With only three days left of 2009, my friend Tapio from Vancouver and I decided to pay a visit to the northern mountains of Fukui. I had heard that Katsuyama's "Ski Jam" is Fukui's biggest ski resort and online reviews had nothing but praise to say. Consequently, we decided to get the car ready the night before and head out on our two hour drive to reach Ski Jam around 8 o'clock. Little did we know that the universe had something in store for us at the half-way point.
Within an hour leaving Tsuruga, we reached Fukui City. I was running low on gas and decided to make a quick pit stop at one of the many gas stations. I made a stop at a self-service station, but since I had never actually put gas in my car (in Japan) by my self... I decided to head to the next gas station - Shell. Since it was around 6:30 AM, service wasn't available at the time; thus, leaving me with no other option than to learn how to do it on my own... and boy did I learn something that morning...haha.
Long story...short, I made the foolish mistake of putting half a tank worth of DIESEL into my car. How did I know it was diesel? Well, cause my car literally died right before crossing a busy intersection! All I remember is looking over at Tapio saying... well you can probably guess what I said at the time. Fortunately for both of us, we had iPhones at hand and we proceeded by quickly researching what to do next when faced with such an issue. While Tapio researched Google, I called my supervisor. It was 7 AM now, and he was in Tokyo. Suffice to say that he wasn't too happy about the wake up call and thus he told me to use my phone to figure out what to do next.
"Hai, wakarimashita!", I remember telling him. As soon as I hung up, Tapio told me it could be a costly operation to fix the car. It was here where all the hours I've invested in "mind-training" (aka meditation) and my contemplation of the present moment came in handy. I looked over to my right and saw another gas station with a small "Car Service" shop right across the street.
"Tapio, I'm gonna have to ask you to push me across the intersection and into that shop; I'll take it from there".
A couple of minutes later we were parked inside the gas station as it started raining. I took my iPhone and researched the Kanji on how to explain my situation to see if they could help me. Not too sure on whether I was clear or if they understood because this is a "common" occurrence (?), but within minutes my car's gas tank was being dismantled and drained. It was really a 50/50 shot whether we'd be up and running to reach Ski Jam or being asked to call JAF (Japanese Automobile Federation) to tow my car back to Mitsubishi dealership back in Tsuruga (an operation that would have cost be me more than 50,000 yen = $500.00).
All I remember was standing there overseeing what they were doing to my car and realizing from the look in Tapio's face that this was a really sketchy situation to be in. "There's nothing else to do other than to enjoy the show," I remember thinking. I had no other option but to accept the moment for what it was and take responsibility and action as the result of my own mistake. Fortunately, the universe seemed to have a good laugh from my carelessness and granted us permission to be "off the leash" and get back on the road within an hour or so.
I ended up paying about 20,000 yen ($200.00), but it didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that we were able to jump back in my car, set up the GPS and go back into the flowness.
"I can't believe that just happened!", Tapio said. We both looked and each other and had a good laugh. As I continued to drive and everything around us began to turn white, I remember thinking that perhaps that small "setback" is something that possibly could have saved our lives. Sure, we got to Ski Jam an hour and a half later that we had previously anticipated, but we GOT there! It's all in the timing. Better yet was the fact that neither one of us let our little incident interfere with the excitement of being able to experience snowboarding in Japan for the first time.
The day continued. As soon as we parked and stepped out of the car, it started snowing. We bought our lift ticket and boarded the first lift on our way to the summit. Within half an hour we were 1,350 metres above sea level in what both of us came to describe as a "POWDER-HEAVEN". I have ridden Whistler/Blackcomb for ten seasons, but I had never experienced the same amount of powder there in the past decade as I did in my first visit to Ski Jam. It was a Monday, which meant that the mountain was practically ours given that most people were at work.
We rode and rode for hours. We sat by the trees to contemplate the beauty of the valley before us while enjoying some plum liquor. We had a delicious lunch and headed back up to catch a few more runs before sunset. On a personal level, the feeling of flowing down a mountain in which numerous dinosaurs once walked through made the experience even more delightful. After all, Katsuyama happens to be the place wherein 80% of dinosaurs discovered in Japan have been found and counts with one of the biggest dinosaur museums in the world just a few kilometers from this particular mountain.
Suffice to say that this was by far one of the most enjoyable days I've ever had ridding a mountain. It was a day of real spontaneity filled with surprises right, left and center. We got back to Tsuruga around 7 PM and decided to end the day by visiting an onsen to take a bath in thermal waters, relax, and be thankful for the simple joy of being alive.
An anonymous author once wrote that "life isn't measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away". In this regard I agree with Emily Dickinson:
"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living [being] is joy enough."
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