Two Ice Creams

Today has been a big day. But before we can get into the big day, let me tell you about last night.

Last night, our first night in town, Tony and I went up to the tourist information office and spoke to a lady up there about what's going on in town. She said that there was going to be a geisha party and that she could give us a couple of tickets. This sounded great so we jumped at the chance.

We weren't expecting too much. Maybe an empty hall with a lady dressed in the traditional kimono doing a dance or something like that. Nothing too flash. We were wrong.

The night was held at the New Furano Hotel (which might have been new in the early 80's). We were greeted by the hotel staff who took our jackets and gave us a number. Then we surrendered our tickets to the lucky door prize, then we were ushered into the main ballroom of this once luxurious hotel. In the ballroom were a couple of hundred people who had been sat around large circular tables. There were approximately 10 people at each table. On each table there were 12 cans of beer, 4 bottles of local wine and 2 pitchers of ice tea. In the middle was a lazy susan with several plates filled with local food on there. It was a nice surprise. Tony and I did feel underdressed though as all of the local Japanese men were in suits, and a lot of the older Japanese ladies were dressed in their own kimonos.

The events began with a welcoming speech from the head of the tourism board from Furano, then a kam pai from the head of tourism for Kyoto, which is the most popular foreign traveler destination in Japan. From what I can make out they are trying to introduce more travelers to Furano, getting them up here to see some of Hokkaido. So they turned on the charm. It was great.

It was also a little bit weird, because there was all these Japanese people dressed nicely, then all these ski bums who had been up the mountain all day and not looking too crash hot. There wasn't set seating, so I was at a table that had a few locals, but mainly travelers.

The first show was a lady dancing with a sword. She was very graceful and it was quite impressive. She had some cool pants on. Next came a lady with a longer scythe type thing. She was also pretty cool and very graceful. Up next was a guy reciting a poem about the four seasons and another guy doing calligraphy in time with the poem. The calligraphy was then given away as the lucky door prize. I didn't win.

While this was happening some drums were being set up directly behind my seat. There was 6 sets of 3 drums. When they started beating out a rhythm you certainly knew about it. This act was probably my favourite for the night. The drummers really got into it, and it went for about 10 minutes. At the end everyone was clapping and cheering. It was awesome. They were pulling some very complicated moves, but I didn't pick up any mistakes. The drummers looked tired at the end. They had given it all. There was a small girl at the back of the group, and when they first started she only beat out the timing on the edge of her drum. She looked a bit bored. At the end though she was leading the group and had this huge solo and she was going nuts. It was fantastic.

Once the ringing in everyone's ears had stopped and everybody had stopped clapping the curtain was raised to reveal the geishas. They put on a very interesting performance. No smiling. The costumes they were wearing were very beautiful. Someone told me today that they would have been worth about $10000 all up. They looked it. I don't think that we actually had fully fledged geishas last night. I have a feeling that they were very close to being there, but I can't recall what somebody who is studying to be a geisha is called.

At the end of their performance there was some photos and that was about it. It was a wonderful evening and very interesting. They make wine and cheese here in Furano. I had some cheese, but I didn't think that it was really worth writing about. I haven't been game to try the wine yet. I might buy a bottle at some stage. I don't know what type it is. Maybe just red and white?

I was in bed early last night. Not on account of the free beers, because I only had a couple, simply because I was tired. I think that it was about 8:30. It had been a big night though.

This morning I woke up early and had some breafast. Tony and I met Tom, the ski Japan guy, who took us up the mountain and showed us around a bit. He's a really nice guy, with a very deep voice. He even took us out of bounds a little bit. I rode all day today and no-body checked my pass all day.

Today was some of the best snow I have ever ridden. Here at Furano they don't really like you to go off piste, but Tony and I did a couple of runs through the trees. The snow was knee deep all day. So soft. So light. So dry. It was awesome. There was a run under a single chair that we did all day. There is nobody here in Furano, so you basically have the mountain to yourself. The snow kept falling all day, so I kept getting fresh tracks all day. It was amazing. I don't know how many times I said that the snow was amazing, but it was alot. Furano today was unbelievable.

Tony and I found this nice drop just off one of the chairs. It was reasonably big, enough to get the adrenaline going, but the landing was ultra soft. I think Tony ended up going for it about 5 times. It was alot of fun. There should be some links on his MySpace page somewhere. Unfortunately the last time Tony landed a little bit funny and hit his chin on his knee. He's okay though.

Furano is awesome.

They have a cable car here that can take up to 101 people. It goes really quickly and will have you at the top of the mountain in 4 and a half minutes. It almost goes as fast up as I do down.

After riding all day it was time for a hot spa. Then Tony and I headed down to Furano. Or at least we tried to go, but someone had stolen my shoes. This put me in a spot of bother, as they are the only ones that I have. I was pretty annoyed. You have to leave your shoes at the front door everywhere over here so I know that I had left them there. Yet they were gone. I was pretty annoyed, as I love those shoes, and if they had been stolen I would have been sad. I didn't let it get me down too much, and Tony and I got a lift into town with the son of the owner of the place where we are staying. I wore my snowboard boots. He took us to a Kmart type place and I bought a new pair of shoes for Y698. They aren't very nice and they are a size too small for my feet, and pretty cold and wet, but they did the job. Tony and I trudged around Furano for a couple of hours and then had some dinner at a curry house. It turns out that we had met the entire family of the girl who works in the curry house. We met her dad last night at the geisha party, we met her mum in a shop and we met her in the curry house. It was a good curry with homemade sausages and homebrewed beer. Very tasty. The walk home wasn't much fun though. It was freezing. The wind was howling, the streets were slippery, it was not much fun. So Tony and I bought some ice creams. They were tasty.

On the walk back we ducked into a pachinko parlour. We think that we've sussed out how it works, but that's a story for another day. I'm tired so I'm done.