s3phis

We should totally start a thread about Japanese customs and ettiquiette! I think the most amazing thing is watching the girls doing their mascara and eyeliner on a train/bus without poking their eyes out in the process.

I don't think it'd actually be possible to use a mobile while during rush hour in Tokyo or Osaka

- Don't use phones on public transport If all the people during rush hour talked on their phones, it'd be chaos worse than it is now. - Cover tattoos While the taboo is lessening now, it still upsets a lot of people and can attract unwanted attention. - Don't wear clothes in an onsen The onsen ettiquette is quite strictly adhered to. A lot of it is common sense so I wouldn't worry too much(plus, there's usually hundreds of signs up or in pamphlets) - It's more polite to use cash rather than card (though card is still accepted) Japan's a cash society. Most pe

Originally Posted By: Cheeseman We are going to Nozawa this weekend (probably). Can't wait. Hope we get fine weather, after lots of snow of course. Still deciding which cheese to take. Perhaps Gouda. If you're looking for someone to donate cheese to, I'll be at the ski school ;

I posted about this some time ago but generally speaking, the following holds true until the JPY weakens or AUD strengthens: don't exchange your money in Japan. At the moment, the banks, Foreign Exchange companies etc are trying to get rid of their AUD as it's a bad investment. You will get good JPY->AUD rates but terrible AUD->JPY rates as a result. It's really them giving people incentives to buy their AUD rather then sell them more. American Express booths are usually pretty bad (and they're usually set up at every Airport). When you look at the Buy and Sell rates, their profits

Originally Posted By: Yappy Hehe, don’t think we'll be trying any Michelin restaurants, but we're hoping to go for a Kobe steak in Tokyo before we leave. Mmmmm. I’m hoping money wont be too much of an option, got about 170,000 yen for the holiday (all accom is paid for and I’ve got 50,000 put aside for lift passes & 20,000 for the train fare). Do you think that should be enough?? Jesus, a season pass is like 55,000 yen... lol you planning on staying a while? XD As for Kobe beef... you could also try Tokyo-X pork as an alternative (and as something that most people wou

Get it now before it drops imo. Gold market is going down so I'm not going to be suprised if we get to 55 in feb. Last I saw, we were just under 60 yen to the dollar.

Uni-Qlo thermal-tech is your friend

I'm generation Y

Not even all Japanese like natto. I think about 1/3 of the people I know despise the thing. I personally don't hate it but surely there are a million other things you could satisfy your hunger with >_<. Assuming it's not durian

Yesterday's snow was pretty bad at Nozawa. After work, no one wanted to bother practicing. Today's not bad, just cold and gassey /whinge . In regards to cultural diversity, we've always had a lot of SE Asian people come in. The general pattern is: Mid-Late Dec: Aussies/Brits Early Jan: Japanese Mid Jan: Aussies Late Jan: Aussies/Chinese (HK)/Thai/Malaysian The problem with Australians isn't so much the people, I know most people here prefer the liveliness of Australians over others. I think the biggest issue is the communication factor. The people here try to communicate but

Well, an izakaya is a drinking establishment, not a diner so the food is usually over-priced. You can get decent kaiseki meals for about 2500 yen. If you go to the diner type places (normal japanese meals and they often take orders via the ticket vending machines) it's like 800 yen for a set meal (usually get your main, rice, a side and some miso soup). If you go to a yakinikuya or something, a cheap all-you-can-eat is about 2000 yen, a decent one is about 3000 yen and you get the better range at about 5000 yen, but that usually consists of things foreigners wouldn't really eat. Tokyo's

The woolie ugg boots (you know, the ones with the leather on the outside and the wool on the inside?) are very much in fashion at the moment. If you get a decent pair, you can wear them in the snow while also being fashionable in the cities. Just make sure they're waterproof. Otherwise, there are a lot of fashionable snow-boots around lately (largely due to Dior and Prada's ski/board line from 3 years ago) that you can probably look at. The ones I've seen that I would consider looking good were about 5000-7000 yen so not too expensive. Re food budget... I think I spent 500-1000 yen per m

New IXSM shop has been set up at the gift shop underneath Haus St. Anton (at the O-yu road). I don't remember the price but it's pretty cheap to go to the monkeys. They only set up shop early this year so I don't know much about it but it seems alright. I think the guy at the desk speaks English (if that's a point) but I think it's worth checking out.

