Mama Mia TANZANIA!

Coming soon....

Back in White Rock...

Back in White Rock. Tokyo was very fun.. lots of people, big city lights, some temples and I also went to the famous fish market in Tokyo. That place was a trip. So many dead sea creatures of varying types, it was kind of depressing to see the raping of the sea so laid out in front of me, but it was neat to see it all at the same time. There was this busy tuna auction at the back on the market at 5:30am where they sell the hugest tuna that you could ever imagine. These go to the restaurants to satiate all the sushi lover cravings. I would be surprised if there were that many tuna of such a grand size still left in the ocean.

The plane was rad, got bumped up to Executive Class somehow and scored some seriously amazing seats that laid right back into a bed. Even had a massage chair in it!! Back in White Rock now, trying to recover from the jet lag.

The dream is over (for now), but never forgotten!

Karaoke- Asahikawa style

For more pictures... please refer to my facebook site...

And thanks out to Greg B... for everything and for being such an amazing Hokkaido host with the most.

The end of an Hokkaido era...

Let's just say that the snow has been a little lack luster during the past week or so. So, Chris and I rented a mini J car and headed north on a sweet road-trip adventure. Ended up at the end of the Earth (well the Northern tip of Japan) and then ventured back to Sapporo where we are now. So beautiful along the journey. Hit up a few ski hills before the road trip and decided that the rental car was the way to go given that the snow at our last ski hill (Asahikawa) looked good from afar, but was FAR from good. The temp on our last ski day was 10C! Not ideal. Hiking up to the steaming active volcano at Asahidake was so amazing though. Well worth the trip up there for sure. Flying to Tokyo in a few hours to take in the lights, mini skirts, punk style, pachinko, dead animals, busy subway stations, crazy lights, fish market, hopefully some more karaoke and then we are outta there. Fastest trip of my life. What an experience!

Spring? NO!!!

I have been based out of Asahikawa for the past few days. Been snowboarding at 4 new ｓｋｉ hills. It's been awesome. I will write more later... but today we went to Asahadake and hiked up into this crater of an active volcanoe. Amazing!! The snow has turned to total crap, but the scenery was amazing. What happened to the J Pow that I know and love???

Moving on...

After spending more than 5 dreamy powdery pillow filled weeks in Niseko, I finally lured myself onto a bus yesterday and am now back in Sapporo. Pretty funny given that originally... I didn't plan on going to Niseko for more than 5 days. I suppose you could say that I got sucked into the Ular vortex and I am now forever changed. I managed to get out to another ski resort (Moiwa) on my last day in the Niseko area, which was pretty epic. Finished that day off with the best onsen ever (so far), a great meal with friends and then we proceeded to partake in the infamous Japanese Karaoke. Holy, that was something that cannot be described with words. The plan now? Well forecasts are calling for a lot more snow over the next 48 hours, so it looks like I will ski at Teine tomorrow (1/2 hour from Sapporo city), stay with Greg and then head out to Kurodake. Kurodake is meant to be the steepest in Hokkaido and it's a bit of a mission to get there too, which should be fun.

Big Air Bag

Moiwa

Shredding Moiwa- Feb 17th, 2010

Me hitting a pillow line on the cat boarding mission!! Holy FUN!

Air bag disaster

Greetings...
This week, myself and a couple of my new found mates headed out to Sapporo to check out the world famous Ice Festival. It was pretty amazing really. The Japanese work on these ice sculptures for weeks prior to the unveiling, and when they are revealed they are remarkably impressive. How do they learn to make these things... these massive and perfectly sculpted pieces of art? Do they sit and home with ice cubes and little mini ice tools and make J Land fantasy creatures en masse? At any rate, its pretty cool. There was this one massive Miney and Micky Mouse sculpture, where little J kids got up and performed there little hearts out, like little Michael Jackson's in full J style. I will post a video soon and you will see what I mean. There was also a big air competition where lots of ripping Japanese park jibbers just went for it big time in there oversized pants and ridiculously bright clothing and bling hanging everywhere. They were awesome though and totally killed it.

