Entries this day: At_Ami's_house Great_day_skiing!!!

At Ami's house

2:35am JST Saturday 14 February 2009 (day 14206)

At Ami's house right now; still awake after the TLUG meeting, and about to move our stuff to the car to go skiing! Woooo! It will be my first time to go skiing in many years, and my first time in Japan. Probably my first time in 12+ years. (I was going to type 10, but 12 is probably that much closer to reality).

Great day skiing!!!

1:45am JST Sunday 15 February 2009 (day 14207)

I've written a bit about yesterday via Ami's phone and will post it when I get my computer reconnected to the internets.

Right now I'm in room 223 of 美里 hotel, though I don't really know where we are in terms of cities in Japan, except 4-ish hours away by car, north ish of Kawasaki (roughly speaking Tokyo) Sleeping in the room are Ami, Mark and Yoko, plus their 1.5 year-old son Noah between them. Had a huge huge fun day skiing with Mark.

Okay, I'm gonna turn my screen off to save battery juice while typing.

Typing blindly now.

So, basically Mark and I assured each other we haven't been skiing in a long time. I haven't been in lat last fifteen years, and he hasn't been in two years, but went each year for th 4 years before that.

Ami, who, I'm happily surprised to see, is quite an accomplished skier. She said as much when we came (and has said so before), but I hadn't seen it. I doubt she'd win Olympic god, but I haven't seen anyone else here at the slopes who's better than her. (Though, for the record, we've only skied on beginner slopes (Mark and I))

Anyway, Ami escorted us up a beginner slope (not so beginner that we pull ourselves up via a rope; we used the actual ski lifts and arrived at the top (as one should when riding ski lifts) I was happy with my decision to use short skis; they remind me feet of inline skates, on which I'm quiet comfortable. The snow had zero power, so unlike inline skates, the skis would go sideways pretty easily.

The snow was basically like a sooper-slurpy, but without the slurp part. Just little teeny tiny balls of ice, but no flakes.. and pretty well packed with the hoards of skiers who've come to join the fun.

The hill, I noticed , was steeper than I had planned. Strictly speaking that was fine, but even worse, it was way more crowded than I would have liked. I dunno how to estimate the density realistically, but there was probably 10 skiers per acre in crowded spots (not at the top nor bottom, but actually skiing) and perhaps 3 people per acre in the uncrowded areas, wit the distribution leaning more toward crowded.

With different levels of skill, at widely different speeds, people would create a live version of the old video game Frogger, but with traffic wildly changing lanes as It headed down the slope.

At first I was like shizah! cause I couldn't really go down and turn very effectively. So I decided to go down at a super angle compared to the hill and just use the entire width of the hill to prepare for each turn that would send me across the hill again, each time with my looking nervously around for traffic, while trying to control my own progress across the lumps (usually minor) of the slope.

In this method, I got my turning confidence, and then given that I had only used 1/ quarter of the hill so far, I began to aim a bit straighter down between my carves. Yikes! several times thinking oh snap this is the end, but always able to turn in time, not hit fellow skiers, and generally keep everything intact.

Made it triumphantly to the bottom only by curving away from the ski-lift entrance and stopping in the open area by the bull dozers

Mark complimented me and I was just thrilled with such a successful first run!

Back to the lift, I suggested we all three get on the same chair so we could get a picture of all of us. Mark claimed he wouldn't be able to get up properly so he and I rode together and Ami rode up alone. I'll just tell this part of the story briefly) On subsequent analysis of the situation, it turns out Mark was trying to get up from the lift too early, when the snow slope was still sloping *up* instead of down, plus he had had a bad memory of being asked to escort three kids up the lift one time, and "at the top, I don't know what happened, but there were skis flying everywhere, and everyone fell and I landed on a kid."o once I told him what Ami had told me, "get off after the sign that says おりば" he became quite proficient at getting off the lift. After a couple of practice dismounts from the lift with Mark's new technique, we all three rode up together. Ami got off before the sign and we jokingly called her a bad teacher for setting a bad example.

Okay, back to the skiing part of the story. After the first run down the beginner hill, we did about 3 or 4 more runs before lunch. Each time, I kept getting a bit faster, and each time I wondered if I'd be able to successfully handle the extra speed. I quiet enjoyed Mark's descriptions of my performance, "you were like a bullet!" etc, and enjoyed the adrenaline rush of eeeeeek I hope I can turn!!!!! and just making it before the edge of the slope, but more harrowingly before the unscheduled physical encounter with another skier.

Twice, I think. Twice I just touched another skier's equipment. Once I zoomed down next to a snowboarder just as he turned and hit my pole and the other time I don't remember exactly, so it may not have been an actual contact, but .. in the end, no tumbles resulted from collisions involving me.

And I must say, if I haven't already, that's my biggest fear here. Crashin' into someone slower than me, or getting crashed by someone faster than me. I guess that's why I see skiers on slopes alone in videos.

Lunchtime included me writing on Ami's phone, so there will be some overlap. Not sure if I'll mix it in, but probably will just slap it on right here:

Super great fun buzzin down the hill once I realized I can take the entire width of the slope to carve.

On each subsequent run I get a bit faster, and wonder if I can keep it under control *this*
time. Have almost fallen twice, and actually fell once.

