First day!

Made it back to Hokkaido then got three hours sleep before piling into the car with Mino, Takamasa, Feyd, and Tsukasa for the drive to Kurodake for opening day. Last year opening day was the 20th of November so much earier this year. The mountain managers decided to make the opening day free this year so there was actually a pretty big crowd. We got in the best four runs before they stopped the lifts for the opening ceremony with a local Monk. As soon as the monk finished the chanting and waving of the sacred branches a huge wind came up and the weather turned bad. On my second to last run I took a crash and wrecked my neck! Went straight down and put ice on it, hopefully I got this years injury out of the way on the first day!

Train to the airport at 7pm on Thursday night.

Car to Kurodake at 5am Friday

Check out Takamasa new ski boots!  ”Bange”  Oh man those are cool.

The Samurai crew of Fumio, Nakai, and Kazu also showed up for the opening.

There it is the opening banner!  See you all on the mountains.  As we say in Japan, “Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!”