Heading Home!!!

It’s Saturday the 21st and we are heading back to home today!! Yaaay!! I woke up after a good 12 hour slumber feeling slightly normal again…phewww, thank god it was only a 24hr bug or something! Lisa was feeling much better too, but her stomach and rib muscles were so sore from it constantly cramping. We got up and checked out of Sakura hostel and headed back to K’s house to see if we can drop off all our gear so we can go shopping for one last time since our flight wasn’t until 8.10pm. We went back to our ‘Green place’ restaurant where we all had our usual for brunch (it was 11am by the time we got there). I could tell I wasn’t my usual self as I couldn’t even finish my Korean fried rice and tried to dish it off to one of the other guys. John, Orla and Tony left last night back home as they were unable to book the same flight as us when we extended our trip. After brunch we headed off to shinjuku as it was one of the places we ran out of time to see the week before. Getting out of the station I quickly glanced around and said to myself that no matter where we went, it all looked the same! Maybe it’s because it is during the day and only its true character is shown at night, I don’t know. But what I did know was that there wasn’t much to see around shinjuku or maybe we had no clue of where we were going, so we just walked around the block before heading back down to the subway station to head to the famous Harajuku station. Now all the stuff you see and hear about Harajuku station is probably true, but we didn’t see it today!! Chucky said that maybe we were a bit too early and that they come out in the afternoons, but we didn’t have enough time to wait so we just walked around to see massive crowds of people walking around shopping!

A very busy street in Harajuku

We all shopped at Gap and everyones new favourite clothing store ‘Uni Qlo’. Now this store is like a mix between Cotton on and Giodarno that sold nice looking clothes at really cheap prices. The lads picked up heaps of shirts for only 190 yen…that’s like 3 buck t-shirts!! Unfortunately for me some reason they only had small sizes left so i missed out Another cool thing I saw were the cars down along the street we walked down. I saw a couple of Ferrari F430’s, a white porche GT, a worked up race Corvette and some massively jacked up pajero’s…It must have been a race day at a local track or something! Awesome! Oh and something that was completely random and really funny was that they were promoting Mentos new cola flavour….Good time!!! watch the video..it is hilarious!!

After that it was pretty much time to go back and get our gear ready for the flight to Cairns. Before heading back to K’s house we stopped by at the local maccas in Asakusa where i had a double quarter pounder meal that costs 850 yen ( $13 bucks..yikes!) but it still tasted like the ones at home only smaller. The greatest thing i have found in all fast food joints is that they recycle everything and it is a sign of respect to clean up after yourself and not leave a pile of rubbish as you do back home. At the bin station there are specific compartments where you put your rubbish, firstly if you smoke there is a cigarette section where you put your ash and butts in. Left over ice in your drink is placed in another section where your plastics go in one bin and paper goes in another. How awesome is that and why can’t we have the same standards back home? In fact, throughout our whole trip you see that everyone recycles and everyone makes a conscience effort to do the right thing by sorting out their rubbish. Anyway we all got a good greasy meal and headed back to K’s to sort out all our gear to see what we can cram into the snowboard bag. After much effort of jamming everything we could in there, it looked and felt like i was dragging around a dead body as we headed back to the train station to Narita Airport.

Everything was going according to plan and we had plenty of time to get to the airport and do some duty free shopping…well i should say almost as when we were about to check in, Mike realised that he had lost Kim’s passport and was in a great deal of panic!! BUGGA, what a downer to the trip as without the passport Kim couldn’t get onto the plane to go home. We all were stressing out at this point as we all tried to look through all of our stuff piece by piece but couldn’t find it anywhere. It was getting near to closing time of checking in and Kim was desperately calling K’s house and Sakura Hostel to see if they had left it there..but unfortunately it wasn’t and was looking like they have to stay behind and wait until the embassy opens up on Monday. Mike pleaded with the Jetstar manager and even showed all of Kim’s passport details and credentials as he had them photocopied, but they just said it was out of their hands…We had to leave them behind We checked in and then raced to our terminal as the gates were about to close and we still haven’t bought any gifts for people back home yet…It was getting desperate when Lisa, Chucky and Young ran over to this small souvenir shop and literally just grabbed what they could get their hands while I stood in line to make sure they didn’t close the gate on us. It was a great feeling to be finally heading home but it was sad to know that Mike and Kim were stuck at the airport. Today (Monday 23rd) Mike gave me a call to say that the embassy issued them an emergency passport to fly back home and it was only a quick turn around because he had a photocopy of it!! Lucky he had photocopies and also travel insurance for the extra nights they had to stay back and the flights home…phewww!!

Day 16-17 Osaka City- Lil’ Tokyo

It was a beautiful Thursday morning as we arrived into the shin-Osaka terminal and by this time i was starting to get a bit over the traveling and started dreaming about snowboarding again!! hahahaha I think i was just exhausted from lack of good sleep, missing the boys at home, worried about work and uni when i get back and probably the icing on the cake was that everywhere we went, it started looking just the same to me! Well at least we thought we were going to have one good creature comfort in our stay in Japan which was that we checked into a hotel instead of a hostel, but to me it was just a glorified hostel with room service…i guess you get what you pay for right! Anyway, it was right in the heart of the action in Osaka which is on Dontonbori Street where we expect to see lots of street foods and shopping alleys etc.

In the mean time we wanted to check out the World famous Osaka Aquarium which houses a baby whale shark in its main tank. So the rest of us headed off to see what the whole fuss was about whereas John, Orla and Tony decided to have a look around the place before meeting up to watch a sumo match held . The aquarium was alright and awesome to see a whale shark and King spider crab for the first time, but it was just a big version of under water world.

King Kani!!! These things are massive!

Next we headed to the Osaka Gymnasium where the sumo tournament is currently being held at. We had previously purchased tickets on the way to the aquarium as we were afraid we weren’t going to get any tickets for tonight. We ended up buying box seats and were super excited to see a sumo wrestle match for the very first time. Walking towards the arena we found a maccas and decided to have a quick feed before entering in the building. The place was a hive of activity with people everywhere waiting for someone like paparazzi waiting for celebrities down the red carpet. We later figured they were waiting for the champion wrestler to enter the building, which we waited for half an hour and saw him for like a split second as everyone had surrounded him as he walked past of his sumo body guards. We were ushered into our box seats which were like propped up scaffolding floors with cushions for you to sit on. I had no idea what it was all about and lucky with our tickets came with an information pack that explains the history and rules of the sport. Match after match and it was starting to drag on a bit and I lost interest in photographing every round. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great experience but to me it wasn’t like watching a footy match, but i guess the locals loved it as they were all going nuts!!! The event ended for the day with the winner of the last round doing the traditional bow dance.

