Thursday, February 25, 2010
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???
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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.
Friday, February 12, 2010
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?
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?
Thursday, February 4, 2010
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
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
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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?
"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?
Sunday, January 24, 2010
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!
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