Thursday, December 28, 2006
Nagano!!!
What a start to my vacation...
I headed off to Nagano on Sunday morning. I was supposed to leave early but plans were delayed which ment I was able to chill with some co-workers on Saturday night and have a little Christmas party.
I was really really excited to come out to Nagano because it was supposed to be something incredible. I was hardly impressed. I think Blue Mountain is bigger than some of the hills. That was mostly to do with the rain which has not stopped since I arrived. Here I am riding the Japanese Alps while its raining all day! Most of the hill was not open because of lack of snow. It seems GLOBAL warming is correctly named. So I was disappointed in my trip to the city because the snowboarding was hardly anything to write on my blog about... Until today!
I woke up this morning to see the white stuff floating lazily from the sky! I quickly changed my mind about going home today and went to see if there was still room for me at the lodge. Its really quite nice with a community fire place and big screen TV. There are also tons of international guests so I am enjoying staying here quite a bit. Turns out there was still a place for me so I went and picked up my baby, new snowboard, and hit the slopes. I was riding with some pretty good guys so it was definitely a challenge for me to keep the pace. I think both the board and I performed well. We went into some pure power runs and I started having a really hard time keeping up cause it was my first experience with the white stuff... Lesson learned don't inhale too quick it burns the nose. By the end of the day I had started to get the hang of it. The good news is that the snow is still falling and tomorrow will be even better. There are a bunch of us heading out first thing. The bad news is that my board is pretty much scratched all over the bottom. I consoled myself by trying to convince myself that it was ok because I didn't buy a board to look pretty but to ride it as much as I could. The gouges still hurt though!
I have yet to take a photo of the mountains or even the Nagano Olympic signs. I just can't be bothered pulling my ghetto camera out of my pocket and waiting at the top of a cold hill for it to finally turn on. I got all the photos in my mind! The visibility is also pretty poor so photos would be quite useless. Sorry for the lack of photos.
It didn't seem like much of a Christmas here because the big day is Christmas Eve and I spent the day on the bus and then the Shinkansen (bullet) train. I finally arrived at the lodge and just passed out. Japanese people do not really celebrate Christmas Day. The big event is Christmas Eve thats meant to be a romantic time for couples. Booerns!
I gotta run and get a shower and then relax with a beer and a book in front of this awesome fire place.
Merry (LATE) Christmas and have a Fantastic New Year!!!
I headed off to Nagano on Sunday morning. I was supposed to leave early but plans were delayed which ment I was able to chill with some co-workers on Saturday night and have a little Christmas party.
I was really really excited to come out to Nagano because it was supposed to be something incredible. I was hardly impressed. I think Blue Mountain is bigger than some of the hills. That was mostly to do with the rain which has not stopped since I arrived. Here I am riding the Japanese Alps while its raining all day! Most of the hill was not open because of lack of snow. It seems GLOBAL warming is correctly named. So I was disappointed in my trip to the city because the snowboarding was hardly anything to write on my blog about... Until today!
I woke up this morning to see the white stuff floating lazily from the sky! I quickly changed my mind about going home today and went to see if there was still room for me at the lodge. Its really quite nice with a community fire place and big screen TV. There are also tons of international guests so I am enjoying staying here quite a bit. Turns out there was still a place for me so I went and picked up my baby, new snowboard, and hit the slopes. I was riding with some pretty good guys so it was definitely a challenge for me to keep the pace. I think both the board and I performed well. We went into some pure power runs and I started having a really hard time keeping up cause it was my first experience with the white stuff... Lesson learned don't inhale too quick it burns the nose. By the end of the day I had started to get the hang of it. The good news is that the snow is still falling and tomorrow will be even better. There are a bunch of us heading out first thing. The bad news is that my board is pretty much scratched all over the bottom. I consoled myself by trying to convince myself that it was ok because I didn't buy a board to look pretty but to ride it as much as I could. The gouges still hurt though!
I have yet to take a photo of the mountains or even the Nagano Olympic signs. I just can't be bothered pulling my ghetto camera out of my pocket and waiting at the top of a cold hill for it to finally turn on. I got all the photos in my mind! The visibility is also pretty poor so photos would be quite useless. Sorry for the lack of photos.
It didn't seem like much of a Christmas here because the big day is Christmas Eve and I spent the day on the bus and then the Shinkansen (bullet) train. I finally arrived at the lodge and just passed out. Japanese people do not really celebrate Christmas Day. The big event is Christmas Eve thats meant to be a romantic time for couples. Booerns!
I gotta run and get a shower and then relax with a beer and a book in front of this awesome fire place.
Merry (LATE) Christmas and have a Fantastic New Year!!!
# posted by ricky_pops @ 12:17 AM 
