Neil Duckett

After 16 months i’ve finally been able to get to the snow for a days Snowboarding. I’ve been to the snow a heap of times but it’s always been on the back of an Onsen Trip, which is considerably different to a day of excercise hurtling down the mountain.

The destination was Kawaba Ski Resort, about 3 hrs on a bus door to door from Tokyo and a grand cost of 5100 yen, including the days lift pass. Having Snowboarded in Australia and New Zealand it’s a pleasant surprise not to be slugged a veritable fortune for a days boarding.

Kawaba - Situated in northern Gunma prefecture, the village is in a rather mountainous area. 83% of it is covered by forests, and five rivers, the Tashiro River, the Sakura River, the Tazawa River, the Usune River, and the Mizomata River flow through. Kawaba, meaning “the place of the rivers” is thought to be named after its many streams.

I’d checked the website during the week and was told to expect fine conditions on the mountain, low teens, good visibility and 3 metres of snow. I wasn’t dissapointed. Turns out it was a beautiful spring day with the temperature reaching 12 degrees C, the snow was 2.9 metres deep and visibility was 100%.

I would love to have gone out with only a t-shirt but after spending 300 rods on a new jacket last week and wanting to take my camera to get a few shots i had no choice. After a 2 year break off the board i intended keeping things pretty tidy and not over doing it so to keep the soreness for the week at a bareable level … i did to some extent with only going out for 2 hrs before and after lunch but probably got a little silly at times when i realised i hadn’t lost any of my snow legs.

I’ll be heading up again many times in the next 6 weeks and will try and hit a few different mountains. All in all Kawaba Ski Resort is a fantastic option for a cheap days skiing pretty close to Tokyo.

The buses leaving Shinjuku at 7am were packed to the brim, a mate tried to get on without pre-booking a ticket and was promptly tuned around and sent on his way.

The first look at Snowboarding Japan style.

The runs and long and well groomed … with pretty much NO traffic compared to what we’re use to in the Southern Hemisphere.

Lunch was again another treat, well priced and for the first time i had a beer over lunch, usually i favour a sports drink but i won’t be outdone buy a girl! Taco Rice a speciality from Okinawa was the order of the day, it didn’t last long either … fresh air and excercise does wonder for my appetite.

Even though the conditions were great, my friend didn’t want get burnt so she was pretty much rugged up all day.

The photos don’t do it justice, not the ones scaled back to post anyway …. the view was fantastic.

On the top of Kawaba Mountain, a little over 2 km above sea level, complete with Problogger t-shirt on, before taking one of my last runs of the day, this one being a little over 3.2 kms in long.

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