Food: Hamachou (Aka Long Beach) has good sushi Shijyuka has good ramen (only opens late at night for a short time, known for their 'tantan-men' noodles) Drinkies: Stay (jazz/rock themed bar) Foot Point (cheap drinks, has some DJ events every now and then) There's also a korean BBQ shop, pizza diner and your usual japanese style restaraunts.

Yeah it puzzled me for a while, I left it charging for days and it'd only last 24-25hrs at most. Really useless when I'm using it for an alarm clock . I just gave up and bought a new phone in Japan. I also suspected a dead battery... but when I took it back to Australia and charged it there, it was fine again. *shrug*

Mattaus: Not really, most high-end notebooks by ASUS, LG etc use three pins. My LG phone uses three pins for the charger , my other phone has only 2 pins though. Dick Smith only sell 2 pin adaptors; they do not sell a 3 pin Japan/Australia adaptor. I've found that Dell sell 3 pin to 2 pin 12v notebook adaptors which is what I use for my notebook (the third pin is just an exposed cable that you can ground). I also found that my LG phone charges alright but the battery just doesn't last a day if I charge it in Japan .

The biggest problem I found with power adaptors is the third, grounding pin. Due to the high voltage, a lot of Australian products require a grounding/earth pin. On the other hand, Japan does not have a 3rd pin (although they've started polarising their two pins). By Australian law, retailers cannot sell an Au/Jp adaptor which has a slot for the grounding pin (as it will not actually be earthed when used in Japan). If you have something that uses the three pins (mobile phones, some laptops etc), then get a EURO adaptor and then buy a Euro->Jp adaptor or try find an adaptor that has a third

I don't think it's unreasonable considering that the constant thermal shock would wear out the polymer bonds as well as what thursday said.

Originally Posted By: snowdude Some people do anything to get attention! But in all seriousness I think lifts around the world do have problems. One thing I have found in Japan is that the lifts at several of the resorts I have been to are too low to the ground so when I get off the lift at the top I have to make sure that I am a fair way forward so that the tops of my boots don't get caught under the bottom of the chair as I get off. I have been caught out like that in the past, and have complained about it, but they just say there is nothing that can be done. I didn't get injured or any

Originally Posted By: Creek Boy Originally Posted By: tsondaboy Originally Posted By: thursday what negative experiences? Like CB said, too many Chinese. (and bad vibes from a specific restaurant I wont name) too many chinese isnt a bad thing mate - neither are too many japanese. a few of the HK/Taiwanese seemed to think that money would get them whatever they wanted and F'anybody else...a few of the women I had to deal with (on behalf of the hotel) were just blatantly rude (maybe its cultural as I thought that when in Beijing a bit but just accepted it cuz I was in their co

RB: not really, 'cause he said he wanted to go budget and the best way to go budget is to get gear that's 2 seasons back. We rang up a few suppliers a few days ago to see if they could get a decent package together for us but most replied with the same thing: if you're not looking for race/pro, you may as well get the older models because they're not going to make that big of a difference on the average skiier/rider. There's a big shop a bit out from Nagano that can do good deals.

And then the guests get a suprise when they open the door to the W/C...

If you go to the major cities, you can get previous season's wear/equipment at really discount prices. Japan's huge on the whole "fashion" thing (i.e. they're really critical about being noticed in the previous season's skis etc) so if you can get to the outlets, you can get a board + binding + boots package for about 30,000 yen or less. Just my small 2c

Generally speaking, VISA and MasterCard are okay. The main reason is that the CC fee is only 1.5% where as the Amex/Diner/JCB is at 3%. At Nozawa Onsen, I'm pretty sure the lift vendors as well as the ski school at the Hikage centre have CC facilities but I'm unsure of the Nagasaka/Karasawa centres. Post Office should but I think the ATM is inside so I'd recommend making sure you have enough cash on you to last the night too (if you plan on going out eating/drinking). CC's are still pretty sparesly used, I think the safest bet is to withdraw the money as cash rather than relying on