John and the Scooby

john in my tatami room...early sunday morning. john more awake in the back of the Scooby (just look at the excitement on his little face!!). After deciding where to go, we drive down in convoy with lindsay and cassanova (real name) to Kagura. Kagura is a 2 hour drive south of niigata. was a bit of a worry on the way down as there was no snow at all, even when we turned off the highway into the mountains, there was little snow. We started driving into the mountains, and an Ataris song came on the ipod, the first line being "it was the first snow of the season..." and i swear on my life, the second that line came out, snow drops hit the windscreen...i kid you not..it was such a postcard moment, anyway, the higher we got, the more snow was evident. we reached the car park at the resort, and it was cold! and there was plenty of snow... by this point i was completely excited, in fact i had woken up really early through sheer excitement! i was a tad nervous as i hadnt been on a mountain before and i hadnt boarded for a while, and i was with some seriously experienced boarders (and skiiers lins!) anyway, we went right to the top of the mountain (1200 metres). anyway, i managed to keep some dignity! the snow was very cool, very virgin and very powdery and fluffy, and falling down was actually quite good fun (i did experience that feeling many times!) it was very bumpy though, i guess due to the newness of the slope/snow, and with it snowing heavily the whole time, it was hard to see the big bumps and managed to have some spectacular falls! we boarded for a couple of hours, then headed for a much needed lunch, then back out again for a few hours...was soo tiring, and my legs were burning so much! john and cassanove were very very good, so was lins, but we all managed to stay together all day which was cool. it was cloudy and snowy, but amazing views of the snow and mountains. finished off with a long ride down the mountain just as dusk was falling, but by this time my legs had just about given up and fell over too many times on the way down, one incredibly spectacular fall, face first down the mountain! i did manage to accidentally end up in the middle of the moguls...which was 'fun'! anyway, ill stop boring you, needless to say it was massive massive fun, and loved every minute of it....off to shibata next weekend for more boarding....soooo much fun!!!!