Snowboarding!

Last weekend I went to Geihoku Mountain in Hiroshima Prefecture to go snowboarding.  It was great!  Geihoku isn’t as big as some other mountains that I have been to in Japan, such as Daisen or Niseko, but it was really fun to get out and go snowboarding for the first time this year.  I went with four other people, one of whom is a NEO student.

The only bad part about the trip was that our bus left from Okayama Station at 5:50 AM!  It was very early for me, since I usually wake up at about 11 or 12.  I was able to get a little sleep on the bus, however, so it wasn’t that bad.

Our skill levels ranged from beginner to advanced, but it was fun to go down the mountain together, and the better snowboarders were able to help the beginners learn.

There are two mountains that make up the resort, and in the morning we stayed on the smaller one (on the left in the picture) to let the beginners get used to snowboarding again.

 For lunch we had some delicious curry and udon, and then we went to the bigger mountain, which was only a five-minute shuttle ride away.  This was much more fun for me, since the smaller mountain only took me about two minutes to get from the top to the bottom.  The bigger mountain offered much more varied terrain, and it had something for snowboarders of all levels.  FYI (for your information), in English a コース on a mountain isn’t called a ‘course’, but is instead called a ‘run’ or a ‘trail’.

 This is me relaxing and taking a break (I like doing that):

 

And this is a couple of my friends trying out the easier mountain:

 

And this is my friend and I having a snowball fight:

(I won.)

It was a great time, and I can’t wait to go again at least once this season.  Maybe next time I can go to Hyogo or Gifu!