E-E-nya kelinci ... Winter Rabbit's poo ..

Weekend ini aku snowboard lagi ke Iwate. Coba tebak apa yang aku temukan ...

E-E-nya kelinci!!!! No kidding! Aku pikir mushroom, soalnya bulet-bulet dan warnanya mirip lagi! Malah aku pungut dengan bangga dan aku tunjukkan ke hubby-ku . Eh, malah aku ditertawakan!!

"You are holding a rabbit's sh*t! Get rid of it!"

"Hahhh???"

Langsung deh aku buang, tapi curious juga yah apa bener gitu ... setelah aku observasi dari dekat, ternyata bener juga, bukan mushroom, tapi E-E-nya kelinci ....

Ini aku close-up fotonya ... plus jejak-jejak kaki si kelinci .. cute kan ..

fyi. katanya sih si kelinci waktu jalan, kaki depan-nya disamain (didekatin) jadi kesannya seakan-akan segitiga gitu ... pengen sih liat cuma belum ada chance ... too bad ...

Snowmen☃everywhere!!! どこでも雪だるま♪

This weekend there is Snow Festival in Iwate.

They made soooooo many snowmen!

Small-big-huge,

fat-skinny,

tall-short,

various shapes ... you name it.

I love the giant ones!!!

Couldn't help taking pictures of them! :)

They were so creative in decorating the snowmen ... they use all kind of stuffs ...

broken taps for noses,

buckets for mouths,

tires for eyes ...

soooooooo cute!!!

Second climb to snowy八幡平Hachimantai

After enrolling in the backcountry tour to Hachimantai last month, Isamu and I decided to challenge it on our own.

We made sure we packed the followings into our backpack:

GPS, avalanche beacon&probe, bendable shovel, thermos w/ hot drink, water, bourbon (yes!), plenty of high-protein snacks, spare goggles and gloves ...

Then we drove to the no-longer-used ski resort. We started climbing around 10am, quite late actually, but it was so windy earlier in the morning, so we waited for the wind to calm down.

The weather was quite ok, cold but sunny.

I strapped my snowboard to my back just like other snowboarders, while Isamu tried a new way → tied the snowboard w/ the climbing rope and hooked it to his rucksack.

On the way we bumped into different groups of climbers:

●2 men of native Iwate who have jsut started the 2nd climb of the day. They prefer to climb up only half the summit and slide down and repeat the same course for 2-3 times. One skier, one snowboarder.

●1 man of native Iwate who climb alone, skier.

●a group of 3 young snowboarders (1 male, 2 female) from Yamagata prefecture. They had been up since 5am, drove for 4 hrs all the way to Hachimantai. What a will!

●1 snowboarder climbing alone. We did not have chance to chat with this guy. He just nodded and climbed past us so quickly.

●2 male skiers. We met them at the summit, and it was freezing, so we did not stop to chat, just nodded and parted.

It took us 4 hrs to reach the summit, of course we took brief rest in between, munching some snack to keep the energy level up, sipping bourbon to keep warm :)

The weather on the top of the mountain was not good. Windy and very cold. So, we decided to snowboard down before the weather got even worse.

The powder was not as light as we had hoped, but still nice. And the feeling of riding on a "private" slope was great!!!

We were exhausted, but had a great time, great ride, and great exercise!

Snowboard Jepang - Hachimantai Backcountry tur

Hari ini aku bangun dengan amat semangat, karena akan ikut tur backcountry ke Gunung Hachimantai di Iwate Prefektur, Jepang.

Langit cerah tapi ditemani salju ringan tanpa angin. Dengan cuaca seperti ini trip backcountry 100% OK! Faktor cuaca sangat penting waktu memutuskan apakah trip backcountry bisa diujudkan atau tidak. Karena cuaca gunung itu mudah berubah, amatlah berbahaya mendaki gunung salju waktu cuaca tidak bagus.

Grup kami ditemani 2 pemadu, Hirayama-san dan Sawada-san, dan jumlah penyerta tur ada 6 orang termasuk aku dan Isamu. Diantara kami, Matsui-san adalah penyerta tur yang tertua: dia sudah berumur 70 tahun tapi amatlah sehat dan ceria. Aku harap aku bisa sesehat nenek Matsui ketika aku berumur 70! :)

Kami mendaki selama 3 jam, mulai dari jam 9 pagi. Selain aku dan Isamu yang mendaki dengan snowshoe (sepatu khusus untuk jalan diatas salju - kalau sepatu biasa bakal tenggelam), penyerta tur lain mendaki dengan ski masing-masing. Karena aku dan Isamu adalah snowboarder, bukan skier, kami tidak bisa mendaki dengan snowboard.

Setiap 30 menit kami istirahat ringan sambil menikmati makanan ringan seperti power bar atau calorie-mate yang penuh nutrisi biar tidak kehilangan tenaga.