Mark and I have taken to racing, and we're pretty evenly matched. I passed him last time, though,
after he thought "ah mate, there's no way he can pass me now!". Whoo hooo!

Next time I'm supposed to yell "bye!" when I pass because he thinks I'm using a teleportation
device....  Hahahahaha

We're having so much fun!

AFTER lunch, things got more interesting. Ami convinced Mark and I to go to the top of the mountain in the enclosed gondolas (to protect us from wolves and biting wind). No joke about the wolf,either. Though it had no interest in us, we passed within about 30 meters of a wolf standing on the edge of a cliff seeming to be chewing on sticks.

The hill kept going up, and we kept going up with it. The view was beautiful AND FREEZING and we laughed and laughed about the folly of our plan, as wind blew hard enough to make for a difficult time putting on skis. Plus laughing at the term "beginner" being any way associated with this "long beginner course."

I don't remember exactly, but I think there are four steep sections ( and three flat sections between them, the second of which is quite long so it's useful to get some goods speed so we don't end up trudging along its length.

With tons of people everywhere, including several beginners including us, I was

I was scared of crashes, but did relatively well, despite the increased length of the slope and increased angle

crap I'm getting tired.

Highlights of the run down the long beginner course:

1. I made it.

2. I made it along the entire length of the second flat section

3. Seeing a a harrowing curve which had an outer embankment featuring ski tracks going up where speed had been converted to increased altitude, I decided to ski right up the side of the mountain to reduce my speed. Mark gave me a full ten of ten stars for the crash as he and I laughed ourselves silly. "dude you were skiing on one ski going up and then just fell down through those trees using no skis at all!" Oh man it was a riot!

4. We got to the bottom, cheering and successful and for our last run of the day, Mark suggested we go again. "That wasn't so bad!" we mused.

On the way up, I didn't think to have my camera ready to photograph the wolf, but he or she was still there, still chewing on sticks.

We laughed again at our folly once we got to the top. Oh man I forgot about this part; whose bad idea was this???? and we headed down the hill

I must say I did worse at first, but then better a bit, and I'm confused about the order of events (except for one), but I think it went like this:

Made it down the first hill. going about 8000 miles per hour at the end, and carving about the biggest tightest grooves in the snow and jumping before hitting the small embankment (like only 10 inches high) cause they would certainly have removed my skis.

Didn't think to take a picture (dang!) but I had Mark come back and see the tracks carved and then jump before the slight embankment.

Without falling through the trees, I dumped a lot of speed up that hill again, stopping at the top with quite good control (as good as can be said for simply stopping and flopping into the snow before semi tumbling down through the trees)

Mark gave me only six points for that because it didn't included a fall.

Then doing the same on an even steeper hill, where upon I ended up about twenty feet above the main course. And got a video of me coming down! hahahahahaha

My ski had come off during my little adventure, so I took off its strap to put it back on,... and it escaped down the hill!! I SO wish we had video of this as Mark took off after it, and watched as two snowboarders, laughing their asses off trying to catch this renegade ski, each making an attempt to fall on it. The first one missed and I don't know if the second one made it, but by the time I was able to see Mark, he was trudging back up the hill to me. I am laughin as I write this; it was soo soo funny!

I had considered snowboarding on one ski, but that quickly proved to be impossible,s so I had another idea and once I found Mark, I implemented it: I flopped down onto my back and slid head first down toward his voice, sliding down the hill this was was pretty much as fast as i could run down, and way more fun!

Arrived at Mark, laughing ourselves silly, and he told me about the snowboarders where were laughing at him chasing the ski and the other snowboarders trying to jump on it like chasing a rabbit. so so funny!

And before I could get the ski on, it escaped *again*!!! this time I since Mark had taken his skis off to trudge back up, I suggested he backsurf down the hill, and I ran along beside him with encouraging words as he zoomed along for a while until he said it hurt his back.

We would have gone right past the ski "dang how far down did it go?" but a guy saw us (pretty hard to miss two big foreigners running and laughing down the mountain and he pointed across the slope from him at my ski sticking up from the snow.

Getting my skis on, with the utmost of care, this time, I shouted my success to Mark who was getting his own skis reconnected while talking to two snowboarders girls who said something that sounded like,なんぱ to Mark when he asked what they were doing. He was like, なんぱ?" because that means trying to pick someone up, and they were like nonononono and laughed, etc. I arrived and they slid away telling Mark "no なぱ" and he relayed that story as well.

The rest of the run down was uneventful (I think?) except that the entire run had taken 32 minutes, and we missed the 4pm bus to take us back to the hotel!

Yay! So we headed up the ski lift of the beginner course again for some なつかしい entertainment but with a new twist. We invaded the snowboarders' territory over on the left, where they've got lumps and jumps and some rails and such. When we first got here, I noted that he surface was even icier than what we had gotten use to skiing otherwise, but we still went for it and still had a great time despite not getting any air per se but yeah had a great run and headed to the 4:30 bus.

It was late, but turns out we were waiting in a different area than it was waiting, and it all worked out fine in the end. scrubbed up and onsen before dinner and everything was great. great great great great

Thank you Mark, for the best day ever.

Okay. It's 3:12am. I'm going back to sleep.

permalink

---