Speaking of which, this is definitely the season where I have enjoyed snowboarding the most. I haven't managed to do a huge amount just yet, but the times where I have gone out have been brilliant. The snow here is so nice and soft, even if it's not a powder day; no ice and rock solid moguls to have to manoeuvre. I've been over to Hirafu a couple of times to meet up with my friend Zoe, who I met last season in France, and it's really nice to go snowboarding with someone who is around my level who I can just cruise about with and have fun. Today we went off and did a few tree runs for the first time which was such a laugh. The first run I dug the nose of my board in within the first 5 metres and it took me about 10 minutes to get back up with the snow at thigh height. I managed to get myself into some pretty uncomfortable and weird looking positions trying to get back on my feet again - needless to say, it was a lesson well learnt and I did not fall again on any of the later runs. It's such fun snowboarding in powder, it feels like you're floating on a little cloud, I cannot wait to practise more and be able to explore some more difficult terrain.
A really nice thing about our jobs here is that Danny and I work pretty much the same hours, meaning that we get every evening off together. We've managed to get out night riding a couple of times which is really good fun. I never made it out to the night riding in Courchevel as I was always working, so I'm really glad we have the chance to do it every night if we wanted to here; it's a really big perk to working in this resort - no matter what hours of the day we work, if we have the energy we can always get at least 3 hours riding in everyday. We've been night riding in Annupuri which is the mountain next to Niseko Village and has really nice green runs all lit up with flood lights, it's so cruisey and chilled - just what you need after a day at work to wind down. On Thursday we did a few night runs in Hirafu too before meeting up with friends to go to the open mic night at Half Note. We have some really talented colleagues who sang and played the guitar and were really bloody good! It was nice to get out of the staff accommodation/work resort and hang out.
We've been pretty boring this month in terms of going out in the evenings socialising as we have yet to be paid yet and drinks are so damn expensive. Danny and I did go out for a lovely meal in Hirafu to a place called Bigfoot. They are well known around here for amazing burgers and we were not disappointed! I had the "Mac Daddy" which was a beef burger, with pulled beef short rib, mac and cheese and bbq sauce in a bun, topped with a spicy chicken wing and some fries. Basically all my favourite things when it comes to food, on one plate. I was loving every second! Danny had the "British Meat Orgy" which consisted of a beef burger, sausage patty, maple bacon, a hash brown, cheese and HP sauce. It all sounds very 'unjapanese' I know - but the canteen food that we eat on a daily basis is completely Japanese, so it's really nice to get some slightly more Western food every once in a while. And beef. Oh my goodness, it was so good to eat beef. It doesn't really seem to appear, ever in the canteen and is super pricey in the supermarket so it was a really big treat for us! Bigfoot do lots of staff lunch specials at discounted prices so I think we will definitely be making a return trip the next time we get a day off on a riding break in Hirafu.
We have done a couple of cooking nights this month too. A lady I work with in daycare, Yuki, organised a group to get together to make gyozas, which are Japanese dumplings. We had to mix together pork, spring onions, cabbage, sesame oil, soy sauce and a couple of other bits and bobs which i cannot remember for the life of me; put a handful of the mix in the dumpling skin which was bought from the supermarket and then pinch the sides together to form neat and tidy little folds. Of they weren't all neat and tidy, in fact most of them were not neat and tidy, but they held together and once they were fried off and steamed they tasted bloody delicious! It was such a great evening. We drank, chatted, ate a ridiculous amount of food and decided that it was such a brilliant night that we had to do it again. Soon. So the next week we had another cookery class with even more people. This time we made Takoyaki, which are essentially octopus dumplings and Okonomiyaki which is a type of Japanese pancake of the savoury kind. As a somewhat picky water, I was very impressed at myself for trying both of these delicacies. I'm not the biggest fan of fish, so these were not my kind of thing at all, but it was cool to see how they were made and at least be able to try them.
Christmas itself was very uneventful. It's not really a big deal over here, they definitely do not celebrate it to the extent that we do in England. There aren't really any decorations and no such thing as a Christmas dinner. I've been told that a lot of people in Japan get KFC for their Christmas meal, which sounds pretty good to me, but I ended up finishing my 8-5 shift at work and then had a bowl of ramen at the canteen and went back to our room to skype home. I always find it a bit tough around Christmas time, being away from home so this year I just chatted to my family and didn't really make a big deal of it - I know I will be there with them next year for the first time in 4 years, so I will look forward to that! We did have a good night on Christmas Eve, which I guess was our night for celebrating. We met up with friends and had a few glasses of wine and went to the local bar at the Niseko Village resort; it was lots of fun and nice to let our hair down and forget about the busyness that is Christmas in a ski resort!
As for right now, it is 6pm on NYE and I was lucky enough to have today off of work. I had a lie in until 8am (and yes that TOTALLY counts as a lie in when you live with 40 other people who get up at 6am!) and got the bus over to Hirafu to meet Zoe and Matt for a day of snowboarding. I was so excited to have a whole day to be out on my board and we were so blessed with a sunny day, with no wind so every single chairlift was open and we were able to really explore. Zoe and I went and had lunch at a bar called Tamashii, where of course I got a burger - not as good as Bigfoot but I still savoured every single bite. Zoe had the most delicious cocktail too which had a base of plum wine and then loads of other delicious bits in it too, I have no idea what; but what I do know is that when I get paid it is the first place I am going for happy hour cocktails! But it's now 6.10 and I'm laying here in my pyjamas writing this when I really should be making some sort of attempt to get myself organised for this evening. I am meeting a friend for a couple of wines, before heading up to the same bar that we went to on Christmas Eve. Everyone from the company we work out will be there, so it should be a really fun night - I'm sure there will be a few sore heads at the morning meeting tomorrow! I hope that everyone has had a really lovely Christmas and will enjoy the New Year celebrations as much as we plan to - lets see what 2017 has in store for us...
Mt Yotei at sunset.
Hot drinks from a vending machine. Magic.
Snowboarding selfies.
Overpriced wine and a good book in the Hilton on my afternoon off.
Gyoza making.
A morning on the slopes with my friend Zoe who I met in France last winter.
Mt Yotei on a bluebird day.
The group at gyoza making night.
Christmas Eve celebrations with our friends Lucy and Dave.
My Christmas Dinner - a delicious bowl of ramen.
The beautiful morning view I get everyday on the walk up to work.
Takoyaki making.
The perks of living in the middle of nowhere - the unobstructed sunset views.
Danny's first ever business card.
Night riding in Hirafu.
Those beautiful morning views at work.
Red and green should never be seen...
Fresh faced early morning, ready for a day of snowboarding!
My first attempt at going through the trees.
The final sunset of 2016, as seen from the comfort of my bed.
