Ski 好き!

I went skiing today! (Yaaay applause for me.)

Dan knew a guy who knew a guy who was a freelance photographer who was being hired by Appi, and they wanted their new brochure to have foreigners in it. (Yes, Mommy, that's where your black t-shirt with the Japanese is from!) So they paid for us to go, paid for out ski lift passes, rentals, food, and drove us up there. Or at least maybe nobody paid, it just wasn't charged. It was so awesome. AND they gave us each three free lift passes for later. I almost felt bad, but I've learned long ago that refusing gifts in this country just doesn't work.

So I skiied when I was in the 6th grade. That's all. Because the guys that brought us up there were from Morioka, they were pretty good at it, so I got free ski lessons from them! And they helped me the whole way. At one point I was going too fast and I crashed into one of them and my head hit his stomach and he grabbed onto my thigh and we went sliding around everywhere. That doesn't make logistical sense, but that's what happened.

So I did the bunny slope first, which had a very steep part, what are they trying to pull here, I mean really, come on, this ain't no bunny slope, this is a wolf slope! But then we had lunch and I had Indian vegetable curry, and it was delicious and hot, and then they took us on the easiest* slope. Which was 5.5 km long.

*whaat? This is easy?!

Here's a map:
We went on the green one to the right-most part. The really long one that curves around. It took about an hour and a half, and I landed on my face quite a lot, which would then go sliding down the mountain as I flailed my arms out trying to slow down as the snowboarders went around me at quite high speeds.

Anyways, here are some more pics:


Look I bought a ski outfit yesterday! Now I look like Pepto-Bismol!!


And the green arrow is the route we took.

I already have a huge purple bruise on the side of my leg. And I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. One time I landed in a big pile of powder and my poles went in halfway to the handles and it took me about ten minutes to get on my feet. Blah. But it was so much fun.