This ones entitled 'wot i did on my weekend' (aka Ikenotaira)

every once in a while, in the cosmos, the stars align, the gods are all in agreement, fate is happily sat at home with her feet up watching 24, the angels are playing their golden harps, Kura-okami (Shinto god of rain) is asleep in front of the fire, and Amaterasu (Shinto god of sun) is singing a merry little song...when that happens, you get a weekend like this one. about 12-15 of us from all over niigata-ken (niigata state/county/region) had agreed to go for a weekend snowboarding. thankfully after a bit of a drought, and the least snowy japan in years, we got a lot of snow last week. i drove down with kat, following jon and a few others on saturday morning (bloomin early) we were going to ikenotaira, which is about 2 hours down the coast from niigata. once were out of niigata, the weather was amazing, complete blue skies, pretty chilly mind, but so so so0 sunny! when we got to where we could see the snow capped mountains glistening in the sunshine, i/we were very very excited...this bore out in sticking the Prodigy on the stereo and 90's raving like lunatics...( i guess you had to be there, but it is on video available upon request).

the weekend itself was incredibly cheap, for 2 days lift passes plus accomodation plus dinner and breakfast cost JPY 9600 (£40)!!!! unbelievable price. the slopes themselves were incredible, new snow, blue skies, not too busy, wide wide pistes, and much powder to throw yourself into as you could muster. had such a good day. im mananging to get ok/pretty good now, am still the slowest of the group, but at least it feels to me like im going fast. spent as much time taking photos and admiring the view as i did boarding. its incredible, you have your head down trying to avoid bumps, and skiiers, and then you look up and see the view, and its just a case of...'wow'! i cant really describe the feeling

saturday night we had a kind of party in one of the chalets. discovered 'ring of fire' drinking game. was a good night, and i tried desparaetly not to get too inebriated as i didnt want to spoil sunday. managed to crawl into bed at 2am. sunday we woke up early and looked outside and coyuldnt believe my eyes, all the cars were burried. we had at least8-9 inches of snow in a few hours overnight. from blue skies to 8-9 inches of snow was incredible and extremely lucky. managed to dig my car out and headed for the slopes. the day started cloudy but managed to clear up again to complete blue skies again, a perfect weekends weather really. spent probably my most enjoyable time boarding on sunday morning. pottered off on my own for a couple of hours with my ipod, i mean, boarding with mates it so much fun, but sometimes, just to stick on your ipod and go alone for a while is lovely. met up with justine and lins after a while and spent the rest of the morning trying to keep up with them...(without success)

sunday afternoon was great, and tried to go compeltely off piste in powder about 4 feet deep, very very difficult and extremely tiring. problem is, when you fall over, its almost impossible to get back up again! that run wiped me out and only managed one more run, but by that point i was shattered and it was nearly time to go

tired drive back with kat listening to nicely chilled sunday music.

such such an amazing weekend, probably one of my highlights of japan. ironic that as much as i love weekends like this, it does make me a little sadder about leaving this place...

truly superb weekend though.