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 
Filed under: Japan Trip 09!
