Reddish Bluey Purple

Because I don't fall over enough as it is ...

Monday we went snow boarding!!

Dave organised a bus tour, including transport to the resort, lift tickets and a discount on rental and his super-nice boss lent me her jacket, trousers and goggles which saved us a ton on rentals.

After a two hour bus ride, we arrived bright and early at 10 and I saw more snow then I'd ever seen in my life. And that was in the car park.

Got all kitted out, with help from their resident Gaijin, and headed out on the slopes.

Dave was really sweet, really patient and didn't even laugh too hard all the times I fell. Played around near the bottom of one of the slopes for a little while and then head up on the chair lifts.

Now this is the most traumatic part. Who honestly thinks its a good idea to sit on a tiny swinging chair with a snowboard hanging off one foot?? Not me thats for sure!!!

And the stress of trying to get off at the top, on slippy snow, with a plank of wood strapped to one foot and a tiny swinging chair hitting you in the arse (or in the head because at that stage I'd already fallen over). Och it was all too much!

Despite the falling and the embarrasment and the pain, it was a lot of fun! It wasn't too difficult to get moving, even though I was only doing the easy stuff and it made it feel like I was actually doing something.

And even though as the day wore on I got more tired, and lost my fearlessness and found out that my quota of falling is about 5 hours worth, I definitely left feeling that it would be something I'd want to try again and maybe get better at (if only to save my poor bottom!)

That was how I felt leaving on Monday.

How I felt on Tuesday morning was another story.

DEAR GOD!! Who thought moving could hurt this much!

I've always respected my sister, but she's just volleyed about 20 storeys in my opinion. How do you seriously do this two days in a row, let alone 7! You're either some kind of wonder woman or a complete idiot. I haven't decided which yet.

Anyhoo, despite my griping, I'm pretty sure I will be going again in the future. In the mean time, here are some photos that are worth a giggle.

Go ahead ... laugh at my pain!!!

Tardy

Brace yourself - it's going to be a long one ....

I've left it too late now
And I don't want people to think I don't want to write about it
Because of some horrible tent related disaster or something

So here goes

For those of you fortunate enough not to have been bored to death with our plans already - For Christmas we went for 8 days to Okinawa, a type of Hawaii for Japan. Lots of little islands much further south, with great weather, sandy beaches, jungles, wild cats, and other cool tropical stuff.


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We hopped on the plane from Nagoya to Naha, the capital of Okinawa.
While I don't want to bore you (too late I hear you shout) with all the tiny details, I have to tell you a few cool things about the plane ride.

1. A young pretty girl in a short skirt and tall boots, very respectable, boarded the plane drinking an open can of beer at 10am. No one blinked an eye.
2. There's no row 44
3. They have a camera mounted on the front of the plane and on the underside of the wing to show on the television EXACTLY where you are. It is the coolest thing ever.

Got to Okinawa, checked in and wandered around the main drag of Naha, and even though neither of us were saying it, were pretty disappointed. Just another Japanese town with too many Americans. But the food was yummmmmy. We had SoKi Soba, a type of pork rib ramen soup pork tasty thing.


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Hopped on another plane (unfortunately not this one!) to Ishigaki, an island further south, and a lot less .... like Naha.


As soon as we got to the city, we caught a bus to the northern coast and a camp site. Nestled among a clutch of palm trees, on the far side of which was a long white sand beach, we put up our oh so cool (non-free standing) tent without killing each other!


We walked along the beach, ate, drank, played cards, and slept under the most amazing clear star filled sky! (sound sappy? I know I know, but I really was stunned at how many stars you can see out there!)


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A more un-christmas like day, there never was but fun all the same. Went to another beach area where they farm pearls, walked (some might say got lost) around the coast, walked among some wild palm trees, chased some bats, walked far too much and ate bread for dinner. Oh so festive



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Packed up the tent and headed to another island, Taketomi, famous for its Bull and Cart rides, and it's star shaped sand.




We cycled around the island in about 30 minutes, Dave persuaded me to swim, and we had yet more delicious food. I could get used to this.



27
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Packed up again and headed to Iriomote, considered the last frontier of Japan, jungle, wild cats, unchartered terrain! Well not quite. Pitched our tent again by the beach, but this time on grass... no more sand in the sleeping bags, well no new sand anyway. Hired bikes, cycled around, found another beautiful beach, watched another beautiful sunset, found a cool ass resteraunt and drank too much!



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Rain. Well it had to happen, and at least the tent kept it out (kinda). Headed for the one rainy day activity on the island - Iriomote Onsen (spa) or as it was named that day - The Gaijin Ghetto - There were so many foreigners there - twas nice and relaxing though and saved us from killing each other in the tent all day.



29
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The skies cleared up and we took a boat tour up a river, saw some mangroves, went hiking, saw some oh so pretty waterfalls. Decided to have one other adventure and stay another night.



30
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Rented a kayak, paddled up a river, hiked to the top of a waterfall, scrambled over some rocks, hiked down the waterfall, paddled down the river, paddled up the river, paddled down the river (we had time to kill) and then hopped on a too bumpy boat back to Ishigaki and our last night. We filled it with beer, steak, sushi, soba, sake and souvenirs ... mmmmm ....




And there you are ... our vacation. It was just what we needed. A break from work, a break from the city, new food, new adventures, and a little sun to colour my face. Still not asleep? Check out the photos!

Happy New Year Y'all