たかつえ (Takatsue) and うつのみや(Utsunomiya)

On Saturday, Michael and I went snowboarding with some of his co-workers. Azuma-san picked us up in his awesome J-Odyssey at 7:00am, then we went to go pick up Azumi-san in Takanezawa. After that we met up with Hanano-san, his daughter, Otsuka-san, and his daughter in Sakura and began our 2.5 hour car ride to たかつえ, (Takatsue) Ski and Snowboarding resort. The drive up was pretty calm, but once we got closer to the mountains it was beautiful. There’s just something nice about mountains covered in snow with random trees. When we got to resort it seemed a little windy, but when we hit the slopes, it was great. There weren’t a lot of people there, maybe because it was Valentine’s Day?! But, I appreciated it. I haven’t been snowboarding in 2 seasons, so I definitely had to refresh myself. I did however get a new board which I was very excited to break in. I did much better this time around and starting to get the hang of things. I did take one nasty spill falling forward. I can’t even remember what happened because it all happened so fast. Sigh. Oh well. Michael was very sweet and stayed with me most of the time, even though he was probably bored. He was practicing jumps and what not, sometimes a little too close and made me fall. Sad. I took a little break after the nasty spill and he went to go hang out with Azuma-san and Azumi-san. They were very good at snowboarding, so that was probably more exciting for Michael. We called it a day at 4:30pm and then we headed home. I was pretty much knocked out in the car, but on the way back we took a different path. I think we went up a mountain and then back down, but all the roads were super narrow and super windy with multiple hair pin turns. I get a little car sick going on those types of roads, so I kept my eyes closed most of the time. I could hear them say すごい(“sugoi = awesome, cool, super”). We made it home in 3 hours and that was pretty much the day. I must say Michael and I are both very, very sore! Today (Sunday), we met the Hughes up for lunch around the station. I haven’t seen them in awhile, so I thought it would be nice to meet up. It was great! We went to a gyoza place with the famous gyoza dude. Hopefully we can do it again! After lunch, Michael and I took a bike ride to this big Shrine in Utsunomiya (Working on getting the name). We walked up a massive flight of stairs which felt 50 times longer with our sore bodies. Nonetheless, we made it up and back down safely. The shrine was beautiful. It seems like there was a special ceremony going on. We saw 2 sets of families dressed up with a baby wrapped in a kimono-like outfit. It looked really special. I’m going to ask my teacher what that symbolizes. After the shrine, we biked to Orion Dori, a street with lots of shops and restaurants. We didn’t stop to see anything, but it was nice to see it in the daytime. Finally, we biked along the river and that’s when I had to call it quits because my body was so sore. Utsunomiya still has a lot for us to see, we shall continue our adventures.