International Miyasama Jumping Competition

Bre, Anton and I went to the Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium today for the International Miyasama Jumping Competition.  Before we even got in the stadium we had a bit of good luck.  Another spectator gave us three tickets to get in to see the jumping competition.

The ski jump competition was pretty amazing.  These guys really fly off the jump.  They sound like a rush of wind when they go past.  When they land their skis hit the ground with a loud slap sound.  We started out at the bottom of the stadium and slowly worked our way up the side of the jump to get closer to the action.

The above photo is almost head on from the very bottom of the viewing area.  Note all the snow in the air between the camera and the jumper.  It was pretty snowy.

This guy was sitting down almost on his skis at the run-out of the jump.  The run-out area slopes back uphill slightly to help the skiers lose the speed from their jump.  I saw a few jumpers who got stranded in the middle of the run-out area.  I think this guy was sitting down to go faster through the run-out area.

They have very cool suits to help them catch more air.

This photo gives some sense of how steep the landing area is.  According to Wikipedia the landing area is 37 degrees, pretty steep!  By comparison the double black diamond run I went down at Mt. Teine was 35 degrees at it's steepest point and I never tried going straight down it.

This guy almost crashed on landing.  Bre claims she heard him shout, but all I could hear was the click of the shutter from the professional photographer standing next to me.

This is the same guy on the same landing where he almost crashed.  I think at this point he had given up on style points.  Behind him you can see the distance marks (in meters).

This guy had amazing form (to my inexperienced eye).  He was really leaning forward.

Here you can see the same skier as above in his landing.  Note that he lands on the back end of his ski and the ski bows as it slaps down on the ground.  The red line in front of him is the K-point at 120 meters, so his jump was around 110-115 meters.  They use bamboo leaves in the snow to mark distance on the course.

This was the very last jump of the competition.  He was from Germany and he did well enough to win third place.

It was a fun morning of watching crazy people jumping.

That is all for now,

-Kyle and Bre

Snow Storms, snow angles, and plastic food

It has been a cold and snowy week in Sapporo.  Bre is working on her snowball throwing.  I put together a video of the throw.

We went on a walk to the Homac hardware store to buy a bread machine.  When we went outside there were giant snowflakes falling.

 I tried to show here how the snow was falling so strongly that your visibility was limited.  Out on the field to school there was no way to see where you are going.  If you look at the right side of the photo below you can get an idea of what it is like.

 The snow stopped as quickly as it had started and I found this fascinating place where you can see the effect of the heated sidewalks.  In this photo you can see exactly where the heating coils are laid out under the sidewalk.  Heating a sidewalk sounds inefficient, but having tried to shovel the snow out in front of my apartment building several times I can tell you that heating the sidewalk has its advantages.  In fact if you look closely at the second photo of the area where the cars are parked in front of our apartment building you can see that it has been heated and has no snow sitting on it.

I tried this panorama photo in the parking lot by the hardware store.  Just ignore the disappearing cars.

 This is a photo of some of the piles of snow on campus.  The plows push them off to the side of the road.  It gets more tricky where there is a sidewalk.  On our bus ride to the ski area I saw some places that get more snow than Sapporo.  In places they had snow piles as tall as the bus we were riding in!

 

 

From left to right below is a photo of Olga, Valdez (in the sled) Aiume (sp?), Jody, and Bre.  We all went out together to look at the illumination and go to a sushi restaurant.  In the photo we have just picked up Valdez from the day care center and gotten him into the sled that he rode in most of the night.  Jody sang "Jingle Bells" to help Valdez enjoy his sleigh ride.

 The following three panorama photos are taken near Sapporo Station.

If you look closely at this photo you can see where the camera didn't quite get the panorama alignment right, but it still gives you a good idea of what it is like to be here.

 We found the Old Hokkaido Government Building.  It is modeled on the Massachusetts State House. It looks very nice in the snow.

Jody seized an opportunity to test her new jacket by making a snow angel.

Near our sushi restaurant in Sapporo Station we found this place.  Aiume explained that it is a milk/dairy based restaurant.  I was impressed by how good the fake food looked in the window.  If you want waffles, or milkshakes this is the place to go.  If there real food is a good looking as the plastic food in the display case you will be in for a treat.

あけましておめでとう

That's all for now,

Kyle (and Bre)