New Years Vacation
It started off with some godlike Vietnamese food for lunch up in Sannomiya.
Ibuki and I then got on a local train and made our way to Takefu because we were going to stay with my friend Eddy for New Years. Takefu is in Fukui prefecture but it didn't take too long for us to get there on the train. It was about a 2 hour ride from Osaka to Tsuruga station, and then another 20 minutes on the local.... local train to get to Takefu. We had a 30 minute wait at Tsuruga because there was a ton of snow falling which caused the trains to be delayed but it wasn't too bad of a wait. Eddy picked us up at Takefu and we chilled at his place for a bit before heading into Fukui city to pick up another one of his friends -- the man is a true legend in Fukui apparently. We had the choice of either going to a countdown party at this Okinawan restaurant that's owned by one of Eddy's friends, or at a Hawaiian restaurant in Fukui city. We opted for the latter and had a good time there. The music was good and so were the drinks!
We headed back to Eddy's place to sleep for the night before heading off to what Eddy described to me in an e-mail as the "godlike toast restaurant". At first I had no idea what the hell he was going on about, but as soon as I got my order, I knew that this was going to be some godlike toast.
Yes, that is ham and eggs inside a fist-sized piece of toast. It was very godlike. I wanted to go there again before we left but Ibuki was having none of that. :( After our meal we had to buy some stuff for our snowboarding excursion, and then we met up with some of Eddy's friends, Yoko and George. The rest of the group slowly filtered in and we brought groceries together and then drove up to a cottage that was owned by one of our member's companies. We were able to stay there for free too so we saved a ton of money on that. For dinner we had a bunch of random meals, but the main course was traditional nabe (hotpot) with a ton of veggies and beef. Very warm and yummy, especially during a -5 degree night! Speaking of which, I was really enjoying the fact that I was in a place with below zero degree temperature and snow for the holidays. It was the first time in three years that I've had it, and I sorely, sorely missed it.
We had to wake up at six in the morning to get ready to head over to Katsuyama and get our rental equipment. I didn't have anything really other than gloves and a hat, and even those were not really for snowboarding. Fortunately I was able to rent everything despite still being outside the typical Japanese size for clothing. This was actually my first time snowboarding in three or four years, and I was afraid that my body would've forgotten everything, but thankfully it still remembered the most important thing: how to fucking stop without falling, heh. The snowboarding group went up together so I went with them, but I didn't realize they were going to the very top of the god damn mountain. It was pretty intimidating being up there, but somehow I managed to do okay, although I fell god knows how many times before I reached the bottom. The view from the top of Katsuyama was spectacular though! We spent a good 5 hours riding on the slopes of Katsuyama before heading back to Eddy's place for a good night's sleep... well, Ibuki and Eddy had a good night's sleep. I had the sleeping back and was on the floor with a battered body. Oh well, what doesn't kill me will somehow, someway make me stronger. :p
So the new year had a good start to it! Let's just hope that continues for a little while longer before any adversity hits!
Ibuki and I then got on a local train and made our way to Takefu because we were going to stay with my friend Eddy for New Years. Takefu is in Fukui prefecture but it didn't take too long for us to get there on the train. It was about a 2 hour ride from Osaka to Tsuruga station, and then another 20 minutes on the local.... local train to get to Takefu. We had a 30 minute wait at Tsuruga because there was a ton of snow falling which caused the trains to be delayed but it wasn't too bad of a wait. Eddy picked us up at Takefu and we chilled at his place for a bit before heading into Fukui city to pick up another one of his friends -- the man is a true legend in Fukui apparently. We had the choice of either going to a countdown party at this Okinawan restaurant that's owned by one of Eddy's friends, or at a Hawaiian restaurant in Fukui city. We opted for the latter and had a good time there. The music was good and so were the drinks!
We headed back to Eddy's place to sleep for the night before heading off to what Eddy described to me in an e-mail as the "godlike toast restaurant". At first I had no idea what the hell he was going on about, but as soon as I got my order, I knew that this was going to be some godlike toast.
Yes, that is ham and eggs inside a fist-sized piece of toast. It was very godlike. I wanted to go there again before we left but Ibuki was having none of that. :( After our meal we had to buy some stuff for our snowboarding excursion, and then we met up with some of Eddy's friends, Yoko and George. The rest of the group slowly filtered in and we brought groceries together and then drove up to a cottage that was owned by one of our member's companies. We were able to stay there for free too so we saved a ton of money on that. For dinner we had a bunch of random meals, but the main course was traditional nabe (hotpot) with a ton of veggies and beef. Very warm and yummy, especially during a -5 degree night! Speaking of which, I was really enjoying the fact that I was in a place with below zero degree temperature and snow for the holidays. It was the first time in three years that I've had it, and I sorely, sorely missed it.
We had to wake up at six in the morning to get ready to head over to Katsuyama and get our rental equipment. I didn't have anything really other than gloves and a hat, and even those were not really for snowboarding. Fortunately I was able to rent everything despite still being outside the typical Japanese size for clothing. This was actually my first time snowboarding in three or four years, and I was afraid that my body would've forgotten everything, but thankfully it still remembered the most important thing: how to fucking stop without falling, heh. The snowboarding group went up together so I went with them, but I didn't realize they were going to the very top of the god damn mountain. It was pretty intimidating being up there, but somehow I managed to do okay, although I fell god knows how many times before I reached the bottom. The view from the top of Katsuyama was spectacular though! We spent a good 5 hours riding on the slopes of Katsuyama before heading back to Eddy's place for a good night's sleep... well, Ibuki and Eddy had a good night's sleep. I had the sleeping back and was on the floor with a battered body. Oh well, what doesn't kill me will somehow, someway make me stronger. :p
So the new year had a good start to it! Let's just hope that continues for a little while longer before any adversity hits!