Santa Present Park

Santa Present Park

Finally Ii had my first experience with a Hokkaido Si Resorts.  My son and myself went to the first day opening at the ski resort in Fukagawa-shi, Hokkaido Japan called Santa Present Park.  Snowman and I had planned on going Saturday night for a night ski, but due to Santa Present Park not deciding to open until about noon the day of, and Snowman making shopping plans, our snowboard trip got cancelled.

For myself, having been waiting for one week to get back to practicing, and not letting anything stop me, my son and myself went driving around the surrounding area looking for a good place to practice after the 2 days straight of snowfall.  After driving around for about an hour I received a call on my cell phone from my wife to inform me that Santa Present Park would be open for the night ski at 4:00pm until 9:00pm.

It was about 1:00pm at the time, so we decided to head back home for lunch and a little rest time before heading out at 3:00pm to make it in time for the opening time at Santa Present Park at 4:00pm.  It took us about an hour and a half to get to Santa Present Park, due to never have driven there myself.  Upon arriving my son and myself was a little nervous, having never been to a ski resort before, and not speaking the language so well.

We went to the ticket booth and purchased our tickets for the night ski with no problems… I do speak a little Japanese, and usually it’s enough to survive purchasing items and asking for directions.  Those two areas are a must for learning a new language.  After purchasing our tickets, having no experience whatsoever in riding a ski lift, we decided to walk half way up the mountain on foot and snowboard down.

The problem that we ran into is, the same we did in Shibinai when we tried to practice in the vegetable fields.  Deep snow, and not enough slope equals not moving.  So after we scooted our way down, we both looked at each other and said lets hit the lift.  We rode on separate lifts not knowing any better, and both got off like we had done it all of our lives.  I was especially impressed by my son’s ability to get off the lift without falling whatsoever.  But I can’t say good things about myself, falling about 15% of the time…  But I attribute that to no kick pad on my board.

Asahikawa Lights

Asahikawa Lights from Santa Present Park

Both of us quickly mastered the front side stop and was able to come down the mountain with only a few falls.  My son suggested after about a hour and a half that we not wait on each other and once we arrive at the bottom, just get on the lift and head back up…  I was confident enough in his ability to agree to his suggestion, and that’s how the rest of the night was spent.

The sky was clear the moon was full and the lights of Asahikawa spread out before us.  It was a beautiful sight and made you think again how lucky we were to live in such a paradise.  Temperatures have been in the upper to mid 20′s  which is mighty cold for a Texas boy, although I have felt no discomfort, or problems driving yet.  But the worst is yet to come… We will see how it goes, but it would have to get pretty bad to be unbearable.

We stayed until closing, after my stomach muscles felt like they were going to pop out and run away.  I know tomorrow is going to be a miserable day with all of my muscles aching from non use.  I was surprised the next morning to find that my stomach muscles were not aching to bad, (except when I cough) but my left shoulder was hurting beyond belief.  I couldn’t raise my left arm above my shoulder without excruciating pain.  Although it is a good pain, and let’s you know that you are really out of shape.

My son and I had the most fun together than we have ever had before… It seems in the past because of my work, we were never able to do anything together, like soccer, baseball or boy scouts.  Now we are able to enjoy something together that we both enjoy immensely.  We still have a long way to go, to master this new sport, but we are having a blast learning.  Hopefully in a week my muscles will have recovered enough to make another visit to the ski resort.  Hokkaido Ski resorts, are among the best in the world, and you will find no other that has the type of dry powder snow that we have here.

I noticed that the lights were on at another ski resort that is closer to our house than Santa Present Park, so maybe next weekend will be Canmore….

Until next time, Take care all.