Funny how different weather can be..

Yesterday I went skiing to Takasu Snow Park (about 160km north of Okazaki). The traffic was terrible, bus was delayed both ways (going, 40 minutes, coming back, 150 minutes). So it took total of about 9 hours of travelling to ski for maybe 4 and half hours. Still, the Takasu was roughly on par with northern Finland's slopes, and still quite nice in end of March. No pictures, it's the typical 'bunch of snow covered mountains' (can see everywhere) and 'bunch of people' (can see everywhere in Japan).

Interestingly enough, the beginner routes were full, intermediate routes were okay, and the advanced routes were almost empty. It was very fun to ski in the forest/advanced slopes with almost nobody in sight - something you can seldom do in Finland even if you go to the north.

On the way back they showed news in the bus - Kyuushuu earthquake videos were scary, especially one where every window of a skyscraper fell down on to the street. At least at that point, the numbers (1 death, 381 wounded) sounded fairly low considering how close the 7.0 Richter earthquake was to Fukuoka (not exactly small city, quake only 20km to the sea).

Today, however, after yesterday's subzero (up in the mountains, at 1km base height and about 1.6km peak) and snow the weather forecast promises 15 degrees and clear skies - unfortunately I need to study most of the day. :p Haven't studied excessively yet, and I need to write an essay about myself, listen to some text chapter, do some exercises, refresh my memory about some grammar rules.. and as hobby project, I should continue my kanji studies for the exam in Finland back in June. How fun.