My trip to Hakuba - Day 3
On joining the rest of my class, I recieved wishes from a lot more of my classmates. I was surprised that many of them knew it was my birthday, as I had only mentioned it to a few people. We were briefed on the day's schedule and I felt buoyant when I learnt that along with skiing, we were also going to experience avalanche training, take a maths test and experience sledding!!
Knowing that a smorgasbord of fun events were going to take place, I happily trotted over to the storage room and donned my heavy boots and picked up my skis and poles. I cautiously walked up to the hotel's foyer, where I met my instructor. After exchanging greetings and making small talk, we hitched our skis and poles onto our shoulders and set off to the Hakuba ski slopes once again.
The first thing that struck me as we were making our way to the slopes was that it was snowing a lot heavier than the previous days. On mentioning the same to my instructor, he said that the snow which falls on Japan is actually of a powdery type. This type of snow is the best for skiers and hence, this is the reason why skiers from all over the world come to Japan for the skiing season. Just taking a look at my instructor's determined face convinced me that today's skiing would really test our capabilities.
As we began skiing, I noticed that due to there being a lot more snow today, it was a bit difficult to maneuver my skis. Owing to this, I fell a lot of times because my skis got stuck under the snow. Although it was very painful, I learnt a lot of new things from my failures such as to always keep my head still and make sure I am bending my knees while skiing. Furthermore, we also learnt how to do jumps and learnt how to ski for a long distance without using our poles.
Following the end of our ski session for the day, I wearily trudged back to the hotel. Over there, I removed my boots and kept away my skis and poles, after which I headed towards the reception. On reaching the reception, I found all my classmates gathered there and they seemed as if they were waiting for something. On mentioning my thoughts to them, I remembered to my pleasant surprise, that we were going to do avalanche training and take a maths test!! As if on cue, our teachers arrived and we started walking towards the ski company's office because our ski instructors were to teach us on how to go about this brave and adventurous task.
While my friends and I were busy comparing our favourite basketball players, I was also pondering on how the avalanche training was going to be like, as I had never experienced that before. With my mind still riddled with these thoughts, my classmates and I met the ski instructors, who told us that the avalanche training is a crash course on how to rescue people who are caught in an avalanche. We walked to the training site, which was a wide open space area, overlooking the Hakuba slopes. I was amazed to see that the snow here reached upto my waist!! Our instructors explained that there were twenty two bags, which were hidden in various parts of this area. Each bag represented a human and they all contained a tracking device. In groups, we were to use our own tracking device and successfully find all the bags.
As we went about trying to find the bags, I found it to be very enjoyable. We had to make sure that our tracker's signals matched the one given out from the tracker in the bag and that we were going in the right direction. Once we had located where the bag is, we had to stick a lengthy pole onto that spot, denoting the position of the victim. This is done so that in real life, if a blizzard came up and swept us away, it would be easy for us to find the victim again because we denoted he/she's position with the pole. Following that, we used a shovel to dig up the snow from the victim's head due to the fact that they would be in dire need of oxygen. Following the same pattern, we unearthed all twenty two bags and concluded our avalanche training, feeling on top of the world!! The next event on today's schedule, added to my joy(some of you will disagree), because we were going to take a maths test!!
Around February every year, the entire secondary school takes an optional maths test called the UKMT maths challenge. This test is not part of our syllabus and unlike conventional maths exams, it mainly consists of logical mathematical questions. Since the beginning of the school year, we had been practicing for this maths challenge. When my maths teacher asked whether I wanted to take the test, I immediately replied in the affirmative because I wanted to test my proficiency in the subject. On Day three of the Hakuba trip, I was able to answer most of the questions in the exam and thought I did well. A few weeks later, my results arrived. I had won a bronze certificate and got a very good mark. I felt elated on recieving my certificate and was thankful that my decision to take the exam had payed off.
Raucously discussing our answers, we trotted back to the hotel and masticated a quick dinner. Subsequently, we donned our ski helmets and set out once again towards the Hakuba slopes for sledding!! Sledding was a smashing finish for my birthday as I relished every moment of it! My friend and I took turns sitting on the sled and pushing the other. While you might think that pushing the sled is an ardurous job, we had a lot of fun doing it. During the forty five minutes of sledding alone, we had innumerable humorous moments and close shaves, something which I will always remember.
After we reluctantly stopped sledding on the request of our teachers, we downed a lip-smacking mug of hot chocolate and headed back towards the hotel. I went straight up to my room, took a shower and lied down on my bed with only one thought running through my mind, 'This is a birthday which I will cherish forever😀'
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