week 23 Snowy Hokkaido

Day 2

Mostly romping around in the snow!
Snow, or no snow, it seemed like this place would certainly be just as lovely in the spring and summertime.

Unfortunately since I was without my own camera... I don't have many pictures to show for it. In short - 1 day of snowboard lessons = 1 day of falling on your butt (no photos, I'll just let you picture that part on your own). Maybe if I'd had 3 or 4 days to build up some skill there might have been a better result! Even still, it was fun, and surprisingly not so cold as I had feared - or been led to believe by my Taiwanese warm-weather friends... 

The snow and the cold and the mountains were all so beautiful!!! The snowboarding lesson was pretty fun too.  I seemed to do fine balancing on my board, but I couldn't ever really stop on my own! Ha. I enjoyed the time taking the snowboarding lessons on a modest hill - but I didn't dare brave coming down the gigantic mountainside on my own with no brakes... maybe next time :) 

My snowboard and gear awaiting my arrival

I was very thankful for the new jacket I purchased for the trip, but otherwise, my strategy of endlessly layered clothing seemed to do just fine. The snowboarding practice was exhausting! Not the sliding down the hillside part, but mostly because during lesson, we never took the board off of our left foot - so we would have to walk back up the hill each time, board-in-tow and right foot pulling us up/maneuvering around it all...

Our cable car's shadow in the snow

Even though I opted not to snowboard on my own down the huge mountain, I did ride the ski lift up to the top and back. Mostly admiring the views, and watching the people who actually knew what they were doing. Some of the skiers and snowboarders were amazing! Lucky for us, the weather was also wonderful. Chilly but not overly windy and loads of sunshine pouring down on everything in sight. :)

After we'd had enough of the drag your board up, fall back down routine - we stripped down and kissed our ski gear goodbye... off to find some warmer past time. [The slopes were actually only open until 4pm - I guess it gets dark there sort of early - and we stayed out until around 3pm, I think].

Hand painted mural in the Ski Lodge.
There were many hand-painted bird species, each identified with their name.

For our second night at the resort, a group of us chose a new restaurant for dinner -expecting to try some different food- but sadly, it was also a buffet with identical food as the dishes at the restaurant from the night before - with fewer selections - go figure! So we didn't choose the best dining, but we did get the best view.

View from our dinner table

The dining hall was wrapped in floor to ceiling glass windows, gazing out upon the snow-covered trees, spotlighted with brilliant green and blue lights for dramatic effect. I know you can't really tell in my photos, but the snow was coming down in huge flakes, and I just gazed, entranced, as I enjoyed my meal. :)