Very randomly Zoe, a friend from London had moved to Tokyo and was also in Nozawa Onsen with her friend and mother so we caught up over a few drinks.

Luckily not too heavy a night as it was pretty eventful new years eve boarding that followed.

I decided to join some of the significant better riders to try improve my skills. One of the regular boarders decided to switch to piste skis for the day, but the pack had opted to hunt for some back country powder anyway.

A few runs in and we had to walk a fair bit at the bottom so we looked for some other routes down. Unfortunately this untracked run ended in a twisted skiers knee. She wasn’t able to walk out the pretty steep entry we just dropped in on and the walk out was definitely too long. The snow was about waist deep, so between the other snowboarder and skier we made a makeshift sledge with snowboard and two ski poles. I attempted to flattened what felt like 100m of steep and deep snow so we could haul the casualty up. Two of us pulled while the other pushed from behind. An hour and a half later, and a few renditions of eye of the tiger to keep spirits up, we managed to finally get back to a tracked route (see video below) and then the piste where we were able to call the piste patrol for medical attention and skidoo ride to the bottom.

I caught up with Ben for a very late lunch and a couple of afternoon runs before the obligatory onsen, dinner and nap to try shake off the jet lag before the New Year celebrations.

Dinners continue to be a massive spread of assorted Japanese and J Style western foods

The locals put on a firework display at the base of the gondola every year. As we arrived some people were night skiing down and the announcements over the speakers was only hurry them off the mountain.

A great atmosphere and pretty impressive firework display and champagne helped us see in the new year in style.

I sincerely wish you all a great 2014 and that it is full of things that will make you lives more complete and happy x