ippy
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Posts posted by ippy
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love love love. Trees on skiers left every time. If youre daft enough to run that start part then i hope you have a bucket load of dampening on your ride. Ive tried it. Proper jelly leg bone-shaking ice wall stuff. Never again.
The nice thing about those trees as well is that you can a) poach the course behind the ski patrol hut from it when they shut it down, and
you can go pretty far in to be honest for some really nice untapped pow. It flattens in places mind you (and drops in others - er, off a cliff i assume), but so long as youre staying roughly within ear shot of the course and remember at some point to flank right, youre not going to go anywhere except into the trees and the halfpipe. Im amazed people still try and tackle it. I always clip in, dart left and chuckle to myself that people are even having a pop at the main line. 
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With this and micks report we have perfect harmony
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Great review. isnt it neat?
In peak and if im in the area and a mate drops in, its going to be a suginohara/nozawa coin toss every time. Had both season passes and honest to god, to this day, still couldnt decide which one i actually love the most. Possibly nozzie because as you rightly scored it, the lift system needs a bit of a rethink/return to former glory. -
1. Why does ippy love it?
- dude, the trees are amazing fun! So yep yep. Brilliant ride.
2. Why are there crowds?
- probably the black box i reckons. Its maybe finally paying off. Every time ive been there ive had a massive room to myself. So good to see the black box works. Heres to more ski jos using it.
3. Any ropeway info/tips?
- Ropeway is every 20 minutes. If youre outside the building when its due, chances are you aint getting that one up. I put it around 5 to 10 meters from the shelter part gives you a slim to middling chance of making it. If i remember as well its 8 minutes to get you up there, so youve got 12 minutes to clip in and storm it. Its doable of course, but youre kinda missing the adventure. Line b is just awesome fun to cruise on anyway in around the trees and up and down the pipe. Then when you hit the resort, just burn up some walls and muck about with ground tricks. Maybe hit another lift on the way down or play on the air bag. No point being sat in a ropeway station for lnger than 20 minutes. Just watch the times, accept its a joy to cruise it rather than bomb it (also a joy, but your cutting it fine for the next bucket up), and be there on time for the next one.
4. Anything else?
- I ****ING HATE ROPEWAYS!!!
5. Ah, ryuoo is awesome, eh?
- I Love Ryuoo. <3 If its dumped, be prepared for spectacular fun tree riding. Also, dont ride down that bit they cut for the ropeway apparently. Done it loads of times, but its definite slideable.
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I can go old school if it saves me a few thousand bucks. I remember when i was a kid my nana told me how they used to get their teeth taken out as an 18th birthday present because if they didnt theyd end up in agony and no money for the dentist. Im sure she was mocking my childlike innocence. Still, i reckon a bottle of gin, and me and the old ways are fine.
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you can make your own, just boil one litre of water with quarter cup rice and simmer for half an hour.
Then id need rice
I aint gots no rice. Maybe i should make some pasta soup. Wrangled a second day off which is of course fantastic because im still not sure about the lesson plan im going to teach them (and should have been teaching them today and tomorrow). So coming up roses ass ever -
A communist country doesn't have universal healthcare?! What kind of communism is that?!
Ippy, you do seem to live your life in a melodramatic soap opera!
I think you'll be late or missing or something for your own funeral!! asked about the general cost on uninsured surgery for appendix. She told me around a couple of thousand, so not too bad
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I just spent a farcical 40 minutes sat in a restaurant waiting for my food (while im watching plates wing past me to every other table). All i wanted was rice soup. On Doctors orders (and in this case, recommendation for the restaurant) it has to be nice and bland.
Anyways, shown to my table, told the lady i wanted rice soup, pointed to the picture. Closed said book, she headed off.
Thirty minutes later i see two of the waitresses harassing one of the girls (who clearly speaks the most english) to come and ask me why the hell im sat in their restaurant. After 5 minutes of trying to explain that ive been sat there waiting for my damn soup, shes none the wiser and asking me if i want my soup in 25 minutes. At this point i give in. I came to this stupid place because a doctor specifically told me that i should eat the rice soup there. So i call up the doctor (also my boss), explain the situation and have her translate. Clearly the whole restaurant is now gawping at this fiasco. Im of course pale as a ghost and desperately trying to deal with both my nausea from the IV and a thumping headache. I get a quick apology and am told itll be ten minutes.
Soup was lovely. Obviously not a wild and crazy adventure, but another comedy of errors.
ETA: Also, everyone has these kinds of adventures. Only difference is that i type like a bastard.
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pics pics pics. Make it nasty and ethereal
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Just had an hilariously bad day yesterday. Nothing dramatic or anything, but just several little niggles.
1. My bike blew up beyond repair. Nothing happened at all. Just the back axle broke for no reason. The people at the shop took one look at the wheel spinning and said "sorry dude, we cant fix that".