Sekitar jam 12 siang kami tiba dipuncak gunung Hachimantai. Cuaca di puncak jauh berbeda dengan di kaki gunung. Angin bertiup kencang dan salju turun agak lebat, tapi kami amatlah beruntung bisa menikmati pemandangan yang fantastik dari puncak gunung. Lembah putih bersalju begitu indah dan damai. Kota kecil Hachimantai juga bisa dinikmati dari kejauhan.

Karena udara yang cukup dingin, -16 derajat celcius, kami tidak bisa istirahat lama-lama di puncak gunung. Satu demi satu kami pun melaju turun dengan ski/snowboard masing-masing.

Benar-benar fantastik powder snow-nya! Begitu ringan dan lembut, membantu kami melaju cepat ke kaki gunung!!! Nice!!!

Walaupun mendaki perlu 3 jam, melaju ke bawah cuma perlu 20-30 menit .. tapi rasa puas benar-benar tercapai karena bisa ski/snowboard secara pribadi .. tidak ada pengunjung lain seperti di resort umum.

Last golf round of 2010

I was quite excited with the last round of this year.

Isamu's acquaintance, Fukui-san, invited us to play together at Gotemba West, which is one of the best golf courses in Japan.

Lucky!!! （●＾o＾●）

I've never played there, so I was really really excited ♪♪♪

Overlooking Mt.Fuji（富士山）the view was fabulous!!!

Although it was quite cold, we were blessed with a sunny weather ☀

The snow❄covered

Fuji-san

was strikingly beautiful against bright blue sky, surrounded by a neat row of old tall trees, gorgeous!!!

We departed at 6am. (yawn!)

It took about 1&half hour drive from Tokyo. We beat the traffic and arrived quite early, so we had plenty of time for breakfast and a short practice before the round.

The am round (OUT) was tough! My body didn't move the way I wanted. My putt sucked. All the good shots I thought I've mastered during my golf lessons just disappeared.

I finished the first half with a horrible score of 72!!!

After lunch things improved a little. Some of my putts did make way to the holes, earning me 2 PARs and a score of 59 for the pm round (IN).

A total score of 131 ... (sigh) ... still a looooong way to go ...

well, they say "Practice makes better" ...

I vow to make it to 100 by end of 2011. Practice, practice, practice!!!

A golf summer

This summer, apart from tennis, Isamu and I did something new → Golf.

We were quite addicted to it, and couldn't help indulging ourselves to a week-off doing only golf. YES!!!

We usually go to Appi Kogen (Appi highland) in Iwate prefecture during winter season, but this summer

we decided to experience the summer Appi.

It turned out really really great!

Day time was quite hot, easily reaching 30°C, but at night it was freezing that we woke up to get the blanket.

Appi Kogen Golf Club consisted of 4 courses:

1) Iwate-san Course (overlooking Mt. Iwate, looking mysterious surrounded by a ring of cloud)

2) Hachimantai Course

3) Towada Course

4) Ryugamori Course

※1&2 must be accompanied by caddie, while 3&4 is ok w/o caddie

During the week, we were blessed with perfect weather. No rain, a little hot in the midday, but was bearable.

I especially love the Hole 6 of Ryugamori Course, 'cause it's challenging.

The tee up (ladies tee) is right in front of a pond, intimidating but exciting!!!

It's strange how the psychological aspect command oneself ... just because there is a pond right in front of my nose, I got intimidated and lost my swing ... :(

During a week play, I lost only one ball in this hole. The ball plunged right into the pond, earning me a water hazard penalty :(

Isamu scored an

"accidentally"

HOLE-IN-ONE in the Hole 3 of Towada Course.

Lucky fella! :)

Too bad he couldn't replicate the miracle shot

on other days ...

After a whole day of golfing, we were starving and treated ourselves to a BIIIIIGGGG dinner → barbeque!!! yummy!!!

Juicy meat, rich red wine, plenty of veggies ... this is what I call enjoying life :)

The night sky in the Appi highland was really beautiful. The air was cold but clear, full of twinkling stars. Too bad my camera suck, not good enough to take a snapshot of those ★☆★☆★★☆★☆★

Fabulous powder snow of 下倉Shimokura

Shimokura 下倉、Iwate, Japan

For those who love winter sport, Hokkaido of Japan may already sound familiar.

I do agree

that Hokkaido has great powder snow. However, there are many other places in Japan that have fabulous powder snow too.

One of those places is Iwate prefecture in the Northern part of Honshu Island.

I particularly love Shimokura Ski Resort with its relatively steep uncompressed slope (38°) which is covered with fantastically thick powder snow.

This slope is great for training oneself before challenging more extreme slopes which can only be reached by helicopter or other means.