Sumo wrestling in Osaka

 John, Orla and Tony made their own arrangements to stay at a hostel near the train station but joined us for dinner after the match. We snacked on Tokoyaki (octopus balls), which is one of Osaka’s special treats made of some sort of batter with a bit of octopus inside of it. It was a really hot and gooey consistency that i really didn’t rate that much and by after my third one i was pretty much over it. We were surprised to see that there wasn’t much street food to offer and so we scouted out for an izakaya restaurant (proper Japanese pub that serves food on skewers). We found this dodgy looking, sticky floor place that didn’t feel like it had been cleaned for years..all spelt disaster but we decided to head in anyway…bad mistake!! After ordering some hot sake and a couple of crappy set menu items, we ate and left the place feeling dissatisfied and most importantly still hungry! I managed to find an Okonomiyaki (its like a Japanese style pizza of similar description) stall along a side street and chowed down on it. We were tired from being on our feet all day so we retired back to the hotel to plan what we were going to do tomorrow.

The next morning we were down two people being that of Kim and Young from what we suspect to be was food poisoning from the food we had at the dodgy pub last night. It must of been something in particular as none of the other guys got sick! But we all got up really early to get the JR train to Himeji which is a nearby town that has the most famous castle in Japan. John, Orla and Tony made their own way to Himeji as they escorted Tony to see his Archery master there. Getting to Himeji was only a half an hour shinkansen ride where Mike and Chuck wanted to power sightsee the castle and return to Osaka to check up on Kim and go do some decent shopping. In the mean time Lisa and I followed the Lonely Planet guide and hired bikes to get to the castle. Upon approaching the gates over the moat bridge was a spectacular view of the white castle that was perched up on top of a hill.

Himeji Castle

The castle was amazing as we twisted around the castle up to the the fifth floor and reading about all the special rooms and functions it housed. It took about 1.5 hours to walk through the whole place and it was probably the most beautiful ancient castle i have ever seen. We headed back to return our bikes and caught a bus to our next destination which was the Engyoji Temple ontop of Mount Shosha. A 30min bus ride, then a 10 minute ropeway cable car ride, then a 15 minute walk up the mountain gave way to a very holy place that was so majestic and beautiful that i can’t think of any other words to describe it. Maybe it was because it was so secluded with hardly anyone there or it was because it was surrounded by dense forrest which had this zen like feel to the whole place. No wonder the guys who made the film ‘The Last Samurai’ chose this place to make their movie as it presents everything about ancient Japan that has been untouched in today’s world. The temple is over a thousand years old with all the paint being weathered away. In fact this place is so old that the wood outside the temple had turned to a pale ghost white from the tannins inside the wood being leeched out…amazing how a structure could last so many years without the risk of fire from wars or any natural disaster! 

Engyoji Temple on Mount Shosha

 It was getting late into the afternoon and both of us were getting tired and hungry as we headed back to Himeji Station. Since Kobe was only the next train stop back to Osaka, we decided to stop there to have their world famous Wagyu steak for dinner. This was kind of a double edged sword event as good and really bad event was about to take place at the same time..more in a minute! So anyway, we followed the recommendation of the Lonely Planet book and walked downtown to the hub of the city until we could find a place that served their famous steak. It is so weird as we could not find many steak restaurants along the main stretch; maybe it’s because we didn’t know where to look at or it’s because they export the good stuff and leave the crap behind! Be that as it may, we managed to find a busy looking place that didn’t charge exorbant amounts for a 200 gram steak. I ordered the 250 gram sirloin dinner set and Lisa had the 160 gram Tender sirloin dinner set, both costing about 6000 yen each (all up about 250 bucks for two small bite sized steaks! ouch). We had our own chef the cooked our steak to perfection! He was slicing into it with no effort at all like it was butter and it literally melted as you took small sized bites trying to savour the stupidly expensive piece of steak we just ordered! Dinner was a success and at this stage we thought the amount we paid for the steaks was worth what we ate…IT WAS THAT GOOD! We lost track of time and had to run back uptown to the train station where the bad started to happen…

Steak in Kobe....Notice the marbling on it...mmmmm!!

Lisa started to feel really sick and her tummy was churning like crazy. We thought it was maybe the steak combined with a pint of beer and a coffee that just didn’t set well, and so we raced to the train and headed back to our hotel in Osaka. Lisa was feeling worse for wear and nearly vomited on the train but she persevered until we got back to throw everything up the whole night. I was fine all the way up until we got home when i started feeling a little queezy and felt this numbing sensation running all the way through my body…It felt like i was about to get a massive flu with all your joints starting to feel really sore and soon later i was hoping in and out of the toilet for the rest of the night..Yep it was food poisoning and Lisa and I lied on our bed in shear agony with Lisa and her tummy and me with my knees, hips, back, shoulders and elbows starting to ache. The next morning we both looked like death had knocked on our door and it felt like that too! I was in rotten shape, worse than Lisa mainly because i think she spewed everything up whereas i tried but it wouldn’t come up. I was feverish and I felt like i was 100 years old as every step hurt so much as my knees felt like buckling all the time. I was super cold one minute outside but was sweating like crazy and it didn’t help that we had to check out by 11am; I just felt like sleeping in all day! Lisa was a gem and got me some fruit jelly and apply juice down the road even though she was feeling like poo as well! Tackling exhaustion and sickness I finally managed to get out of bed and checked out of the hotel to try and get some fresh air and something filling in the belly. Mike also gave us some of these sachets to take for the rotten stomach which he bought for kim the previous night. Our train back to Tokyo wasn’t due until 2.40pm where we had a few hours to burn, but i was too tired and sore that i just wanted to go back to the hotel and sit in the foyer.

We finally made it to the shinkansen after what felt like years as everything felt like it was in slow motion and every step jolted pain all the way up and down my body..arghhhh! As we headed back to Tokyo, I literally passed out on the train hoping to get a bit of rest on our three hour journey. We got to Tokyo and I woke up feeling a little bit better as we went off to find our Hostel back in Asakusa. After walking back and forth around Asakusa for a while which I just wanted to go to sleep; we ended back at K’s house to get directions for Sakura hostel as that was the only place we knew that had wifi and could possibly help us. After Mike and Chucky asked for directions, we headed all the way back where we stopped off at the train and passed through the street markets and temple where they were celebrating the sakura festival. We finally managed to get to our hostel where Lisa and I turned in for the night and the rest of them went out for their final night in Tokyo!

