our first snowboarding trip of the season!
so tiff and i stuffed our snowboards, appropriate gear and articles, snacks for post-boarding power-up fuel, and ourselves into tiff’s mini-car and hit the road. the drive to the ski resort is about 40 minutes from my house, a hop, skip, and jump away. taking road trips is always pleasurable, especially with your best friend. chatting nonstop only to pause for eating our on-the-road breakfast and belting out our favorite tunes, the short drive seems to be nothing at all. previously, we had ordered and paid for our season passes, we only had to trade our confirmation form for an actual pass at the resort, ikenotaira. so, to the ski-jo we made it. starting a little late, we arrived at 1:00. we needed to get a strap adjusted on my board, rent boots, and make our passes before we started zooming down the moutain. first renting boots and getting my board fixed, we headed to the ski resort onsen (hot springs) building where we could make our passes. waiting for a short while, bouncing with excitement and anticipation with hitting the slopes, our passes were handed over from the cute employee.
finally! it had actually been almost two hours from the time we arrived to our first test run. unfortunately, feeling a little nervous and unconfident, we wanted to make it down the easy bunny slope first, but being early in the season, it wasn’t operating.
the ride up to the top seemed to last a lot longer than last year, i guess due to nervousness and it being the first time. i felt like i was going to my impending doom . . . . alright, now quite, but i was worried i wasn’t going to be able to perform well.
and the results are . . . . . . . it’s not as bad as i imagined!! i thought i was going to be a whole lot worse off than i was. only going about four times last year as a beginning snowboarder, i wasn’t exactly skilled. well, maybe that’s a little of an exaggeration. i wasn’t really good at all, but snowboarding is surprisingly difficult! yesterday, i feel like i leveled with last year’s skill and improved a little more. i already surpassed what i could do in last year’s season - this holds promise!! yesterday was a lot of technical practice for tiff and i: dig toe in, raise heel, twist body, feel the burn, go vertically down, lean forward, ease up to stop breakneck speed, turn backwards, turn frontward, etc. what a conscious, and methodological thing learning how to snowboard is! soon hopefully, it will become a mechanical, automatic process. we made it down three times before the slopes closed for the day, at about 4:45.
i feel like i need to go again soon so i can reinforce what i practiced and learned yesterday. i’m ready! i’m gonna be pro soon. just wait and see. first of all, however, i need to let my aching and screaming-with-pain body recover. i succeeded in falling so many times, my arms and ass are feeling the resulting strain. what a workout. good, because i can’t exactly do my running in the already two feet, soon-to-be-more snow.
ikenotaira, the resort
you can barely make out the little people flying down the slopes
waiting and waiting . . .
right after we received our passes.
on the ski lift. unbelievably, i forgot my hat . . . . my hair iced over. fast.
afterwards, back at the onsen building to buy christmas gifts in their gift store
the pain hadn't really set in yet
horribly, there was another reason we were back at the onsen. sometime during the day, unnoticed, my season pass had slipped off my arm and was lost. no one had returned it, and being that the japanese people are mostly trustworthy, it was thought to still be on the slope, likely covered by the snow fall last night. the cute employee gave me my second season pass of the day - for free!! but, there was only one problem, my name was spelled wrong. damn. oh well, it's funny.
finally! it had actually been almost two hours from the time we arrived to our first test run. unfortunately, feeling a little nervous and unconfident, we wanted to make it down the easy bunny slope first, but being early in the season, it wasn’t operating.
the ride up to the top seemed to last a lot longer than last year, i guess due to nervousness and it being the first time. i felt like i was going to my impending doom . . . . alright, now quite, but i was worried i wasn’t going to be able to perform well.
and the results are . . . . . . . it’s not as bad as i imagined!! i thought i was going to be a whole lot worse off than i was. only going about four times last year as a beginning snowboarder, i wasn’t exactly skilled. well, maybe that’s a little of an exaggeration. i wasn’t really good at all, but snowboarding is surprisingly difficult! yesterday, i feel like i leveled with last year’s skill and improved a little more. i already surpassed what i could do in last year’s season - this holds promise!! yesterday was a lot of technical practice for tiff and i: dig toe in, raise heel, twist body, feel the burn, go vertically down, lean forward, ease up to stop breakneck speed, turn backwards, turn frontward, etc. what a conscious, and methodological thing learning how to snowboard is! soon hopefully, it will become a mechanical, automatic process. we made it down three times before the slopes closed for the day, at about 4:45.
i feel like i need to go again soon so i can reinforce what i practiced and learned yesterday. i’m ready! i’m gonna be pro soon. just wait and see. first of all, however, i need to let my aching and screaming-with-pain body recover. i succeeded in falling so many times, my arms and ass are feeling the resulting strain. what a workout. good, because i can’t exactly do my running in the already two feet, soon-to-be-more snow.
ikenotaira, the resort
you can barely make out the little people flying down the slopes
waiting and waiting . . .
right after we received our passes.
on the ski lift. unbelievably, i forgot my hat . . . . my hair iced over. fast.
afterwards, back at the onsen building to buy christmas gifts in their gift store
the pain hadn't really set in yet
horribly, there was another reason we were back at the onsen. sometime during the day, unnoticed, my season pass had slipped off my arm and was lost. no one had returned it, and being that the japanese people are mostly trustworthy, it was thought to still be on the slope, likely covered by the snow fall last night. the cute employee gave me my second season pass of the day - for free!! but, there was only one problem, my name was spelled wrong. damn. oh well, it's funny.
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