Im knackered, at the moment im sitting in a cold room waiting for the heater to warm it up. Im also looking out the window watching it snow. Last night at 9:15 i left osaka on a bus to nagano. It was a 9 hour trip and was not that comortable. I slept some and distracted myself with films and my psp for the most part. I was traveling light with only the rucksack holding my laptop and a handful of other belongings. I had sent my luggage ahead 2 days ago. For £20 pounds my luggage was picked up and would be driven to hakuba a day ahead of me. as i sat on the bus i wondered what the hell i would do if my stuff wasnt there. On schedule at 6:15 we arrived in nagano and unloaded our things. all stiff from the trip we marched on to find the station where would would need to get another bus to hakuba in the mountains. On finding the station mel ran off to locate the ticet office and returned a little later stating that the next bus was at 8;20 and would be 1500 yen. This was good news and we all piled in to mcdonalds for the wait to get our selfS out of the cold which was getting bitter. We dined on a mcdonalds brekfast each and streached from outr uncomfortable trip.

At around 8 we left and made our way to the other side of the station traversing 3 lifts and a couple of stair cases. the bags slowed us down somewhat. As we reached the highest point ofthe station hakuba opend out and on the horizon were mountains for as far as you could see. we all got very excited and took a load of photos. We decended in the lift and We paid for our tickets and loaded up the bus which we had to ourselfs bar one guy. The bus driver told us the trip was 20 minutes. it was actually an hour and 20. The trip went fastas the sceneray was awesome. the first half an hour was just japanese streets but once we got to the bottom of the mountains the views were great and we took more photos as the bus climbed. We arrived after a while at hakuba station which was in a quiet little town that made me think of maine in all those stephen king films. the view of the mountains here is breathtaking. We trappsed on to the hakuba community building where we proceded to fil out forms and have copies of documents taken. followed by a trip to the town office to update our gaijin cards. We met a few other people taking the same trip as us but there were only a handful of us all together. At around midday i said goodbye to the girls unsure when we would next see each other and i piled into a minibus with 4 others bound for happoone resort.

I was a little disapointed on arrival. i suppose the place has more majesty when there is snow. other than a little dusting here and there the snow sucked although it snowed constantly but gently since i arrived and is still going as i type. We were directed to the dorm and then the office where we were given out keys and asked to return at 3. We then headed back to the dorm and signed in. we were given a tour by the manager, The place is fine enough and there is a max of 2 to a room which is good although i have a room to myself at the moment. When we were at the office i noticed my bags had been delivered and gave a sigh of relif. I unpacked what i could in the time before i had to return. At 3 we headed back to the office and the two guys id spent the afternoon with were given the ski lift attendent uniform of a ski jacket trousers and both they were told to report in on the 19th for the training. I as a restarant worker was given a jacket and told that i infact started tomorrow at 7:40 in the morning. i was to meet a man called tasan at the gondolas. it would seem whereever im working it involves a trip up the mountain. I'm excited'l but also very nervous. i assume its just training as the place doesn't open till the weekend but i better do my best. so the alarm is set and clothes are laid out. Il do some revision tonight to brush up my japanese but first i think il have a nap. So il finish this now and update when ive had my first day.