Feb 8, 2008 – Snow

Today I was forced to wake up early to go to school. Instead of going to the Hoku-en for the morning, I was invited to go sledding with the gaku-en kids. Isao Sensei was supposed to pick me up from the Hoku-en at 9 am, therefore I got up nice and early and made it there right on time. Usao Sensei being the great guy that he is arrived at 9:45, go figure.

We went to the Gaku-en and picked up all the kids in a total of 3 busses, and headed to the sledding hill. Along the way the kids asked me all sorts of questions ranging from why my eyes are blue to if I am married to Hirai Sensei. Kids say the darndest things don’t they?

The sledding hill was a mini-ski resort consisting of 3 hills. The left one was really steep and closed for some reason. The middle one had the ski-lift running and had a few skiers and amateur snowboarders on it. The hill we went to was the left one, specifically for sledding. I was surprised how steep the hill was. My first attempt went just fine, but on my second I had so much speed that I flipped the sled and went rolling quite a ways down the hill. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun.

A lot of the kids wanted to go sledding with me specifically. I think it was partly because I helped carried their sleds up the hill… All in all, it was an awesome day! Sledding with the kids was a ton of fun, but made me want to go skiing or snowboarding on the other hills. I have never done it before. Maybe I can get one of the Sensei’s to go with me.

Speaking of Sensei’s, we had dinner with all of them at the Hokuen. I got to see that every single one of them is a woman. Weird.