Wonderful Experience in Hokkaido IV

Day #10: 27th August 2006

Paragliding パラグライヂング
Have been asking Mr Nakamura about paragliding. He tried it last year for more than 8000 yen.

"全然怖くなかった。すばらしかったよ！空を飛ぶのは人間の夢だ！" he said. (It wasn't scary at all; it was cool! Flying in the sky is every man's dream!"

Well, 8000 yen is definitely too expensive. But, not wanting to let us down, Mr Nakamura called up a friend of his to ask if it's possible to offer us a special price. I don't know how he did it but somehow, his friend promised to let each one of us try it for free! Of course we jumped at the opportunity. Who wouldn't?

We're "flying" with the instructor. So, basically, we just had to sit back and enjoy. The lift off, steering, landing, everything was taken care of. All we had to do is to be careful during the touch down. Or else, we'd probably break our legs.

I was the first one to go, so that if something bad happened, I'd have been the first one to die. The trip to the hilltop was a long, bumpy ride. But when we got there at last, I couldn't believe that I was about to fly. With a bulky bag filled with sponge for a smooth touch down secured by a five point safety belt, walking around surely felt like Big Momma with "her" big butt. But, no complaints. Because the only thing which could save my butt was that thing.

I didn't quite felt the lift off; one moment, the instructor was giving the cords a slight tug and the other moment, we were up in the sky. You can bet that it was the coolest thing in the world - to be flying in the sky!

I believe I can fly

I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away

Everything down there could be seen so clearly: the ski resort, the amusement park, Mr Nakamura's pension, the farms... The sun was shining bright but the wind was even stronger.

I would have liked to stay up there longer. But it seemed to take more time to get up there than to get down. Geez. I'd like to do that again - by myself!

Posing for the camera with Mr Nobu, who has been a paragliding instructor for 20 years. He "flies" up to six times a day.

Cora was the next one to "fly". And of course, she had a good time too. Unfortunately, when it came to Laura's turn, the wind's condition turned bad and she didn't get to fly. So was Deki. We came back the next morning, hoping that it would be good enough for paragliding, but that just didn't seem to be the case. In the end, Laura and Deki couldn't try it... Sigh, I hope everyone could have tried it...

(Fun-o-meter: )

Day #11: 28th August 2006
Niseko ニセコ
Our last day in Rusutsu-mura. Though we've only been there for ten days, it felt kind of nostalgic.

Mr Nakamura brought us to Niseko in the afternoon. We're kind of late for the sunflowers - they're drooping.

I was hoping that we could see something like this:

(Sunflowers growing near Fargo, North Dakota; Source: Wikipedia)

But, too bad...

Oh, we had ice-cream (again!) and cream puff. They're cheap and yummy!

That's Mt Yotei in the background.

Flying back at night. Back to Tokyo - the crowded, suffocating metropolitan city. Heck, I didn't feel like leaving the place...

(Fun-o-meter: )