[Rental gear at Shigakougen]

Went last year. Under the Prince is better than other places within Shiga. We stayed at sunroute and they gave had only slalom race skies - which were great on the road down to the prince...:-). I skied on Salomon 1080 foils (grey face) - probably year old. Being an average powder skier i found them fine & well looked after (no rock work).

- sorry not much help unfortunately I didn't really check out the demo gear.

 

Good call re the boots - i am a 28.5 and there was not a big selection.

 

going to nozawa this year - same situation as you - too much other travel to justify bringing own ski's over.

[nozawa onsen self contained accomodation]

Hi,

 

I was just wondering if someone could recommend any self contained accomodation in Nozawa Onsen (and their contact details) for a group of 6-8 - like a house or apartment. Unfortunately the house (on the SJ accomo page) is booked out for the week we are going in Feb 09.

 

We have done western hotel / japanese style accomodation in Shiga Kogen & Hakuba before - and want a change.

 

Thanks.

[Gear Hire Shiga Kogen]

We stayed at Sunroute in Dec 07 and used the hotels gear.

Ski shop is very basic (basically a garage) - I'd suggest going down the road to the bottom of Prince Hotel (where the gondola is) - had much better gear (i.e. powder specific ski and snowboards).

We went midweek and no one was in the hotel except us, so felt a little sorry for the very kind owner/staff who made us really welcome. We had a great few days (i'll try and attach a photo from room - we arrive late one afternoon, could see road and not much snow, massive dump at night and this is the result in the next morning - we basically grabbed the equipment and skied down on the road which had a foot of fresh stuff to the gondola about 600m down the road)

 

Ended up with 06 Atomic GS Race skis - fine for Australia, not so good in Japan (although lack of powder technique may have more to do with it). Boots just fit 28.5 largest size - very Retro 80s 1 buckle job. No snowboards over 158. Basically if you want to explore more than the groomers get gear elsewhere.

 

Would love to know if anyone knows same about places in NO. We are heading back in late Feb 09 - love Japan skiing. Enjoy Sunroute and Shiga.