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!