I went away last weekend snowboarding in small mountains south of Tokyo (SOUTH believe it or not). It was nice. We stayed in an apartment of one of the Samurai player's parents, Nomoto-san. His parents have an extra place sort of as a getway or small place you might own in the Poconos. We left tokyo friday night around midnight and arrived by 1:30 am. Another carload arrived by 4am. It was about 8 of us staying in this apartment spread out on the floor. Besides, the inevitable odds some of the people would snore, it was nice not having to pay for a room.

Next morning, we drove another hour to a small mountain (only 4 slopes) and tried to remember how to snowboard. Last year was the first time I had snowboarded and I had only done it 3 times and it had been 6 months since then. We snowboarded for about 6 hours. after that we went to a nice hot spring and bathed and cleaned up. That night we went to a popular seafood-themed restaurant and relaxed and fell alseep quite early (compared to the night before).

The next morning, we cleaned the place and drove an hour to another bigger mountain that had lots of trails. On the way there we drove by and I saw Mount Fuji from closer up than I ever have - got some pictures of it - check there. It was crowded but had lot so great runs. I got a little adventurous and pushed myself to try new things and go faster and with that crashed into someone (not entirely my fault though), and hurt myself. I'll be fine, just snapped my leg and neck muscles as I rolled through the snow. That night we went to another hot spring place and then had dinner and then returned to Tokyo. 4 days later my muscle aches (from the crash and from just using new muscles for snowbaording) have disappeared.

Marie and I are going once more in another week with Rumiko and a guy on my other soccer team and his girlfriend. This time, it will be in the opposite direction, far north of Tokyo in Niigata I think.