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16 days snowboarding plus a few days travelling. 3 weeks later and I'm back home. I'm slowly getting back into the NZ time zone, but still missing seeing snow everywhere and hanging out with my Furano friends. It was good to catch up with the guys at work though, things are pretty busy so I don't have too much time to spend reminiscing about the holiday.

I was waiting in line at the supermarket and just looking around and it dawned on me "everyone's so TALL.....and big!". I'm hardly a giant in Japan but feel like I blend in the with average height, whereas I'm dwarfed back home by the big solid Southland lads & lasses.

Now to start planning this seasons snow adventures in NZ. It's all about the snow...

Going Home...

The alarm went off and I had one of those moments where you have no idea what's making that noise, and I tried to stop it by turning the light on.

Lee very kindly got up and drove me to the bus stop after I'd said goodbye to Joel and Narukawa san. I just wish I could speak enough Japanese to let him know how much I enjoyed my stay. Said goodbye to Lee at the bus stop, and I can't even describe in English how much fun this trip was!

I sat on the bus figuring out how to get back as soon as possible, while smiling at the animated roadworks signs. While waiting at Asahikawa airport I was flicking through a magazine and this Japanese guy stood really close, then moved in closer and cleared his throat. So I look up and it's Seki! He had the morning off and was nearby by so came to say goodbye at the airport. AGAIN I'm astounded at how fantastic the people are in Furano. So another cheerful goodbye and then off on the plane.

A pretty uneventful trip through to Haneda. I sat next to an American guy from Hawaii (we must have been assigned the gaijin seats). Things went smoothly right through to Narita and then to Christchurch. Mum & Dad picked me up from the airport and I went home as I had about 4 hours until my next flight left. It was good to get out of the airport for a bit. I got a hell of a fright when I sat on an unheated toilet seat for the first time in 3 weeks! Chilly! It's funny what you take for granted.

The Perfect Day

My last full day in Furano and it couldn't have been any more perfect. Knee deep fresh snow overnight, so Lee and I drove up and got stuck into it. A few great runs down the groomers and I got really floaty on my short board, so much fun! Then Lee took me through a tree run I'd been meaning to do since I got there but hadn't been too sure of the exit. First run in was a bit of a shocker as I lost his trail and thought I'd ended up stuck in the gully. No walking though, stoked! The second time through I hit a hidden tree stump early on and did the full cartwheel! Once again my luck held out and I rolled away unhurt. The rest of the run I felt a lot better and tackled a nice little chute in between two trees that bumped my confidence up a bit.

Lee had to go back to work, so we headed to the bottom of the ropeway and finished the session with a high five. It's coming back with a vengeance I tell ya! I was all set to do some runs on my own but as I picked up my board and got in line I saw Miwa up ahead and caught up with her. We played around on the groomers on the Furano side practicing flatground tricks and I was COMPLETELY shown up every time. She makes everything look so easy! I dropped off into a short untracked section that was about knee deep in between two trails and she followed me in. I rode out, turned and waited but couldn't see any sign of anyone else coming through. Then a little snow-covered head pops up out of a crash-hole, classic. She couldn't have been any more covered in snow! A high-five as she rode past (see? it's back) meant everything was okay!

Miwa had to leave so we took the ropeway up to access the traverse to the other side. At the top Joel & Angus were waiting as they'd seen me earlier and I got a friendly glove in the face from about 5 metres away. Perfect timing again. I felt more like a local on this little mountain in Japan than I ever have on any of the hills back home. I wish I could just randomly bump into friends like this when I'm snowboarding back in NZ. No complicated organising things by text message, no strict planning on where & when we'll be having lunch, just taking things as they come and everything works out. Joel, Angus & I lapped up the last of the fresh stuff on the groomers and got a couple of good runs down the section that they re-groom at 1pm. Fresh corduroy in the afternoon - other mountains needs to follow this trend. I managed to cleanly land a few of the little flatground tricks I'd been practicing, and on the way down I ran through my checklist of 'things to do on the mountain before I leave' and it was all done, so that was it. Took one last run (without calling it!) just taking everything in, and then said goodbye to Furano for the second (but not the last) time.

That night the "make Love san feel like a local" theme continued. Even a few of the Japanese staff from North Country turned up at Bocco for a drink, and I found out that apparently they had a nickname for me, something like "little smiling guy" which I reckon suits me pretty well. Another fun night, until I had to say all my goodbyes. Still, I kept up appearances for the sake of my nickname: Lee, Me (slightly drunk & needing a haircut), and Nobuo (the owner of Bocco)

Home to bed at 2ish for a 6am start. Goodbye Furano, see you again as soon as I can!

15 Days Snowboarding

For the 15th day in a row I got up & went snowboarding! One of the few days that I rode by myself, but it was good to just take it easy and had some good music that matched my mood. Being my second-to-last day I started ticking off particular runs/lines/tree sections that I wanted to do one last time before I left. I did a couple of laps through one of my favourites where once you get in there are some nice open lines with little rollers and you're deep enough into the trees that you can't see trails at all. The exit is a bit slow so you have to watch for patrol but there was noone around each time I came out.

