Em's Dailies..

With barely an hour of sleep I took off to Echigoyuzawa this Friday morning to snowboard (you guess it right!)

Almost everybody in the same Bullet Train were going either to Naeba or Gala Yuzawa. I was beginning to wonder how my Kagura snowboarding would be. Nobody seems interested here.

The ski center was small but tidy. Yes, indeed there were few people and most of them locals! My experience traveling have hinted me that I should go where the locals go and I smiled at the thought.

When I stepped out of the ropeway that took us to the ski area I was speechless. This place was like heaven for skiers. Huge?! There were few skiers and the weather as opposed to the forecast, was perfect. An elderly man who was standing beside me in the ropeway first noticed it. "Saiko!". An elderly woman whom I got to chat while we were in a lift also said the same thing.

I warmed up by taking on the easiest course, which was around 342m. This place is a no-nonesense skier's paradise. After studying the Mt. Naeba map, I couldn't decide which way to take first. The place is just so vast, and the snow~ soft powder. I decided to take the 3,100+ Gondola Course which is covered by the Matsumata and Kagura area. I wentt on top of the mountain.

There was no trying hard Emzi today. I was really tired and sleepy. My objective for the day was just to really bond with my board, trust my balance and enjoy the view.

I've past the basics and now I'm trying to bond with my board first so I can do the advanced moves. I did a very weak slow spin, my first. I also tried to practice my back brakes and the "J" move via a very slow pace. I also started trying on a more straight path. The back-side of slow snowboarding is that it would require a lot of pushing once you get to a flat terrain.

My knees & thighs hurt, a single course totaling about 3800m, truly grueling for the knees and thighs. I didn't want to push it further today.

I took a short lunch break at the Kagura Restaurant just below the Mitsumata Gondola. Probably it was a weekday so there weren't many people there.

Obviously I've been really tired and deprived of sleep. But my love for snowboarding is flaming in my heart. Truth is, doing this every week is really physically demanding and my knees are really hurting and tired. I just took it really slow today careful not to twist my knees but mindful also that I need to trust my back brake so I can relax. Skating to a "J" actually reduces the stress to the knees because it releases your body from the brake position and all you have to do is cruise. It's a shame that I'm starting to sound too technical, when I'm not in the least credible position to comment hahahaha!

Emzi is looking very tired. That's because she is!

I forgot my camera so I had to do away with my cellphone's camera, which turned out easier to use.

This probably is not my best shot but I have learned something very important from Rena Inoue, an Americanized Japanese figure skater "Kinou yori, Ima. Ima yori, Ashita"(昨日より、今。今より、明日).

Now is better than yesterday. And tomorrow than today.

Cross-mountain snowboarding. Now this is the real deal! I have to go back and stay longer to trek all these 4 mountains ~ Naeba, Kagura, Matsumata and Hakuba. I guess you could say that this place is comparable to the Alps. Just perfect!

With me are Tera, Yamada-san (Finance), Naoe and Kozue. I just copied this from Tera when he used my SD slot to download his pictures.

Everytime I go to Cork, I really get fat!!! :)

Naoe's on biz trip this week til March 1 to Taiwan with Mr. Greenboy for a global project. Kozue is leaving the company to pursue her master's degree in the US. And I'm leaving tomorrow for San Francisco biz trip.

Fatigue is catching up on me. Bad timing to catch a cold. Tomorrow I will be snowboarding in Echigoyuzawa. The weather forecast is also not in my favor,rain showers. Tsk tsk. Too bad.

Big changes at work. Works better for me though, I'd be reporting to a new boss. Had a meeting with The President. Things seem fine (I'll say that with fingers crossed).

Sharon Cuneta's High School Life still rings in my ears. I sang that song in our Karaoke Party and suddenly there was a gush of high school memories. Time is really fast. This year I'd be 30...ooopps, I don't have to announce it to the world, do I?

For personal reasons, the past two weeks have been considerably frustrating. But amazingly, I wake up each morning feeling fine. Lately I've been surrounded by really happy companies, with the likes of Mr. Greenboy, Tera, etc. I don't have to think about the worries and the things that didn't work out. It is really true that God sends us Angels to watch over us.

Look at this wacky shot! These are the good-hearted people who I consider friends. We come from different departments, with different hang ups and different tastes and we have two things in common ~ our thrist for alcohol and our love for fun!

I guess I can really say now that I've adjusted to my new life. I've made new friends although I will always keep the old ones :) And most of all, I feel that I belong.

Joy for me comes from putting a smile on your friends' face. It is in doing the best I can to be a good friend, to spend little time with them, no matter how busy I am, to put away my work if they need an ear to listen and shoulders to cry on.

When it comes to friends' weddings, I always get carried away though. I guess it's because I'm so happy seeing and knowing that a friend of mine would be taking on another step to a happy life.

Miyuki's getting married in March. I watched how her story evolved and I'm so happy to know that finally, she has found her home. So to celebrate this wonderful time of her life, I organized a Karaoke Party for her.

