Hokkaido 2013 13-20 Dec (Day 3)

Woke up early in anticipation of my first time skiing. Looked out of the window and whoa, it was snowing quite heavily. Such a pretty sight, my first heavy snowfall experience.

As it was my first time skiing I was unsure of what to wear underneath the ski jacket and pants. Good thing I had friends who were experienced and I messaged them. So, I had to wear normal wear underneath. For those of you without a clue like me, for the top I wore a short sleeve thermal and a long sleeve t-shirt under the ski jacket, and for below I wore a long john and jeans under the ski pants.

Pic is a little blur as my hands and pocket were wet and the cam was in my pocket

After a sumptuous buffet breakfast, we went to collect our ski equipment from the lockers and put it on. It was difficult walking with the ski boots. I felt like a storm-trooper from a Star Wars movie.

It was snowing heavily. The snow on the slopes were soft and fluffy. We met our skiing instructor outside. Nice kid, only about 24 years old, from Australia, came to Rusutsu to work as a ski instructor just so he could see Hokkaido. We had a ball of a time learning how to ski. Skiing sure looks easy, but when you try to do it, that's another story.

Learnt the basics, how to click our boots onto the skis, how to climb up the slope with skis on, how to get back up if we fell, how to brake coming downhill, how to change directions, etc. Lessons continued after lunch and it was more of practising what we had learnt. So tired after everything. After removing and storing the gear back into the lockers, went back out to the snow to play with the kids, make snow angels and take more pictures.

Having a snow fight

Winter wonderland out on the slopes

Snow covered tree

Winter wonderland

As darkness came early in winter, we went back to our rooms for a short rest before heading out for dinner. Tonight, we'll be trying Italian.

Kids meal of spaghetti, steak, scallop, prawn and pizza

Appetizer of octopus and parma ham

Soup of the day

Appetizer-spaghetti

Mains-fish

Mains-steak

Dessert

After dinner, went to take a walk around the resort to walk off the heavy meal. Legs felt real heavy from the skiing. Onsen would be good but need to digest the food first. Later in the night, I went by myself to the onsen to soak in the hot water to find relief for my aching muscles.

Went to the onsen at the next tower. It was of course not as big as the one at Noboribetsu. They just had about 3 pools that's all. It was so difficult to shower. Muscles were aching. Thank goodness for that the Japanese sit on stools to shower. Slowly took my time to shower to enjoy the bath culture. After the shower, went to soak in one of the pools about 38 degrees Celsius for about half an hour. It was so good. So relaxing. Could feel the muscles relax. Aahh... Didn't want to get up haha. Slept really soundly that night. More happening tomorrow.

PS: forgive me for the blur photos out on the ski slope as my hands were wet from the snow and my pocket was a little wet too. The lens on my HTC had water vapour.


(Note: all photos taken by HTC One X. Tried to use a camera but the effects weren't as nice as my mobile phone)