The bus ride, well lets just say it was a bus ride that was really long. I think about 6 or 7 hours with brief 10 to 15 minute stops every two hours. I didn't get to sleep much on the bus because A) I can't sleep on buses and B) I think I was to excited. After getting all of my gear rented then we had to wait around in this big room with a bunch of other people while we waited for the lifts to open. We also had to leave all of our belongings in this room until 4 o'clock because that is when check in was.
Here is a picture of Inamori and his son Ken waiting.
At around 8:20 we headed out to hit the slopes. Here is all of us standing around waiting for the others to come out so we could go get some much needed skiing and snowboarding done. I must say I thought the fashion of the Japanese on the streets was pretty outrageous but that was nothing compared to some of the ski gear I saw.
Inamori sensei.
Watanabe sensei.
Taniguchi sensei.
Here are many pictures of the views that I saw from on top of the lifts.
Saturday the first day out I spent it with "ski team" which consisted of Taniguchi, Watanabe, and Masako sensei. I decided to go with them first because Inamori told me to go ahead without him and Ken because Ken was going to need some practice runs.
Here are the pictures of us skiing/snowboarding together.
From left to right Masako, Taniguchi, and Watanabe.
My power pose!
Masako fell.
One of four high speed gondolas lifs that take you 2000 meters up.
Quick beer and potty break.
Later that night after we had finished skiing, eating dinner, and showering we had a party. It was quite interesting because everyone brought snacks and beer or some kind of canned cocktail. I elected to bring some smoked tuna that I made and vodka. Everyone was drinking and having a good time. Inamori had asked me what is an American style of drinking. I introduced him and everyone else in the room (so 15 others) to shots. They didn't seem to want to do it at first but as soon as Inamori did it a lot of others followed suit.
Inamori and Masako's new best friend.
Me teaching Inamori how to take a shot.
Here is us taking it.
Inamori after his second shot. He decided that he liked it so much he wanted another one right after it.
Watanabe after her shot. She enjoyed it as well.
Here are the pictures of everyone else at the party. The first two images are at the start of the party. The second two images were taken right before I left. Evidently everyone got even more drunk.
I was so tired that I only had two mixed drinks and a shot so I decided after two hours of only speaking Japanese straight I had better turn in. I also, didn't want a hang over because I wanted to do a lot of snowboarding the next day.
The next day I ended up snowboarding with one of the sports teachers at the school nearest me. She was a veteran snowboarder and wanted to try the other side of the mountain that I had snowboarded on the previous day. She asked me to take her over there and show her some of the slopes that the three previous teachers had shown me. Everyone's skiing time was limited on Sunday due to the fact we had to leave at 2pm. Everyone finished up at about 12:30pm to get cleaned up to go home. But here are some of the pictures of Akiko and I out and about snowboarding and pictures of us in the Olympic snowboard terrain park short side. We didn't want to go on the half-pipe side.
Akiko sensei.
Akiko trying to grind on a rail for her first time.
This was her shortly after not landing right. There are also pictures from her camera I think of me doing some rail slides and only landing a handful.
Here is me hitting an olympic jump. I was actually going pretty fast and she took it right as I jumped. She didn't have time to snap another one.
For fun I just wanted to show what my hair and sunburn looked like after the first day of snowboarding.
All in all I could say this was the most amazing snowboarding trip I have ever had. I have never seen a mountain so spacious as far as lifts, runs, and room to breathe. It was quite amazing. We had two perfect days of sun and light wind. It was actually to hot to wear any clothes but a t-shirt under our jackets. It is really hard for me describe how amazing this was. I have snowboarded a lot in America but not at very many mountains but everyone talks about the Rockies. The Rockies I agree were awesome until I snowboarded here. I now want to snowboard the Alps and see what that is like. I really wish I could have shared this with Amber but our names are already down for next years trip. Every ache in my body, the sunburns and the fatigue were well worth this trip. I actually couldn't stop snowboarding. I was addicted to it here. Back in America after a few hours I call it good. I actually didn't want to leave there. I don't think even Nagano is that bad of a city to retire to either. It is so beautiful there. Also, there are monkeys that run free and will jump in the ohnsens(Japanese hot springs) with you there. It was quite amazing. I think everyone should just take a trip to Japan to go snowboarding or skiing in Nagano.
Oh to show how perfect the weather was look at this picture. People skiing in cosplay!!!!! I couldn't believe it. I asked them if I could take their picture and they were more than happy to allow me to. They all even lined up all really nice so that I could. I think they were shooting some video for a promotion or something. I think they videoed me taking pictures. So you might see me in some video promoting cosplay. Who knows but seriously only in Japan.