2. Due to said bike blow up, I left my wallet at my apartment whilst taxiing to work, resulting in not one, but three journeys (there, back and there again).
3. Found out that you cant exchange more than 500 US at the bank without a bunch of docs that employers seemed... reluctant.. to provide. Left for the bank, realised at the bank id left all the documents in the office and had to go back. Returned to a massive amount of people and ended up in a two hour bank queue and then an hour to finish sent home a whopping 500 US
Banking in china it turns out, is a day trip. Aside the 5-7pm class, this was pretty much my day off. 4. Trapped my fingers between two doors. Still bloody kills.
5. And the best one, about thirty minutes before the end of my lesson (around 6.30pm), got hit with a really strong wave of nausea. Came home, threw up. And then was going to be hospitalised for the night (i wouldnt let them - they wanted me to take up the last bed in the ICU, which as any scotsman will tell you, is not going to happen without force... sorta regretted the decision when i suddenly remembered they might have given me morphine for the pain). Finally fell asleep around 3am and woke up at 11.30.
On the plus side, my boss is also a very high ranking MD, so after chatting with the doctors over the phone im now cast iron for a couple of days of bed rest! Feel better today, but still nausea to the gills. Maybe need another dose of IV. Probs head back there after this post, Spent another 500RMB i dont have of course. And if it turns out its not in fact a kidney infection, but an inflammed and soon to rupture appendix, im not actually covered by health insurance... Wheee!!!!
Theyre 'getting back to me' to find out 'from the woman in charge of doing the documents for benefits and insurance if my health insurance was done'. Which i think is a roundabout way of saying "you dont have insurance". -
another season... another mick rich attempt to make us all believe he HONESTLY has any intention at all to ride granview (and gasan)...
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nyuk nyuk nyuk
On topic: about 40ish, maybe a little more. Im a touch typer though so its not like im cruise control here.
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Woohoo! first weekend thread ive seen all season. I dunno, youre all slacking!
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Ippy, have you been to Akakan since they got rid of the top lift and the lift in the middle next to champion B? You used to be able to lap that resort. Now as a boarder there are two super long flat sections that are almost impossible to make unless it's icy!
I mentioned this a couple of seasons ago. Stayed at the really nice little hostel (cheap - but fully english speaking), a little near the bottom of the area run by the ex-forest-ranger or something of the mountain. He told me, and this was weird, that prince hotels were looking to get rid of it, and they were doing it by er, cutting down on the lifts to make it more attractive or something. I dunno.
Also, thank god, i ha a look at the map and realised it wasnt my favorite line there (champion a). Im trying to recall what that means now... i guess top to the lift on champion A isnt so bad, but its when you get to the top of A and have to traverse back to the main mountain itself right? I have these vague shitty memories of unclipping and skating all the way back there after maybe the first turn on the path, but not sure if im memorying right. Ahhhhh! yeah, because you have to actually get back to the top lift.... hang on, when you say top lift, you mean the TOP lift right? The one they shut down before 2008 (when i first went there). You cant mean (what i now know as) the top lift? That would be commercial suicide! without that lift id never bother going there again. How the hell am i supposed to kill myself without going into the trees skiers right on course c? Ride under the lift on champion A? Hardly!
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Update from Suginohara:- it's on like donkey kong!! Never been here b4 but with a foot+ of new powder on a weekday, I'm getting fresh lines all over the shop and the top trees runs are some of the best I've ever ridden! Following the advice in the reviews and above, I've stayed over in the Mitahara Zone and have yet to explore all the tree areas, which I'm going to do after I've finished this katsudon ;-) More later!
Also mad jelly on this! Grats though. Dont waste your time doing the top to bottom until your penultimate run. If the taps are on just keeping lapping the mitahara lift (actually since they shut the top lift off almost every time ive been there and closed the best lift from the bottom to the middle i guess it is THE (as in the one and only) mitahara lift). Its nice and nippy, gets you a decent way up the mountain. If by a miracle the top is running, obviously, top to middle in the trees then
Also dont think like i once did that there was a way to maybe go from mitahara side to the main side through the trees. Im fairly sure there isnt. If you want to get back to the main part you need to suffer that garbage pair lift and the no doubt massive unclip. The bottom half is so pretty as well. You might even see some monkeys in the trees. It really made that whole side perfect. You play about in the powder on the top half, enjoy the whole fun of criss crossing the resort in the middle, then charge into the line cut into the trees at the bottom for a nice cruise out. Was a brilliantly long, fun little ride. You can still do, and you will do it of course, but now youre adding a 100 meter walk or so (given you have decent conditions), and a really bad lift before being spat at the gondie, then riding that to the mid point, skating for another fifty meters then cruising through a really boring path/cat track area and past the (probably shut top lift) and off to mitahara again. If you want though, there is a fun little line through the middle that brings you down at the gondie direct you should probably have a crack at (id do it later when you fancy some exploration). Ooooh, and im honestly trying to remember if i actually did this or if i just dreamed it... but im fairly sure you can ride almost top to bottom under the gondie. I think theres just a few, er. fences (not just ropes) you need to navigate around. But pretty sure i did it once. Id scope that out though before you take my word on it.
