North Country

Today we will look back at the closing of 2002, a time I call "the Tokyo days". Every year in December there is a lengthy public holiday, that spans about a week or so for most, but it seems that life as a teacher, we end up getting a couple of weeks off. Well that year Ritsy and I decided to take a 4 day trip up to Furano in Hokkaido. The place is best known to most Japanese for the setting of an old popular drama called "From the North Country".
Once Ritsy gave the thumbs up like in this picture, it was go time! I didn't have any snowboarding equipment with me at that time, so I had to rent it all. Luckily the lift tickets were included in the package, because renting equipment definitely boosts the costs.
We stayed at the New Furano Prince Hotel (which wasn't so new), where outside there was a quaint little villa of huts where you could buy handcrafted goods. It was quite a nice little touch.
The place was very clean and comfortable, but the interior of the rooms didn't scream "state of the art". The reason I chose this pic, I can see the visible age difference in myself from that time. Tough to take when you catch yourself aging!
The day after arriving, we stretched up and hit the slopes. This picture really makes me nostalgic, as our first dates in Whistler were snowboarding! (of course this is Ritsy). The two things that really struck me while riding; it is much colder in Hokkaido than Whistler, my cheap goggles froze over while riding; and the runs were much shorter than back in Canada. I knew I was spoiled and taught myself just to enjoy the experience.

During that time we welcomed the New Year watching from the hotel, there was a small fireworks and we celebrated 2003 together, quietly. It was really nice.

Whistler remembered

I was trying to remember exactly how long I lived in Whistler and I realized that it must have been about 3-4 years in total. What a beautiful place to live - a popular, bustling, beautiful ski resort only about a 1.5 hour drive from Vancouver! The winters are just amazing especially on fresh powder days, and the view is amazing. The lifestyle was very fun, but it does get a little wearing, there is a lot of partying involved- I think it is the first time a lot of people leave home and end up going just nuts- much like going to college! Another great thing about Whistler of course is that it is where Ritsy and I met!

In this picture, Ritsy would be standing about 100 meters away from the doors to the Brewhouse, the restaurant we worked together at. Unfortunatel it won't be in this picture, it would be behind the photographer. It was a pretty crazy place to work, the winters would get downright busy with the huge seating capacity and the fact that it doubled as a pub and a restaurant.
This is a picture from one of the staff parties, with some of our ex-coworkers, Kayo, Emi, Marie-Lou, Eddie (Ritsy in the background) and our chef Clarke (he is the big man in the picture) he looks pretty scary, but he really was a great guy to work for!
On top of those fun times, there was apparently a bit of snowboarding to do up there. The view was just amazing, I sometimes loved sitting on the ski slope and resting and enjoying it.
It was an amazing place to live and holds some great memories, but there definitely came a time to leave. Of course, I didn't stop adventuring I simply moved on to Japan from there! I hope to get back there when the Olympics are on in 2010, it should be a blast!

A part of the drive to Whistler (I think it's Britannia Beach)