, and as the country came to standstill after a foot or so of snow, me, my friend and his girlfriend found ourselves between 8ft walls of it driving through Niigata to Myokokogen.

We spent the best part of Sunday snowboarding, and although bruised from bouncing off of various extremities, found myself taking to it fairly quickly. Indeed, the rush you get from sliding down a mountain at uncontrollable speeds is quite spectacular. I managed only one "nasty" crash, which saw me bounce off of my forehead into a snowdrift. After laying on my back staring at the sky for a moment, I realised I'd become a potential target for speeding skiers, and hefted myself up and back down the slope.

A great first experience, and we're going again this weekend!


The view from our hotel/dorm


Trussed up and ready to rock... er, slide...