Um no it`s not spring

"It such nice weather, like a spring outside...." at least that`s what Okada-sensei said when I came in today. It is nice and sunny today, but when I aw0ke this morning to find I had no water when you turn on the hot water tap, spring was not on my mind. Since it had been the night before last since I had a bath, it was freezing in my apartment, and I had no kerosene left for the oil heater, I was looking forward to a nice hot shower when I yanked my aching snowboard battered body out of bed. Improvising so as not to have to wear a hat all day, I put two pots of water on the gas range and took my pajamas off in the freezing cold kitchen where I could see my breath with every exhale. Working sparingly I was surprised to find I had more water than I previously thought in the pan so I went and took a quick dumping the pot over various parts of my body one handed shower in the shower stall. I was very awake by this point

Then, because I have been doing laundry but my apartment stays cold, my long underwear wasn`t exactly on the warm side....so I turned the heated kotatsu(little short table with a heater built in the bottom) on and put all my underwear and clothes and half of myself under it and the big kotatsu blanket while I blew dry my hair.
It`s amazing how time gets away from you when you don:t have mondern conviniences. It:s one of those salt days....you know the little saying on the salt container...when it rains, it pours. Being that I have little money due to a paycheck change of date (2 weeks later because of the city merger and schedule changes)....this stretched out over Christmas, and then my er....bad planning of joining everybody in snowboarding by buying my own, albeit used, board and gear. So now I have about 40bucks left in the bank until next Monday, and enough gas in my car to get me to Joetsu and back on Saturday for Peter ja Pan. So in other words I`m getting exercise every morning and afternoon this week. That`s probably a good thing considering I pigged out and finished off those Godiva chocolates mom sent yesterday after school.

I have been keeping to low movement activities cause I bruised my rib (at least on the inside), though I could certainly stand to shovel some snow or practice my fiddle. So instead I watched tv, did 3 loads of wash, drew pictures for animated story ideas, and ate half a box of Godiva chocolates for dinner.

Okay going back further.....this weekend I went snowboarding twice in a row this weekend. It was excellent. I took my board over to Chuck`s on Friday night and Akemi came over and we watched Tokyo Godfather`s, ate cheese, apples and crackers and some wine and watched Chuck iron and scrape wax off my new snowboard. The next day was boarding all day at Ikenotaira and Akemi`s first day (my second). I learned how to leaf down frontwards and make turns....very succesful. We all went out and had too much fun later that night at several good establishments, even meeting up with some other Joetsu folks and getting some Canadian professional snowboarding tips from Mat. Here they are:

1) Bow your legs out like you are riding an enormously fat cow, so much you almost bow the board.
2)Point your fingers at the direction you want to go in, your body will eventually follow.
3)When you are turning to go backwards put down one toe and then the other, and to go frontwards, one heel and then the other, not simultaneously.

So putting that together with my previous information (don:t stick your butt out, keep your body over your board) I was able to learn and improve alot this weekend. I even added another to the list....Don`t go snowboarding around children who aren`t any better than you........they will stop, and their families will stop in the middle of a hill on a narrow ski slope, and while kick *ss punk boarders will be sliding up the sides all around them and doing little jumps, you, the beginning-can:t keep yourself up for more than 3 minutes boarder will be sliding on your back into them, scaring the crap out of them and making little girls cry. Don`t even ask if this refers to me. Sigh. After Gomenesaiing and waiting around to watch her cry and choking back a few of my own I decided to leave the situation, heartbroken, and slide down the mountain a little further to sit my tail down in snow and be depressed. I sat for about 5 minutes and felt worthless and frustrated and looked back up the hill until I noticed the girl in her little red jacket back up on her skis and making her way down the mountain, her father following. I can only hope she wasn`t traumatized and decided never to ski again. I decided to push myself to go on the bunny slope again to kill time until everyone else got finished, but had to fall every 10 or 15 seconds because of people cutting me off, or falling, or schoolboys being goofy. This was Saturday...crazy night following.

Sunday, Akemi is out, Valerie joins me and Chuck and we take on Suginohara. Great place once you find the good slopes. We just did a half day (which was probably for the best). Valerie and I stuck together first on the bunny slope while Chuck went off to do advanced snowboarder like things, like cutting through trees. The bunny slope was not the best being icy from use and either so flat you get stuck, or so steep you can`t do anything but concentrate on staying on your board and slowing it down to avoid the idea you get from the term "breakneck speed". After one time down we tried to go back up and find the restaurant where we were supposed to meet Chuck for lunch. We took two lifts ( one was the tiny 1 seater lift of death with nothing to hang on to, dangling and swinging over the trees and ice and snow). We thought we were supposed to take another but got there to find it out of service and us halfway up the mountain at the top of the pro snowboarders jump field. Val calls Chuck and finds out....no he`s not at the top, he`s way down at the bottom waiting for us, and the only way down is to board it. So we oh-so-gracefully roll ourselves down that moutain trying not to become speed bumps for other boarders and meet up with him. Yay! We made it! But then we had to go up a very scary but scenic ski lift straight up at times to go to another section of the mountain. But man, was it worth it! I had the best pumpking pudding ever and some cocoa and we slid down the best slope ever, wishing there was time to do it again. I did 5 linked turns, and one 360(by accident) before falling.

So we have to go back there. I`ve decided to return my bindings for a better pair, cause it just takes to much energy to push two straps together trying to make them snap into one more notch tighter, but that has to wait until payday. Poor Chuck is my loan shark right now. I`ve promised to make him a pecan pie in return for being such a burden. Hopefully I:ll see everyone at the Joetsu Peter ja Pan on Saturday and finally have some fans! (I want flowers too!) My luck is bound to get better!