I have been eagerly awaiting for this day since a few days back when it was confirmed that I will be going to ski today! The main man of the day is Kira's husband whom volunteered to bring us on this trip at the expense of his work. Really grateful! And so, I woke up promptly at the time I was given, which I couldn't remember already but it was pretty early by my standards ;-) Ron chan then sent me over to Kira's place after breakfast.

Junlong and Wai Kit were already prepared to move out when I arrive and after a short while, we followed Kira's husband and moved out. The destination was Teine yama which was just a quick 15 minutes drive away. Since the day it snowed, roads became hazardous and vehicles' speed seldom go above 40km/h. I was already used to this kind of speed by now, in fact you don't feel slow at all given the fear of losing control of the car if the speed was any faster.

Upon reaching the ski area, we were ushered by a carpark attendant to park our car. After that we caught a internal shuttle bus to the euipment rental house. Thanks to Peko chan's husband that I did not have to rent the ski wear. He allowed me to borrow his maroon coloured ski wear when I was at his place on Saturday night. So we just rented the ski equipments which consists of the skis, the ski poles and the ski boots which cost a whopping 5000Yen. We took a while to gear up since the last time I skiied was 9 years ago.

We then penguin-walked our way to the ski area in our ski boots. Kira's husband then gave us a short introductory lesson. I needed a while to find back my feel for the skis from 9 years back. Anyway, Kira's husband then bought us lift passes which we used immediately. There were 2 parts to the Teine Ski Mountain: the Olympia zone and the Highlands zone. The Olympia was the lower one and the one we decided to tackle first.

The slopes weren't gentle though despite being located at the foot of the whole area. I mustered my courage and sped off down the slope. And my, were the slope treacherous. It was smooth at all, with uneven bumps and irregular inclines all the way. I took 3 falls before I reached the bottom. It was a pretty long slope as well. I picked myself up and headed for the lift again to attempt the slope again. Still, 3 falls on the 2nd attempt. This went on for a couple of hours and I think I managed to complete the slope with 2 falls. I tried my best but I guess I really need a lot more practice if I'm gonna be able to do it smooth all the way. I just can't seems to regulate my speed when it gets really fast not to mention the couple of times I went into the bushes. Embarassing!

Meanwhile, Junlong and Wai Kit, being his virgin attempt at skiing, had an instructor to themselves. I was pretty much exploring the place on my own most of the time. After a few hours of skiing, I went into North Maple, a rest house, to take a break and also to have a cup of hot cocoa. The weather was getting freezingly cold as the day went by although it was pretty sunny at the start of the day. But by noon time, snow was flying all over the place. Once I felt my hands regaining some dexterity as the warmth in the rest house overcame the cold, I finished my last drop of cocoa and stepped out to retrive my skis.

I made a brave decision to conquer the Highlands. I thought to myself that since I'll be skiing for 1 day only and I don't know when my next ski will ever be, I might as well take a look at the whole place and try all the courses available. Onto the gondola and up the slope I went. It was quite a long ride but it was well compensated by the nice views you get from the gondola. When I reached the end, I explored for while and found a cross country course back to the bottom. It was surprisingly easy but tiring though. I completed it and went up to try again, but this time I went one lift further up.

It was great to be able to ski once again and also to put a big cross on my must-do list. I went back to where we started to find the 3 of them already there waiting for me. We went back to return the ski equipments and Kira's husband asked for my lift pass ticket. I was puzzled but was soon enlightened by Junlong that there was actually a lucky conducted for those with lift passes. And to everyone's surprise, I had the winning pass. Amazing! It was 10000Yen in cold hard cash! He gave it to me and even refused to accept our money when we wanted to pay him back for the lift passes and the instructor fees. This goes to show how hospitable and generous our hosts were. Really appreciate their kindness and hospitality.

We went back to Kira's place for dinner and drinks. Dinner will be home cooked. We are soon joined by Miyan chan, Ron chan, Peko chan, Yuka chan and their kids. Beer was never in short supply that night and the good thing about winter is that you can get your stuffs cooled really quickly by simply placing them out in the cold. And so I had a few snow-cooled Sapporo beer that night besides some Spanish wine and some authentic Japanese sake. It was a good thing I could hold my liqour well, although some of the closer friends would smirk at this comment. LOL.

Dinner was splendid as usual and I was never gonna be left in peace with all the kids around. Since that was the case, I might as well have lotsa fun with them! We played cards, drawings, "castles" and many other children's games. Of course I had to spin everyone of them again. That was already a fixed routine by now. I was shagged and I was beginning to feel my right knee getting sore and neck aching from all the skiing in the day. But the highlight of the day was yet to come as I've found out.

Wai Kit and me grabbed hold of Linghan and used magic pens to bestow her a mustache and a little curly beard. We showed her off to the rest. BIG MISTAKE! Everyone kidnapped me and immobilised me and the whole crowd started to grab a magic pen each and proceed to unleash their artistic talents on my face. I was assured by June that the ink were water soluble and there would be no problem washing them off. They went on for what seems to eternity. When the masterpiece was finally completed, I was relieved. It was photo taking time with the "Dunno-what-the-heck-my-face-looks-like" me and everyone else.

I quickly went to the toilet try to wash off the ink and to my horror, I can't wash them off even with furious scrubbing and rubbing. The ink was beginning to eat into my skin and it was ridiculously painful. Kira offered her makeup removal cream and helped me with it. I was still left with some slight ink marks even after the best cleaning effort. Wai Kit wasn't spared either, I totally had no time to warn him of the impending cleaning torture. Poor us. But I was glad everyone had fun and the mood was liven up as well.

Finally it was time to head back home again. When I was about to leave, Kira asked me whether I had the ski trousers with me. I immediately realised that I had left it at the equipment rental house back in the ski mountain! I felt so guilty for being so forgetful. THey assured me everything will be ok and will call the Teine Ski Mountain to check if they had kept the trousers. Find out in the next post on the fate of the trousers.