at least it's snowy somewhere!

We had a musical performance in Nagaoka on Saturday and since it was close to some of the best mountains in Niigata we decided to stay over and go snowboarding the next day! We went to this nice little izakaya in Tokamachi that looked like a log cabin. It was very cozy and the proprietors were the most outgoing Japanese people I have ever met. The woman was patting my head and what not shortly after meeting. Japanese people tend to avoid physical contact like the plague so I was a bit surprised! The "Masta" was completely unable to say my name, even the Japanasized version, so I had to write it down for him. It translates to Jeneru because they don't have l s in their language. Anyhow, it was a really nice place and served good food as well.

This is the best picture I could get of the building because the delay on my night function is atrocious. I decided to add it as a work of art!!

We were up fairly early the next day to head off to snowboarding. We saw one of Russell's friends the night before at the cabin and he assured us we would leave at 7:00am. We should have know better because he had a bit of a load on so we didn't leave until 9:00. It had been snowing all night so there was wonderful powder on the ground. Unfortunately, when we got to the mountain, Kagura I think, it was closer to blizzard like conditions and the day was pretty crappy. It didn't hurt as much to fall but your face frozen while going down the mountain.

On the drive there we passed this guy who had fallen in what we like to call a gajin trap. Along most Japanese roads there is a foot and half concrete ditch for water drainage. The roads are quite small here and I have heard of many gajin who have fallen pray to these beast. Anyhow, we pulled over and asked if he wanted help but he declined our generous offer so I decided to take a picture of him and immortalize him in his embarrassment.