Skiing at Fujiten

We didn't want to leave Japan without experiencing at least some time on  the slopes.  For our first round of skiing we decided to just take the boys and leave the girls with a sitter.  We went with our good friends the Holley's. It had been almost 4 years since we had been skiing with the kids so we were a little rusty.  This was Mike's first time on downhill skis and so we knew there would be a lot of learning going on.  Luckily I was pretty confident that I could pick it back up quickly.  We started on the bunny hill with the boys.  Andrew just took off with his friends Sean and Morgan while I hung back to help Peter.  I always find it interesting how the easiest run tends to have the steepest pitch at the beginning.  Peter could not seem to stay up on his skis and I had a hard time managing to teach him how to go without falling.  After too many times of picking him back up we decided to head over to the practice hill to teach Peter how to snow plow and turn.  After 30 minutes of practice Josh came to my rescue to help out.  I went off to ski with Mike and to look for Andrew who didn't seem to have any problems keeping up with his friends Sean and Morgan.    Mike didn't really need my help as he quickly picked it up.  There weren't too many places to go at this ski resort as there were only 3 ski lifts with one of those designated for the snow park and the other one for the bunny hill.  Most everyone used the middle ski lift so that is where we all converged.  Eventually we grabbed Peter and took him on the real ski lift with us.  It's amazing how a little practice can do wonders for a kid like Peter.  I don't know what Josh told him but Peter was a master turner and snow plower by his next real run. We ended up having a great time skiing with our friends.  By the end of the day the kids were getting pretty good.  Andrew could definitely go down the mountain at speed but didn't turn quite enough.  That will be something we have to work on in the future.  Peter went down, knew how to turn, but went a little slower than Andrew.  Mike was able to keep up with me by the end of the day and I was happy that for the first time in my life I actually felt like a good skiier.  Something finally clicked with me and skiing.  It was a fantastic feeling.