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What are peoples favorite Myoko skijos? I want to go too but really have no idea which skijo I would pick.
Sugi is my absolute favourite (evah!!!), but only in peak. After peak sugi is a crap hole. Which is actually what swung the decision to pick up the nozzie season pass last season. Its sorta flat, which is the big complaint against it, and gets sticky late season quickly, but its beautiful to ride on, has powder out the whazoo, has LOADS of little spots to hit up and has "japans longest piste ride!" It also has fun hiking ive been reliably informed (no off piste above the lifts for me). Its sort of like Kagura now i think about it. Only with more restaurants, a more bubbly park rat atmosphere, and with more rideable terrain given that it is a gradual terrain shallowing top to bottom (rather than kaguras really nice top bit then really flat 2/3rds of the rest of the mountain). Kagura lasts way longer though and is half as busy in peak season (though mad busy once the other resorts in yuzawa start suffering).
Next is akakan. Which is a better all round resort. Its got a bit more of everything. Its a perfect medium sized japanese resort. Kinda like Goryu i guess in a way. Some fun steeps to play in, (one of my absolute favourites as well - 45 degree wall thats bouncy as hell). Lots of trees to muck about in. Its got a nice shallowing gradient (steepish up top and gradually flattening to the base). Run out at base is only a short one and it shouldnt result in unclipping on that last two hundred meters or so (as you breeze past the car park to the gondola). Not really many negatives to akakan to be honest. Like sugi it gets puked on when the taps open. Its just a bit more... generic i guess. Its like a perfectly designed family resort with some optional extras so it never really speaks to my heart like sugi does. Oooh, it also bases you in the heart of the onsen and food area of the mountain (sugi has you miles and miles out).
Third is seki i assume... ill leave that to people who've been there. Always want to go, but just never make it. Same with cortina.
Fourth or third for me, is ikenotaira. I like it, its a fun resort for a family or if you just want a LOT of space on a straightfrward top to bottom run. I havent been there since my second season mind you, but what i remember was feeling it was entirely approporiate to my skill level at the time. It was my first real lift line and tree run place. Lots of ski schools though. I wouldnt go out of my way for ikenotaira. But if i had a week or so at myoko id make some time for it probably.
Last is akakura onsen. I cant convey my loathing for this place. One of the three resorts on my shit list. Unless you have really small kids who adore short shitty runs, id just not bother AT ALL. Only useful to get you into the village at lunch time so you can have pizza for lunch instead of your typical skijo scran. Lift placements blow your mind. Runs are tiny and flat and the only thing that made it even bareable for me was getting to the very top, ducking a rope, then dropping a couple of meters onto an icy flat road and poaching the fun steep at akakan before riding back to akakura onsen
(the resorts cut in and out of each other in key places). Hate that resort. Im even disgusted with myself that i just spent the 2 minutes typing all this. I should have just said F**** THAT S****HOLE!!! -
Its epic in a drop. Stay mitahara side. Actually dont, but the lift there is pretty nippy and it beats the mad gondy queues if its busy. If its not weekender though, then the whole place is LITERALLY yours.
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Id stop mentioning it. Id just start a free lift ticket blacklist and post it on forums with a name of the resort next to them and barring them from entry to new giveaways until they meet the newer more strict conditions (id up the review word count and id also have my little red pen to wipe away the Dickensian traits out there). But then im cheeky and i like scandal I also like offering people a chance for redemption because i am an angel sent from heaven!
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its WORTH IT!!! (even though i hated it enough to pitch one of my only two strops on a ski resort - get your gondie ticket early at the bottom or avoid it altogether - second fit was pitched by the way, fact fans, in escal plaza at the start of the season when they wouldnt let me put a binding box on the top of the lockers. I clearly wanted to take the damn thing home with me but the jobsworth at the salomon counter wasnt standing for it. I could have just put it in a locker and not paid, but brain wasnt firing and i was really stressed by the fact we got there around 2.30 and the lifts were shutting at 3.30 so was ready to blow up. Guy was a dick though).
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--- Zao (few)
How is this unclaimed????!?! anyone in this area not taking a freebie for zao at the THIRD asking is now officially blowing my damn mind!
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If theres no fresh snow its probably going to suck. But my advice is
1. Make sure you get off at the gondola station. You wont think its the gondola station. Youll probably just think its some kind of lift set up for a run that comes away from the main zone. But unfrotunately youd be wrong. Its possibly the ugliest, shittiest looking base area of all the places ive ridden.
