MtHakuba

Unfortunately, people do party pretty hard in Hakuba. Nothing excuses the behaviour of those who did it , but some of the places around here need to put some more security in place. Back in January someone's jacket was stolen from Master Blaster- it would be very easy just to install a security camera or 2, and then everyones gear is much safer. We had fire extinguishers set off twice last year - this year we had some cameras installed and this year we have found everyone is behaving themselves much more.

Hi everyone. If you haven`t booked your flights yet do it now. Jetstar has pretty much half price return flights from Cairns to Tokyo-$229 one way for flights from 18th January. Also specials out of Melbourne and GoldCoast but from March only. From memory this is only the 2nd winter sale they have had to Japan (excluding March) this year.

Hakuba Cortina has just announced they plan to open this Saturday the 11th........hopefully the others won't be too far behind...

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete The 7-11 at Echoland wouldnt do Cirus withdraws last season nor in May... Has that changed? Seems to have panhead pete. Sign on it says you can use cirrus and maestro, and we successfully used maestro, so no reason why it wouldn't work this year.

I always thought best snow for learning was slightly slushy snow like you get in March in Japan-nice and soft. But downside of that is because you spend a lot of time on your bum you end up being pretty wet unless you have really good waterproof pants.

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver ATM's in this country defy belief in the notion that Japan is a Technology leader Just went to the machine about an hour ago (20:50) only to be told that of course I can't take money out of my own account, its a Sunday night for Christ's sake!! Silly Me Well when I first arrived in Japan, they were only open during bank hours, so there was no point to them at all....

Thanks GN. A maestro card is a cash card linked to your bank account back home, like any cash card, but enabled for international use. It is not a credit card.

Last year was very inconvenient for anyone without a Japanese bank account to withdraw cash from an atm if they didn't have a visa card-they pretty much had to go to a post office, at least that was the case in Hakuba. We were in Hakuba recently and my wife managed to use her Australian Cirrus card to withdraw cash from her Australian account at a Seven Eleven convenience store, and apparently you can also use Maestro cards and mastercards this year. Can anyone else confirm this? It certainly would make things a lot easier for travellers to Japan.