We went away skiiing last weekend in Niigata. Marie, Rumiko, I and one other couple (Michael and Wakako) from my other soccer team went. We got up early Saturday morning and took the train for an hour and a half from Tokyo to Niigata. From there, we took a bus another 50 minutes to the hotel. That drive was amazing because while the roads were clear, you couldn't see anything else - the snow on the sides of the roads was taller than the bus - maybe 10 feet! Apparently, it never stops snowing in Niigata in the winter. This would be confirmed later when we arrived to find the entire first floor of the hotel buried in snow - it was required to enter the hotel via a walkway on the second floor. We got lockers and changed into our ski clothes, got a quick bite to eat, and snowboarded for the afternoon. We had a nice dinner, went in the hot tubs, had the option to night ski (only Michael and Wakako did that), and fell asleep quite early.

Next morning, got breakfast, changed into our gear, and then most of us skiied until 3, 4, or 5 pm. I was the exception. I had a fender-bender and called it quits early. On one run, I was following a guy down a long, windy, and thin slope pretty closely. He and I were doing fine and going at a brisk pace. All of a sudden, he wipes out, and slides across and blocks my path, giving me a couple second to react. I thought I could make it past him before he wedged me against the wall. I was wrong. My board hit his, I went head over heels, and my face was planted into the snow. Next, from the motion, my feet kept going and flipped over my head, pushing and tearing my face further along the ground. It was quite scary, but as soon as I knew I could still move my neck and my back, I was relieved. After that, I snowboarded two more runs and called it quits after people informed me my face was quite bloody. It looked bad from up close the first day since all the cuts were oozing blood and pus. The pictures I took when we got back to Tokyo that night don't look that bad (compared to how it hurt), plus now it's only been 5 days and my face is almost back to normal (most of the scabs have already peeled off).

Oh, and when that happened my shoes fell off.

I was quite lucky and learned not trust anyone while snowboarding anymore.