Snowboarding in Kusatsu day 2

December 27th was the day we were going snowboarding. We walked to the renting area and rented all our snowboarding equipment. Fortunately, the shopkeeper gave us a ride with a few other people to the place for skiing and snowboarding. We decided to warm up before starting. We strapped one foot to the board and push our way along with the free leg. Once we were done warming up, we headed for the ski lift. Although, there was a slight problem for us. We forgot how to get of a ski lift along with a snowboard. (The last time we went was two years ago. So we forgot about half of what our trainee’s taught us.) I thought it was going to be easy. But when I actually did it, I fell of the ski lift. I decided that was going to be something I needed to work on. I strapped my other foot to the board and I was ready to take off. The slope we slid was not very steep, but I fell down about 5 times during my first ride. Then we decided our goal to be complete a ride down the slope without falling. After the 3rd ride, we went and had a break. My dad gave me and my mom some money to buy a hot drink from the vending machine. My mom got milk tea, and I got a Japanese sweet soup with sweet beans called “Oshiruko” (おしるこ).  We ate a few of the snacks we packed. Then we went back on the slope. After the 11th ride, I was able to go down without falling. However, I was only able to get down the ski lift with the board on one foot about 3 times. That’s when we all decided to carry the board in our hands instead on our foot. Now that we were able to slide down the slope without falling, it was time to get to the more advanced stage, like jumping while riding. I was able to do that about 5 times but they were very low. After our 20th ride came lunch time. We went to a restaurant within the lodge. We ordered a Japanese treat called “Tako Yaki” (たこ焼き) which contains the tentacle of an octopus, pizza and Karaage on a stick. Everyone was feeling very tired after snowboarding. So after lunch, we settled for some light snowball fights and activities like that. Mainly because my right little finger, which was already injured, started to hurt a lot because of the cold. The easiest part of snowboarding was the warm up because pretty much all we did was to try and remember what the trainee’s taught us last time we went snowboarding. The hardest part was getting of the ski lift with the strap on. (I even bumped my head on the seat after falling twice.) The part I liked the most was braking while riding at top speed, strangely I don’t know why. When the van with the shopkeeper arrived, we set off back to the rental area. When we got there, we took off our tops, trousers, boots, gloves and glasses. We went to the hotel, took a bath, ate dinner and slept.

Snowboarding in Kusatsu Day 1

Hello everyone! From December 26th to 28th, me and my family went snowboarding in Kusatsu. Here is the location of Kusatsu in Japan.

The place where it is marked is Kusatsu. It is in the Gunma prefecture.

The first day we had to ride a private bus for five hours. We got off at rest breaks every 1:30mins for about 15~20 minutes. For some reason, when I got off at the first break stop, my shoulder started to hurt like crazy if I moved my arm. When we were almost there, what we saw was little bit of snow.Not enough to even make a snowman! “Tough luck Arunansu, you might not be able to snowboard.” Said my dad. I was also feeling that i wont be able to have as muck snow as the other trips. After a while we were able to see the amount of snow increase. When we got to the hotel, ground was 90% white! I was so relieved to see that. I wanted to stay outside a little more to feel the snow. So while my mom was checking in, I was outside playing with the snow. Of course I told my parents I was going to stay outside until they got to check in. When Ig got in the lobby, I saw the lobby filled with velvet seats. There was also a TV, a smoking area, the check-in desk, an Onsen (A japanese public bath), and a gift shop. Our room was on the 10th floor and our room number was 1006. The hallway to the rooms on the 10th floor smelled mildly of plants that just had rain pour on a plant. The room we were was a “Tatami” room. (A tatami room is a room in Japan where the floors have mats sewed to the floor. The mats they sew are made of a type of grass and mostly has hard green cloth bordering the mats.) We were able to see the place for skiing and snowboarding. The room also had green tea, “Manjuu” (A japanese cake stuffed with sweet and fine pasted beans) and a few message equipments. We went for a walk around Kusatsu after we put our things in our room. We went to a Shotengai (An outdoor mall in Japan) To see around the place. We came to one Japanese restaurant which looked almost pure Japanese. We order “green Udon” (A Japanese type of noodle, which usually is white) to go in mushroom Nabe (Japanese soup.) There was a unique process of eating this that even I didn’t know. With a pair of chopsticks you need pick the Udon and put it in a Zaru and put the Zaru containing the Udon into the Nabe and stir it for a couple of seconds. Then put the Soba into your plate, and with the soup spoon put in some soup, vegetables and the chicken into your bowl and enjoy! There was also a plate of Tempura to go with the food. After the food we went outside and explored more of Kusatsu. On our way we saw a Sulfur Onsen which (I had to admit,) smelled like rotten eggs. Fortunately, I was already used to the smell thanks to the trips to volcanoes with sulfur within them. We put our hands in the hot water and warmed them for a while. But it did no good. When we put our hands out, we forgot to dry them so before we put our hands in our gloves, the water got cold which made our hands freezing cold. While we were coming back, we stopped at a Manjuu store and had warm Manjuus and warm green tea. After we finished eating, we decided on buying some to take back home. We bought a box with 15 of them and a box with 9 of them. Then we went back to our hotel and went to the Onsen to take a bath. There were Japanese robes for people to wear so we took them along to wear after the bath. 5:00pm was when we had to eat dinner which was pretty early, but we had to. The dinner was practically a buffet so you could take whatever you want in the selection the chefs cooked. 50% of what I had was new to me, but they were still delicious. After our food we went for a walk in the lobby so it would be easier to digest our food. After that we went up to our room, watched some TV and then went to sleep.