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!
Filed under: Japan Trip 09!
