2/1 Skiing

Our professor decided to take us on an overnight "field trip" to the Saijo area. In other words we were going on a vacation. Today, we left at 8 am to go skiing at the Mt. Ishizuchi Ski Resort. We got into the school's van (named Noah) and Tokuoka-sensei drove us all the way. I dressed as warm as I could. When we got there, we parked and climbed all the way up some steep concrete paths to a gondola which took us up to the top of the mountain. At the top, we had to walk over to where we could actually rent ski equipment and clothes. Man, it was super cramped in there. But nevertheless we got out, and went to try skiing. So, I had never skied before, so this was definitely a learning experience which I was excited and nervous for. I put my skis on, and moved a little. I fell, but I quickly got the hang of it. The entrance area was less steep and went down to the lift which would take you all the way to the top. When slid down there, I didn't want to go all the way up to the top, but it was either I hike back up or baptism through fire. Well, I went up to the top of the steep slope  with the rest of my class, and I tried going down. I knew that to stop you need to bring the front of your skis together, so I practiced stopping and going. I very quickly got the hang of it, and then took the light slope down to ride the ski-lift again. I did this a few times until I would just burn down the steep slope and keep my momentum going left until I stopped in front of a ski-lift seat. It was my first time skiing but awesome. At one point when I was burning down the slope I did try to break and fall pretty bad, but I didn't get hurt. My tutor Rin, and my classmate Ren both wanted to try snowboarding, and you can watch in one of the videos.

We stayed there for an hour and then went into the lodge to get lunch and watched professionals speed down what looked like cliffs. It was a little bit more expensive than usual, but I had chicken katsu curry (my favorite) and we conversed in the lodge. After we put all of our things away and were heading back down to the car, I decided to write my name in the snow. A little boy came up to me and asked what I was writing, I said my name and asked him what his was. He said Haruki, so I wrote it in Roman letters and he and his dad liked it. My classmates started writing other things too. For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant which was AMAZING, and we sat on the floor. Then we went to our hotel, which was farm themed, and got to bed.