Hurray!!!!

My thigh seems to be (almost) heal!!! After spending a total of 6 days without skiing, I was getting ready to get some ski in. Since it wasn’t getting much better in the last days, I figured the best thing to do was to tape it real tight and try to give it a go.

As we were discussing about where to go skiing after dinner at the Fukuage spa, a guy asked us if we were still hungry and invited us to join him in his room. In there where three guys about the same age as my old man. We stay there using the very few words of Japanese I have learn and some words from a phrasebook we were carrying. They were serving us some sochu, a Japanese liquor that actually tasted real good. The more we were drinking, the more we were able to understand each other!!!

It was probably the most interesting evening I have ever had in Japan.

The following morning was a bit rough for both of us!!! So hard that we figured I can use another day off to rest my leg!!! We actually started to get better only about 1h30PM….

We moved north towards Asahikawa from where we were going to do some roadside backcountry. Roadside backcountry is something fairly spread in North America, but no one is using the untouched powder laying just next from some mountain road passes.

So finally came the day of testing my injury and see if I was going to be able to continue my Nippon journey. We parked at the top of the road 72 west of Asahikawa, climb the snowbank and headed to the nearby backcountry. The runs weren’t that long, but I was quite happy to realize I was able to tele without too much pain. The snow was a bit wet but it was good to be back on my skis sharing some turns with my dad who as traveled half the world just for that!

On our way towards Shibetsu, on the road 275 near the km153, we saw a mountain with nice open trees that we figured can be a nice place to spend a day. We were right! That was a really nice place with the trees so sparse that you could ski down at full blast without being too concern! Again, the runs weren’t that long (about 100m vertical), but well enough space to have a great day of skiing!

This was really good, but nothing compare to what were to live……