Almost everywhere we go there is an Onsen so you will hear me referring to an Onsen a lot. It is a natural hot tub. In all of the public ones you go naked! At the one in Moiwa, we wore a swimsuit.

On Friday night, our friends the Treismans came over. I was really exited to see them because I was starting to get very sick of my family. The parents’ names are Mariya and Michael. They have two kids named Quincy and Harper. Quincy is 9 and Harper is 6. They are all so great. Over the weekend, we went to their hotel’s Onsen and we did a lot of skiing. On Monday, my dad and the Treismans went to Kiroro and stayed in a “apartment ” above a barn. In the barn there were all sorts of animals. Goats, horses, bunnies, even an ostrich! I wanted to go so bad but my parents wouldn’t let me miss any school!

In the middle of school on Wednesday, my mom came and picked Decker and me up. We drove and drove for 2 hours to Moiwa. We went to the one in Niseko. When we got there my dad and the Treismans were already there. Our other friends the Hickeys were also there. The parents names are Jeff and Hannah. They have a kid named Riley who is my age. She is  really nice. We shared a house with the Hickeys while the Treismans were in a house right next to us. Right next to us. Both of the houses had an Onsen. Every single day we went skiing. Every single time we got home the parents would go in Onsen. Every single time we got home the kids would start on our fort.

Our fort was awesome!!!! We built a meeting area that was really big, had a chair for each of us, and it even had a tunnel full of three hundred snowballs. It also had a slide going into it and a secret place covered by ice chunks that had our special ice balls. Our fort was built on a snow bank that was nine feet high. We made a slide down it but it only went for about a foot and then you had a eight foot drop. Right on the edge, we built a three and a half person trench that was four feet deep. In front of the trench, there was a moat that held a ton of snowballs. Next to the trench there was a three foot hole. On the last day we had a war with the grownups. We totally won. We were hitting them left and right with snow balls and spraying them with shovels full of snow. Our one big fault was our hole. Someone was hitting Harper with a snowball and she was running. She didn’t see the hole until it was to late. The next second you would have found her head first in a hole with just her legs sticking out.

We went to a lot of ski resorts. One we went to was called Rusutsu. Where we walked through it we passed a hallway with a group of singing bears. They were hilarious!!

We went to a lot of different ski areas. My favorite one was Rusutsu. It was so much fun!!

Right now, we are living in Sapporo. Sapporo is the biggest city on Hokkaido, the island we are on. We go to ski towns every weekend. My brother and I, Decker, go to a international school called Hokkaido International School. We just got a car but before we were taking the subway every where. It takes one subway stop and a 7 minute walk. The school mascot is a husky. Right next to our house there is an army training facility. When I look out the window, I can see a mountain called Moiwa. There is another mountain called Moiwa up in Niseko. It is very confusing. We live in an apartment. It is so much fun!!

The little ski area in Jozankei didn’t have a lift. I would never ever call it a mountain. It was barely a hill. It was not at all steep. You walk up for five minutes and then you would ski down. Or you could walk up this skinny part at the top and one powder run. There was also a jump. It was a lot of fun.

There was also a snow bank obove a rail in the parking lot. Decker and I walked across it a few times. Every few steps the snow under you would fall and you would have to hang on for dear life. It was scary but really fun. 

So far I have been to Kokusai 3 times. I don’t even know how many times my parents have been there. The first time was just like the others, not that much snow. But the second and third time were awesome. The second time was very powdery and we did this run that we found the whole time. The third time was the best. It was snowing really hard and there was so much powder. We fond a different trail, or, I found a different trail, and that was all we did. It was so much fun!!!! Decker had a lot of crashes. My mom and I got a lot of powder. While my mom and brother skied, my dad and I went out of bounds!! It was soooo much fun!!!! You only get a few turns at the beginning and the rest was traversing, but it was still amazing! The pictures of me below are in the out of bounds.It was soooooooooooo beautiful!!!!!I was a rough night for all of us.

Niseko was really fun but again it didn’t have much snow. In Japan we always wake up and yell, “Is it snowing?”.  It’s never snowing. We went to Niseko with the Wilsons and they showed us a few fun runs but that was all. To make maters worse, well, not that they were bad, it was really cold and windy. All we could find to warm ourselves were back warmers. They were supposed to stick to your back so they were really big. It took them 3 hours to warm up and by that time we had left.

After skiing we went to dinner with the Wilsons. We were all really tired.

The funniest thing was the sign on the wall. 

 

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Skiing

     So far we’ve been to 5 ski hills. Tiene, Niseko, Rusutsu, Kokusai, and one in Jozankei that didn’t have name.

     Teine was the first skiing we did in Japan. At the time we didn’t have a car so we decided to take the subway. My dad also decided not to use a ski bag!?? So we all ended up carrying our skis and poles,  Decker and I wearing our helmets, us all wearing our ski clothes, and my dad also carrying a duffel with our boots and the parents helmets. My mom mostly carried Decker’s skis and poles because he got all whiny. It took us 3 hours to finally get there. We took one subway, one train, and one bus. When we finally got to Teine, Gary was waiting for us. He brought us up for lunch and we met his kids, Winnie, Elliott, and Hugh. They are really nice. After lunch we went skiing. It was really great but their wasn’t much snow. On the way back we had it figured out and we made back home in 1 hour! How is that possible, you say. Nobody knows.

Sapporo, Japan

It was so weird to be sweating from the heat and 7 and a half hours later be shivering from the cold. Our first plane ride took us to Narita, an airport in Tokyo. We then got on a shuttle bus that took us to the hotel. The hotel room was so cool. It was one room with four futons and the table was a very low to the ground. Under the table was a hole were you could put your feet. The chairs were normal except they didn’t have legs.

The next morning we took the shuttle bus back to the airport and went to our gate. We waited for a while and then they said that our plane was delayed. We waited for a while and about a 3 hours later we finally got on the plane. The plane ride was a 2 hour flight.

We took a train to the subway station and hopped on a subway. When we got to the subway Gary picked us up. Gary’s wife Noell is cousins with Josh Pate. If you live in Ketchum, Hailey, or you play on my soccer team, you might know him, his wife, or his kids, Kiki and Walker. Gary brought all the stuff we had shipped from the US in his car. He drove us to our apartment, dropped our stuff and left. The lady who owns the apartments gave us the key and we went inside.

Our apartment is very small! We just keep telling ourselves that we are living in a R.V. Not a big RV, just an RV. When you walk out the main door you don’t walk into a hallway you walk outside. You walk in the door and you come into a very small mud room. It barely fits all of our shoes and jackets and whatnot. In Japan if you don’t take off your shoes before you come in, its like taking a poop on someone’s floor in the US. Then you go through another door and come into our living room/TV room/dining room/bedroom. To the right is the bathroom. There’s a sink and then in another room there is the shower. In another rooom is the toilet. The toilet has a heated seat and has a butt sprayer! I mean, how cool is that!! To the left is the kitchen. The kitchen has one drawer, a microwave, and a stove. There is a tiny table with two chairs. There’s a couch and a TV and next to them there’s a sliding door. In that  “room” there’s a bed which my mom sleeps in and a closet. My brother and I sleep on futons on the floor. My dad also sleeps on a futon but there isn’t enough room in the other “room” so he sleeps by the couch. Obove the couch we put some really cool Topo maps of Sapporo. Our apartment is small but a love it.

Jules

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P.S. If you know want to go and read my dads blogs, please note that they are PG 13.