the powder room

Today I cleaned out my Mum’s cutlery drawer (yes, that’s right – a tidy cutlery drawer is a mark of civilisation. And too much time on your hands) and found out everything you need to know about what it means to be Chinese. See if you can spot: (more…)

Chris showing how to put a drysuit on

It’s 8am as I hop on my bike and cycle the 5 minutes to the riverbase on flat tires and with no front brake. I greet everyone with ohayou gozaimasu! (おはようございます – good morning) as I ride past and drop my bike next to the rickety prefab hut that reminds me of my old school huts.

Quick change into wetsuit (and drysuit if it’s cold), grab my helmet, life jacket, throwbag and paddle before heading back to the main shed (and it is a shed) to clock in with a good ol’ fashion punch card. Today’s guides gather for a short briefing given by the TL (team leader) – we’re told which groups we’re in, given a number and a list of customers. The meeting is entirely in Japanese with the occassional allowance for gaijin (外人 – foreigners) if we’re lucky enough to have one of the Nepalese guides as TL. We disappear off to grab drysuits and boots for our guests – it’s a bit of a scramble as we never have enough of the right sizes.

Safety talk at the start point

As the buses arrive, someone yells basu kita (バス来た – bus has arrived) and we scurry outside to stand in a neat line in numerical order. 2 or 3 perfectly neat, matching buses rock up, and a (usually) attractive young woman in a short skirt and inappropriate shoes hops off and beckons the bus into a parking space with her white cloth gloves.

Bus talk guides hop on and brief the school kids, who then descend en masse, dressed in matching school tracksuits. Youkoso, watashi wa kyou guido suru – rafting hajimete? (ようこそ、私は今日ガーイドする。ラフチーング初めて？- Welcome, I’m your guide today – is this the first time you’ve been rafting?). Once we’ve gathered our crew, we cram into the shed and frantically try to dress our kids in awkward drysuits. Then it’s outside for lifejackets and helmets before ushering them back on the bus. The buses are all immaculately clean and each one has a small map of Hokkaido at the front showing Niseko and the route they’ve just taken.

First eddy

The start point is about 20 minutes away so there’s time for the nominated guide to give a safety talk, complete with raku-chan (sea otter) demonstration (it’s the position you need to take if you fall in – otherwise known as the swiftwater float position).

We arrive at the start point and scramble off the bus. The guides dash to the pre-prepared rafts and run through a quick check – all inflated, no tears, outside/inside lines intact, enough paddles. We gather our group and then begin our 10 minute safety talk. In Japanese. Eek.

Hopefully our kids understand and are excited – it’s then a short walk to carry the rafts to the river. The kids generally fall into two camps – dead shy or super-genki. But they are all polite (well, compared to British or American schoolkids!) and generally quite weak at paddling. A brief paduro agete (パヅロ上げて – paddle clap), kamera mite (カメラ見て – look at the camera) and we’re off.

カメラ見て！

We usually gather at the first big eddy and then peel off in two or three groups. The combination of reading the river, paddling and trying to entertain kids in a totally alien language is quite a challenge for me, but an enjoyable one. We play river games and the more excitable kids throw themselves in for a swim. The thing the kids love most is catching up to another boat and splashing them before paddling off again. When the sun’s out it’s hard to beat!

やばい！

Camera points are strategically placed along the river and on overhead bridges, so we try to get the kids into entertaining poses for them

About an hour and a half later, we’ve reached the goal point (about 7km downstream) and hop out. We drag the rafts up and the kids jump back on the bus. The guides then speedily haul the rafts onto the awaiting trucks and trailers. They’re usually stacked 5 rafts high, so it’s quite an operation!

Coming out of a rapid

Then it’s back on the buses – a small tray of water to rinse our boots and then finding a seat nicely covered by a NOASC-branded plastic sheet. The bus talk guide gives a wrap-up and talks about what else NOASC does. Most kids are usually falling asleep by this point!

We get back and organised chaos ensues as we collect lifejackets, return helmets and try to get kids out of drysuits. It’s a very labour intensive process that I’m sure could be more efficient, but that’s the way we do it, so there’s no questioning (another trait I’ve noticed amongst my Japanese co-workers – there’s a system, and that’s the way we do it).

