Oh how I love Canada. But I love Japan more.
But if for whatever reason I feel homesick, this ski and snowboard park is the right place to go.
Named Okutono Snow Park, this "park" is in Gunma prefecture way out to the West of Japan and a 3 hour bus ride away. A friend of mine invited me to go out with a group of 7 people (that I only kind of know) to go snowboarding on Saturday, but ended up bailing that morning. No problem, I'll make friends!
It was only 8,800 yen for the roundtrip bus fare, the all day lift tickets, and the snowboard rentals. I also got to borrow one of the guy's snow gear so i didn't have to rent any from the shop. Although it fell a bit short on my legs, I was still so thankful for them.
The ride there did not feel long at all, and most of us slept the whole way there because of the 4:30 am wake up call.
It was really great weather that day...
Until we got to the ski resort. But perfect conditions for falling on our asses because of the fluffy snow!
The slopes were just like Vancouver's. There were steep parts, narrow parts, wide parts, and scary parts. With probably less variety on different courses that one could take. From the speakers they played all sorts of J-Pop, and an announcer would come on at random times like a radio host and talk about the history of the park, wishing us happy boarding/skiing, while also telling us the occasional tip.
The absolutely terrifying thing about this ski park however, is that the lifts dont include bars that protects those that are seated from falling. So if you're fooling around on those seats, may god save your soul, cause nothings stopping you from falling 30m to your death.
Now onto lighter material, that day was the first time I attempted a ski/snowboard jump. You board down a steep hill, and keep up the acceleration so that you have enough speed to make the uphill jump cliff. The hardest part was having the stability and the courage to not break halfway through...needless to say I tried the jumps 3 times, all of which were embarassing and rather painful failures.
The day trip was loads of fun though, and I definitely recommend going snowboarding in Japan. Be prepared for some serious muscle pain the day after though....