Day 14-15 Hiroshima- City of Peace!

*Sorry for the delay in the last few posts, I was struck down with food poisoning whilst in Osaka where I had hoped to have wrapped things up but i was too ill!!*

It’s Monday morning the 16th March and we all gingerly woke up to what was going to be another action packed day. After having a nice hot shower we checked out of K’s house and headed to the Shinkansen terminal. I was tired, grumpy and especially hungry so Lisa managed to find some bento boxes at the station so we could eat on the train. Mike and Kim I think were Japanesed out and so they had the buffet breakfast again at the cafe next to K’s house that served cereals, yoghurt, coffee, toast, sausages and what i think were scrambled eggs but looked more like egg flavoured mash potatoes….gross!!!

No Muckin' around, Chucky tackles into his bento box

The shinkansen arrived like clockwork at the station and before you knew it blasted off towards Hiroshima..maybe i was too busy tackling into my bento box to even realise that we had left the station already..hahaha. Oh another trivia about Japan…I don’t know if I had mentioned this in any of my post yet but i am convinced that smoking here in Japan is the desired hobby of most people, as you cannot get away from it! It’s kind of weird to know that back home you are literally persecuted by smoking publicly these days, but over here everyone lives in their own localised smog cloud around their heads! Now back to the train ride, on every shinkansen there are smoking reserved, non-smoking reserved and also the same for non reserved ticket holders. After devouring my bento box I wanted to get a drink from the vending machines that they have at certain spots along the train carriages, where i had to cross two smoking reserved cars. As the doors opened i swear i could almost see a large plume of heavy smelly smoke spew out of the doors and remembered saying in my head…OH GOD!!! The car was full of smokers where the extract fans struggled to deal with the amount of smokers as there was a heavy haze in the air. I tried to breathe through my sleeve while power walking through the first car and then literally ran through while holding my breath through the next one. Gee, you would think that in such a orderly and almost perfect society that smoking would be the most offensive act but nope, blowing you nose in public is the worst..I will get to that in a minute.

We arrived in Hiroshima approximately two hours from Kyoto and followed the directions to Hana Hostel which was only 3 minutes from the train station. We got there a little too early as check in was at 3pm so we decided to hire some bikes and head off to see the Museum and the A-bomb dome located downtown. Hiroshima to me was a baby city compared to Tokyo and Kyoto that didn’t have the hustle and bustle like the other cities, which was good for a change! Oh and Hiroshima is also home to Mazda Motor Corp. where nearly every car on the road except for the taxis are Mazdas. It’s like the Japanese people have an unwritten duty to be super patriotic to everything they have and own. From cars to mobile phones, computers etc. they are only obsessed on their own creations…you hardly see anyone with iphones or ipods, macs laptops etc. I am in two minds on whether it is because it is more expensive over there or is it because they consider ‘non-Japanese’ an inferior product?

Me and Lisa at the A-Bomb Dome

The museum was a bone chilling experience and describes nearly every detail in picture and transcript of what took place and why the United States decided to bomb Japan. I would like to say that I was really glad there was no propaganda and BS of the incident and the Japanese told the truth about the tragedy. After about 45 minutes, i had about enough as i found it a bit disturbing seeing the remnants of children’s toys and clothes, the radiation shadow left on the stone stairs and the letters after the blast.

Peace memorial at the Museum.

We all left pretty shaken but i think it was well worth the lesson in history. Dinner was at this awesome Japanese restaurant that was recommended to us by the reception girl at Hana Hostel. I tell you now that even though Hiroshima may not have much to go for it, it makes it up in the food..mmmmm….Without a doubt i had the best sashimi ever in my life where the tuna, salmon, squid, prawn, scallop etc. was so fresh and tender that it melted away in your mouth! It was really funny because everything was in Japanese and the waitress had no understanding of english to save her…so John decided we should just do a lucky dip pick and see what we get! It was just a funny dinner experience as we all chose a meal and prayed that we got something that we could eat, as we were getting pretty hungry and pissed (well i was) with the amount of beers and hot sake before a single dish was served. As the food came out one by one, we oohhh’d and ahhhh’d for a bit before diving into them and i tell you every bite was like heaven on a plate. We all shared plates of crumbed Hiroshima oysters (THE BEST OYSTERS IN THE WORLD!! more on these later), sashimi, crumbed sticks of various things (izakaya’s), deep fried tofu and caramalised pork of some description. What a great dinner, perfect accompaniment to good friends around a dinner table is great food I say!!! We finished up at the restaurant and headed to a Lawson’s for desserts before heading back to the Hostel.

The next day we headed to Miyajima Island which was only a half and hour local train ride away from Hiroshima City. Miyajima or ’shrine island’ is one of the most scared and most scenic places in Japan, and i can now see why! Upon boarding the JR ferry and heading towards the island, you can see the famous red torii gates that stands in the water as we slowly floated past it. Getting off and passing through the information office area before entering the park, you can see wild deer everywhere as they walk up to you trying to steal your maps, eat your lose clothes or sniff at what you are currently eating. I guess that is the real problem of years of unmanaged tourism on wild animals!

Famous red torii gates at Miyajima island

As we walked through all the tourism shops and took pictures of the red torii gates, we accidently broke up into separate groups with Young, Lisa and I in one group and the others in another group. Since Young and I were taking so long at the gates taking pictures, we thought we were lagging behind the group and raced off to see if we could catch up not knowing that the rest of them were actually behind us. So we powered up the mountain to have a look at the shrines before racing up to the cable car station thinking that they would meet us there. After waiting for a bit, we decided to head up the cable car to view the island from the peak. The ride took us up about three quarters up the mountain where we had to walk the rest. Gee whiz, this was the most physical climb that i have ever  done with really steep steep stairs that felt endless as we all struggled to put one leg in front of the other…We had many drink breaks and short stops along the 700m route to the peak, but i swear we could have just finished a marathon as we got up to the observatory deck at the peak of the mountain. The view was impressive overlooking the whole island and Hiroshima City, but would have been more awesome if it wasn’t so hazy. We took a moment to enjoy the 360 panoramic view before deciding to hit the trail back down the mountain for a well deserved late lunch and hopefully catch up to the rest of the crew!

