No no no, it can't be time to get up already?! Yep, 6:30am and these brothers were up, off the futons, chuck everything in the board bags, nail some breakfast and out the door. Of course we left behind the GnarlyBoarders calling card, nice big sticker up on the wall. Think Jamroll may have got the wrong idea here and left them some stripes as well. Outside into the crisp (damn cold) morning air where Dillon and Toby were packing up the beast of a 4wd van. So we're fitting 7 of us in there with all that kit? Alrighty then, rock-paper-scissors it is. I won, but not sure whether I got a good deal on the seat or not really. Here we go, 2...3...4...ROADTRIP!!
Hour and a half's drive and we pile out at Rusutsu Mountain Resort. Straight in, no kissing, no time for Alan's legs today. There's freshies to be had. Now they're not overly-keen on you going off piste here, but as long as you don't try to drop in right under their nose (that was you, Mr G, right under the lift station!!) you'll be right. Straight away we're farming down the pow, off over the other side and there's plenty more to be had. In fact, as most of the locals obey the rules, there were freshies all day. Awesome bit at the top of one of them under a closed chairlift - just had to watch your head if getting any airtime!
A gourmet lunch for Mr G at this one - what was it now? Corn dog (shit on a stick), chicken nuggets and other randomness. Whereas I went for the (safe??!) option of a curry. 40-15. Rode through till around 2:30, finishing off with a couple of epic runs under another gondolage and out alongside a reservoir. Definitely wouldn't want to fall in there. Turns out some of those inspiring bits from the Japan section of Saturation were filmed here, right where we rode!! Get in. Plenty Rusutsu photos here.
Everyone back in the beast-van, off to Sapporo for an awesome sushi-train meal. This one was a double-decker with another whole line going the other way. Gets complicated in there. Too complicated for Michaela, who managed to pick up one of the plastic sample dishes and tried eating that. D'Oh! Well clearly she was well on the way already, thanks to Sake in a milk carton being passed round the van. Seico-Mart - bonkers Japanese supermarkets kept us entertained for ages. Booze is so, so cheap here. Litre of gin (good stuff) for 7 AUD anyone? Right, we'll have G+Ts in the van-beast then. Damn was Michaela hammered by the time we eventually got to Furano. Watch out for bears and foxes up that way too.
Outside at 10:30pm it was -16c, inside it was probably +35c. Still, time for a quick couple of warm sakes before taking Alan home to bed.
