January

Hello to all. Sorry that I have been fairly quiet recently. January has been a pretty run-of-the-mill month to be honest. There's been a little work, a little play, and only a little snow. I haven't been skiing much at all. I've been to Daikura ski area four times but didn't really enjoy it. What snow there was, felt pretty bad to ski on. This January at Daikura has felt like the end of season skiing days of previous years i.e. deteriorating skiing conditions that take a lot of fun out of the experience and also make it a lot harder. I'm pretty bored of Daikura - familiarity breeds contempt.

However, today I went to another ski area called Takatsue because I was lucky enough to receive 5 free day passes. I enjoyed the slightly lengthy drive there and managed to see some fairly nice scenery along the way (and also a carload of monkeys). The sky was blue today which was also another plus point. Conditions were excellent and I had a great time. Despite the car park looking full, the slopes did not seem too busy, possibly because it is bigger than Daikura. The only downside of Takatsue was that there were a lot of snowboarders, the nemesis of the skier. I have 4 more free passes (with the possibility of more to come) so I'll probably head to Takatsue again next weekend.For the next 2 weeks I will be at Hisawa JHS. Wednesday will be the Hisawa JHS ski day at Daikura which means I get to spend some time out of school and on the slopes. Hopefully the conditions will be okay, although I'm not very optimistic. If conditions have improved, I may also go to Daikura again for a bit of night skiing on Wednesday.

On Friday I have another shinnenkai (New Year party) and then it will be the weekend again.