Deer on Miyajima Island

We rocketed down the mountain and finally found a place to eat lunch at one of the many many restaurants they have on the island. Lisa had one of the food specialties on the island which is Unago or Congo eel, whereas I had Kakidon (crumbed oysters over rice) and Young had Kaki curry over rice. We all destroyed our lunch before heading a couple of doors down to eat freshly grilled oysters over hot coals…mmmmmm…..Now without a shadow of a doubt, these oysters have got to be the best in the world. I can confidently say that as they were big, meaty and plump that didn’t have the zincy after taste like the ones you get from oysters back home. The flavour was mild and non mucous texture and just cooked in its own juice was absolutely spectacular. Mind you they were not cheap costing 200 yen per oyster (about 3 bucks an oyster) but we couldn’t stop eating them both cooked and fresh ones. Not knowing that the rest of the group were behind us, they only just got down the mountain and saw us eating the yummy oysters and so they went off to eat lunch at the same place we did before joining us in the oyster feast. Our bellies were full of oysters and it was getting late, so we headed back onto the ferry and then onto the train back to Hiroshima ready for our next adventure in Osaka.

Day 11-13 Kyoto City- Old meets New!

It’s Saturday morning on the 14th March and we are all set to go to Kyoto via the Shinkansen for the very first time…how exciting!!! After a quick stop at the local maccas for breakfast, we headed into the subway to get to Tokyo station and transfer onto the JR shinkansen terminal. Firstly I would like to say that because Tokyo is such a large city with so many train lines, it is confusing as hell trying to figure out where the hell you are going and how to get anywhere. But after a few goes on the subway and with a little help or two from the train station officer, we all started to get the hang of how the subway works, what exit to take to transfer and what trains to catch on what platform. I would also like to add that the trains here are super efficient, more efficient than the subway lines in New York when i was there in 2001. I have been paying particular attention to the times of the trains and all of them that we caught have been dead on time! It comes into the station and approximately 30 seconds later the door closes with no hesitations and the train scoots off again. It so cool that with so many people and how efficient the train system is, there is no craziness as people get on and off the train with only a slight nudge as they all try to cram into an already full car. We finally got into the JR shinkansen terminal and boarded onto the train when it arrived into the station…boy these things look like they are out of this world!

Shinkansen

At the front they have really long aerodynamic noses and I believe they travel approximately 250-300+ km/hr…awesome! Hitting high speed as we got out of Tokyo city was pretty unimpressive as i thought it was a lot faster than what seemed while looking outside of my plane cabin looking seat. We tried to guess its speed where i would count the number of poles we saw and timed how long it took from one pole to the other. I guessed that each pole was approximately 30m apart where you would divide it by the time taken to get its approximate speed…We got somewhere around the 200ish mark which sounded about right. 

The train ride took about 2hrs and 40mins to get into Kyoto and all i could say was WOW to this massive terminal we were about to enter. The shinkansen terminal is absolutely huge with really nice passive architectural designs which allowed the terminal to be naturally ventilated, and covered by a gigantic curved glass roofing structure. Not only that, the terminal is equipped with its own 11 floor department store, restaurant floors, sky garden and observatory deck…how cool! After trying to find our way out of this massive building, we headed to K’s house which was only say 10mins walk down the road from the station. From approaching the Hostel you could tell that it was pretty new building as everything look swish from the outside and also from the inside as we checked in and headed to our rooms. Gee, this K’s house was awesome and it felt more like a hotel rather than a hostel….much larger than the one in Tokyo! It even had its own bar/cafe area onto the side which closes pretty late if you are hankering for a couple of beers or some rubbish coffee.

K's House Kyoto

We ended up at Sukiya (fast food curry joint and now one of my favourite places to eat) for dinner as we couldn’t decided where we wanted to go and eat, plus at this stage i swear i could have almost eaten my stinky sneakers because i was so hungry. I ordered a Mega bowl of curry beef which was basically in my opinion enough to feed a family of three, hahaha…but i smashed it like it was an entrée meal…aaaahhhhh much better! After dinner we headed off to see the Hanatorou (lantern festival) in the Gion district which was so amazing…It was like being thrown back a few hundred years where the streets were cobble stone lined and the buildings were still kept the old styled Japanese wooden look…absolutely stunning. Unfortunately i believe we were a little too late in the evening to spot any Geisha’s darting to their appointments as it was getting dark really quickly and the chances became thinner and thinner. The lanterns are lit for a few hours a night between March 13-22 where it winds itself all the way up to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple and seeing the spectacular lit up pagoda in the distance….What a magical place! Along the sidewalk there were stacks and stacks of sweets stores and souvenir shops selling traditional arts and crafts. I couldn’t help myself and bought a samurai sword with a stand for 14,500 Yen (about $220ish), which i bargained with the owner to give me 500 yen off. Mike told me that he was amazed that i even bartered with him because it is not usual for Japanese to barter on price….It must be the Vietnamese in me…hahahaha…SPECIAL PRICE!!

Hanatorou Lantern Festival

We woke up pretty early in the morning because we wanted to hire some bikes to get around Kyoto and temple hop. K’s house had a fair few bikes for hire but it was first come first served kind of thing and we didn’t want any of us to miss out, so John raced down to secure 9 bikes as soon as the front desk opened at 5.30am! Our first stop was at the Nishiki Food markets as we wanted to see the weird and wonderful foods they have in Kyoto. I am always drawn to food markets every time i go overseas as i believe its the best way to experience their culture. We managed to find the markets after a few wrong turns and cries for directions, where i think we got there too early as they were only beginning to open up. In Kyoto, there are specific areas where you can only park your bikes, and finding one around that area was a bloody mission! We were forewarned that traffic cops are really quick in nabbing any bikes parked in the wrong spot where it is a 2300 yen fine when you pick it up from the bike pound. After trying our best to find a spot where other bikers have parked, and trying to dear life reading the bike parking sign; we managed to find a proper bike parking lot which was pretty cool. They had these awesome two tiered rack system where you park at the bottom or extend an arm that bends down and picks up your bike and retracts back into place. arghhhh….

As we slowly strolled through, Mike and Kim noticed one of those vending toy games with the arm inside it and gave it a couple of goes because the toy looked like Rusty (Mike and Kim’s boy staffy). After a few failed attempts, i decided to give it a go myself only on a different machine that gave out a big fluffy Stitch toy (from Lilo and Stitch). After a couple of goes, i manage to latch onto a toy which dropped into the prize winning basket; Lisa was ecstatic when i gave her the prize. After our leisurely stroll down the street market, Tony wanted to head into the Manga museum that was around the corner, so John followed him where the rest of the group ventured off to Ninjo Castle.

