New Year Vacation

Happy New Year everyone!!! Sorry for my disappearance. The world was collapsing right in front of me after I handed in my dissertation. =P Soooo many stuff to catch up on. And I was leaving for a long new year vacation to Nagano Prefecture. What for? Simply for SNOWBOARDING!!! whoo hoo!!

6 out of 8 days on 5 different ski resorts!!

Last year I had to give up so many trips because of school workload. Now, it's just time to make up for it.

2008.12.27: Hakuba Norikura, Nagano Prefecture
- Heavy snow throughout the morning before we started snowboarding/skiing... but the weather got clearer later on. Very fluffy snow.

(credit: Nott)
2008.12.28: Hakuba Cortina, Nagano Prefecture
- Perfect weather and great snow condition!

with Kyoto Crew + Poy & N'Moo+
very feminine snowboard I got this time :)

2008.12.31: Kuroizawa Snowpark, Gunma Prefecture
- Another day with perfect weather. Bright out, however, it was -3 C!!! Cold!!
- Quite good snow condition. (We got some much new snow at night time.)
- It was a day-trip this time, so the four of us (Poy, Nott, N'Moo+ and I) decided to all do skiing. Man.... it's already been 14 years since I last put on the ski gear. I was completely a retired skiier who have only a slight memory of myself skiing. It wasn't at all an easy feeling to try to ski again cuz I really had no idea how I'd do on it. But you know what? Skiing is like riding a bicycle. If you can do it once, you can do it again! It was a nice refreshing session. Thanks Poy for helping me getting used to skiing again :) (and thanks for the equipment too!)

teaching n'Moo+ to ski

beautiful background of Mt.Asama, still an active volcano
(btw, N'Moo was such a fast learner. He could do parallel skiing since the first few times down the slope! amazing!)

2009.01.02-03: Madarao Sanpatik, Nagano Prefecture
- This time is a trip with TSAJ (Thai Student Association in Japan). We had altogether 157 Thais joining the trip. Lots!!!
- first day: super snowy / quite powdered snow
- second day: super clear sky / great snow condition

(credit: TSAJ webboard)
Red team members
my team: Red C + P'Uan


2009.01.04: Madarao Kogen, Nagano Prefecture
- Very sunny out and quite good snow condition
the 5 of us who escaped to Madarao Kogen Ski Slope on the last day
view of Madarao Kogen

Now I'm left with my defense preparation, a few reports to write, and a schedule of my defense... then I will officially be done!! There are a few trips in the plan already. I hope I can manage to fit everything in my schedule perfectly fine. Fingers crossed!!!