I was on half term last week and flew up to the north island of Japan, Hokkaido to do some snowboarding. Hokkaido is so far north that it has heavy snowfall for over half the year! We were staying in a hotel that had ski lift up to the top of the mountain from just outside. It snowed all week and the scenery was breathtaking. My snowboarding had improved by the end of the week but am still a beginner and came home with quite a few 'trophy bruises'. The snow was so powdery in the mornings that if you fell you sunk practically up to your neck and it was a struggle to get out again - cue strange snow-covered-yeti-like appearance! We also visited the town of Sapporo for the Snow Festival which was quite spectacular - giant sculptures made out of snow - some pictures of which are in the gallery. I don't know how they managed to make them so large - some upto 2 storeys high and with loads of detail. My favourite was one showing scenes from the new Narnia film. We also visited a bar where everything was made from ice! The whole structure was made from ice bricks, there was ice chairs and glasses (ices?!) were cubes of ice with hollowed centres - very cool!
We arrived home late on Saturday but there is no rest for the wicked we had to be up early on the Sunday morning to support some of our friends who were running in the Tokyo marathon (crazy I know!). They had a glorious sunny day and all did amazingly but I must give a special mention to Gareth who completed the course in 4 hours 24 minutes! He was running to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK so if anyone would like to make a donation of sponsorship please visit: www.justgiving.com/garethrichards1
Am off to a Burns pizza night tonight - that's Robert Burns not Mr Burns from The Simpsons (I think!) so will sign off for now
:-)
Half Term
I was on half term last week and flew up to the north island of Japan, Hokkaido to do some snowboarding. Hokkaido is so far north that it has heavy snowfall for over half the year! We were staying in a hotel that had ski lift up to the top of the mountain from just outside. It snowed all week and the scenery was breathtaking. My snowboarding had improved by the end of the week but am still a beginner and came home with quite a few 'trophy bruises'. The snow was so powdery in the mornings that if you fell you sunk practically up to your neck and it was a struggle to get out again - cue strange snow-covered-yeti-like appearance! We also visited the town of Sapporo for the Snow Festival which was quite spectacular - giant sculptures made out of snow - some pictures of which are in the gallery. I don't know how they managed to make them so large - some upto 2 storeys high and with loads of detail. My favourite was one showing scenes from the new Narnia film. We also visited a bar where everything was made from ice! The whole structure was made from ice bricks, there was ice chairs and glasses (ices?!) were cubes of ice with hollowed centres - very cool!
We arrived home late on Saturday but there is no rest for the wicked we had to be up early on the Sunday morning to support some of our friends who were running in the Tokyo marathon (crazy I know!). They had a glorious sunny day and all did amazingly but I must give a special mention to Gareth who completed the course in 4 hours 24 minutes! He was running to raise money for Bowel Cancer UK so if anyone would like to make a donation of sponsorship please visit: www.justgiving.com/garethrichards1
Am off to a Burns pizza night tonight - that's Robert Burns not Mr Burns from The Simpsons (I think!) so will sign off for now
:-)
Posted by anna on February 20, 2008 8:00 AM
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