Engagement Party

Last weekend Chihiro and I had our engagment party which was pretty big, being more like a wedding because many people won't be able to make it to Australia later this year when we get married. Two of Chihiro's friends hosted the party dressed in traditional clothes (one of them borrowed my kendo gi and hakama!) I bought my first ever suit for the occassion, and Chihiro looked absolutely stunning in a flowery blue dress. The party was a completely new experience for me. We were the centre of attention, making our debut like royalty and being seated together at a small table on the stage! I gave a speech in Japanese, and apart from being a bit nervous I think I pulled it off! Organised entertainment included wonderful singing and piano performances by two of Chihiro's friends, a funny retelling of how we got together, a game where each table had to create a greeting message for us from specific words pulled out of a bucket and then whisper it to the person next to them to send it back to us, a game of bingo (using software I made to call the numbers!) where the first prize was a trip to disneyland, and... The most popular performance was given by Chihiro's two younger sisters who did a comedy song/dance act mimicing a famouse comedy duo, but replacing some of the lyrics with stuff about us! Chihiro's father gave a speech, and had even made a printout about us with photos and a map of Australia! Time passed far too quickly, and soon we had to leave to make way for the next party at the venue, but before we left Chihiro made a nice speech thanking everyone. We're hoping many people will be able to visit us in Australia. Before leaving we had some quick photo sessions, but that wasn't the end! We went with the younger people off to the next party, and when that finished 3 hours later we had a third party!

Snowboarding!

Two weeks ago I experienced snowboarding for the first time. It took me about a week to recover fully but it was worth it! We set off at 5.30am and drove for about 5 hours into the mountains to get to Nagano to get to a place called kurumayama (wheel mountain). It was very easy and cheap to rent the gear I needed, and the ski pass wasn't expensive either. As we drove up the mountain, the roads became a little icy, and we saw one minor accident where a small truck had skidded into a retaining wall. It was below zero in the shade, but on the slopes it was actually fairly warm. The lines for the main lift were pretty crowded, but it was fast so we got more than 10 runs in before it was time to head home. I hadn't been skiing for 20 years so I was pretty unstable at first, but once I got the hang of turning and stopping I had a lot of fun zig-zagging down the beginners slopes. I still fell down every now and then, and had to try to land on a different part of my body each time because the snow wasn't at all soft, and the bruises were starting to add up! The map showed a nice long beginner's slope from the top of the mountain which we went up to try, but the first part of it was a very steep drop with a drop-off on one side and not much room for turning! After sliding down most of that on my bum, it widened out into something a lot more enjoyable. On looking at a bigger version of the map I saw that the first part isn't actually beginners level at all! The views were just spectacular, and I really didn't take enough photos, but I was having too much fun. The feeling of gliding down the mountain, and the pristine scenery made it an amazing experience.