Ahhhh, snow and onsens go so well...
Mmmm... Walking naked in the snow...
SNOWBOARDING!

That's what I've been doing this week, up in the Hakuba Alps... I was stuck mainly to the beginner runs though, since the intermediate ones looked mighty scary! The ones I took I had to leaf it down on...

The snow is seriously cheap here; I paid about $700 for 5 full days snowboarding; that includes transport to and from the slopes, accommodation, food, hire, lift passes, oh, and a trip to the onsen to relax those poor stiff muscles ;). Sitting outside in a 45 degree tub with snow all around and resting on your head is AWESOME!
While we were up there it snowed every day except the first; this meant poor visibility, especially on the top slopes but awesome powder everywhere to float around on and stack it on without getting (too) hurt...

I feel I didn't improve very much at all, but that doesn't mean it wasn't fun! I'm planning on another trip up to Hakuba, if not to snowboard then to ski... I might wait to do some lessons with snowboarding before I take it up again. With skiing I might get to see some of the other slopes...