And yes... it's good be back to blogging...
Where do I begin?
For the first two nights, we stayed in Tokyo. Our dear friends booked this cute apartment where 15 of us stayed. It was three bedrooms with only one bathroom! It had a kitchen, so we were able to buy groceries and enjoy our breakfast before we headed out each day. We spent the time shopping and just walking around. It was chilly, but a lot of fun! We pushed Mom around, which was very difficult. Many of the MRT stations had no elevators!
On the 26th, we headed to the ski resort area of Echigo Yuzawa. Again, our friends found a quaint house with four bedrooms... but only one bathroom! Because it was in the resort area, we cooked most of our meals. We had two more families who joined us, so we were cooking for 21 people! What fun!
On the morning of the 27th, the group headed out to ski. Mom and I left later, taking the gondola to see the 'snow'. BUT when we got up there, I saw Alan and Isaiah sitting off on the bench in front of one of the restaurants. It turned out that going down the first 'beginners' slope, Alan had fallen and Isaiah came down, unable to stop. They collided -- BIG TIME! One of our skiers had taught Isaiah how to snow plow, but Isaiah couldn't get himself to stop or slow down and didn't know how to roll. Alan was having trouble getting himself out of the way. So... Alan felt like he had fractured maybe three ribs. Isaiah got quite scared and didn't want to hurt anyone else. So, they were both done! So, here the skiing trip takes a turn.
I tried on Isaiah's skies... the boots were too big, and the skis were too long... but the slopes were calling. I put on his socks, his ski gears and tried the bunny hills for about 30 minutes. Our ski instructors looked at the binding and how I was doing and said I was good to go! Alan, Isaiah and Mom went down the mountain, and I skied with the group! Here I was thinking that I would not have a chance to ski this trip... It's been 27 years since I've gone skiing!
I had a blast! I wasn't dressed properly, wearing only jeans... but since I didn't fall, I didn't get too wet! The snow wasn't the best, but I WAS SKIING! Abby was doing great! She was a total natural. We couldn't believe that this was her first time on skis because she was snow plowing and learning quite quickly how to control her skis and turn. She did well coming off of the chair lifts... and she was having fun!
We got back to our lodge and Alan was not doing well. We had a doctor in the group, who brought pain killers -- prescription strength. So, Alan was taking those. We decided NOT to ski the next day, although several people in our group did. We took Mom to another town (Karuizawa) where there was an old chapel and old street. BUT, on the way there it starting SNOWING... so there was no way to push her in a wheel chair. Alan stayed with her at the food court, while the kids (Kurtis, Isaiah and Abby) and several of our friends and I went cruising around the town. We had a blast... We had to rush back and we all thought that the time was not enough.
We again had dinner at the lodge. It was decided that we'd ski the next day at Gala. I went and got the skis exchanged and took off with the group. It was raining, so the snow was slushy. Abby and I decided that we weren't going to take a lunch break in order to ski as much as possible! The visibility was poor. Kurtis and Wilson (one of the kids who went with us) snowboarded and they are ADVANCED skiers. Abby saw another chair lift off to the side and wanted to try it. She thought it was BEGINNERS! We were mistaken! When we got up there, Kurtis and Wilson came behind us and said, "What are you guys doing here?" With that question, I knew we had gotten to a more advanced hill. It was an ADVANCED RED! The hardest of the red trails! (The red trail from the top called Grenoble)
There was no one skiing it... and for good reason. With poor visibility and slushy snow, it was going to be difficult to navigate. I prayed! I fell and rolled half way down the second steep slope. Abby crashed and lost her skis and rolled down. Thankfully, while she was walking up to pick up her gears, a skier came by and picked up one of her skis for her! I told her to walk down to a flatter area before trying to put on her skis. We made it down safely! At around 2:30, we saw our friends who had gone to eat lunch. Abby went with one of the boys on another red trail (Gigi). I decided to try the blue trail as I didn't want to go higher since my muscles and back were feeling tired! The blue trails (Sociable and Barouche)) were a lot of fun and I got to focus on improving my skiing skills!
We came down at 3:50 and Abby was so sad. The slopes were closing at 4:30 and she wanted to ski until we closed the slopes. But we had a bus to catch at 4:20. We again ate at our lodge... And Alan and Isaiah and Mom rested for the day as it rained the whole day!
We headed back to Tokyo on the 30th and stayed at Playisis Hotel and took the MRT to do some more shopping. Luckily, Kurtis didn't want to shop so he stayed with Mom. We had reserved a family style Denny's like restaurant for Mom's birthday. So we all met up there at 6pm. Our friends, without talking to each other, each bought a strawberry cake, pie, tart, so we had three desserts! Annie was kind enough to fork the bill... so we had a big meal! It was very nice of our friends to 'sacrifice' as they wanted their final meal in Japan to be more Japanese food... but to have so many people for a Japanese meal would have cost quite a bit!
We checked out the next day and worked through the maze of MRT lines and headed to Narita Airport. I had booked a van to bring us back home. So we were back by 4:30 and went out to dinner at 5:30 at a steakhouse restaurant!
On the way back, while Alan and I were on the plane, we had a great talk. We decided we cannot bring Mom on another trip, unless it's a cruise. God sustained me, but for the entire trip, I did not get more than 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Mom was up two to four times a night and I had to accompany her every time. The Lord gave me time each early morning to be with Him. Sometimes it was at 2:30. Sometimes it was at 4am. But every morning, He drew me aside to be with Him. I praise Him for His love and Presence! Another thing that made it so difficult was trying to push the wheelchair everywhere. It was a huge hassle! And Mom is not light. I think she's about 54 kilos! So, with me pushing the wheelchair, the kids, Alan and Kurtis had to help with all the luggage! The activities that we wanted to do were not activities that she would enjoy. So, we were very hindered with what we could do. Anyhow, there are any more reasons, but those are the three major reasons.
Overall, the trip was great... We all want to go back to Japan and spend more time going to different places. But Japan is an expensive place, perhaps more expensive than Europe! So... if possible, we'd like to go to Europe for a ski trip... or next winter vacation, go to Korea! Maybe Isaiah would be willing to try skiing again. And we'd love to go with our church family friends again... it was so much fun to have people who enjoy the same things.
Seek Him First!
