So my first Christmas completely away from home was a bit strange but a whole lot of fun anyway. I didn’t feel as though I missed out too much, due to the fake Christmas we had in November! Our festivities here kicked off on Christmas Eve with a party at the Black Diamond Lodge in Niseko. We had a full Christmas feast with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, even some spare ribs thrown in for good measure! The only thing missing was the brussel sprouts which most people would consider a blessing, but not me!! A very drunken evening followed, with guest buying shots of jaeger all night for everyone, which made getting up for work on Christmas morning more than a little difficult!! My day was pretty full too, with 6 hours of teaching including a night lesson, but it was actually pretty fun, and the santa hats made everything pretty cheerful.
The end of 2013 continued to be busy, with a lot of 6 hour days including New Year’s Eve, which was followed by the instructor torchlight descent.
It was pretty fun to get to take part in something I’ve watched on previous new years’ in resorts in France. I never thought I would get the opportunity to do it myself, albeit slightly intoxicated at the time!
After new year the pow really started to hit, with around 3 weeks with snow every day, and I don't mean 5cm every day. It was 30, then 40, then 60 and continued on and on. I've never skied pow so deep, and got my first ever face shot! Woop woop! But with great snow comes great responsibility, which meant that the digging began! So every morning we took to the steps, magic carpet and other areas around the hill!
This was just a 30cm day, but you can see there was a lot of shovelling required!
On top of morning training (also known as morning pow run) the ski school have now introduced Saturday night training which has been really great for improving our skiing. I'm impressed by the amount and quality of training at Niseko Village Ski School. They really do take this side of things seriously and clearly want to improve both their staff's teaching and skiing. I have not only been enjoying the amazing skiing Niseko has to offer, but also the teaching has been so much fun, meeting really nice people and sharing many funny moments, and I feel really lucky to be here!
Of course, it's not always about the skiing, and it's certainly a work hard/play hard environment here, with nights out in nearby Hirafu, Sansou parties and having now had my first Japanese karaoke experience! In terms of Sansou parties, they always get a little out of hand, and the caretaker, Kadaguchi san - known to us as "The Gooch", will happily step in to karate your ass if he thinks you've gone a step too far!!
The rest of my time has been taken up with activities such as "English Fun Night", involving chatting English with 17 year old Japanese students. This mostly involves being asked inappropriate questions and/or being treated as a freak show while they take hundreds of photos of you. It's definitely an experience!! Along with these nights, the almighty quest for a Canadian visa has been another time consumer, with the lengthy application process and multiple hoops to jump through. My application has been provisionally accepted as long as I get the rest of my documentation in on time, so hopefully next winter will be a Canadian adventure!
During days off, we usually either ski, take a grocery mission to Kutchan, or chill in Sansou's toasty warm accommodation. However one day we took a trip to Rusutsu, another nearby resort. It was a beautiful day, with blue skies and fresh snow. and this picture of the trees doesn't do it justice.
After skiing for 4 hours, we drove a little further and stopped at a lookout spot at Lake Toya which can be seen in the photo below. It was truly amazing and I felt lucky to have gotten to see a little more of Hokkaido. Afterwards we went to a small town called Date for sushi. It really was a fantastic day.
Well that concludes my update for now, although I've undoubtedly missed out half of what has happened! Oh and just on a final note, I must say how much my love for heated toilet seats has grown over my time here. At first it was a bit weird - as though someone before you had been sitting there for an overly long time, but now, coming in from a cold day skiing and sitting on a lovely warm toilet seat is a major highlight! I don't know how I'm going to cope going back to sitting on a cold pan when I get home!!
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