acpowman

It's def not going to be open, they haven't had enough bookings for the season to warrant keeping it open as a lodge (there was only about 5 bookings in it all season) so they're trying to lease it as a long term rental. Whoever you booked through should have known what was going on.

Originally Posted By: Fonty Originally Posted By: surfarthur Mamabear, you can have the Quantas flight from Perth for the same price - they throw in a free flight to the east coast, so it will take a bit longer! Is this through a travel agency Seemore? As I am looking to book my flights at the moment but you can't book all the way through to Sapporo on the Qantas site. Thanks Yep package airfare through an agent, can't be done online with Qantas. Generally needs to be purchased with some form of land content, hence package airfare.

Originally Posted By: Mamabear Originally Posted By: Crunky Also the flight to the Northern Island is included in the price regardless, so the cost to fly to Hakuba or Niseko is basically the same. Umm... never in my memory! I have always booked separate flights. There is a cost involved with both destinations - Hakuba it is Nex Ticket to Tokyo, Shink to Nagano and transfer to Hakuba (the way we did it anyway); and Niseko Airport Limousine Narita to Haneda, flight to Sapporo, Transfer (whiteliner) to Niseko. Much of a muchness - I would not let the cost or time of either be your decidi

Originally Posted By: PWL Perhaps the late bird gets the deals this time round...... earlybird deals are out, they won't get any better later in the year, but they may extend the current deals if no one bites.

Some interesting factual information about current radiation levels.....unless you visit the exclusion zone around Fukushima radiation levels are twice as high (or more) in Australia than anywhere else in Japan. http://jnto.org.au/informations/index.html?id=479

I think overall numbers will be around 85 - 90 % myself, but yeah will def depend on the news getting delivered by the western media.

What dates are the effected by the higher prices for the Chinese New Year acpowman? Chinese New Year is last week of Jan, some companies will just jack prices up for the 10 days over this week, others have extended the peak rates from x-mas till end of CNY. Accommodation providers in Niseko feel the demand will be same as usual, personally i think they've got their head up their arse, they obviously haven't learned their lesson from the post GFC year. Guess we'll see as the year goes on. I think GN is on the money, if bookings are weak at the end of the earlybird period they will j

Rates are out for Niseko apartments for next season....about a 5% increase from this year. Early bird deals are much the same, they run until about June but limited availability so could sell out before then. Same as always, prices will get more expensive as the year goes on.

Report is done at 6am, it's uploaded to the nadare website at 8am.

Have they put out the updated winter forecast GN ?

Originally Posted By: MitchPee Originally Posted By: MikePow It's called an opinion, not a 'boosterism'. I did one season in Utah based out of Park City and skied all the resorts with the exception of Brian Head. An excellent season with loads of powder days. And also hours of waiting to get up Little Cottonwood Canyon and to get on the tram at Snowbird. I've done three seasons in Niseko. And in my experience and IMHO the snow in Niseko is better than the snow in Snowbird and the snow on Hokkaido is better than the snow in Utah. Exactly why I want to try out Niseko so badly. S

Yep, f@$! the sun, snow all the time !

There's a store at the back of the Prince hotel that has a good range of current seasons skis from K2 - Darkside, Obsethed, Hellbents ect. It was the only place up there i found with decent gear, i was there 2 years ago in March and the dude had next years skis already.

I'd be looking to get something around 100 underfoot, especially if you plan to spend a lot of time on them in Japan. If your just learning to ski powder/off piste conditions the wider ski will be more stable and make life much easier, and you'll progress faster. Also look at getting something with a bit of tip rocker in it. They'll still carve fine on groomers, 100 is an all mountain width these days, powder skis start from around 110 and go upward rapidly from there. Once you go fat you'll never go back !

Originally Posted By: Tex Originally Posted By: MikePow When you pick up the season pass you can pay the additional cost. It was 1,000 yen last time I did it. Thanks Mike! So only available with a season pass? I wont have a season pass but want to get the Hirafu club Membership.... Yep only available with a season pass Tex.