Do you know what I will miss after we move? Snow in Northern Japan! I don’t know why, but whenever I thought of Japan before I came to live here I always associated it with mild temperatures—never windy and snowy weather. Well, we’ve got it all here, in Misawa, these days. To enjoy winters to the fullest around here, one should definitely consider learning how to ski or snowboard.
Robert REALLY started skiing last winter and ever since then, he says, he just loves it (he was thinking of trying out snowboarding this year…but that never happened).
We have decided that this year could be the year when Katya could try skiing too. So we signed Robert, Katya and Alex up for a day ski trip with Misawa Outdoor Recreation center—a place where you can rent all sorts of outdoorsy equipment and sign up for trips. The idea was that one of the staff members who was on the trip would be able to help Katya learn beginning skiing skills since he usually does that when kids come on the trip. Alex was supposed to go as well, but at the last moment he changed his mind and wanted to go to our church sledding activity instead…with some tears involved. We said, “Oh well!”, and invited our friend’s daughter to come instead of him.
Robert REALLY started skiing last winter and ever since then, he says, he just loves it (he was thinking of trying out snowboarding this year…but that never happened).
We have decided that this year could be the year when Katya could try skiing too. So we signed Robert, Katya and Alex up for a day ski trip with Misawa Outdoor Recreation center—a place where you can rent all sorts of outdoorsy equipment and sign up for trips. The idea was that one of the staff members who was on the trip would be able to help Katya learn beginning skiing skills since he usually does that when kids come on the trip. Alex was supposed to go as well, but at the last moment he changed his mind and wanted to go to our church sledding activity instead…with some tears involved. We said, “Oh well!”, and invited our friend’s daughter to come instead of him.
The place where they went was Appi—a well-known ski resort in Tohoku, just 2 hours away from us. We were lucky enough that the guy who was supposed to teach Katya how to ski actually arranged a free lesson for her and her friend with one of the instructors at the resort. For two hours they practiced…
And then Robert let them loose…kind of…
The girls had a great time! I cannot believe how well they were skiing (from what Robert was telling me:).
The beautiful view of Mt. Iwatesan and Katya—light green person on the right.
The girls were happy but exhausted by the end of the day. They skied from 9:30 am till around 4:30 pm with some lunch/snack breaks.
Robert was so excited that Katya was doing so great that he took her for a whole day of skiing to Okunakiyama—another ski resort about 1 hr and 40 min drive from us. He went with some of his dental friends and Katya. Again, they had such a blast! This girl is so adventurous and brave!
Yes, she needs to wear a helmet now because she wants to go on intermediate slopes too.
I really hope Katya doesn’t forget everything she learned this year. I am sure we’ll try to take some skiing trips in Europe too but with so many other things to see around…I don’t know how we’ll fit it all in!
Skiing season is not over here—at least one more solid month of great snow. And this year, the resorts might be open till the beginning of May in some places because of the amount of snow we’ve received. Love it!
No comments:
Post a Comment