Monday Monday... so good to me. It really was.

Yay, I'm actually writing a post on the correct day for the post. After the hectic running around of Saturday night and Sunday morning, it's good to be able to get up and have breakfast at my own pace. I went to bed at 9 or so, and had a nice sleep till 7. For some reason either 'boarding or Winter make me lethargic, and 10 hours sleep seems to little. Who knows, but for whatever reason I was woken up by my foot shaking. And realised slowly someone was attached to me and Shaking it. Yes, Steven, everybody's alarm clock.

So after getting somewhat alert and dressed, we made our way down to Breakfast, supplied by the hotel, and ready for us when we got there. A mottled assortment of foods to say the least. Egg roll, cooked salmon, rice, toast and jams, miso, "Coffee", some strange Potato Soup, altogether a decent size. Only one problem, I'm CRAVING bacon, eggs, sausage, grilled tomato, you know, a good english breakfast. But seeing as I'm in Japan, I figure that may be a difficulty.

After our large breakfast us Boyz! were ready for some Big Mountain action. WOAH!!! STOP THE PRESS. I just realised I missed something. On my awakening from slumber this morning we were greated to a lovely sight outside. SNOW! Yes our first day here and there is already some snow falling. Not much, but a small layer coating everything. It continued through much of the day, getting heavier and lighter when it chose. I got some nice photo's, however something occurred to me this afternoon. All the photo's I've taken are of Conrad, Steven, and the Surrounding areas... what about me? Oh well. My ugly will have to grace something else. I'm hoping to get some photo's uploaded to Picasa or Flickr. But i'll deal with that when we come to it.

Back to the Action: So we didn't rush out the door as quickly as we could have, but I have to make sure I don't push myself also because of the Ross River still embedded firmly in my body. Our first ride up and we sat down at the top and buckled in. This year there is 2 long benches at the top of the mountain that they put out during the day, and this is proving a sure fire hit with the likes of Conrad. He is a bulky guy, and he is using flow bindings so he can't sit on the ground otherwise he has difficulty trying to lock them in.

All strapped in and off we went. I left the guys about half way up the mountain, and ran to the bottom on my own. Everything from my knees to my toes was burning so I needed to get out of my board and stretch properly. I think my bindings were on too tight as well so that didn't help the circulation. Once I reached the bottom, board off, and back on the lift to find Conrad and Steven. I decided I might as well take some video on the way down, so I have a 7minute video of me going down the mountain. Cloverfield eat your heart out, this video will make you nauseous. Probably.

I made it to the bottom without falling over, mainly because I went slow for the camera's safety, and found Conrad and Steven had already reached the bottom. So we set off again, this time going on a different lift to Takamagahara. This probably wasn't a good idea as Conrad still didn't feel confident on the board, and Takamagahara Mammoth is basically a 30degree angle straight down, is hardpack and a little sketchy to boot.

We made it to the bottom, and decided, as it was nearing lunchtime, might as well get in early and beat the rush. Beer and Pizza later and we were amped to get back into it.

So we went over the back of Higashitateyama and down our favourite little tree lined run. Conrad was doing better now he wasn't on a red run, but unfortunately at the bottom it can get a little difficult. So with his Confidence shaken, we made our way back to the Training Area (the green run at Ichinose).

First run down and we made it in roughly 20mins, a vast improvement over the first run Conrad did on Sunday which was 1 and 1/2 hours. So down we went, and back up again to try once more. By now Conrad was getting better at shifting his stance from Toeside to Heelside. 1 DAY! He was doing what took us 3 days at Perisher. I'm not sure whether it was because of his natural ability or the fact he had 2 people coaching him. We didn't have a good instructor I don't think.

So with heads held high we made it up again for one last run before retiring for the day. By the end of today we were making 10min runs down the Training Area. I'd call that somewhat of a Success. So we wandered to the store, got a drink, made our way back to the hotel, changed, and then into the Onsen. I'll never understand the Japanese. Public Displays of Affection are awkward with them, not really even kissing in public, however they are fine to nude down and jump into a giant spring water bath together.

Fortunately the 2 guys in there left once all 3 of us guys walked in.
So that's were I am at, typing away, just about to have dinner, though I don't know where at the moment. And the camera has transferred the first of my images across so we'll see what they have to show for themselves. Day is over now. Talk to you tomorrow.

Ice is good to put on bruises. But not impact into at speed.
I wish nature made more sense.
I'm hungry. Burke, FEED ME!