23 January 2010

Emily woke at 6.30, maybe due to the usual problem with shoji screens: the white paper squares don't exactly keep out the light. There was lots of fresh snow outside and everything looked really pretty. We ate very well, being able to have continental AND cooked. The coffee was strong enough to stand a spoon up in - just what you need to kickstart a busy day in the great outdoors. Once ready, the children played in the powder snow outside



while we waited for the minibus to take us to Evergreen, which offers lessons and daycare plus an organic veggie cafe, all right next to the slopes at Happo One resort. I was pleased that Emily went into the playroom without making a fuss, though the others didn't get off so lightly.


Outside in the white stuff, I found that I had forgotten everything, even down to how to don the skis correctly. The others in our group (bar one, Rachel) were all competent skiers, so there was lots of good advice. Fearing that I would make a fool of myself using the chairlift, Donna offered to ride with me. There was no restraining bar like those I've used before on this one, so I was a bit scared at first, but she kept my mind off it by giving me a pep talk in readiness for the next part of the ordeal when I would actually have to try to ski. The views from the area at the top of the lift were superb.

Once off the lift, they all decided that we ought to ride up another shorter one to the top of what looked to me a very steep slope (pictured) but which I was assured was only a green run. It did turn out later to be a green, but a level two rather than level one.



Luckily for me, Julia and Andrew said that they would get me down the hill. Andrew even said that he would quite like to become a teacher and would be more than happy to give me some instruction. I'm afraid that he and Julia must have regretted their offer as I whinged and whined my way down painfully slowly; despite their good technical advice and encouragement I was totally lacking in confidence and full of fear. It took the best part of an hour for me to make it down a few hundred metres and by the time I go to the bottom I had cried once and used most swear words in my vocabulary. Every muscle in my legs was aching after the huge effort it took me to make all those tight turns, and I fervently wished I could be magically transported to the bottom (which I could be, in a manner of speaking, since the Kokusai lift would have taken me back the way I had come with Donna).


Julia insisted that I ski the rest of the way down, and I felt it was the least I could do. There was a gentle level one route that looked as though it meandered back to Evergreen at a shallow angle, so we took that way. Although the views were fantastic



I still didn't enjoy it as the narrowness of the roadlike track meant I could not make wide traverses and had to go straight and hold a snow plough a lot of the time. My legs were soon trembling and I was full of frustration at my inability; I just can't understand why I am so poor at skiing when everyone else looked as though they were born on skis. Most others looked so effortless and elegant, not to mention fast. I felt humiliated every time someone passed me and saw my pathetic efforts. I couldn't wait to get off the mountain and out of the horribly uncomfortable boots, and was adamant that I would never ski again. Finally, after another hour, Julia and I made it to the daycare, almost exactly on the dot of noon.

Emily was very glad to see me; I think she had been OK during the morning but was really clingy for a while. We trooped into the adjoining cafe for some sustenance. The menu was all veggie and it was hard to choose from the awesome selection of imaginative food on offer. Emily didn't eat much at all, but was overtired by then. The hotel sent the minibus to take us back to Double Black, and poor Marianne, who is recovering from stomach flu, puked everywhere. The smell of it had me very close to throwing up myself. Nick was waiting in reception when we arrived, having just got off the bus. Despite our harsh words the night before I was really glad to see him. Another family also joined our ever-expanding group at this point: Anna and Roland with their two small children.

Like me, Nick had only skied twice before and I felt bad that he would have to go off and ski on his own for the afternoon with no-one to help him go over the basics. I hurriedly passed on a few good pointers gleaned from my erstwhile instructors, then took Emily off for a nap. As she slept I gazed out at the wintry scene. Big lumps of snow were regularly sliding off the steep rooves and would do a lot of harm if they hit someone. The sky was heavy with a fresh burden of snow, though we had only had light flurries all day. After my exertions, it was hard to stay awake while Emily slept, but my mind was busy with reflections on the morning: the world seems divided into those who ski and those who don't/can't and I don't want to be in the latter camp. I wondered if good skiers felt contempt for the likes of me.

In the end I had to wake Emily from deep slumber as time was getting on and I foresaw difficulties later in getting her down for the night otherwise. She and Charlize played around the hotel as we didn't feel like putting on all the layers of gear and going out in the snow again. Nick was back from the slopes at 5.30 and said that after a difficult start he had just about got the hang of it. I left him to watch Emily while I went to soak my aching leg muscles in the communal bath, but it was too hot to stay in long enough to loosen them up much. Nick went off up the road with the other dads to a hotel with a fancy onsen while I fed Emily then took her to the bath with Charlize and Ashling. He got back just in time to help settle her in the room. Our dinner was pre-ordered for 8.30 and Nick and I left the room bang on then, after 40 minutes of waiting for Emily to drop off.

It was another top-notch dinner, and all the better for being eaten at a civilised time. As we were last to sit down we were at one end of the long table so it was harder to participate in the conversations. Also, I found myself next to Roland, and was worried about making a fool of myself as he is obviously a very intelligent and well-travelled guy, being a BBC correspondent. However, the wine loosened my tongue and I ventured a few forays into Japanese current affairs. The meal was all over by 10.30 and Nick and I were gratefully sinking into our huge and comfy bed by eleven.