Dear Funky Drummer Fans, apologies for the lack of recent postings. I’ve been busy working on the Snow Sphere Project – which after only a month and a half since it’s official launch, is proving to be very popular with world wide web surfers.

Much has occurred in the last month, largely consisting of snowboarding, snow shoeing, and cross country skiing trips. Over the last couple of weeks, warm weather brought much rain, putting a serious dent in the snow, with thoughts turning to warmer times. However, just like last year when everyone was announcing spring had arrived, winter made a final parting gift, dumping over 40cm of fresh snow on us overnight.

Indeed, only last Saturday, I was shredding the heavy spring snow on a sunny backcountry snowboarding trip with local legend Yasu, yet yesterday, powder was back on the cards, which happened to coincide with a half day of work, meaning an afternoon on the slopes at local resort Ski Jam.

The day ended somewhat strangely. After firing though knee deep snow on empty pistes, fellow rider “Bran Pan Man” had a fall, which lead to a serious ankle sprain and the end to his snowboarding for 6 weeks. Luckily for him, the season is drawing to a close anyway.

Less fortunate was the girl we met in first aid room. She had been skied down in a stretcher and appeared to be in a pretty bad way. This was confirmed when we later bumped into her friends at the local hospital and it transpired that she had broken her back, and will be in hospital for at least 3 months. This puts a sprained ankle into perspective.

Next week sees us taking to trip to the big bad city of Osaka to watch a national sumo tournament, and the week after we leave the shores of Japan to head for closest neighbour - Korea.

I’ll be back to report on those events soon.

Over and Out.