I am also happy to report that I have been hitting up the onsens hard and I am now once again back in Niseko shredding the rad pow. Today I attempted to hit this huge air bag that just arrived in town (no waivers and it's free), but I came up short and fell hard on my shoulder in the large space that is inconveniently placed between the jump and the bag. I did not notice this space of death until I was mid air, landing on my shoulder on the ground of this death gap. Luckily there were some nice hard tower pad to land on. Ugh. Anyways, I came out relatively un-maimed and managed to finish off another epic pow day off with a free onsen and beer at the Hilton Grande. Life is good. Do I have to come home?

From the cat boarding mission...

I7m in the powder there somewhere...

What can I tell you... the snow has still not stopped...

Konnichiwa from the island that is blanketed in snow. Not too many things have happened since my last entry, other than more shredding and further onsening. Went night skiing last night with an unbelievably huge amount of fresh powder.. such peace, bliss, stillness with an added bonus of very few people! Saw a red fox crossing one of the runs last night too. Wow.

Also, this week I had the opportunity to go cat boarding for $60, which is pretty rad. Myself along with 2 friends that I have met here in Niseko went out with a local photographer. I managed to huck myself off of a cliff and a sweet pillow ine, which was very fun. Everyone needs to fly sometimes.

I am still in Niseko and plan to be here for another week and a half to 2 weeks. Just going to keep on shredding and live the good life and on monday I am going to go to the Ice Festival in Sapporo. We're also check out a new ski hill near Sapporo (called Teine), it is meant to be one of the steepest in Hokkaido so I am really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to some karaokee in Sapporo too, along with the local brew!! Bring on the music machine. Enjoy the video and the pics!! And of course enjoy yourself!!

Rachel

Dinner time!!

J cats like to BBQ!

Someones gotta do it, right?

Still snowing

Quote of the day on the chair...
"I don't think that it ever stops snowing here."

Not sure if life could get much better when my biggest decisions of these days are: what time should I stop riding and what onsen I should go to today. Someone's gotta do it right?

The Magic Massage Chair and the Magic Cheesy Pancake

Greg from Sapporo was out visiting the past couple of days. Great fun. Shredding was accomplished, followed by onsen soaks and free massage chairs. Oh, the massage chairs... true magic, and not the black kind. The Japanese know how to do it, and they do everything better than we do. These pics were taken today and last night. The house in one of the pics is my current abode where I live with a super nice Aussie names Wade. Sweet pad, I'm digging it. And that pancake looking thing is the best vegetarian japanese food that I have found so far. Its called okonomi-yaki, which if I recall correctly basically translates into fried stuff that you like. Thanks Greg...so delicious!

Today

More of the same... ENDLESS POWDER!!!

What can I say...it's still snowing like mad outside. My body needs a rest, but I can't stop because the snow doesn't stop. I made a few shred rippin' friends out on the slopes today, so that's cool. Fun to rip around with them and they took me to some new zones that I had yet to discover. One dude from Denmark and two from New Zealand. I also have my friend Greg from Sapporo coming into town tonight, so I'll ride with him for he next couple of days. We're planning to go to an onsen tonight and there I can soak my weary bones... and knees!!! I'm finally getting used to the onsens and actually crave them now. It was a bit odd to bath with a bunch of other naked chicks at first, but it's just the way it is in Japan. I can dig it. The onsens are amazing!

It's snowing

Times they change and yesterday it rained. But, today when I awoke and managed to poke myself back outside I saw that 'it' is once again producing the white fluffy sweetness in life. It can't be THAT good all the time, can it?? Time will tell. I have posted a bunch of pics on facebook that most of you bloggers will be able to see, but for those of you who who still proudly revolt the facebook, I will post a few pics here too. Hopefully these photos give you further insight into my current plight of bliss. Off to the slopes...

Dingo Bait

My legs have finally given in and have failed me. I have succumb to the scootch leg and have used this day to rest, well somewhat anyways. Did a quick boot pack up the hill and a few runs as well, but then the fork was in me and I was done. Today I finally located a place to live in town. Pretty stoked. I'm living about a 10 min walk from the base of the closest lift and have the loft of a wood house to myself. There is a dirty dingo living downstairs, but actually he seems to be rather clean. The snow has settled down a little, but forecasts are saying that we are in for another big storm in a few days. Like always, I'll believe it when I see it. But so far, the pow in Japan has far and away exceeded any expectations that had ever built up in my brain. Nutty times. Hope to get some pics up soon-ish.

