Ski Trip

This past weekend I went on my first ski trip. I have to admit: it wasn't that bad. It was actually a lot of fun. But you couldn't tell me that on the first day. Man oh man, where do I begin...

The place: Omi-Imazu in Shiga prefecture. My girlfriend and I went there by train from Osaka, about a 2 hour trip. As we rolled into north Shiga, I started to get excited as I saw all the snow around. This is gonna be great, I thought. I remained excited all the way up until I put on my skis and tried to make my way from the rental ski shack to the lifts. If you don't know, walking with skis on is not the easiest thing in the world to do, especially if you don't know what you're doing.

After I used all my energy to get to the lift, I was dead tired, and probably not fit for skiing. But we went up anyway. We went to the beginner's course. But once I was on top and I saw how high it was, I was thinking, No way is this a beginner's course! But I gathered enough courage to start going down. I didn't go that far, about 5 meters, before I fell. OK, I thought. I fell. That's a part of the process. Now get up. Easier said than done. I couldn't get myself up. It was the hardest thing I had to do all day. It's tough to explain to those who haven't experienced it. Imagine you're at the skating rink, and you fell down in the middle of the rink, where there's no wall to help you up, then try to get up by yourself. It's like that.

Anyway, to continue, it took about 5 minutes before I got myself up. Once I got up, I was up only a few seconds before I fell down again. Then the whole process began again. My girlfriend went down the slope like 8 times before I made it all the way down the first time. That's what my first day was like.

The second day was much better. I was able to go down the course without falling, and I was even learning to turn and zig-zag a little. I was proud of myself. Yep, I thought, a black man can indeed ski. Now, I'm waiting for the next trip. I'm not looking forward to a sore behind again, however.