Already I'm a spoiled snob.
I've been downhill skiing less than 10 times in my life and at this point I already have like 0 tolerance for crappy resorts or snow conditions. We went to this place on Saturday which was mostly a giant snowboard park, things like the half pipe, rails and jumps dominated the scene and there was only one run that I really liked at all. At least part of my dislike came from the fact that the snow was slightly harder than granite over much of the course. I totally f-ed up my arse falling down and then later smacked up my knee. I fared better than Jennifer however; on her second time snowboarding she ended up in tears with a totally busted up ass on the last run of the day. Yikes.

Other than that, I had a pretty good onsen experience. There are few things more gratifying than getting naked with a bunch of Japanese guys and boiling myself. The place we went after skiing had a nice outdoor pool full of 40 degree water (Celsius that is) and after a while I always get so hot that I've got to cool off. There was snow around the pool and as I got out, I grabbed a couple of fist-fulls and proceeded to scrub down my body, much to the amazement of the Japanese patrons. I must have had 15 pairs of eyes glued to me as I scrubbed down with the snow in the style of Alf Hickey: vigorously, with some grunting and grimacing. I may have cared about stuff like that 2 months ago, but right now I've pretty much stopped giving a crap. I figure that exposure to new things is good for most people, and Japanese people are no exception. With the most homogeneous population of any country on the planet, the Japanese would do well with a little variety in their social diet, as it were.