The snow gods are puking all up on Hakuba right now!!!!! YEEEEEA!! I forgot it could snow this hard!!!! AHHHHHH! YES! YES! YES! Tomorrow looks to be lining up to be a fatty POW day! Today I did not snowboard… My leg is bruising up like crazy. No bueno. I smacked my leg on a tree the first day riding here. It has been healing well and the pain was going away, but last night it started to bruise up really bad lower down on my leg from where I hit it. When I woke up this morning it looked even worse. I was planning on skiing and definitely wanted to, but thy body is a temple. There was rain in the forecast for today so I figured if I am going to heal at all that today would be the day. It looks nasty man. I do not get it. Crazy bruising below the spot I hit my leg. Maybe some internal bleeding working through my leg… IDK. It does not hurt at all, just looks bad. I laid around all morning icing it and keeping it elevated. Went to the supermarket to get some wrap and Ibuprofen for it. There is a fat tire bike at the lodge so I whipped that over. Found wrap, but had no idea what Ibuprofen was. Did not think that through when I decided to go to the store. How would I be able to read the bottles and know what drugs to buy? Thankfully someone at the Powder Lodge had my back on some Ibuprofen when I got back. Laid around some more with it wrapped up, iced, and elevated. Pete, friend from Durango, hit me up and we linked up for lunch. Crazy cool to see someone you know from across the world! Lunch was great! Went to Eno, I believe was what the restaurant was called. I had chicken cutlet. Loving the cutlet out here. Huge meal for such a good price! 750yen! It started snowing while I was in the supermarket. Pretty fun cruising down the streets of Japan on a fat tire bike while it was dumping! And it was straight nuuuuuuking while we were at the restaurant and on our walk back. Snowing so hard on that walk back dude like 3-6cm an hour! I am back at the lodge now. Resting, icing, compressing, and elevating! Drinking hot chocolate that I made from milk and some fresh Japanese milk chocolate!!! Mmmm so good! Trying to stay positive about the leg issue. The fact that it is snowing really helps! : ) Hopefully I wake up tomorrow and my leg is looking better. If it is not, I might have to go see a doctor just to be safe. Would not want to make the situation worse. Such a bummer to not be shredding though. I did not come here to rest and lay around all day….. I guess it is the name of the game sometimes. I am sure the snow gods got my back for this one!! PRAY TO DAS SNOW GODS! Thankfully, if I do have to go to the doctor, I just found out that the Japanese health care system is at a reasonable price and that I will probably get better attention than in the States. Fuck the U.S. health care system! Hoping for the best. No doctor needed. Just fat POW! I just learned about the Austrian Alpine Club as well. It is like $50USD to join. The program has you on health care insurance for mountaineers. Takes care of abroad health care issues, will send you home on a medical plane if needed, free helicopter rescue if needed, and other great features like that. The website is https://aacuk.org.uk/. I plan on signing up for this, regardless of my injury. Can not believe I never knew about it. Glad to know now and spreading the word to everyone else! If you are heavily involved with mountain activities, I feel as if you should have this program in your life! Well I have work in an hour. Keep on dumping!!!!!!!!!!!!!