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?