Day 3 of holiday.
Woke up about 7.30 am and got dressed and went downstairs to have breakfast. Breakfast at the Stelle Belle is a modest affair, but adequate. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, ham (but no bacon), two types of cereal, bread, rice, miso soup, coffee, tea, orange juice, a little bit of fruit and some weird looking pickled vegetables that neither Alex or I were game enough to try!
After breakfast we walked the short distance up to the Japan Powder office to get fitted out for snowboarding. That was fun, especially when Alex ended up in bright pink pants and a sky blue jacket. Nothing like getting kitted out like a 13 year girly-girly! (especially if you're a Tom-Boy like Alex is). I on the other hand was decked out in black and grey and looked (in Alex’s words) very ‘hard core’. (Ha! If only!)
We then walked back to our hotel and an Aussie driver called James picked us up and took us to Iimaru which is one resort / ski area away from Escal plaza. When James dropped us we went and signed in for our snowboarding lesson, only to realize that Alex forgot to bring the lift passes and had sprint outside to catch James just as he was driving off! En-route to stopping the bus, Alex bumped into three people and knocked someone’s snowboard over and watched it slide merrily of down a slope...
When Alex got back – fully 30 minutes later – she exchanged the lift passes for lift tokens and we went to the Level 1 (beginners!) snowboarding lessons. While awaiting the instructor we struck up a conversation with a very nice couple from Perth (Charlotte and Chris). Charlotte was a very good skier apparently but has hurt her knee, so she was on a watching brief. Chris was like us, a beginner.
Our instructor was a pleasant Italian woman who through broken English did her level best to teach us the fundamentals of snowboarding. Unfortunately the lesson didn’t really seem to have a structure, and it felt a little like she was winging it.
After showing us how to get on the snowboard (ridiculously difficult at first because both feet are secured to the board and there is no leverage!) and how to go down a tiny slope with the board side-on, while leaning back to slow down your rate of descent, we then went up in the ski-lift to the top of the beginners slope (which did not look like a beginners slope if you ask me!). Unfortunately I was not paying attention when our lovely instructor told us how to get off the ski lift. We’d boarded the ski lift one at a time, with one foot secure in the board and the other free. The theory being (so I discovered later!) was that when you get off the ski lift you put the board down, secure foot first and put your free foot on the board itself and the momentum of the ski lift pushes you out of the way of the ski lift directly behind you.
Alex, who was on the ski lift in front of me, dismounted with surprising ease and grace. While Logan, in his infinite wisdom, decided a better look would be to get the snowboard caught under him, while twisting backwards at an impossible angle while being struck on the head by the accompanying ski lift.
Degree of difficulty for this dismount? 9.8.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth followed during this from the Japanese chair lift attendants while this was going on. But, despite being twisted like a pretzel and battered quite severely about the noggin, I bounced up like a kid with a look of ‘What’s all the fuss about’ on my face, much to the relief to all and sundry.
It was cute straight afterwards though because I heard our instructor say to Alex, ‘Gosh you must really love your boyfriend as you looked SOOOOO worried!’ :)
Now, when you’re a rank beginner and can barely stand up on a snowboard, standing at the top of a steep slope (and for a beginner it was a very steep slope, despite what a more advanced snowboarder would think) facing the journey down the hill is nothing short of daunting.
However, Alex, Chris and I gamely attempted it. And, despite being the worst of the three of us when we were getting the lesson it was I, who zoomed off down the mountain and got to the bottom first!
Fortunate, as they say, favours the brave.
Or the stupid!
Needless to say there was much falling over and hurting our asses on the way down though! And f*ck me but it was exhausting work!!! At the end of the run we all collapsed on the snow and just lay there.
The lesson was over at about 11.50 am and Chris went back up the mountain for another few goes (a glutton for punishment apparently!) while Alex, Charlotte and I went to the cafe to grab some soft drinks and chill out.
While there we got to know each other a bit and found out that Charlotte was wealth of touristy wisdom about Japan and Bali, so we got several ideas of things to see and do in both countries of her, which was great.
