Hey y’all a new 外国人 will take over todays blog. I believe this will now be the second English Springen blog post. I’m Andrew, a fourth year in the School of Political Science and Economics.
To briefly introduce myself, I have raced since I was 10 (around 4th grade) to the end of middle school. Because my high school didn’t have a ski team, I stopped racing and continued to ski for fun. I believe ex-racers will all feel the same way— whenever I saw gates set up at wherever I was skiing, there was an irresistible desire to ski it. As I wanted to join different clubs (circles) to meet new Japanese friends and improve my Japanese, I looked through different clubs, including ski teams. There were way too many to make a decision at first, but who would’ve known I’d be fortunate enough to sit at the same table with a Springen member at Chiba-chan (izakaya) for a drinking party for the golf circle I joined. That was my first time meeting Miura Yukiさん(三浦 雄輝), who introduced me to Springen.
(^ Miura Yuki)
So far, joining Springen has been an amazing experience. Of course, racing for the first time in a while is exciting, but the people here make it 100 times better. Starting from Springen members, to our lodge owners (shoutout Kosabue Sanso!), to our coach’s son (shoutout Shunta!!), I am so happy to have joined this team and meet all these wonderful people.
(my lift buddy Shunta-kun — also suuuper quick on the slopes)
By the time I’m writing this, we have just finished the All-Waseda (AW) Competition at Sugadaira and moved to Nozawaonsen to train for our upcoming Iwatake race. With some (a lot) of luck, I was able to place second overall. Racing in 7 or 8 years, my legs and skis obviously don’t feel like they used to and I’ve got a lot to work on. Regardless, I’m so so so grateful for this experience. Also, congratulations to all of us for winning the AW Alpine Ski Tournament!!
(helping with set up prior to the Super-G race w Ryusei)
(tsuyoi Springen)
Now at Nozawaonsen, it’s a complete change of scenery and I’m loving every moment of it. I’ve been to Nagano a couple times, but being my first time here, everything seemed fascinating. I took a quick walk around the beautiful town, grabbing a coffee and studying some Japanese, bought some turtles (I love turtles) at a cute store, and came back out for drinks after dinner. As I’m writing this blog, I missed out on todays afternoon practice because I lost my lift pass that was nowhere to be found :( I’ll have to go harder tomorrow and the day after. On a side note, I also hope to ski Nozawaonsen’s slopes sometime as we practice at another ski area!
(like I fell into a Ghibli movie)
I’ll end this blog with a pic of our lovely Yoshimitsu. Go シップ！！！！soregeiii SHRED THE GNAR
Until next time じゃまたね
p.s. 요시미츠가 한글이나 영어로 블로그 작성하면 다음번엔 제가 일본어로 쓰는걸로