Yotei from the river

The kids sip hot tea before piling back on the the buses. We all stop re-arranging drysuits and scurry back outside again to line up and shout otsukare sama deshita (お疲れ様です – hard to translate but sort of means thanks for your hard work, a fairly stock expression at the end of the day in the Japanese workplace), wave goodbye and bow. There’s usually a few kids who go a bit nuts, particularly those who’ve had the novelty of a gaijin guide!

Then it’s back inside for us guides to check drysuits and hang them up to dry. A debrief to run through any incidents and comments – again all in Japanese – very hierarchical, generally reinforcing the fact that we are first-year guides and they are all seasoned guides (not necessarily reflected in ability though ). Back to the prefab, strip off, dry and change before clocking out and wearily cycling home – unless we’ve got a PM trip too!

Gorgeous blue sky day today, a real treat here in Niseko! I had my final lesson with Lisa today and had a great time, she’s skiing really well – I’ve really enjoyed skiing together and was sad to see her go.
As it was such a great day, we all sat outside and topped up our goggle tans while we ate lunch. Just a really nice spring vibe going on!
Didn’t have work after lunch, so hit the park with Matt – perfect conditions, soft snow, warm sunshine. There were quite a few good riders so I grabbed my camera and scoped out the kickers. Found myself a nice spot right by the lip and ended up laying down in the snow as guys whizzed past my ears.
Awesome day, topped off by the prospect of 2 days off. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain, but that means we’re gonna head out tonight for a few celebratory drinks instead!

Had a great day today, I’ve been teaching a nice Aussie lady, Jasmine, to ski for a couple of days, taking her from first timer and now she’s wedge christie turning, so I’m pretty pleased. We were joined today by another Aussie, Lisa, who is equally as enjoyable to ski with and have generally had a great day skiing around and working on their turns. I’ve found it really helpful for my skiing too as it’s made me focus on more basic things and refine my free-skiing. I’ve not taught a snowboard lesson for quite a while now and whilst I’m a little annoyed about that, I’ve also been really enjoying teaching skiing and finding it very rewarding. I think the fact that I’ve passed my exam also gives me a stronger sense of confidence in my knowledge and ability. I get on with all my guests, but there are just some times when you click with them and it feels like skiing with friends. I guess what I’ve really enjoyed about skiing with Jasmine and Lisa is that I feel comfortable in what I’m doing and much more able to be creative with my exercises and lessons – although I’ve taught skiing for a long time, it just feels like I’m doing a good job (on a par with my snowboard instruction), which is very satisfying (although I’ll have to leave it to them to pass judgement on whether that’s the truth!!)

On my bed at Unitas after ski training

Kutchan

Getting bit more settled now, I live in Hirafu, but made my way over to Kutchan (a nearby town)  a few days ago and hit up the Max Valu supermarket – it was heaven for me! Jap food all the way, so stocked up on lots of things and reckon I’ve saved myself a fair whack with that. Food-wise there’s been a definite improvement here, we’re now getting Japanese food twice a week and the other meals have been much better. Still pretty school canteen, but OK.
Work’s been good too, had my first lesson this season (a nice English girl who’s just on her way back to the UK from 6 months in Toyko)  and been figuring out how the school works. At the moment there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of work to go round, but it’ll get busier at Chinese New Year. Met up with Tiktak last night, which was cool. Turns out that NISS named our kids program after her. Pretty cool I thought. Been getting to know others at work and feeling quite good about things now. We have training every Monday and Wednesday – so far I’ve just been doing the ski training cos I want to do my Level 2 exam in Feb, but judging by tonight’s performance, I might think twice about that!

Jagatakun, Kutchan's town mascot

Went to Kutchan today to register for my geijin card, a card that foreigners have to get if they stay for more than 90 days – lets me get a bank account etc. Should have one up and running soon. Kutchan Town’s mascot is Jagata-kun – a skiing potato boy?! I kid you not. Kutchan’s main summer produce is potato, so thy thought ‘why not combine the two?’. Because it’s ridiculous, that’s why.
Started snowing again today – huge chunks of the stuff falling out of the sky, it’s pretty wet, but crazy to watch. Even after a short chair ride, I was covered in about a centimetre of snow. 30cm is forecast before tomorrow morning. Sweet!