Inventing the Sport of GrassBoarding

Just after Christmas, Erin and I headed to the site of the '98 Winter Olympics for some downhill action. It was about a four hour drive away and we had a room in a pension booked for the next two nights, giving three days there. (I opted to navigate....even though the rental car had it's own dedicated satellite armed with Turbo Laser Batteries; Ion canons were extra.)

We ended up spending one.

We arrived at Hakuba at 8 in the morning, commenting on how lucky wewere that the roads were snow free, only to realise that the mountain was green. No, the Japanese have not yet invented green snow. Actually, they probably have. It was grass. Grass, grass, grass. As far up as the eye could see. In fact, there wasn't any snow until we got to the top most runs! Even then, I gave my rental board a good few scratches when I progressed from snow boarding, to grassboarding to ROCKboarding in amatter of seconds.

One day was enough, and we did have fun once we found the actual snow. The pension though, was FANTASTIC! A family run place, and we were the only guests! They even had a little onsen (hot spring) inside to soak in.

Warning, if you spend too long in one, you may feel a bit dizzy, but if you then stick your head under a cold tap, you may not be able to stand up. Or maybe just feel like getting sick. Not that I'd ever do such a thing.

Closing our eyes for a second after dinner, I deliberately left the light on so we wouldn't fall asleep. She woke up for a moment, 7 hours later, and turned it off. I remained unconscious.