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Niseko was really good :) It's a shame we only got to stay for one night, but it was fun while it lasted.
I woke up early on Saturday morning and met my Host Counsellor and my 2nd Host Family (who are related) at Eniwa train station. From there we caught the train to Sapporo, where we met up with all of the other Inbounders and Outbounders and their families and then took a private bus to Niseko. The bus trip was maybe around 2 hours, maybe a little more, but it was good. When we stopped for a rest halfway there, somehow we ended up trying to stuff everyone inside this telephone box :P

We stayed at the Niseko Powder Lodge, which seemed to be a sort of Backpackers/Hostel sort of thing. We had the traditional futon beds/tatami mats, and in the end we just had all of us (13 girls and 1 guy.. poor Dylan, the only male exchange student here at the moment) in the one room trying to pull an all nighter.
But anyway I've skipped a whole (main) part; the snowboarding! It was very hard, but I managed to go down the slope twice.. very slowly.. the whole time I got helped by one of the Outbounders dads, he was so patient with me. As in, he jogged alongside me the whole way down the slope both times to make sure I was okay. The first time I attempted to get off the ski-lift, I fell straight over not once but twice. How embarrassing. But I'm the clumsy foreigner who doesn't even know how to spell 'snow' so it's okay :D

In the end I really enjoyed going down the slope; I was terrible at it, and after the 3 hours we were out there I was soaked from all the snow, but now I really want to try again soon before all the snow goes away.

That evening, we (the Inbounders) decided to go to karaoke - but after walking up to the bus station, we got sidetracked by the hot drinks from the vending machine and our bus must have just gone straight past. So when we realised this we just sat around inside the little Information Centre, which was fun. We even had our own little "Zombie Apocalypse" adventure and whatnot. Then these really loud bangs began to go off outside, so we ran outside screaming "STREET FIGHT!" but it was just fireworks being let off from the slopes. They were really pretty though, and we all clapped at the end. Oh, we also visited an Ice Bar ("Bar The Ice") which was really cool.. literally. Wow I'm un-funny.

Soo yeah, the bathrooms at the lodge were super creepy... if you've seen any of the 'Saw' movies, then picture those types of bathrooms. Yep. And they were downstairs in the basement-type place, just really creepy.

Our attempt at pulling an all-nighter failed by around 2:30am. Everyone had crashed on my bed so I attemped to sleep in the doorway, in the hallway, in another room (until people went in there too so I had to relocate) and finally in yet another room. All part of the fun :P

The next morning we left Niseko around 10:30am, and went back to Sapporo via Otaru. I've decided I love Otaru. It's all vintage and stuff and right next to the ocean. We had lunch and then went shopping all together in this shop across the road, which was basically filled with souvenir-type stuff. But yay, shopping :)

The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Caught the train back to Eniwa, and that night I slept for 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) hours. It's the longest I've ever slept, ever. I'm glad I slept that much because last night I got only 3 hours of sleep haha.


So yeah, that's pretty much the Niseko trip :) I had a really good time getting to know the other Exchange Students better, and doing something different. Oh and I found out that I'll be moving house in about 9 days, which is alot sooner than I was expecting. I thought I was moving at the end of April, but apparently it's the 1st of April. Which means no internet access for 3 months... or very limited :( I hope I find an unsecured network... :3