We walked across to the Sakka area and straight away rode the chairlift to the top of the green run. I could tell immediately that the snow was a lot harder and more slippery. The sun would eventually soften the snow, but in the meantime I lost some of my new-found confidence as it was a lot harder to control my turns, with the outer ski sliding across the icy surface. One of the men, a young Aussie, was nowhere near the same level as the rest of us (which is saying something!) and on his very first attempt he rocketed down the slope out of control, seemingly unable to get into a snowplough or turn into the hill to stop himself. Greg swooped effortlessly down after him to pick up the pieces as he crashed spectacularly. In the end, just like the day before, the rest of us did not benefit from our teacher sufficiently because there was one person needing a lot of hand-holding. We pretty much carried on without them, though taking the odd bit of advice as and when we could to help us improve. By around 11am the snow had softened a lot and then I suddenly made a great leap forward and was swishing down the hill comfortably. I am sure that everything I had been taught went out of the window but I think the main thing was that I felt relaxed and was enjoying it, while hopefully not posing a danger to myself or anyone else.
We made about 6 or 7 passes down the couple of green runs there, stopping now and then to re-group and take in the view. I got chatting to the other chap, Henry, also a Brit living in Tokyo. It turned out that he was the Japan correspondent for The Economist! I must say that living an expat life you do meet some really interesting people. He was a charming guy and very nice to talk to.
Twelve o'clock came round far too quickly, just as I was really getting into my stride. It would have been good to carry on skiing after the lesson finished, but I owed it to Nick and Emily to return to meet them. They had spent a couple of hours playing in the snow with Bettina, Steve and Tim. The tobogganing looked fun.
We all had lunch in the veggie cafe again before getting a lift back to Double Black. Bettina, Steve and Tim now headed back to Tokyo; we were staying a further 24 hours. It was Nick's turn to hit the slopes for the afternoon; I stayed with Emily so she could nap. I woke her up in time to grab a lift to the goldola station for a ride. She was very stroppy and being tiresome, apart from while we were on the 10 minute ride that took us high up onto the mountainside. A Japanese man who shared our goldola car struck up a conversation and informed me in good English that it was his 70th birthday. I suppose that if you have skied all your life then it is perfectly feasible to carry on with the sport into old age, though it does put quite a strain on certain muscle groups. The views from the gondola station were fantastic, even now the sun was fading fast.
When we alighted back at the bottom Nick was there to meet us. We took the minibus back to the hotel and hung out for a couple of hours, first taking advantage of the free gluwein on offer outside.
The hotel was full for dinner so we were lucky to wangle a table, having failed to mention to them that we wanted to eat there again. I don't think that Emily would have waited until 8 o'clock for her meal! After our not-very-romantic Valentine's dinner we put up the occupied sign on the door of the onsen bathroom and had fun in there together for half an hour. Emily liked spraying us with the shower and stacking up the little wooden stools and bowls. We went to bed at the same time as her, but again I had trouble getting off to sleep after my big meal.
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