Skiing

Here’s a quick lesson on Sado geography: it’s basically a microcosm of Japan. It’s a volcanic island with plains in the middle where the bulk of the population live. The Osado (Big Sado) and Kosado (Little Sado) mountains straddle the island and run across the length of the north and south portions. The mountains become covered with snow from late November until March and I was surprised to learn there’s actually a (small) ski slope here. Some of the other English teachers are from the American northeast and regularly ski and snowboard and they invited me to the slope last week.

We took a shuttle bus from a community center about 20 minutes up to the slope. The place was bustling and I even ran into some of my students. I rented skis, pants and a jacket and I bought a day pass. All in all it was about $30. The conditions were great, as the mountains received heavy snowfall the previous night. I had not been skiing since I was a very little kid. I have almost no memory of the experience so I was basically learning from the beginning. The first thing I realized is it’s a lot harder than it looks. I have poor balance already just on my feet, so I fell in skis a lot. It’s much harder to get up with skis strapped to your feet. Luckily every time I fell, some nice locals would stop, come over to me, and help me get back on my feet. Once, my students came over to help me after I fell. Of course, they were very amused by the situation. I never managed to make it down the whole slope without crashing out and having to walk, but it was fun regardless. I was starting to get the hang of it at the end of the day, and the other teachers were very helpful in explaining everything. I’m sure I’ll get it someday. Maybe I’ll try my hand at snowboarding next time. I might take to it easier.

After the slope closed for the day, we all decided to get food and hang out together. We had a great time. Sometimes you don’t realize how isolating it can be out here both from the language barrier and from COVID protocols, so meeting face to face with people I can have more complex conversations with was a welcome experience. I am a bit sad though because many of the teachers are leaving at the end of their contract in July. Out of the 10 JETs here right now, 5 are leaving. I think we have a really good group of English teachers right now, so I will miss them. I suppose that is life on the JET program though. It’s not a career and everyone has different plans. That said, we should be getting replacements when they leave, but with strict border controls back in place, we’re not sure when people will be allowed to immigrate again. Anyway, things are going well. There are 2 holidays coming up, National Foundation Day and the Emperor’s Birthday. I’m not sure if there are any traditions associated with either or if they’re just public holidays but it will be nice to have some days off here soon.