About an hour later Chris came back and went and had lunch with Charlotte, while Alex and I bravely ignored the flaming pain in our respective coccyx (you've no idea!) and went back up the ski lift another 2 or 3 goes. By the 3rd attempt I managed to get off the ski lift with my dignity intact and could’ve almost convinced the casual observer that I knew what I was doing. Almost.
I won’t say that by the end of our snowboarding adventures that we were any good, but we certainly were a considerable amount better than when we started. I was particularly proud of my efforts because the one time I’d tried snowboarding before (when I was in Åre in Sweden back in Christmas 2008) it was an unmitigated disaster. Like I’m not kidding when I say I was no more able to stand up on the damn thing at the end of the 2 hour lesson than I was at the beginning. But by the close of play today (about 2.30 pm) I could go down the mountain and stay on my feet. Which the more I think about it, is quite remarkable, all things being equal. And the same goes for Alex, who was looking very confident by the end (though super tired!).
By this stage we were well over the day though. Everything hurt (especially our asses – OMG!). Honestly, you’ve no idea. I can’t speak for Alex, but I have fallen over more today than I have fallen over in the last 10 years, and I hurt in places I didn’t even know I even had muscles!
After waiting about 45 minutes for the shuttle bus to pick us up (James was half an hour late) we went back to our hotel and stripped off our wet clothes and collapsed into bed.
Which is where we stayed until about 6.45 pm when we got up and headed off into the night to get some dinner. We had a booking at a local pizzeria called Pizzakia. But when we got there we discovered out ‘table’ was in fact just a couple of stools at the counter. Either that or a tiny table the size of a couple of laptops right by the cold door. Neither option appealed so we just walked out. It was a cold night and it had begun to snow and everything was magical, so we didn’t certainly mind the walk
About 20 minutes later we ended up at a place run by a very nice middle aged Aussie couple called ‘The Bike Bar’, where we had some really nice food (I had a whopper burger and ‘fat chips’ and chocolate pudding and ice cream and Alex had a huge ham, cheese and onion jam pizza and some of my chips), while watching extreme snowboarding and skiing videos on a projection screen. We also had three games of pool at the end of the night, which was fun.
Then we walked back to our hotel through the falling snow around ten and climbed into bed. Exhausted!
Woke up about 7.30 am and got dressed and went downstairs to have breakfast. Breakfast at the Stelle Belle is a modest affair, but adequate. Scrambled eggs, hash browns, ham (but no bacon), two types of cereal, bread, rice, miso soup, coffee, tea, orange juice, a little bit of fruit and some weird looking pickled vegetables that neither Alex or I were game enough to try!
After breakfast we walked the short distance up to the Japan Powder office to get fitted out for snowboarding. That was fun, especially when Alex ended up in bright pink pants and a sky blue jacket. Nothing like getting kitted out like a 13 year girly-girly! (especially if you're a Tom-Boy like Alex is). I on the other hand was decked out in black and grey and looked (in Alex’s words) very ‘hard core’. (Ha! If only!)
We then walked back to our hotel and an Aussie driver called James picked us up and took us to Iimaru which is one resort / ski area away from Escal plaza. When James dropped us we went and signed in for our snowboarding lesson, only to realize that Alex forgot to bring the lift passes and had sprint outside to catch James just as he was driving off! En-route to stopping the bus, Alex bumped into three people and knocked someone’s snowboard over and watched it slide merrily of down a slope...
When Alex got back – fully 30 minutes later – she exchanged the lift passes for lift tokens and we went to the Level 1 (beginners!) snowboarding lessons. While awaiting the instructor we struck up a conversation with a very nice couple from Perth (Charlotte and Chris). Charlotte was a very good skier apparently but has hurt her knee, so she was on a watching brief. Chris was like us, a beginner.
Our instructor was a pleasant Italian woman who through broken English did her level best to teach us the fundamentals of snowboarding. Unfortunately the lesson didn’t really seem to have a structure, and it felt a little like she was winging it.
After showing us how to get on the snowboard (ridiculously difficult at first because both feet are secured to the board and there is no leverage!) and how to go down a tiny slope with the board side-on, while leaning back to slow down your rate of descent, we then went up in the ski-lift to the top of the beginners slope (which did not look like a beginners slope if you ask me!). Unfortunately I was not paying attention when our lovely instructor told us how to get off the ski lift. We’d boarded the ski lift one at a time, with one foot secure in the board and the other free. The theory being (so I discovered later!) was that when you get off the ski lift you put the board down, secure foot first and put your free foot on the board itself and the momentum of the ski lift pushes you out of the way of the ski lift directly behind you.
