Metabo Oyaji

It was featured on Hodo Station tonight. Nationwide coverage!

Originally Posted By: thursday no it's not. Domestic travel in Japan is very cheap. Even more so now that the toll roads are free. They're not free yet, still the 1,000 yen flat rate on weekends and holidays with ETC. Still a good deal, though. It widens my affordable range of day trips considerably. If they do become free as promised, though, they will probably be rendered unusable. Just not enough lanes -- and road widening projects have been frozen.

The end of March still had good snow conditions and new snow falls at the Ura-Bandai resorts.

Originally Posted By: Jynxx AND Nikkei is the best. Sure, we hear that all the time. Bin said 30 years ago. Snobbery . Frankly I can't tell except that a lot of Japanese don't talk all that much and the vocabulary is ever changing. All I know is that the Asahi sends me reaching for the dictionary a lot more often than the Yomiuri. Nikkei certainly has a lot of investing/economics jargon, but Asahi is more all-around challenging. Thursday, if you want to talk about the English versions, the Yomiuri's English website reads to me like a tabloid. Much less professional-seeming tha

Nasu Onsen Family Ski-jo is skier-only. Definitely geared to families with small kids, but a very nice place for that demographic. Cheap, too. Only problem is if the closer parking lot fills up, the far lot is quite a long ways away, so bring snow boots for the kids in case you need to make the hike.

Originally Posted By: stemik Originally Posted By: Jynxx Asahi bin left wing and Yomiuri right wing. really - i always thought it was the opposite....not that i read them much these days. You can tell by the difference in vocabulary levels they use.

Originally Posted By: thursday waste of trees Reading the paper version feels relaxing and luxurious. Reading the electronic version feels like downing fast food. Illogical, perhaps, but there it is. Paper also handles morning coffee spills more gracefully.

Asahi, paper-and-ink, dagnabbit.

There is a claim on Wikipedia that after SSAWS was dismantled, it was sent to Dubai. No source given, but if it is on the internet it must be true, right? Has it found new life as the symbol of yet another bubble's excess? There do seem to be some superficial similarities between the two structures.

SSAWS.

Originally Posted By: thursday But for us punters on the ground we can only hope that one day there would be some real hospitality venues which can make international visitors go "wow, that is swish". Ah, so is it mainly an issue for overseas seekers of swish, and not so much something that would impact weekend warriors with kids? If so, I could live with that.

Originally Posted By: Jynxx Are you Italian ? Are you trying to suggest that my idea of "well-run" may not be finely tuned? It was a sincere question. As I said, I've never been to Hirafu, but Thursday keeps making these comments about the place, so I'm wondering what the issue is. A quick search in the forum archives didn't turn up anything, but perhaps I haven't looked hard enough.

Originally Posted By: thursday Hirafu - Tokyu Fine Management Limited Is there something one should know about Tokyu Resorts? The ski areas of theirs that I have been to seem like friendly, well-run family resorts. But I've never been to Hirafu. Is there some sort of dark side to watch out for?

Don't suppose Honshu counts as overseas?

Try going to a rice tasting; now is the season. Or better yet, don't, because then you won't be satisfied with the cheap stuff any more...

Koshihikari is ok, a reliable standard if a bit generic. Milky Queen is where it's at. Check it out.

Originally Posted By: Mamabear The arm band came in handy again My kid is an expert at losing those arm bands. Don't ask me how, they just somehow work their way off while the arm is being flailed around.

SJForums: Got it. I will be more careful with the links in the future. Thanks for an excellent site!

Originally Posted By: Funski What's the Happy 7 lottery? Where can I find out more about it? Looks like it has been renamed the Hakuba-mura Monitor Season Pass, and is only 6 areas now: Sun Alpina, Goryu, 47, Happoone, Iwatake and Minekata. Lottery entry starts tomorrow, ends 10/14: Monitor Season Pass.

I don't know how well they advertised it, but here is an example from the 2005-6 season: Prince Niigata area pass Can't find a current example, though.

Originally Posted By: RobBright Would be great if there was one for the Yuzawa area. Is there one? Googling around, it seems that Prince has offered some kind of Yuzawa-area Prince resorts pass, covering Naeba, Kagura, Hakkaisan, and Yuzawa Nakazato. But I see no evidence of such a thing being offered for this year, at least not yet. They have also had a 5-resort pass covering Karuizawa Prince Hotel, Manza, Ura-Manza, Myoko Suginohara, and Yudanaka Shibu Onsen. Hmmm... as I think about it, the Kan-etsu is always such an unrewarding experience, heading out the Tohoku Expressway

Been looking at season passes that can be used at multiple resorts. Some were mentioned in the Hakuba 47 thread, but Hakuba is not the most convenient location to me, and anyway it would be nice to find something a little more wide-ranging. One that caught my eye is the Gran Deco season pass (40,000 yen for adults if purchased before 10/31, 24,000 yen for kids, with further 10% discount for family purchases), which also lets one ski for 1,000 yen at several other Tokyu resorts: Mt. Jeans, Hunter Mountain, Tambara, Tangram, Togakushi, Fujimi Panorama, and Ski Jam Katsuyama. Plus, for 2

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver Sasuke is that Adventure Course TV show that they bring out once or twice a year, I love that. Watched a bit of it yesterday as well. They usually get well known athletes, sportsmen and such like to compete. kinda like a serious version of Takeshi's Castle Yes, it is an insanely difficult obstacle course. Only 2 people have ever managed to complete it in something like 15 years. One of them came within a couple of seconds of doing it again last night, but no dice. A taste:

Originally Posted By: Metabo Oyaji Before the final stage of Sasuke is done??? And now that it is done: oshii! Oh well, off to bed myself.

Originally Posted By: grungy-gonads It deserves it's own thread. Anyone willing to take the trouble? I'm off to bed, yawn. Before the final stage of Sasuke is done???