E! where CHI GO? YU ZA WAAAA???

A couple of weekends ago I went snowboarding with a few friends - Kazumi, Mac, and Mac's friend Rebecca. Although it's been an extraordinarily mild winter in Japan this year, we hoped that the famous snow of Niigata prefecture (specifically an area called Echigo-Yuzawa... suddenly, the post title makes a lot more sense, right?) might still live up to its reputation and that we would pull up on the train to beautiful, snow-covered mountains.

Well, the mountains were beautiful, but more like "snow-dusted" rather than "snow-covered." Upon de-training, we looked toward the mountain and stood in awe... of dirt! Where was the snow?! This was looking like it would be worse skiing than what I've experienced at Mountain High - the high desert ski resort about an hour and a half from my house in Southern California (the fact that the words 'desert' and 'southern' are both used to describe this ski resort should tell you what kind of snow it boasts). After Rebecca and I were fitted for our Western Monster feet (with my double layer of thick socks, I went from my normally just Tranny-sized shoes of 25.5 to Monster-sized snowboarding boots of 27 - needless to say, the guys handing out the boots thought we were freaks), we got ourselves changed and stuff lockered and headed for the chair lift. I refrain from calling it a ski lift, because, as I mentioned before, it was lifting over just plain old dirt. Finally, after several lift rides to the top, we saw snush - my own word, which means snow slush. There was some snow to be seen here, but to be honest, it was hardly worth the two hour train ride and subsequent local ride and two chair lift rides that we went through to get there. But, we carried on, ever persevering against progressively sadder odds. After yet another two chair lift rides over actual snow-ish parts, we got to the top of the mountain - and found snow! It had been there all along, just hiding on the other side of the mountain. Cheeky snow! Okay, so it wasn't powder and there was hardly any base to speak of and there were lots of brown and beige patches to be found, but we ended up having a merry old time of it anyway. To be honest, I was pretty okay with the snow that we did have because it was similar to the snow I'm used to back in California - at the place I usually board, SnowSummit, which though still in SoCal, is not in the desert and does get decent snow.

Below is a video of me skiboarding. For those of you who don't snowboard, you may not have realized that the snowboarders worst nightmare is not, in fact, crashing as you try to land a big jump or weave your way around moguls on a black diamond run without skiers trying to push you off the run. The boarder's worst nightmare is a flat stretch of run with no incline to speak of and none in sight. If a boarder loses his/her speed/momentum on a flat part, there's basically no recourse but to unstrap yourself from your bindings, pick up your board, and walk to where the run starts to incline again. This sucks. Especially if the snow is good and thick, when each step of your heavy snowboard boots sinks all the way in just for you to have to pull it out again and again, step after step, until, Eeyore-like, you finally get to a place where you can go downhill again. When I've been lucky enough to board with advanced enough skiers who can go without poles on the flat parts (flat parts aren't the bane to skiers that they are to boarders), I have had occasion to use their poles to get me through the flat parts without having to unstrap myself. Thus, skiboarding. I figured this out while skiing with my parents over the years and luckily, Rebecca is a pretty advanced skier who kindly let me borrow her poles for the flat parts. She's the one who provided the poles and the filming. Thanks, Rebecca! Unfortunately, we didn't think to film me skiboarding when we were on an actual flat part, but the area in the film is flat enough that you get the idea. My "swoosh" sound effects and pole-hopping are just for entertainment value and not necessary to successfully skiboard - though I'm sure they make you go faster. Enjoy!