Ninja Chuck at Ninjo Castle

Next place we headed to was the Kinkaku-ji Temple or Golden Temple which in my mind symbolises Kyoto! It is such a beautiful sight when you enter into the temple garden and turn around a corner to see it floating over a pond filled with massive Koi’s. I won’t bore you with the history of this place but if you every decide to go to Japan for a holiday, definitely come to Kyoto where the old fuses with the new. 

Kinkaku-ji Temple

By this time, everyone was getting tired and sore legs from all the riding as we headed into a Lawson’s (like 7-11 really) to stock up on junk food for a quick pit stop as we were running out of time. We had to head back downtown which seemed bloody ages as we decided to take the scenic route and cycled along the main river to Fushimi-inari Taisha temple. Now this was another stunning sight to see if you ever get to Kyoto where the temple has hundreds and hundreds of red torii gates that line the path all the way up to the mountain. It was absolutely magical as we walked the torii lined paths and headed through a bamboo forest..WOW! It was getting dark and the paths didn’t seem to be well lit, so we decided to head back before dusk instead of climbing the hill to the other side.

Red torii gates at Fushimi-Inari Temple

We were absolutely wrecked at this stage where my legs were feeling like jelly at this point and I am sure the rest felt the same way too…So we got a feed at the Kyoto train terminal, had a nice hot shower and went to bed to start it all over again in Hiroshima the next morning. Sayonara!!

Day 8-10 Tokyo City!

It’s Wednesday the 11th March and its time for us to go back to Tokyo for 3 nights. It was such a bummer that we had to leave on a day like this as last night it snowed and snowed leaving the softest snow you could ever imagine. It was so lovely watching the snow fall outside our bedroom window as it just lightly fell onto our window sill. We got up early to get ready for the pickup van to take us to the shuttle bus to Chitose Airport in Sapporo, but John decided that the snow was way too good and headed back onto the slopes for one last run. Crazy nutter!!

Lisa snow graffiti on a van

I was in two minds over whether i was going to miss Niseko because i totally loved the snow and snowboarding, but i was sore all over from stacking it so many times..hahaha  All i have to say about Niseko is that it’s an amazing place where everyone is so friendly, polite and so welcoming every time you stepped into a store or one of the local restaurants there..it was great and i will be going back there sooner rather than later! Lisa on the other hand may not have the same sentiment as i think she was a bit over snowboarding and couldn’t wait until we started our sightseeing leg of the trip. John finally made it back just on time and quickly packed his gear ready for our bus ride back.

Neyuki Apartments

It was around about 6pm when we touched down into Henada airport in Tokyo where we caught the local train back to K’s house and checked in. The sleeping arrangement was that the girls were in one room and the boys stayed in another room, which almost reminded me of school camp and what a bunch of rowdy aussie blokes get up to when they are locked in one dorm room together. The boys room stank of arse from all the high protein diet we have been eating in Niseko and to top that some BO and feet stench!! hahaha….:) The room had no fresh air fan and we couldn’t work out how to open the fire escape window we had in our room. After a few goes we finally manage to open the window to try and flush the room out, and thank god for that coz i swear i was going to pass out soon….LOL

We decided that we had to go back to the ‘Green place’ as we called it because no one could read what the place was called as it was in Japanese. From what i can tell, they sell Korean style dishes that are self cooked in front of you on induction cookers. The place is only around the corner from where we are staying, it is cheap and especially delicious! After dinner Mike, Chuck, Young, Lisa, Nancy and I went for a stroll around the Asakusa area up to the Sensoji temple. It was really nice and scenic area all except that it was really blowy and cold, so we decided to walk back home and snug up for the night.

Asakusa Area at night

The next day we woke up really early to get to Tsukuji Fish markets. From K’s house it was like 15 minute train ride so it was relatively close, which was good as the lonely planet guide suggested that we go as early as possible to catch the action of the tuna auction in the morning. Unfortunately we didn’t get there in time for the Tuna auction, but there were heaps and heaps of little stalls which specialises in everything, from Tuna, Salmon, eel, smoked fish, pickled veggies and much more. To me it was such a great experience to see all these types of fish and weird crustaceans that we just don’t get at home. Although in saying that, i was pretty sad and disappointed that everything that moves in the sea is sold and eaten here regardless of what size it is. I am sure that amount of fish yield the Japanese consume is totally unsustainable and will if not already severely stress out the fish stocks for future generations.

Massive frozen tuna at Tsukuji Markets

Anyway, sashimi in the morning did not fit into anyone’s appetite so early so we decided to venture off into Ginza which is the upper class Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Bvalgari, Prada area where the girls went absolutely nuts! Unfortunately or fortunately for me, the stores don’t open until 11:30am so the girls couldn’t spend ridiculous amounts of cash and spend hours at each store! It was getting close to 11am and all of us were starving while walking around trying to find anything that was open. We ended up finding this Thai food place inside the food level of a posh department store and let us order early from their usual opening at 11.30am. The brunch was quite rubbish but it was filling at least. 

Next place was Ebisu area, where the Yebisu beer museum is hoping to drink lots and lots of beer! The museum was interesting, but the crap thing about it was that it was all in Japanese with a small pamphlet in english to get you around the place. The beer tasting lounge was quite cool where I bought a tasting set of four Yebisu beers; Ale, Dark, white and premium. The beers went down really nice, too nice actually that i had to buy another scooner of Ale..mmmm; and it was even better with these smoked cheese sticks that Lisa bought, which had a slight salami smokey flavour to it….yummo!!!

Me and Chuck at the Beer Museum

Unfortunately John, Tony and Orla didn’t make it with us to the museum as Tony had misplaced his money belt that had his JR pass and the rest of his spending money and went back to try and sort it out. The bad thing about a JR pass is that it can only be bought outside from Japan and that once you lose your pass, that’s it..you pay full fare which would have been like 4 times the amount in full fare rides compared to what we paid for our 7 day pass back home. Luckily Tony had a photocopy of his JR pass which thankfully with the help of Kahoru at H.I.S travel back in Brisbane (yep John had to call her to see what she could do to help) and the JTB office, they manage to accept the photocopy and honoured the JR pass for Tony..pheww!! Another praise for Kahoru as she saved Tony’s bacon big time by persuading the JR office lady to accept the exchange pass form..she is absolutely awesome!