Alex, who was on the ski lift in front of me, dismounted with surprising ease and grace. While Logan, in his infinite wisdom, decided a better look would be to get the snowboard caught under him, while twisting backwards at an impossible angle while being struck on the head by the accompanying ski lift.
Degree of difficulty for this dismount? 9.8.
Much wailing and gnashing of teeth followed during this from the Japanese chair lift attendants while this was going on. But, despite being twisted like a pretzel and battered quite severely about the noggin, I bounced up like a kid with a look of ‘What’s all the fuss about’ on my face, much to the relief to all and sundry.
It was cute straight afterwards though because I heard our instructor say to Alex, ‘Gosh you must really love your boyfriend as you looked SOOOOO worried!’ :)
Now, when you’re a rank beginner and can barely stand up on a snowboard, standing at the top of a steep slope (and for a beginner it was a very steep slope, despite what a more advanced snowboarder would think) facing the journey down the hill is nothing short of daunting.
However, Alex, Chris and I gamely attempted it. And, despite being the worst of the three of us when we were getting the lesson it was I, who zoomed off down the mountain and got to the bottom first!
Fortunate, as they say, favours the brave.
Or the stupid!
Needless to say there was much falling over and hurting our asses on the way down though! And f*ck me but it was exhausting work!!! At the end of the run we all collapsed on the snow and just lay there.
The lesson was over at about 11.50 am and Chris went back up the mountain for another few goes (a glutton for punishment apparently!) while Alex, Charlotte and I went to the cafe to grab some soft drinks and chill out.
While there we got to know each other a bit and found out that Charlotte was wealth of touristy wisdom about Japan and Bali, so we got several ideas of things to see and do in both countries of her, which was great.
About an hour later Chris came back and went and had lunch with Charlotte, while Alex and I bravely ignored the flaming pain in our respective coccyx (you've no idea!) and went back up the ski lift another 2 or 3 goes. By the 3rd attempt I managed to get off the ski lift with my dignity intact and could’ve almost convinced the casual observer that I knew what I was doing. Almost.
I won’t say that by the end of our snowboarding adventures that we were any good, but we certainly were a considerable amount better than when we started. I was particularly proud of my efforts because the one time I’d tried snowboarding before (when I was in Åre in Sweden back in Christmas 2008) it was an unmitigated disaster. Like I’m not kidding when I say I was no more able to stand up on the damn thing at the end of the 2 hour lesson than I was at the beginning. But by the close of play today (about 2.30 pm) I could go down the mountain and stay on my feet. Which the more I think about it, is quite remarkable, all things being equal. And the same goes for Alex, who was looking very confident by the end (though super tired!).
By this stage we were well over the day though. Everything hurt (especially our asses – OMG!). Honestly, you’ve no idea. I can’t speak for Alex, but I have fallen over more today than I have fallen over in the last 10 years, and I hurt in places I didn’t even know I even had muscles!
After waiting about 45 minutes for the shuttle bus to pick us up (James was half an hour late) we went back to our hotel and stripped off our wet clothes and collapsed into bed.
Which is where we stayed until about 6.45 pm when we got up and headed off into the night to get some dinner. We had a booking at a local pizzeria called Pizzakia. But when we got there we discovered out ‘table’ was in fact just a couple of stools at the counter. Either that or a tiny table the size of a couple of laptops right by the cold door. Neither option appealed so we just walked out. It was a cold night and it had begun to snow and everything was magical, so we didn’t certainly mind the walk
About 20 minutes later we ended up at a place run by a very nice middle aged Aussie couple called ‘The Bike Bar’, where we had some really nice food (I had a whopper burger and ‘fat chips’ and chocolate pudding and ice cream and Alex had a huge ham, cheese and onion jam pizza and some of my chips), while watching extreme snowboarding and skiing videos on a projection screen. We also had three games of pool at the end of the night, which was fun.
Then we walked back to our hotel through the falling snow around ten and climbed into bed. Exhausted!
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