But taking it back to the beginning of the March, the boys had just gone home from their trip and so we had to go back to work after a whole week off of work - it was a bit of a shock to the system thats for sure. It's been pretty quiet most of March in the daycare with just a couple of kids each day but Danny has still been booked out for most of the month. He has really enjoyed instructing this season and I think it has definitely confirmed that he is on the right career path. Just last week his BASI level three tech course was confirmed at long last which we were over the moon about. So one week after we arrive back from Japan, Danny will be jumping back on a plane to Hintertux in Austria - the fun just never stops!
We FINALLY moved accommodation too!!!!!!! Bring out the party poppers and champagne - getting to move over to Old Sanso has made our last month so much more enjoyable. We are pretty boring out here and don't go out every night getting drunk, so it makes a big difference to be in a house where we are not woken up at 2am every morning and where the kitchen is clean enough to actually make breakfast. It is crazy how massively different Old Sanso is to Sanso A. Our room is 3 times the size, we had to become accustomed to communal showering, but most importantly you can hear a pin drop it is so perfectly quiet. The move was very much appreciated thats for sure.
The most amazing thing to have happened this morning was Danny and a group of our friends climbed Mt Yotei! My most favourite view to look at all winter, and he hiked all the way up it under the full moon in the middle of the night. Just under 6 hours it took them to get to the summit just in time for sunrise. Once they had recovered somewhat and taken in the views, Danny and a couple of others snowboarded into the crater before riding back down to the base. It is such a huge accomplishment and a once in a lifetime experience to be able to say that you snowboarded in a volcano - it's an achievement he will never forget.
I was no where near the level of fitness needed to hike Yotei or had the riding skills needed to enjoy dropping into the crater so myself and two friends went for a slightly scaled down version and hiked up to the summit of Mt Niseko Annupuri. From the top lift it is just a 15 minute hike and the view on a clear day is absolutely beautiful. You've got Yotei to one side and the view of the sea all the way across the mountains on the other side. It was so hot I wish that we had taken a beer and a picnic and stayed up there for a little while. Resort was so quiet at this point too that there was pretty much no one else there and the pistes were so awesome to ride back down - perfectly groomed corduroy; it was such a fun morning, I'm so glad I got the chance to do it before the season was out. I then rode back over to Niseko Village and met a very tired and exhausted Danny to stuff our faces with a free buffet from Melt - finally using our vouchers from English Fun Night and then it was back home to sleep for the rest of the day/night!
We've had a really great month for riding, a complete mixture of all weathers which was surprising for March. At the beginning of the month it was still dumping, then we had some beautiful sunny slushy spring days which are my absolute favourite, and then it started dumping again 2 or 3 days ago! I eventually managed to land both boxes in the Hanazono park, with a little bit of encouragement from our friend Gus so I was super stoked about that. It's such a scary concept to get your head around but once you finally let go and just go for it, it feels incredible - another achievement for me this season! Yay. Last week we had our final riding day altogether with 'the crew' which was such fun. The skiiers got on snowboards for the day, the weather was nice and we just cruised around and had a laugh - a nice chilled day off altogether. We have been really lucky with the great friends we have made here and I really hope that we manage to keep in touch with them all. Somehow we have managed to all independently book our trip around Japan and have ended up all being in the same place at the same time on a couple of occasions, so that is something to look forward to also.
And then that is that. Work is done. Our snowboard bag has been shipped. Our backpacks are full to bursting and it is time to start our travels. It's bittersweet, leaving. We've had a completely different experience here to any other season so far, the snow has been like nothing we've seen before and the people we've met have really made it all the better. But now we've got our travels to look forward and lots of exciting things on the horizon back in the UK, who knows where the next lot of adventures will take us. I'll leave it here, with my favourite pictures from this month (mainly Danny's Yotei ones) and I'll try to be as organised as possible whilst travelling and take loads of photos and upload them on here as we go. Enjoy...
Cream puffs, cheese tarts and drinking yoghurt from just down the road! Delicious!
Slightly sketchy one man chairlift 'Wonderland', also known as the pizza box.
Full moon above Mt Yotei, the night Danny was hiking to the Summit.
And the sunrise from our bedroom, the morning Danny was watching it from the Summit!
At the summit of Mt Niseko Annupuri
The most amazing panoramic photograph that Danny took at the top of Mt Yotei. The group of hikers with the full moon on the left and the sun rising on the right. We are getting this printed and framed for our house because it is just so bloody incredible!
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