The night was young and so we decided to head back to have a shower and grab Tony, John and Orla to head out to Roppongi, which is known for it nightlife. Roppongi to me is a seedy dirty place where every corner there is a club, bar or strip joint with hookers everywhere; you can spot them a mile away! What made it really gross was that there were Nigerian i think decent at the front of these strip bars luring guys into their clubs with special entry and drink deals. It was so strange to me as there we so many African guys just hanging around on their phone and trying to entice you in as you walked pass! Then after a while of thought, i realised that the reason why they use guys of African background was probably to act as bouncers and also it would be utterly shameful for a Japanese male to do such thing…it would be such a dishonourable act to be involved in such dealings. Anyway it quickly became boring as every street corner was the same thing…I mean don’t get me wrong, if i was like 20 and single it would have been definitely heaven for me!! hahaha We ended up at a bar that Chucky went last year called ‘Agave’ which was a tequila bar. The bar was down a dodgy alley, down some dodgy stairwell and into a smoke filled basement looking bar that was really dimly lit.

Drinks at Agave

The smoke from cigarettes in there was so bad that it almost produced a localised smog (in Japan you can still smoke in bars and eating areas etc. in fact it almost seems that everyone smoke here and anywhere they like…so frustrating). After ordering our drinks, the owner was being an A-hole by saying that everyone must buy a drink because they don’t charge and entry fee (Lisa, Orla and Young didn’t feel like drinking), so we quickly finished our drinks and left….never going back there again!

The next morning (Friday 13th) we got up early to go check out the Sumo’s at a suburb called Ryugoku which is only one train stop away from K’s house. We eventually managed to get to the sumo museum which was adjacent to the Sumo Arena, but unfortunately we had arrived at the wrong time to see any sumo fights or training at the area. I was told by the information guy that sumo events in Ryugoku are in January and currently a tournament is being held in Osaka. Anyway, after seeing the museum and checking out the souvenir shop we decided to press and get lunch on as it was Nancy’s last day in Japan due to uni commitments. 

Sumo wannabe's

Lunch was at this really nice traditional Japanese restaurant that also had a sumo arena stage at the back where you can eat whilst watching a match. Because it was out of season for sumo fights, we were served lunch at the front of the restaurant where we ate super fresh sashimi..actually the fish that was brought out to us was still breathing with both of its sides sliced up into bits and placed around it…ewwww gross…that totally put me off my lunch!! I seriously think that it is inhumane to do that to any animal, but i guess this is typical Japanese culture and who am I to judge on what they have been doing for hundreds of years…

Anyway, after that ordeal..we decided to take the train to Shibuya which is the funky, hip and trendy place for youngters to hang out and shop…gee this place is crazy literally! There are people everywhere and it nearly matches to Times square in New York when i went back in 2000. Shibuya has a four way crossing that I believe is the busiest in Japan; Lisa told me that it is approximately two million people travel through Shibuya station everyday…Wow that is like the population of Qld in one city district!!! Nancy was able to take a glimpse of Shibuya before she had to say her goodbyes to the gang and head back to catch the plane home. The girls were in heaven and spent hours in the department stores, leaving the guys to wonder around the street to look for things to do. It’s so weird here as they have a whole building of 9 floors dedicated to women’s clothing and a smaller building across the road for guys clothing; talk about shopping this is mecca.

Shibuya Crossing

After what felt like ages walking around the area, we caught up with the girls that thankfully didn’t find anything they liked to buy and came out with nothing and headed to try and find a place to eat…It is especially frustrating to try and find a good place to eat without knowing where you are going or how to read or speak the language! After walking through many streets to try and find something appetizing, we gave up and Lisa, Young, Chuck and I headed to KFC whilst the others found a ramen shop a couple of stores down. KFC was surprisingly rubbish as we thought it would taste like the stuff we got at home…boy were we wrong, chicken was small and only original and no chicken salt on the chips…totally crap! The others came out dissapointed with their ramen meal too, so it was not a good night for food until we found a Krispy Creme shop and devoured a couple of donuts for dessert.

We eventually got home at nearly midnight and got into bed ready for our trip to Kyoto on the Shinkansen (bullet train)….I can’t wait!!

Day 7 – Our Last day in the snow.

As they say ‘All things must come to an end’, it was our final full day of snowboarding and it was kind of sad to know that; but it didn’t stop me from trying to get the most out of it before we head back to Tokyo for our sightseeing leg of the trip. Everyone except for Tony, Lisa and Nancy got up super early to try and be the first ones up there…It was such a beautiful day with blue skies and cottony white clouds hovering over Mt. Yotei. As we got up to the top of the mountain, the guys wanted to traverse into the other resorts of Higashiyama and Annapuri as there will be less people over there and boy were we right. The runs were completely empty and the snow was really powdery, it was awesome! 

Hangin' out at the top of Higashiyama run.

 There were a few challenging runs, a couple of green runs but most were red and black runs. Young, Orla and Kim decided to take the red run down whilst John, Mike, Chucky and I opted to go down the ‘double diamond black’ run, and the first run i nearly shat myself!!! The run was steep, long and really bumpy as we crossed through trees, dodged cable car support towers and slight cliff edges all the way down to the Sofitel Ski Lodge (start of the Gondola). I lost count of the many stacks i had and the number of breaks i took looking over the whole plateau to get feeling back into my legs..arghhh, but i didn’t care as the soft snow just cushioned my fall and it was great!!! Even though it was severely taxing on the legs, i loved the run as it had a bit of everything, really hard and crazy parts, easier bits, and really gentle slopes to finish it off back to the start of the gondola. John and Mike are seasoned snowboarders so they easily cain it down big time leaving me and chuck to try and catch up. 

It was getting close to lunch time so we decided to look for a place to eat in Higashiyama where we found this Korean restaurant right next to a gondola that was closed for the day (maybe due to the lack of people i guess?). Most of us ordered the Korean fried rice, fried chicken and we were all obsessed with this green apple softdrink that Chucky bought. The rice came out in a stone carved bowl that was super hot where the rice was sizzling and a raw egg on top to stir it in.

Korean Rice bowl...mmmm!

After devouring the rice bowl, two pieces of chicken, and two green apple softdrinks later,  we decided to hit the slopes again for a few more runs. Lisa and Nancy in the mean time eventually got their snow gear on and went back on the slopes to try and find us, but because we were on the other side they ended up on the Rinkan run again up on the King quad lift.

