Came back from skiing and snowboarding in Niigata! (It was a Japanese national holiday on Wednesday and I took a paid leave on Tuesday) The weather was extremely nice. Blue sky and perfect snow! I only wore my ski jacket, a long sleeve t-shirt and ski pants and that was it!

I spent the first day learning how to ski with 3 instructors (my friends). I learned for 7 hours and I could only managed to really skied a little in the last two hours. It was sooo difficult. But it was fun when all 3 of my instructors carried me on their backs one at a time and skied away at the steep courses.

The second day, I signed up for snowboarding lessons. In a little less than two hours, I was able to snowboard by myself. The instructor was a young Japanese guy. Surprised that I was from Canada, he was like "You've never been to snowboarding/skiing in Canada? What the?" I guess it was like hearing a Japanese who hasn't been to onsen before. Oh well... Nonetheless, the lesson was fun and he treated me a coke during break. We chatted a little and he told me he has many friends in Vancouver who are pro-snowboarders. These Japanese friends of his would work part time in the summer, snowboard in the winter - and repeat. Talk about hardcore. Anyway, I spent the rest of the day going up the hill and taking lifts and practicing snowboarding (and a lot of falling and stumbling) by myself. I also spent some time sitting down viewing the beautiful scenery of Niigata while the speed skiers were passing me by and swaggering their way through the snow.

I don't wanna go back to work tomorrow. ARGH......