First Cross-Country Ski

The next day, after the Kirigamine Snow Hike, I went to Sengokuhara in Nikko, Tochigi and switched snow shoes for cross-country skis.

I fell down numerous times. I was able to downhill ski in about two hours, albeit in a rudimentary fashion. But cross-country is a damn lot harder. Hard-packed snow, especially if it's ice, combined with light skis makes it a lot harder to maintain balance and stay up on your feet. Maybe my skiing movements were a little smoother by the end of the day, but I was still losing my balance. But it was fun. I'd love to do a cross-country traverse one day.

By the way, Tochigi's famous for lemons, so I thought I'd try the lemon-flavoured milk... which was a mistake, don't drink it unless you like the taste of sickly sweet milky artificial lemon juice. The gyoza and beef tongue kebabs were great though.