You gotta take the good with the bad.

I pulled a double this weekend on the hills. Sunday I went to Myoko Kogen with 3 friends. We loaded up the car early in the morning and drove 2 hours into the mountains in Niigata, just north-east of here. I hadn't expected to go to a big resort, but I wasn't driving so I couldn't really protest. The reason why I try to avoid big resorts in Japan is ALL THE PEOPLE!! It was a long weekend -and we were in the middle of it -so there were people everywhere. I don't like crowds at the best of times, and being on the side of a mountain trying to weave my way through them is not my idea of a good time. At one point a boarder came out of nowhere and crash-landed right in front of my friend Asako-chan and she went flying over top of him, landing on her head. argh. If that weren't enough, the lines for the lifts were 10 to 15 minutes long. By noon I was already fed up with navigating around people and the the real fun began. A heavy fog rolled in and we couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of us. It was scary, I couldn't tell where I was going and I was getting nauseous because I had no bearings and couldn't tell which direction I was going. Needless to say, I was glad when the whole thing was over.

On Monday I made up for it by going to Seaside, my favorite little hill in the world. I went with Lee, and Chika joined us as well. It was sunshine and lollipops all day! Hardly anyone was on the hill, we never had to wait in line and although there was no fresh powder, I was much happier being there than at some big hill fighting crowds. The sun shone all day and I have the goggle lines to prove it.