WOW ! What a day!

So today I (sam) took my first beginner snowboarding class and it’s a lot harder than it looks.
I was able to find an instructor at Takasu who said she would do the class in Japanese and English. Turned out that she demonstrated everything very well so there wasn’t much need for English instructions but her English was great as she lived in US for a while. Because I had to leave the house early the family decided they would pass on this adventure. Left the house at 6:15 and at 8:35 I was parked at the ski resort, the roads were clear all the way up and it didn’t start snowing until the last couple of miles. Got dressed for snow, went to the information booth where it took a few minutest to get it communicated that I was looking for the snowboarding school, one of the workers walked me over to where the checking booth was and I signed in at 9:05. The classes started at 9:30 and went over all the basics of how to put on your board, how to move around on flat ground, how to turn, stop and most important, how to fall which I’m quite good at. I had what Michelle and I call a “Japan moment”, while I was sitting in the snow I took a second to take in the beauty of the mountains while it’s snowing and looked around to realize that everyone around me is Japanese and I’m on the side of a mountain in Japan trying to learn how to snowboard … WOW. Then we went over to the BIG hill, ok so it wasn’t that big but when you strapped to board trying to make your way down it for the first time it really seems big. She taught us how to get up and slide sideways so as to not go to fast. My first few tries didn’t go very well but when class was over at 11:30 I tried the bottom of the hill a few more times and the last time I was able to make it the whole way (less than 100 yards) down without falling. It was now 12 and it had been dumping snow all day so I decided to call it quits on a good note and figure out how to get off a snow covered mountain and make it home. Loaded up the car, changed into shoes, took off the ski pants, jacket, a sweat shirt and headed out. After almost not making it up the hill out of the parking lot I had to pull over and put on the snow chains. While I hated driving with the chains on I was very glad to have them for the drive down the mountain. About 3 to 5 miles down is a little town where I pulled over to take the chains off. The scenery driving down the mountain was spectacular, the trees had a bunch of snow in them and it was snowing the big fluffy snow flakes. It was almost 1 when I got back on the road and finally got home about 2:50. While I didn’t get to actually snowboard much I did learn the basics, got to ride a little and had a really great time. Can’t wait to go again!