Skiing and Shoeshoeing with friends

We went to Kokusai on Saturday for a ski trip with Tanioka-san, Bre's JSPS advisor, Jody, and Tanya.  The snow was excellent and for a short while the sky was clear.  The clouds and snow rolled in in the afternoon and it was back to the Kokusai we know and love, where you can't see the snow you are skiing over.  Bre improved by leaps and bounds through some lessons by Jody.  It is hard to believe she has only been skiing 5 times.  She ran her first black diamond run!

Here is a photo of Tanioka-san looking down at me on the black diamond run.

In this photo you can see Jody in her trademarked spiky hat and above her is Tanioka-san skiing.

On Sunday we went on a snoshoeing outing with the Hokkaido International Outing Club at the Art Park.  The snowshoes are free to rent.  The Art Park is really a sculpture park.  We had a good time meeting new friends and hiking around in the snow.

Here Jody is showing off her snowshoes for the camera.

I wondered if the sculptures were designed to be covered in snow.  Some of them were not, but I think this one was. 

Here is an actual photo of us taken by someone else.  I don't think we have had one of these since we came to Japan.  Thanks Leon!  You can see some of the sculptures behind us.

Something went wrong with the panorama feature in this photo.  I think of it as a happy accident.

Here is another photo by Leon of us in the sculptures.

Here is Tanya hanging out by one of the metal sculptures.

And Jody being silly.

I really liked this sculpture.  It is a kinetic sculpture designed to move in the wind.  I was able (just barely) to reach it and start it spinning.  Each of the tall windmill arms could spin around the crossbar and the whole thing was able to rotate on the main pillar giving it several different types of motion.  It looked very cool with it's shiny reflective surface.

I took a short video of the sculpture moving to give you a sense of what it is like.

Here is a distorted group photo reflected through one of the sculptures.

After the long morning of snowshoeing we came back to a cabin the club had rented for the day and had some very tasty cheese fondue.  Here are some of the items we used for the fondue laid out.

Leon was in charge of the fondue pot.  He certainly draws a crowd when making lunch.  I think this was the first time I had fondue, and I don't know why I waited so long.  It was very good.

Of the photos I included in this blog post I would like to ask you, my readers, to write a message about the one that makes the strongest impression with you.   What is it that you find interesting about the sculptures, or the food, or whatever you notice.  I know there are some readers out there who are shy, but I enjoy hearing from all of you, so let me know what you think.  I want you to write something in the comments section so I get over my impression I am just blogging into the ether.

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)