She was truly touched and tremendously enjoyed the party. Everybody had a good time and a number of people were surprised at seeing the other side of me ~ Tera, Coach, Taiju, Sakura included.

So, here are 3 cheers for Miyuki! Congratulations and best wishes my dear fab friend ^o^

These two fellows will be the ones handling SMB so for now, Tera & Sakura are considered my 'kids'. Ironically, though, I'm the youngest among the three, if we only count the numbers.

Anyways, I am thankful that they're most willing to receive knowledge transfer from me.

This also helps me focus on Enterprise segment more.

Yeah, focus, focus, focus. This is what I lack these days.

This is where it all started. About a year ago, I together with Jeff, enrolled in a Snowboarding Class here in Gala Yuzawa.

I was too scared then I actually quit the class ashamed that I was slowing everybody down.

The easiest trail seemed like eternity to complete then.

But now, I didn't even have the pleasure of riding in the beginner's trail, whether it was the short or long one. How odd.

Funny how time flies fast, even funnier is the distant feeling of the past when you actually come face to face with it again.

My 2006 return to Gala Yuzawa was filled with familiarity of the place. It was also filled with a reassuring feeling that I have dis-associated myself from the very-scared, easily-giving-up kind of lass that I was.

Have I become a hard rider? Not yet. Not yet.

The Life Of A Passionate Beginner Snowboarder

I've been too tired & pressured from the dailies of work. I even forgot to reserve in advance the Bullet Train & Lift Tickets this week. The weekend's forecast was heavy snow but I couldn't care any more, I dashed at the View Plaza to get one 2006 Japan Snow Package.

2pm Friday at View Plaza. I begged the staff to try and get me one for Saturday day tour if Friday night is not possible. She got me an 8.50am train to Gala Yuzawa and 7.04pm departure back to Tokyo.

9pm Friday at the office. I decided to go home to pack my things and made sure I do some housekeeping. My plan is to spend the whole of Saturday snowboarding and Sunday to do some preparatory work for the busy week. I still have hang-over anyway from the previous night's drinking spree so might as well turn off my PC.

4am Saturday. Woke up. Did some laundry while sipping a cup of corn soup. At around 7.45 I got out of the house and off to the train station. The previous week's experience (miscalculated the travel time) taught me to put in a little bit extra time. Which to my surprise saved me from failing to catch the train! I made a mistake changing trains. Good thing I've got 10 spare minutes.

8.50am at Ueno Station. I slept the whole 1.30 hours journey and when I woke up it was almost Gala Yuzawa, and it was heavily snowing..Oh my God, I've never snowboarded in this kind of weather before, I thought. Anyway, I'm not riding alone so I shrugged off my tentativeness.

10.30am, a few minutes after securing my lift pass and changing to my snowboard wear. Hopped in the Cowabanga, the ropeway that would take me to the top of the mountain. After 15 minutes, I was there. I couldn't see much. Tough luck, huh. And it was freezing cold, -9 degrees. I've never been in such a cold place before. I decided to buy a new bonnet. Good thing I brought with me my neck warmer.

11am, I took off and started the beginner's trail. It was not as exciting as I hoped it would be. The terrain was too flat for boarders, I thought. So I tried the long trail for beginners, last year I remember it was a difficult & scary one. To my surprise it wasn't. It was flat. Too crowded too. I watched from the gondola the new batch of beginners taking lessons. I was one of them last year, I grinned.

12.30 Lunch time. Afte a sumptous lunch and a sip of hot cocoa, I made a huge decision. I would dare and try the intermediate course.

2pm Now is the time! I hopped on the gondola off to the mountain's central area. It was scary, I almost couldn't see. The snow fall was just too heavy, it's almost impossible to see within 5 meters. I startd to doubt myself. I also couldn't judge the slope's steepness and my horizontal line of sight was restricted, having worn goggles. The mountain's central area closes at 4pm so I didn't dare take a break. It probably took me 6~7 attempts for 2 hours.

5pm was time to go back to the Ski Center for that much deserved hot spring. I couldn't help but stare at the beautiful white snow flakes and the all-white snow powder as I enjoyed soaking myself in the hot spring. Some things seem so perfect from afar. But under the snow, it felt the same as being set on fire. My skin burned from too much snow and too much cold. But I thought that I'm blessed to be here and enjoy the amazing gift of nature, I don't need to find out what perfect is, for this in itself is fulfillment.

6.45pm I sat down and munch some hot dogs and Hagen Daaz Macademia Nuts ice cream while waiting for the Bullet Train to arrive. I didn't have much time to practice the other moves because I had to be careful today. Traveling alone instinctively makes you do that. The heavy snow and wind were scary but I told myself that if I just establish my ground it will be fine. It did turn out fine.

10pm back inside the warmth of my home, my thoughts began to wonder. Every snowboarding experience is so unique that every learning is unique as well. This week I learned to slow down and really get a feel of my surrounding. I also learned to control my directions more, avoiding people who are crashing and also avoiding falling off the trail as well.

10.05pm I closed my eyes and dozed off into a much-needed sleep.