Though ARAI realizes what the international standards are, it is a constant challenge for us to meet and maintain such levels, given our relatively smaller organizational structure. Thus, while ARAI may be one of the leaders within Japan when it comes to Ski Patrol, to reach the peak of international standards requires a significant further amount of study.

(BA: Though the third volume of the setting journals, A Matter of Life & Death, looked into daily activities of the Ski Patrol at ARAI, Maruta-san expressed a need to emphasize first aid concerns in this volume of the setting journals)

HM: First aid concerns are addressed by making it a requirement that all applicants for the Ski Patrol at ARAI must have either earned a first aid qualification from the Japanese Red Cross or possess an equivalent certification from an international body. Such first aid skills need to of course be complemented by advanced ski ability and practical knowledge.

- First Aid
- Skiing/Boarding
- Terrain
- Weather

Intermediate Level -
Further education concerning snow becomes necessary following one or two seasons of the basics. Not only is the snow itself studied but also how it reacts with the mountain’s ever changing profile.

Advanced Level -
The main concern for members of the ARAI Patrol that reach the advanced level is avalanche control. Avalanches are managed by inducing them under controlled circumstances. Avalanches are of such a complex nature that only proven snow veterans have any right to take them on.

At ARAI, it takes on average three years to become a full-fledged member of the ski patrol. Supposedly, this should be accepted as the industry wide standard given that it takes that amount of time to fully comprehend all the “faces” a mountain presents.
   

HM: Grooming is not a factor - Whether a run is hard-packed or not packed at all has little influence on how safe or dangerous it is. Instead, the main contributing factor has more to do with the skill-level of the individual on the run. For an expert skier or snow boarder to take on a run with a forty-degree vertical is much safer compared to a beginner tackling the same advanced conditions. Each skier and snow boarder needs to know his or her limits and stick within them. As long as you know your own level and respect it, occasionally on good days it is okay to test that boundary just a little bit.
  

HM: In Arai’s case, the resort is actually located within a national park. Given such, by the laws governing Japan, we’re not permitted to expand. Though ARAI was granted rights to build the resort to date, the process and all the bureaucratic red tape surrounding it was a long and drawn out one. I further understand that aspects of this process still continue today for that matter, despite the fact that ARAI has now been open for ten years. Another factor concerns the safety of the land surrounding the resort, as outlined in the reply to question #1 above.

HM: Only two main factors control the closing of existing areas; however, both are independent of anything that ARAI does. The first factor concerns snow conditions at both ends of the scale. On one end you have an avalanche risk either due to changing temperatures or too much snow, while at the other end you suffer from a lack of the white stuff to the point that an existing area needs to be closed. The other main factor concerns extreme aspects of the weather such as strong winds, fog and thunderstorms.
  

BA: I remember sitting down for a drink with a friend a few years back. The friend was keen to change the location of some of the lifts on the mountain. However, I had to stop him when he asked for a course map and a pen. ARAI spent a good 7-8 years researching the mountain with the aid of top-level professionals before it opened, and gathering of data continues today. If it were feasible to have put a lift in a different location or added more lifts, the professionals who make their living from designing ski and board courses would most likely have already done so.

While part of the answer to this question lies in number one above, further points can be included here. I briefly covered such in the second volume of the setting journals, Customer Safety is Our Primary Concern.

In that volume, I outlined how much daily effort is entailed in setting up a mountain to be opened to the public. Such an effort is required in part because of the fact that “90% of all users of any ski hill are in fact terrible at skiing or boarding”. Thus, to stay in business a mountain needs to cater mainly to the largest paying demographic, and place their needs first. Though the area surrounding ARAI looks great, in fact studies have already demonstrated that only runs of the highest level could potentially be developed. As such runs would cater only to a minority of the clientele, the economic feasibility of having such runs is presently slim.

To repeat and summarize, the entire area surrounding the resort has been studied. Courses that can be safely managed throughout the snow-laden white season typical of ARAI have already been developed.
  

HM: To be honest I have never given the question much thought. Though the first word to pop into my head is “freedom” - something that is quite rare in Japan. Other answers include to:

HM: Who asks such questions? (BA: Quite obviously this is HM’s first experience dealing with the questions from members of the SJ forums!) 

HM: The answer is again similar to that in number 3 above. Essentially, it is not which of the above is more dangerous, but more to do with the person’s ability and how it measures up in each respective area.

Given that the same person enters all three areas, the danger level tends to increase as you proceed from:

KT: ARAI is ideally located on a 1,020-hectare property at the foot of Mt. Ohgenashi (1,429 meters). ARAI’s close proximity to the Japan Sea ensures snowfall depths of 400 - 600 centimeters between January to April, enabling quality skiing conditions in most years for up to five months of the year (some of the longest in Japan). Snowboarders rate ARAI particularly highly, partially because of its off-piste skiing opportunities.

ARAI realized early on that it could not afford to open up “budget accommodation” within the resort boundaries. As a result, ARAI offers some of Japan’s most impressive on snow accommodation - including the luxurious 32 room 5 star “The Club”; the 62 room 4 star “The Lodge”; and the 148 room 3 star “Inn at Arai”. Guest rooms blend contemporary room design and efficiency, with traditional Japanese design elements and features, in a large variety of room types, and with facilities to cover most categories of guests (including families, aged guests and disabled people). Essentially, only the higher-end accommodation described is capable of generating the revenue streams necessary to significantly contribute to our annual running costs, including a sizeable property tax bill.

Though ARAI welcomes the powder-chasers described in the question, we do ask two things of them:

Budget accommodation is available at the borders of ARAI (Yurarikan - Japanese style Pension complete with real Japanese Onsen) or 5 km away at the station front highway stop (Super Hotel - check in using a vending machine). There is also budget accommodation available throughout the Joetsu area.

HM: ARAI does not use Ammonium Sulphate at the resort.

Management is of course concerned about the environmental impact on the area of running a snow resort. The Morita Group is a diverse organization that operates in several environmentally sensitive areas, including a sea based fishing lodge in Canada, organic farming on the southern pacific isles of Palau, as well as mineral water concerns within Japan.

At ARAI, monthly testing of water at the lower levels of the mountain takes place each green season and results are compared with previous years and the like. Such studies also extend to flowers, trees and insects as well.
  

HM: Approximately seven snowboarders can be found at ARAI for each three skiers. With time, I believe that the numbers of skiers will increase to the point that the ratio equals out. Reasoning behind such includes the introduction to the sport of both fat and twin tip Skis. To me, skiing is becoming more interesting compared with boarding as a result of these new additions.
  

KT: ARAI has effectively been only a development work in progress to date, whilst all the various components of the accommodation and related facilities have been gradually built. Ski facilities on the mountain were installed in 1993 and the first guest accommodation in the Resort opened in October 1993.

Since then, ARAI has steadily grown with the completion of:

While the construction above was being completed, individual parts of the resort were responsible for generating their own business. Initially therefore, The Club for example marketed itself and was responsible for the 4 P’s (Product, Placement, Pricing and Promotion).

Upon completion of the resort, marketing for each part of ARAI was integrated and streamlined. Part of such a process involved studying the resort market with a “Professional Eye” and comparing the facilities of ARAI as a package against those offered by other resorts. Research indicated that ARAI indeed offers guests a “resort experience available in three different grades”. Each grade was then priced accordingly.

Look for the second part of this series to be posted on Snow Japan at the end of September 2003. In the meantime, feedback on the link to this volume is more than welcome. Thanks for reading…