Lisa at the Bell hut cafe

It was getting dark pretty quickly when we decided to head back to Hirafu to catch the gondola back up and traverse into Hirafu, since there is night skiing there. Mike, Kim, John, Chuck and I were the only crazy nuts who wanted to stay and night ski whilst the rest of them headed back to have a hot shower and get ready for dinner. Run after run i was trying to push myself big time, each time trying to go faster and faster! I think having a big arse used as counter balance and being 100kg came into good use on the slopes as I screamed down the mountain. Albeit, Mike and John made me look like i was standing still when they overtook me while waiving goodbye…arghhhhh!!! After a couple of runs of the King Triple up the top it was getting really cold and windy, so we headed into the 1000m hut and top up on some hot coffee and hot chocolate. Oh by the way, did i ever mention to you that getting a decent cup of coffee anywhere in Japan is like finding a lump of gold on the street? Seriously everything tastes like watered down instant cafe 43 blend rubbish, it is so frustrating when you are really shagged and need a desperate pick me up. The only one that i manage to find that was half decent was in a vending machine that serves both hot and cold drinks from the same machine…how cool is that?? Anyway it is called Boss Fire coffee from Hokkaido which costs about 120 Yen (about 2 bucks). After that Kim decided to head back home to the warmth of our apartment while the lads insisted to get more out of the night skiing and headed back up the triple king lift to the top. I forgot to mention that during the day, snowball fights were aplenty and some would last for ages until someone gave up. Usually it was either the last person down the slope or the person sitting below the rest of the group on the slope. It was getting really cold now and i could feel the tips of my gloves becoming hard as the snow fused itself from the warmth of my hand. I was getting really tired and hungry by now and so Mike, Chuck and I decided to fang it down all the way to the bottom and then toboggan it on the family run. As normal Mike cained it down leaving me to try and catch him and Chucky being so light came last…It was such an awesome day that was action packed and i have now found my new favourite run which is the Double Diamond black…AWESOME!

Day 6- Getting the hang of things!

The blizzard quickly blew past overnight leaving some pretty good snow higher above the mountain and leaving the lower parts quite slushy. Most of us were very keen to hit the high slopes except for Lisa and Nancy who went and took a morning refresher snowboarding lesson, Kim who had a sore toe from her new boots and Tony who still had the buggard shoulder injury. It was a really nice blue sunny day and it was starting to get warm as we ventured off to the family run to get up to the higher lifts.

Just Chillin'

Since we got off early this morning, the snow up top was relatively untouched and it was still nice and powdery from the mass dumpage last night. At this stage i could feel myself more in sync with the board and began to understand how the board functioned on the snow. It was so wierd as the higher you go, the lower slopes seem to be insignificant and so easy to get down on whereas the night before i would have to heel and toe all the way down the same slope. As I felt quite confident on the board, the boys took me up higher and down a black diamond run (hardest slope) which were through big trees and a sharp incline. I was packing it big time the first run, but it seemed to get easier and easier the more times we did it. The snow through the tress were untouched and my first real taste of powdery snow was unexpected because i have been so use to the hard icy surface of the lower slopes. As I was dodging the trees and slowly heading through them, I literally fell into the softest of soft snow up to my knees that it was impossible to get out of, so i just got on my hands and knees and crawled out…It was so awesome as it was my first taste of the famous Niseko powder that everyone raves about. After a few more runs, I decided to head back down to catch up with Lisa and Nancy after their lesson and see what they wanted to get for lunch…We ended up at the only Irish pub in Niseko and the food was rubbish! How is it an Irish pub if it doesn’t even serve any Irish food; go figure?

We met up with the rest of the gang back at home after lunch and i was keen to get back out there on the slopes again. So after a bit of a rest, we all marched back up to the top and had a few more runs of the king triple and quad before the guys wanted to catch the bus into Hanazono ski resort, which is on the right hand side of Grand Hirafu on the same mountain. Getting there took about 15 minutes and upon entering it was very quiet with hardly anyone there, probably because of the hard icy surface on all of the slopes (I think Hanazono was sheltered from the blizzard and thus no snow fall). After seeing the ice on the slopes, i decided not to risk myself getting battered and bruised again by going flat out so i slowly went down the ‘Gateway to heaven’ red run and the simple green run which was really long and windy. I absolutely hated it and told the boys i wanted to go back to Hirafu. Lisa had enough after her first run down so she decided to catch the bus back to Hirafu and go to an onsen for the afternoon. The rest of us went as high as we could to traverse back into Hirafu at the top of the mountain which was pretty cool. It went through a windy back run which was quite narrow but was long and had a gentle slope all the way to Hirafu.

Young heading back to Grand Hirafu

 By this time it was getting dark and the floodlights came on for night skiing. This is my first time experience night skiing and it was absolutely great…there was no one around to bump into, lifts were always free and no queue so we just kept going up and down, up and down all night until nearly closing time. By this stage i was absolutely wrecked and decided to head back down before the other boys, as they wanted to fit in one more black diamond run before heading home.

It was Take’s Birthday today and he invited all of us to celebrate at the local Samurai bar, which we told him that we would meet up for a drink or two after dinner. I was hankering for a pork katsudon at the King Kani restaurant so Kim, Lisa and I went back there whilst the others looked for an Izakaya bar (grilled food on sticks, good with beer). After dinner we decided to see if we can find the rest of the gang and so we walked around a few blocks before thinking that they may have gone straight to the Samurai bar. This is where it got funny because Lisa, Kim and I went strolling into what we thought was the Samurai bar, which was a small and tucked out of the way curry restaurant. An hour and a half had past and we still could not see anyone so after our complimentary sake and a large Sapporo beer, we decided to go back to our apartment..Lord behold, we were later told that there is another Samurai bar in the village and that they were having drinks there with Take before stumbling into an Ice bar that was literally made of all ice…geez!!!!

Anyway, we all got settled and rested for the night as the next day will be the last full day we have on the slopes before heading back to Tokyo…I was shattered by this time and needed sleep pronto!!! Before Lisa could give me a kiss goodnight i was already in a deep coma dreaming of the soft powder snow and me being super awesome on the slopes

Day 5- Going Sky High!

We woke up to day 5 to a windy, cold and rainy morning which spelt doom as the rain melts the soft powdery snow into wet slush. We checked the forecast and it was confirmed a blizzard was coming through, but we didn’t care and got ready to get up the mountain anyway, hoping that the snow will be untouched by the rain at higher altitude. 

