[Why will you NOT visit Japan for your next snow holiday]

I went to Tokyo at end of May for a week and I had fantastic time. The life there is as usual, on the plus side there's a lot less gaijins spoiling the mood.

 

As far as I'm concerned there are no problems travelling there as long as you don't go to the tsunami hit areas. They are still having aftershocks near Sendai.

 

As for radiation levels in Tokyo, they are lower than Sydney and a lot less than you will get exposed to by flying an plane to get there.

[Zao Onsen, Yamagata - 22nd February 2010]

I just got here and what a disapointment, the resort is great, it's 100% open, but because of the unseasonal warm weather and lots of rain all monsters are gone!

 

I like all the runs here, not many difficult ones, but considering I had 3 knee surgeries, I like it! There could be few more small jumps and few more terrain features to goof around on, it's mostly freerider paradise here when it comes to snowboarding. It explains why I've seen quiet few people with alpine snowboards here.

[Newbie to Japan and board choice/size]

Hello all, you have a great forum here. I've been reading it for few days now and there's lots of useful info here. Like the poor credit card facilities in Niseko which will save my ass.

 

I'm preparing for my trip in March to Japan. Two weeks of are dedicated to snowboarding and I'm planning to visit Zao Onsen, Nozawa Onsen, Shiga Kogen or Hakuba, Niseko and I'm purchasing all of my gear right now. Before I've always used rentals and it was a hit and miss. The boots were always wrong, too much heel lift and cramped toes, and I was never happy with the board/bindings. Frequently I had experienced toe drag which followed by a crash.

 

I mostly do all mountain with maybe 5-10% park and I enjoy boming down the mountain. I do green and blue runs. Very often the green runs are in between blue ones to give my (left) leading knee a bit of a break, since it has seen 3 reconstructions. I might do few jumps here and there with frequent crashes.

 

All of my riding until now was in Australia (aka Ice). It's going to be the first time I'm going ride any powder and I'm wondering what my board choice should be.

 

I'm 184cm (6') tall and 84kg (185lbs), but on a good day I can be as high as 90kg (198lbs), I would say that I'm progressing quickly to intermediate level or maybe I'm already there.

 

I've pretty much set myself on a 2010 Lib Tech Travit Rice board. But I'm undecided if I should get 157cm board, since it's going to be easier to manouver. But I'm not sure if it will float on pow with my weight. Especially if I get heavier. The sales guy told me that I will be fine. But I'm not so sure about it and I'm thinking about getting the longer 161.5cm board.

 

What do you guys suggest?

 

Cheers!