Snowboarding in Japan
For a few years now, I’ve been a big fan of snowboarding. Have ‘been meaning to do it’ for years, and with only one day on a dry run slope near Sheffield to show for my enthusiasm, I finally got my chance to do the real thing in early 2000 with a friend of mine, ZJ, who is a great boarder. I kicked of my career at Rusutsu in Hokkaido, but since then, I’ve been to so many places across Japan I can’t remember all the names - I also spent a few week’s on New Zealand’s south island doing some back country boarding in July 2000 which was just amazing. I’m not great, or even good - I can’t do tricks, I don’t even know what most of them are called, in fact the closest I get to that is on my PS2 playing SS3. I’m not much of a jumper either, but I do love mountain boarding and the peace and quiet of being in the mountains, and by Tokyo standards, the clean air. Of course mad tree runs in waist deep powder (at night) don’t make me feel bad either! ...