The last ski of the season

Just another note from my last skiing trip of the season. This time a small group (three) of us went up to Ciao skiing place (2,190m), somewhere between Nagano and Gifu prefecture (http://www.ciao.co.jp).

The timing wasn't so good as the temp was rising already. In fact, when we arrived there around 6 o'clock in the morning, it was raining. What a big disappointment! Then we went to sleep for about 2 hours in the car and guess what! We awoke to some piles of snow.. I'd like to think that while we were sleeping, God has kindly dropped some snow for us to enjoy. And from then on, it was nice weather till Sunday when we were heading home. Here are the views from the first day:




From all the places I've been to, Ciao has the simplest course. From the top, we just have to choose East(blue), Center(green) or West(red). It's neat because I don't have to carry the map with me. And also for the first time I experience the skiing place where it's using manual lift/gondola ticket checking.

All of us somehow just took it easy this time. For me, the news of the death of Natasha Richardson on the beginners skiing slope in Canada kinda held me back a bit. It reminded me that this is a dangerous sports. And since it's gonna be my (our) last skiing trip, I just wanna enjoy the moment, the snow and the time off. But then... the reminder lasted only for a short time, because I couldn't resist taking the challenge that MM threw at me, to try skiing through the bumps, which I successfully failed at.


This trip felt more like a culinary travel, as it happened that the ryokan we were staying at serves a wonderful Japanese meal at dinner time. There were about 10 types of food on the tables (I don't even wanna begin to imagine how they're gonna wash all the small cute dishes). It was really BIG meal because I couldn't finish my food 2 nights in a row, even after all the exhaustion from skiing.


Japanese style breakfast..


(dinner second night with yakiniku beef inside that black pot)


And the room where we were staying at was so spacious and has a wonderful river on the valley view. On the evening, I would just sit by the window, enjoying the view and the peace.

(the view from our room)
(the tatami area where we were sleeping on. Our beds were made up every evening and morning, by the way. Great service!)


The area around there is really picturesque. I managed to take this shot with my mobile phone from a moving car, and I just love it!

Ah~~ it's time to keep my skiing gear and boots back in the corner of the cabinet.. So long!

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never easy, well except I guess to those whom we are not so fond of ;)

Tonight, in the height of our project deadline, we said goodbye with some pizzas and drinks to our workmate, MI, a Japanese girl, who has been working part-time with us for nearly a year. She's been a dear girl to all of us, smart, outgoing and very cheerful personality. MI has finished her undergraduate study and got herself a good job in Tokyo and thus leaving us to start a new beginning in her life.

The four of us in the office have been a wonderful team. Somehow all of us just connect. I've always been amazed at this connection thing.. how you meet someone and you just click..or you spend some time with someone and suddenly you realize that the connection is just there.. It's difficult to explain. I really thank God for everyone of them at my workplace. Tho' it's true that sometimes we get on each other's nerves, but we do get along well and we've had so much fun in between.
I must admit that my working life has been much more colorful with them in the office (hmm.. I hope none of them will be reading this blog). Not having the one part of us is gonna be hard.. especially after being with such a wonderful person.. but as my boss put it.. I should give the new girl a chance.. everyone deserves it!

Once I bought a goodbye card with nice wordings on it.. "Saying goodbye means saying hello to the many blessings God has prepared for you". How true! I hope and pray for the best for MI, our tequilla girl, in Tokyo. May she continues to blossom into a beautiful lady inside-out.
Cheers...

Skiing in Tsugaikekogen, Nagano

This posting came a bit late, but anything related to skiing no matter how late it is is worth posting I suppose :) Yep, you might be reading the blog of a skiingholic :)

Anyway, so I went skiing (again) last month. It's the yearly winter camp held by my church. Only this year, the usual 3 day trip was made into 5 days *yaayy* and since it's on weekdays, predictably the number of people joining the trip declined sharply. There were only three of us (all girls) on the first day. We left Kobe on Monday night, catching the night bus to Nagano. About 9 hours on the road. Tough it is. The bus made about 4 stops and I came down at every stop to stretch out and check out the restrooms :p

Then at around 6am, we finally arrived at our hotel which is located 1 minute away from the skiing place (perfect!). Here is the skiing place where we went:
http://www.tsugaike.gr.jp




Near the end of our first day, snow started falling and it continued throughout the night. Me and my friend, HI-chan were just standing by the window for a long time to enjoy the silence and beauty of the snow falling. The next morning we woke up to this awesome view from our hotel room:


Thank God, the other two guys arrived on that day and all of us were able to enjoy the fresh snow powder together. The guys think that it's the best snow condition they've had this winter (it means a lot considering that they've been going skiing so many times this winter). It was such a blessing.. the soft snow powder makes skiing easier and tricks us into thinking that our hidden skiing skill is emerging at last :)

There are lots of spacious green courses in Tsugaikekogen. A friend of mine told me that it's actually a known place for beginners (should have come to this place a few years back). I used to love green course, but recently I found that skiing on the green course could actually take so much more energy. Many of the areas are rather flat and without the slope to pull us down, it was quite hard to move forward.

And the great thing is I'm slowly getting grip of the parallel skiing technique. That lesson in Austria proves to be really effective. Like many things in life, I think it's important to find the core of the way to do things. And with skiing, the core lies in where you put the weight of your body when you're turning. Easier said than done. I think one must be brave enough to take the risk to fall down when learning to ski.

And surely I know by heart the 3-day rule when skiing so to avoid accident, yet with our limited schedule, every day is precious. So there on the fourth day, with my muscles started protesting and with the longer time it took for commands to pass from my brain to my legs, I had the great fall of the trip. I was standing at the top of the red slope and watching a small group of rather elderly started skiing skillfully before me. Watching them really inspired me and I thought to myself that I hope I'd still be able to ski when I reach their age. With this in mind and a sudden eager spirit, I started following them at a quick pace. And the next few moments happened in a flash. I felt that my skiing boards and sticks were flying off and I was skiing down with my back (I kinda wish this fall was recorded in a video). Upon coming to halt, I quickly scanned through my legs and arms and was relieved that everything is still in good order. A kind oji-san helped me gathering all my stuff. And only when I started skiing again, I realized that small parts of the muscles on my right leg must have been impacted by the fall. Being the rather philosophical person that I am, I conclude that falling down is not nice at all yet indeed important and necessary to slow us down.

Anyway, here is a snap of the green slope from the ski lift on the last day. As you can see, the snow started melting already and no, the sun in Japan is not black (my mobile phone somehow did it).



And here comes the group photo.. We are thinking of forming a KBF Winter Club with own t-shirt uniform.. it would be cool bananas! I truly thank God for this group of bros and sis who share the same interest and passion with me. It is a strong bond, although I must admit that people might get bored being around us because most of the time when we gather, what we talk about is only skiing/snowboarding trip.. the past and the next one :)