Feb 11 – Skiing again

Once again I lazy’d around the house all morning. I had a traditional Japanese breakfast consisting of fish, rice, and pumpkin. For lunch Hirai sensei made father and myself soumen, which is white noodles that are dipped into a special sauce. It is a lot like cold soba, but Hirai sensei said that she likes the taste of soumen better. I got a lot of kanji studying done this morning. I have reached 150 in Heisig, which is pretty good for a weeks work. If someone told me that I could learn 150 kanji in a week when I first started studying Japanese, I would have told them they are crazy and not listened to a word they said. Just to think that we only learned 100 or so in the entire first year of Japanese is astonishing. It really is a slow start!

At around 2pm I was told to get ready to go to Mikawa ski resort again. I was not expecting this, but it makes sense once I thought about it. Nozomi and her husband want to take me skiing when they get back, but they are really good (so says Hirai sensei) and I am still a beginner. We also took Otousan’s sister along so Hirai sensei would have someone to talk to.

This time at the Ski resort I tried skiing again. I figured that snowboarding is still above my head with the whole being able to go both directions deal. The first time going down the mountain I crashed and my ski’s went flying. It was the first and only time they actually came off my feet. Once at the bottom I went over to the ski lift only to find that my ticket was gone. Great, a 2000 yen lift ticket lost in one go down the mountain. I waited by the lift to see if anyone would come down with it. After about 10 minutes I went over to Hirai sensei and fessed up. I felt really bad when she bought me a new ticket.

I went back up to the top keeping a look out for my long lost ticket. I crashed right under the lift cars so I looked intently for my ticket. About half way up I spotted it lying facedown in the snow. The back of the ticket is white so nobody must have seen it. At this point I just wished the lift would go faster! At the top I prepared to head slowly down the slope in order to find and grab my ticket. Just then a snowboarder flew by my and his ticket flew off his arm. I am not sure if he dropped it on purpose or not, but I inched my way down and grabbed it. To my surprise it was an all day ticket giving access to all the lifts from sunrise to sundown. I shoved it in my pocket and continued my way down. Sure enough, my ticket was still lying in the snow when I reached it. I stopped by it (well fell really) and grabbed it too. The real question was what to do with the all day ticket…

I asked the guy running the lift about it and he said that nobody had asked about it. So there I was, two lift tickets with 9 uses left on each of them, and an all day pass, what luck! The lift guy took the all day pass and let me go for free up the lift the rest of the day. I had to have went up 7 or 8 times before the park closed. I got really good at weaving back and forth, controlling my speed, and generally just getting much much better at skiing. On my last attempt I made it all the way down without falling or stopping, and kept most of my speed from the top. It was a good experience. The guy at the ski rental place said that it was really amazing how fast I learned how to ski. There are $100 classes that teach the same stuff that I learned in only a few attempts down the mountain.

We returned home and had curry for dinner. Once again, I love Hirai Sensei!