As we inclined on the chair lift, the wind howled and literally blew the sleet that was forming into sideway bullets, geez it was cold!! Not only were we battered by the sleet, the fog was incredible with a solid wall of white haze. I started to get a little anxious at this point as you literally could not see your hand when you placed it in front of you. I was packing poo a little because you could not see anyone that was on the slopes and I knew that if I had to suddenly stop or turn, I would definitely roll down the hill or hit a tree or something. We only had a couple of runs up the triple king lift down on the Rinkan run before they closed so we decided to head back down and get ready for lunch.

Lunch was at a quaint little cottage that they formed the downstairs of their home into a little pasta resturant.  Café If is ran by an old couple and you can tell they have been there for a while with all the old national geographic magazines and other Japanese mags that we were reading which dated back to the early 90’s. Most of us ordered the prawn and scallop pasta which was in a creamy sauce, and man it was good. I was so surprised on how good it was and found it hard to relate good pasta in japan!

After lunch we decided to wait around the apartment for a while and check to see what lifts were operating. It was around about 3pm before the wind and fog died down a little for the higher lifts to commence, so the rest of us except for Kim and Nancy went back up the slopes.  We didn’t end up staying out very long as the wind and fog picked up again and it was getting dark very quickly. Fortunately at Grand Hirafu they have night skiing with heaps of floodlights on around the mountain, but that didn’t help one bit in the fog which acted like a thick white blanket.

 

The highlight of today was dinner. Mike made reservations to a resturant called ‘Yo’ which was only really a 2 minute walk down the road from the apartment. Upon entering the restaurant, there is a beautiful Japanese garden that welcomes you before you sit down at the dining tables.

9-Course Degustation.

Food after food kept coming as each course presented perfectly arranged food, so appealing that you didn’t even want to eat it. After a few Ooohhh’s and Aaahhh’s, we dove into our meal and seriously it was to die for!!! Lisa and I shared our meals as we usually do since she had the seafood degustation and i had the meat. The food was amazing and it was think it was the best example of excellent traditional Japanese food and culinary mastership. We ended the night with a large bottle of warm sake and went home to sleep the food off. What a day!!

Day 4- Conquering the mountain..well 1/4 of the way!

Upon writing this post, we are back on the plane to Tokyo as we have finished our ski leg of the trip. I’m sorry for the delay in the post, it has been so difficult to update on a daily basis because snowboarding all day has been so exhausting mentally and physically.

Day 4 of our ski trip and I was really keen to get out with the rest of the group to see what I have learnt through yesterday’s all day snowboarding lesson. Getting up after being meat tenderised has left me feeling sore all over, especially with my neck muscles from smacking my head on the ground so many times.

Going higher than the Ace family run (baby slope) got me a bit nervous as I was still very shaky on the board and was dead scared from stacking it again! But I persevered and hopped onto the Ace pair lift which went about a quarter of the way up the mountain… 

Getting up top and looking down the slope was absolutely shit terrifying, but I knew if I kept to the basics of heeling or toeing all the way down I can still make it. It also helped that the higher you went, the more powdery the snow was. It was great that the ground was a bit more forgiving when I constantly face planted during my decent. I can tell you now IT IS A LOT WORSE THAN IT LOOKS!! Hahaha…ouch my rib cage bruise!

After a couple of runs of the ace pair, I felt more and more comfortable and could feel myself improving with every run down the mountain. Lisa eventually came up to the ace pair lift after a few more test runs of the family slope. Nancy buggered up one of here ankles and also her knees from slipping on ice, so she chose to stay at home for the day to rest up. Orla and Young were ‘Bus driving’ as Mike and John call it down the same run as they were also practicing what they learnt in their day lesson. Mike, John and Chucky decided to ditch the rest of us to go higher and higher up the mountain to chase softer snow.  

Orla at the top of a run.

We all met for lunch at a really nice restaurant that was only around the corner from where we stayed. ‘Fuji’ is a nice traditional Japanese restaurant where you sit at low tables on cushions. For me it was so awkward and sore, especially after sustaining a tail bone bruise and constantly having to transfer the load from one cheek onto the other.  The meals were absolutely awesome! The sashimi in our set meals were so fresh and everything looked so nice and delicately placed that it just made you even more hungry looking at it. I had the pork katsudon which was like a 100 times better then the rubbish you get back home…this was the real deal and boy did it taste good! 

Lunch at Fuji

My Pork Katsudon..mmmmmmm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3- Training Day…

The morning presented us with a bright blue sunny day, which looked absolutely awesome waking up to and looking out of the window. Today was our training day and i think Lisa, Nancy and I were so excited that we forgot about the stories of sore bums from the rest of the guys. John recommended us to a snowboarding school called SAS (Snowboard and Ski School). Lisa, Nancy, Tony and I went off to our all day snowboarding class whilst Orla and Young went to their ski lesson. Take (like sake) started off with the usual warm up before strapping the board to our feet and up to the family lift. I can tell you now, that snowboarding is the crappiest, hardest, arse hurting, neck whiplashing experience that i have endured. The many falls on my bum has given me a bruise on my tailbone, so now i have to transfer my weight from one cheek to the other..hahaha

Johnny at the top of the peak.

Not only that, it was such a hot day so i decided to take off my helmet and my thermals..BAD move, the next run on the lift saw me straight back on my bum and this time nearly took myself out with a head smack onto the ice. I very slowly got back up and grabbed my helmet and placed it back on my head! Unfortunately Tony had a bad spill coming off his first lift chair run and the next lift smacked him on his right shoulder as he tried to get up…it was game over for him and Take took Tony, Mike and John to the local hospital in Kutchan to get it checked out. It ended up being a hairline fracture and needed to get it checked by a specialist on Monday.

After working on our heeling and toeing, turns, stops and learning how to correctly fall, we had a lunch break for a couple of hours before we had our afternoon lesson. Thrills and spills were plentiful and bruises literally popped up in all sorts of places on my body! It didn’t help that the family run was so icy…

After lunch and a bit of a rest we took our afternoon lesson, which all of our morning training seemed to have sinked in for us and we started to hoon down the family run…well in saying that i saw a 5 year old girl scream past me
We ended the day with a nice hot chocolate (mind you it was like 8 bucks) and headed back to our apartment to get ready for dinner. Whilst the beginners had their lessons, the pros went up the top of the mountain. Here are some of the footage.