2. Enjoy the off piste but BEFORE you go cruising under the ropes on skiers left on mitahara, i would STRONGLY URGE you at least take one lift up from the middle so you can scope out that MASSIVE cliff drop and not accidentally fall down it.
3. If conditions have been shitty (havent checked), then its going to be AMAZINGLY sticky in the trees. Suginohara is definitely (for me) a january/february place. Its one of the first to really suffer when temps start crawling above zero.
4. Top lift trees are great fun to play in, and the trees in mitahara are pretty cool, but it flattens out RAPIDLY. If conditions are amazing, go mitahara. If they suck, just stick on the main side.
5. Dunno if its still true, but since 2011 i beleive, they shut down one of THE most essential lifts for a fantastic top to bottom run. This means if youre over at mitahara you should NOT go below the restaurants unless you really love unclipping, walking 2 or 3 hundred meters through sticky slush and then spending 9 minutes in HELL on the worlds second slowest pair lift (as your one and only bus to the station at 4.05pm pulls in, sits about a bit and then leaves without you). For me, the closure of that lift absolutely destroyed one of the best things about sugi and im genuinely and honestly livid about it. I will crowbar thsi complaint into any and every discussion on sugi until its back up and running (it might even be! who knows!)
6. Lockers are EXTORTIONATE! pack light and carry your shit with you or make sure you can squeeze it into a tiny locker
7. I would love to be positive, but sugi blows when the temps rise. I do spend much more time on mitahara though, i rarely ride the other side. Mitahara is powder heaven though when the taps are on. Its amazing fun.
8. Top lift will probably be shut - sorry.
9. Be careful of following old abandoned lift runs. Had my first genuine heart in mouth moment (outside of park) in sugi coming very quickly to a blind drop. Was only actually 3-5 meters, but had no way to stop or see over it in the approach. Came from nowhere. Looked flat and normal, suddenly saw it was a drop and just had to go for it. Could have just as easily gone over a cliff. Far right in the trees also has a cliff drop, but youd have to be reaaaaalllly looking to kill yourself to go off it. Its pretty flat that side and its pretty easy to see.
10. Best fun i have is coming down under the two middle lifts on mitahara. As mentioned above this includes riding under the main middle lift on mitahara with the MASSIVE CLIFF DROP on the left hand side. Basically to start it all off, when you hit the top of mitahara (not the very top - that lift is probably shut as ever), head immediately skiers left until you hit the trees and play in there. Stay reasonably close to the lift line (watch your head!), and you should pop out at the base of the top lift. At this point, any sensible person will be back on teh resort. I dont. Heed point 2. Its very important. Then again though, if the conditions suck, the flatness of it all is going to keep you on the piste anyway (and probably over the other side of the mountain since its got the only real gradient outside the top).
11. Oooh, just remembered, the cross course is usually up about now and they might even have the park over mitahara side. Could keep things fun. Watch the mist though, destroyed my knee coming off one of the rollers when i realised i had too much speed to safely take the penultimate roller, tried to bail off the side, couldnt see properly and stuck the board in 90 degrees into the ground. Still, pretty fun, but that mist in the trees around there is other worldly. Its pure silent hill.
I think thats enough to go on. Sugi is a gem. Enjoy the scenery. Maybe even have a crack at the top to bottom (its a proper leg burner), but i really wouldnt expect all THAT much at this time of year unless youve had a decent drop VERY RECENTLY (itll get shitty after a day) and the temps arent rising. Take the camera and dont judge it on its current conditions. Its so fun in a drop. But outside of one, id rather go akakan i reckons.
ETA: Despite all of this, Sugi is my spiritual home. If you tell me right now i can only ski one resort for the rest of my life, id probably pick it. Its not the best, but it fits me beautifully. Fell in love with it the second i clipped in and hit mitahara. Im sure i updated a sugi review somewhere last season on my freebie ticket ninja day off.
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Thats not a park board!!!!
Or maybe it is! lets breaking the mold! (metaphorically).
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So reading between the (many) lines, is ippy actually missing Japan???
Back to topic, I've wanted to try some of the boards previously mentioned including a Fish and its baby brother, the Fishcuit, but my own personal preference is my current ride, a Prior Khyber!!
of course i miss japan... in winter... when it snows... when i live next to the mountains and can go riding every chance i get. Who wouldnt? I also miss the 13-18 teaching hours where all i ever really had to do was sit around for half the lesson then produce an activity/game for the grammar point, then go back to surfing the net. I dont miss the shit (comparative) pay though or the... um... sorry japan... moody arrogant students.
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youre probably right not to. Its good, but its not like im going to be rewatching it any time soon (or ever).
what's everybody listening to now?
in General off-topic discussions
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Im about to name check him twice in quick succession, but been listening to all the doug stanhope podcasts. Theyre worth the effort.