Another HUGE pow day

Well, what can I say. Today was even deeper than yesterday. I can't even believe this place. The roads are like seriously like tunnels through the snow. I feel like I'm in another dimension. Bliss. It actually isn't snowing right now, but every run that I had today was incredible. Like, seriously. People are saying that there is just too much snow. A lot of people appear to be unable to handle all the pow.

Whop whop!! Miss ya'll.

Niseko

Had yet another sick day of shredding the sick pow. Holy moly is all I gotta say. Today was the 6th day in a row where I got to ride in an incredible amount of powder snow. It's amazing. Needs to be seen to be believed for sure. The snow here is like icing sugar and the cake is coated well. For the past few days its been snowing 30-40cms a day, at least. I don't even know exactly though. And its still snowing?!?! I've been shaking my head several times a day. The terrain here is not super steep or anything, but there are some amazing zones that get fast and super fun to jump around off the pillowy goodness. Been going to some great onsens in the evenings as well and hanging with wicked people. I'd post some pics if I could, but currently I do not have a place to lay my sleepy head, far less a place to download pics. I mean I do have a place to sleep at the moment, but I don't want to out stay my welcome at a friend of a friends house, so I am doing my best to find a room. I just got back from checking out a spot that I thought would be good, but turns out to be littered with beds and booze bottles. No exactly my style. It's probably filled with aussies who like to pass out in ditches too, so I'm still on the hunt for accommodation. But.. I bought a months ski pass here, so I'm staying, even if I have to sleep in a closet. Let's hope that it doesn't come down to that. Tomorrow a friends movie (Signatures, check it out if you haven't already cuz its sick!) is playing in town. Should be fun with some partying to occur after I'm sure. Happiness....

The time is now.

Made it to the dream land....Niseko. Spent the past few days ripping some of the best pow ever (no exaggeration), with some of the best people ever as well. I can't really even explain the amount of that I am having right now in this time of my life. Warning... it is going to be rather tricky to drag me out of Hokkaido. I might be kicking and screaming.

rachel

Trip to the grocery store...whale meat, live snails and who knows what it is that I am holding...

Snowboarding- Day 1 in Japan. 18 so far this year.

Yipee!! Made it snowboarding and I'm ecstatic to report that the rumors about the trees are true. Delicious powder. Had a great time out with Greg and the sake last night. Had an amazing dinner too with some new Japanese food to try. Went to the Sapporo beer museum also and sampled some refreshing adult beverages. Tomorrow I'm heading to the Whistler of Japan...Nesiko. Should be good. Probably great.

Bye bye Disneyland...hello playland!

Been good!! Went to another old Samurai castle and some beauty temples. Went to this cool house near this mountain town too, a couple of Tood¥s friends live up there in this cool house with their cute little kids. They are living a self sustained existence in the mountains and have monkeys in their backyard. They have a huge organic garden too, but its covered in snow right now. Rad place for sure. It took us about 3-4 hours to get there driving on these crazy highways with big plexiglass sound barriers all along them. And you have to pay to use the highways. And there are hydro lines running everywhere. Last night Todd and Tomo also took me to a Pachinco parlour...SO LOUD and Ill explain it better when I see you or put a video up too maybe. I got to sleep with a cute Japanese kitty last night too.

I arrived in Sapporo (city in Hokkaido) today, after a pretty big day of train/plane travel to get here. Didn:t see one white person the whole way to get here, which is crazy. Need to get better at the Japanese now that I:m more on my own. Back to starvation otherwise. Tons of snow all around and it appears to still be snowing on the mountains. Unreal that I am finally in Hokkaido!!!! Going to shred tomorrow with Greg B. Staying with him for a few days. Going to go to an onsen tonight too. It will be my first time. Yikes! Hope that the pics give you a little further insight. So much going on here. Sorry that this is so scattered. Miss you all...