As someone who grew up in a tropical country, my idea of snow is the frostings that you see in your refrigerator (^^”). Yes, my home country had year-long summers with no snow. Living life while dealing with weather was something local people learned how to live with in their own way.

When I moved to Japan, there were now four different seasons, I had to adjust with the temperature change. My first winter was harsh, and I didn’t know how to deal with the cold weather. This wasn’t even in snowy mountains yet, and I had wrapped myself in all forms of electric heaters. I didn’t know how to acclimate yet and I had to struggle for years. 

Having made friends with the biggest ski bum I’ve ever met, I casually shared my unspoken desire to learn properly how to ride on snow. This snowballed into events where I was happily dragged to minus degree (celsius) weather. I slid into a pair of skis, preparing for my first ever ski lesson at the age of 30. My friend had been skiing since the age of 3 years old so he was bred differently from me. He had this cultic obsession over snow, and this fueled his drive to ski in different places in and out of Japan. I was literally being dragged on this unexpected pilgrimage to tour the different winter mountains all while learning how-to walk in a pair of skis. But I didn’t hate it.  

Learning the differences in snow quality made me discover the famous powder snow. The Japanese powder snow, coined as Japow, is this light fluffy snow that a lot of avid skiers or snowboarders are raving about. I struggled so much to ski through deep Japow and crashed several times more than I could count. For me, it felt like bouncing on water with a lot less resistance and where my balance fails to embrace me. It takes the fight or flight a whole different meaning and the struggle makes it so addicting.  

As I dive more into the world of skiing, I find that its quite the zoo. Its not just one kind of skis to go downhill. There are the classic straight skis, carving skis, powder skis to name a few. I haven’t even started with alpine skiing, cross country skiing and even telemark skiing.