Alright, guys. So you already know that Week 5 was a double whammy. Assuming that you all love me and have read the posts before this, we shall pick up where we left off.
A short recap for all of those who are not cool enough to read EVERYTHING I write:
One fine day in Furano, I went up in a hot air balloon for the first time. And it was awesome. And then I decided to learn how to snowboard the same day because apparently 1 first wasn’t enough.
Okay, you caught up? Good.
So I returned to my hotel room after ballooning to take a short nap. I hadn’t actually planned on snowboarding that day, and I was really tired because during all the pre-balloon anticipation, I kind of... umm... forgot to sleep.So yeah. naptime. I settled down into my bed in the cheap hotel, got all snug and cozy, when I was jolted back to reality by the violent buzzing of my cell phone. Seriously, whoever says that vibrate = silent is a liar. But I digress. I had received a phone call from none other than my friend Cian, who you will all remember from the morning.
“I just walked up to the ski hill to check on rental prices and it’s only 3500 yen for the boots and board, you down?”
“Hngh... grumble grumble call you in a few.”
And then I dropped the phone and promptly went back to sleep. Not too much later, I was once again roused, this time by my roommate Andromeda, who had returned from whatever she was doing. At this point, I gave up on sleep, and replaced it with conversation.
“Hey, how’s it going? What are you up to today?”
“Oh, I have no real plans, what about you? What are you up to?”
“I think I might go snowboarding with Cian. Wanna come?”
“Can you snowboard?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither! Sure, I’m down!”
That story is not entirely accurate. It took a bit more persuading to get Andromeda to come with, since she didn’t want to spend money on equipment rental, but eventually we wore her down. Because we’re awesome like that.
With the decision to go ahead and learn to snowboard having been made, the three of us trudged up the hill to the rental place and got fitted for boards. Look how awesome Andromeda and my boards look! We’re pretty much pros already, guys.
Unfortunately, Andromeda lacked the proper clothing and was too cheap to rent it, so Cian gallantly lent her his jacket, claiming that it was warm enough to teach us in just a t-shirt. We will call question to this theory later. Andromeda and I were both only in jeans as well. SUPER PREPARED for this, obviously.
We then grabbed our boards, quickly scarfed down our conbini lunches and hit the slopes! (Is that the correct terminology? Snowboarding pros, help me out). We started by strapping one foot to the board and walking around like that for a bit, getting a feel for how it felt under us. It was relatively unexciting. We kept seeing people we knew from the meeting flying down the hill and stopping just short of us at the bottom to say hi. I know they were just enjoying themselves, but I’m pretty sure they were subconsciously rubbing it in our faces that we were babies. :)
Eventually, Cian, still clad only in a t-shirt and his snowpants, decided it was time for us to walk up the hill a little, strap both feet to the board and fall down the hill. We walked up, sat down, got our butts wet, and strapped ourselves into our boards. It took me a little while to figure out how the straps worked, but once I got it I was super ready. Cian then took turns guiding us down the hill, helping us to work out how to control the board. Because of this, we didn’t actually fall for the first little bit!
It was only after Cian decided that we were ready to try to go down the hill on our own that things started to fall apart. “Alright!” he said. “Now just push yourselves in and dig in with your heels!” We did as told, and promptly ended up with our butts back in the snow. We did this painstakingly over and over again until we reached the bottom. At that point, we were really cold so we went in for some hot chocolate to warm up. We were joined by a couple of other ALTs and spent an hour or so getting warm and dry.
Eventually, we headed back into the cold, but before we did that, we managed to convince Cian to go down and get a jacket and gloves. He was pretty cold. He came back clad in a beautiful purple number and we resumed our lesson. At this point, he just told us to go up and down and he’d watch us and try to help out.
We climbed the hill together, and I set off like a bird! I gained speed, I lost speed, I leaned back like he told me to, and this time it actually worked! I was controlling the board! I was on my feet! All of a sudden, I had reached the bottom of the hill, and I hadn’t fallen once!
I was elated!
“Come on Andromeda come on come on I want to to do it again this is awesome!!!!” I called, before running back up the hill to do it again. I managed to make it up and down the hill a few times without falling too much, and I knew I was hooked. The time passed quickly and before I knew it, we were going up the hill for the last time.
We’d decided to go up a little further and make the last time a good one, so we climbed and climbed until my legs were sore. We then strapped on our boards for the last time of the day, and headed down the hill. I was confident, and I decided that I could go a little faster. I gained more and more speed, until I couldn’t slow down anymore and then I did a bit of a flip and landed right on my butt. Hard. Really hard. It hurt. But it’s okay, because Andromeda and Cian were already at the bottom so no one saw. I got up, and continued back down the hill more slowly, with both my pride and my rear end newly wounded.
That said, I was still elated!
All things considered, it was a great new experience. I can’t wait to try it again when I’m back in Canada! Also, mad props to Cian who not only gave up a day of actual snowboarding to teach two beginners how to do it, but he also gave up his jacket and gloves for Andromeda, then ended up spending his own money on replacements when he got too cold. What a gentleman.
After snowboarding, my band gave its first performance together, but that’s a story for another time. Maybe on my other blog, http://jeriandjapan.blogspot.com/. Go check it out, then wait anxiously by your computer until I write about next week’s exciting thing!