I took the 12 o'clock bus home as I was booked in to go & visit the Goto Sumio Museum of Art. See? I'm cultured. It's not ALL about snowboarding! Goto Sumio is a well renowned painter who does traditional Nihon-ga style works. Some of the paintings take over 10 years to complete due to all the layers required and the time the paint takes to dry. The effect of all the layers is pretty amazing, looking at a painting on an angle you'd swear there was a 3d effect going on. He also adds in gold leaf to the paintings, so sun shining off rocks actually has a real reflection. I'm going on a bit but the other impressive feature was the size of the paintings. Huge! The biggest one there was around 2.5m high by 15m long, hence the reason they take so long to finish. No photos from the museum unfortunately.

The Furano Snow Festival was on up at the Kitanomine zone, and we watched the fireworks from the North Country carpark. I got some good promo shots for the hotel:







Once Lee had finished work we went out for dinner to the new restaurant set up by the owner of Bar Wonder (no idea what it's called, any help Lee?). They had some hilarious music on that was like a cross between ABBA and the oompa-loompa's. Something about Genghis Khan, priceless. Then off to Bocco again to see Nobuo and the girls. Left my camera there and they took a few extra pics after I left. Cheeky!

Asahidake!

I took one of the organised North Country bus trips to Asahidake on the 2nd, along with Greeny, Chris & Rob from North Country. It’s the highest mountain in Hokkaido and also luckily a ski area of sorts. There’s a ropeway that runs a good way up, with two groomed trails back to the bottom. The rest of the mountain is pretty much uncontrolled backcountry terrain. We caught the first lift up and took a cruiser run down to assess the terrain, with minimal visibility for the first 200 metres or so. Then they closed the ropeway on us while it was dumping up top! The Aussie lads were champing at the bit. The wind had picked up to 20ms-1 so maybe it was fair enough, but the car wasn't swinging THAT much at the top. After an hour and a half of waiting round Greeny decided he was going to go and wake up a bear and wrestle it to ease his frustration, but then we got the all clear and headed back to the top with the liftie cranking Bob Marley in the car and Greeny singing along all calmed down again. It was waist deep off trail and to be honest I had an absolute shocker of an afternoon, struggling to keep the nose of my board up and cartwheeling/ragdolling through tree gaps! A great day though, and when the clouds cleared up top we got to see the volcano smoking.




It’s not a vending machine drink, but we picked up some Asahidake specialty beer for the ride home:


Coming home to Furano at sunset, the Kitanomine night skiing lights visible off to the left:


After dinner I went over to the Alpine backpackers to catch up with Sam and the girls. Lee turned up later on and got stuck into the gold flake syochu. Spirits that don’t really taste like alcohol can be big trouble! A great night though, I got some funny vids on my camera where people thought they were taking photos.

Monkeys

Once again I’m a bit late in updating, but here we go:
After getting back from Asahikawa I had 2 days at Furano. It was a little bit windy up top (once again, windy in Japan is pretty much fine weather anywhere else!) which made for some cool photos. My plaid partner in crime Joel makes an appearance too!


I also had a walk round town and picked up a few souvenirs. I was hoping to find some crazy J-Pop cd’s but there were too many and I didn’t have time to really preview! Not to find something good, but to find something really bad. Japanese roadworks are brilliant, they have big banks of LED screens that show pictures of flashing lights and animated guys lifting up signs. The best bit is that they still have men actually holding signs in front of the LED screens, and real flashing lights on top! Plus they have monkeys!

Back to the blog...

It's been a while since I've updated, I'll try to piece together the last week or so. Arnold came over to visit from Obihiro and we rode Furano for 2 days as well as a daytrip to Tomamu. They opened the Under 4 chair for the first time this season the day we were there so there was some great lines in the trees. The exposed stuff was a bit crusty but really only by Japan standards, at home it'd be "perfect conditions". Friday was Australia Day, so I put on my theeckest Aussie accent and went along to Bocco with Arnold. Later on that night we ran into the girls we met last time which was really cool. Caught up with them for dinner the next night and also rode with them on Sunday.



Arnold & I then headed off to Asahikawa to meet up with his friends from back home. We stayed in a traditional Ryokan with full tatami floors in the rooms. We had 2 days riding at Kamui which were both fantastic (despite the unplanned hiking on day 1. Hard work but worth it for the untracked stuff through the trees). Day 2 was just a brilliant day with all of us tooling around on the groomers and having fun. The groomers were in such good condition that I managed to lock in a toeside carve and ride uphill and back around, resulting in an ear-to-ear grin! Travelling to & from the mountain each day was different too, walking through the city in full snowboard gear and catching a public bus with all the schoolkids (quiet Wayno). Made for some good photos though:





Furano is a little more tourist oriented as far as english info on dining out, so 2 nights in Asahikawa we pretty much just winged it. The first night we didn't even have picture menus (something you begin to take for granted here) so just made random selections from the menu and everything that came out was pretty much what we would have ordered anyway. As expected, riding with 4 Aussies the sheep jokes were coming thick and fast:



I travelled back to Furano yesterday, and had planned to have a day off from snowboarding (11 in a row is a fairly good effort I reckon). Got back and it had been snowing a little bit, and Joel & Angus were keen to head out for a few hours so we played around on the groomers under the lights from 7-9. In hindsight a day off might have been a good idea, as I'm sitting here on what would be considered a powder day in NZ (5-10cm) and thinking I might leave it another 45 minutes before heading out!