"kousu gai"

Some people would call kousu gai "off course." Many of my European friends here in Japan call it "off piste." I call it the only place to hit some major powder and forest action when boarding the Japanese alps.

Kousu gai is my snowboarding haven. I am always in search of some kousu gai places since normal runs are usually too boring - an attitude spawned from being spoiled with deep, fresh powder every day for the few months I was in Hokkaido (northern island of Japan) a few years back. And even if the signs have DANGER and cross bones and skulls and other silly things written on them, the Japanese are pretty lax about boarders entering kousu gai areas, at least this is what I thought...

UNTIL yesterday, when I was boarding under a lift in a kousu gai area and got the whistle. Someone from the lift was not having it. I could NOT believe it. I was caught! I was going to be thrown out! I was going to get a life ban from the mountain ! All these thoughts were racing in my head as I looked up at the lift and saw the patrol, who looked down at me and said in Japanese, "Excuse me, could you please leave this part. It is dangerous for you."

Sometimes the Japanese politeness just kills me....