A short recap for all of those who are not cool enough to read EVERYTHING I write:
One fine day in Furano, I went up in a hot air balloon for the first time. And it was awesome. And then I decided to learn how to snowboard the same day because apparently 1 first wasn’t enough.
Okay, you caught up? Good.
So I returned to my hotel room after ballooning to take a short nap. I hadn’t actually planned on snowboarding that day, and I was really tired because during all the pre-balloon anticipation, I kind of... umm... forgot to sleep.So yeah. naptime. I settled down into my bed in the cheap hotel, got all snug and cozy, when I was jolted back to reality by the violent buzzing of my cell phone. Seriously, whoever says that vibrate = silent is a liar. But I digress. I had received a phone call from none other than my friend Cian, who you will all remember from the morning.
“I just walked up to the ski hill to check on rental prices and it’s only 3500 yen for the boots and board, you down?”
“Hngh... grumble grumble call you in a few.”
And then I dropped the phone and promptly went back to sleep. Not too much later, I was once again roused, this time by my roommate Andromeda, who had returned from whatever she was doing. At this point, I gave up on sleep, and replaced it with conversation.
“Hey, how’s it going? What are you up to today?”
“Oh, I have no real plans, what about you? What are you up to?”
“I think I might go snowboarding with Cian. Wanna come?”
“Can you snowboard?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither! Sure, I’m down!”
That story is not entirely accurate. It took a bit more persuading to get Andromeda to come with, since she didn’t want to spend money on equipment rental, but eventually we wore her down. Because we’re awesome like that.
With the decision to go ahead and learn to snowboard having been made, the three of us trudged up the hill to the rental place and got fitted for boards. Look how awesome Andromeda and my boards look! We’re pretty much pros already, guys.
Unfortunately, Andromeda lacked the proper clothing and was too cheap to rent it, so Cian gallantly lent her his jacket, claiming that it was warm enough to teach us in just a t-shirt. We will call question to this theory later. Andromeda and I were both only in jeans as well. SUPER PREPARED for this, obviously.
We then grabbed our boards, quickly scarfed down our conbini lunches and hit the slopes! (Is that the correct terminology? Snowboarding pros, help me out). We started by strapping one foot to the board and walking around like that for a bit, getting a feel for how it felt under us. It was relatively unexciting. We kept seeing people we knew from the meeting flying down the hill and stopping just short of us at the bottom to say hi. I know they were just enjoying themselves, but I’m pretty sure they were subconsciously rubbing it in our faces that we were babies. :)
Eventually, Cian, still clad only in a t-shirt and his snowpants, decided it was time for us to walk up the hill a little, strap both feet to the board and fall down the hill. We walked up, sat down, got our butts wet, and strapped ourselves into our boards. It took me a little while to figure out how the straps worked, but once I got it I was super ready. Cian then took turns guiding us down the hill, helping us to work out how to control the board. Because of this, we didn’t actually fall for the first little bit!
It was only after Cian decided that we were ready to try to go down the hill on our own that things started to fall apart. “Alright!” he said. “Now just push yourselves in and dig in with your heels!” We did as told, and promptly ended up with our butts back in the snow. We did this painstakingly over and over again until we reached the bottom. At that point, we were really cold so we went in for some hot chocolate to warm up. We were joined by a couple of other ALTs and spent an hour or so getting warm and dry.
Eventually, we headed back into the cold, but before we did that, we managed to convince Cian to go down and get a jacket and gloves. He was pretty cold. He came back clad in a beautiful purple number and we resumed our lesson. At this point, he just told us to go up and down and he’d watch us and try to help out.
We climbed the hill together, and I set off like a bird! I gained speed, I lost speed, I leaned back like he told me to, and this time it actually worked! I was controlling the board! I was on my feet! All of a sudden, I had reached the bottom of the hill, and I hadn’t fallen once!
I was elated!
“Come on Andromeda come on come on I want to to do it again this is awesome!!!!” I called, before running back up the hill to do it again. I managed to make it up and down the hill a few times without falling too much, and I knew I was hooked. The time passed quickly and before I knew it, we were going up the hill for the last time.
We’d decided to go up a little further and make the last time a good one, so we climbed and climbed until my legs were sore. We then strapped on our boards for the last time of the day, and headed down the hill. I was confident, and I decided that I could go a little faster. I gained more and more speed, until I couldn’t slow down anymore and then I did a bit of a flip and landed right on my butt. Hard. Really hard. It hurt. But it’s okay, because Andromeda and Cian were already at the bottom so no one saw. I got up, and continued back down the hill more slowly, with both my pride and my rear end newly wounded.
 |
| Cian wearing my hat. :D |
That said, I was still elated!
All things considered, it was a great new experience. I can’t wait to try it again when I’m back in Canada! Also, mad props to Cian who not only gave up a day of actual snowboarding to teach two beginners how to do it, but he also gave up his jacket and gloves for Andromeda, then ended up spending his own money on replacements when he got too cold. What a gentleman.
After snowboarding, my band gave its first performance together, but that’s a story for another time. Maybe on my other blog, http://jeriandjapan.blogspot.com/. Go check it out, then wait anxiously by your computer until I write about next week’s exciting thing!
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