Queen Cosmo

Depends if you like wielding sharp daggers on your hands and feet and swinging away at breakable things while putting yourself at elvis-leg-shaking risk in areas of great aesthetic beauty. I'm from the Northeast US, where, when the skiing gets bulletproof, you can either a) run gates, or cuss and swear your way up a mountain with a couple of equally ill-minded mountaineers who find a sick pleasure in freezing their toushes off while hanging off the side of an ice-clad cliff. Yes, it's fun, dammit. But nothing beats the DOWN with two Cosmic planks on my feet.

Haha... well, you're talking to a person who's about sit down to eat octopus, so maybe I shouldn't have weighed in on this one. But natto IS GROSS!

It must stink to be living in Japan and not like eating fish. Fish meat, fish skin, fish tails, fish heads, yumm! Fish for breakfast? Heck yeah! It's so expensive back home, I consider myself spoiled here. Things I eat for breakfast (like you care): Broiled fish (salmon, sama, shisamo, whatever!) Rice (we mix in half brown half white) Miso soup Salad Tofu (yummy with a dash of sesame oil, shoyu and bonito flakes) Dried nori Pretty much whatever tastes good (I ain't that picky). Things I do NOT eat for breakfast, or ever for that matter: Natto My significant other i

Thanks for the uploading guide, David- very helpful. I wish there were fewer steps involved, but it's really not too complicated. I guess I was a little lazy and inserted a link to the page instead of pasting the URL for each photo (sorry!). Thanks for the comments, Muika and SKI. So the way they construct these puppies is they build a frame (hopefully a very solid one) out of steel members, then add a big rat's nest of ropes and netting on which the ice shall catch and form. Then they string up a few hoses and turn 'em on to a slow drippy-drip, adjustable depending on temps, and with a

Hey all, what about the ferries? We are bringin' our wheels up- does anyone have any experience using the car ferry? I hope it's not uber-expensive. Our wheels = our campsite.

Hey folks, So a couple of weeks ago, I went backpacking with fishy_bridges up in Yatsugatake. I posted some photos here if you're interested: Yatsugatake Backpacking Photos We were walking in snow most of the time. They seem to be preparing for an ice climbing fest at the lower huts. Any fellow ice climbers out there that might know the details? Cheers

Cross-dressers or not, we all kind of look like overdressed marshmallows on the slopes, ne? Came to Gunma to tend to some of S.O.'s family responsibilities, which have recently wrapped up and now it's time to explore and play!

Significant Other: Safety Officer, Special Operations

Thanks David Reading it now...

GORGEOUS photos, Muikabochi! We've been doing a lot of hiking around here, including Kurobe and many of the other peaks that surround the location of your photo with the red bridge. Training for... you guessed it! Further off the topic, but two weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to get out to Yatsugatake for an overnight backpacking trip. There was quite a bit of snow, but not enough yet to make us wish we had brought our skis. They were building ice walls at two of the lower shelters- getting ready for an ice climbing festival, which will be worth checking out. I would post a photo

At the base of Akagi, a bit east of Maebashi. This area is historically famous for silk weaving and textile manufacuring.

Greetings folks, this is my first post on SJ, nice to digitally meet you all! My S.O. and I are counting our blessings. We were actually considering going to Tateyama and riding the gondy up before it closed to get in some early-season bc turns. We ended up staying close to home and hiking Akagi, only to return to this sad news. Very tragic indeed. I am AIARE level 2 trained, and have been skiing since I began to walk. However -new to the area- I must admit that am terrified to bc ski in Japan. Partly because I'm not as familiar with the terrain and weather patterns as I am with the