NECK

Speedos and a wife-beater vest (with ketchup stains).

Nozawa Onsen for sure! Like Black Mountain said, Myoko Suginohara would suit your needs too

If you want it to stretch the whole 6 weeks, then no. If it just for a week and you plan to travel around by shinkansen, then yes. It is good for the Narita express train too, so worth considering that if only buying for one week.

Haha. I mean there is nothing worth going to Shiga for ;-)

Train from Nagoya to Nagano is scenic too. Bus will be cramped and loooong.

I do miss the terrain of the Rockies and the Alps for sure, but not the queues, 'European charm' or having to seriously hussle for my powder lines.... That's why Nagano works best for me :-)

So many good spots up in Shiga but nobody seems to know about them. Ichinose and Terakoya trump it for snowboarding. If you ski there is better still. Spend 20 minutes with a topographical map of those areas and you can't miss the long powder lines with very minimal hiking involved.

An awesome giveaway! Unfortunately I will have no chance of getting up to Hokkaido this season, so I can't enter this one. Holding out for the Hakuba resorts, Moyoko, Nozawa and Shiga giveaways

Seemore, Niseko is obviously better . I had an awesome time at Rusutsu as a day away from Niseko. My ride buddy had spent some time there before and guided me to taste some seriously good lines! Of course the Hakuba steeps and Otari area beat anything in Hokkaido hands down!

Rusutsu has some amazing lines and definitely worth a day trip from Niseko if you are there for a week or more

Obuse has one with a legit down-slope landing, so you can actually ride out properly if/when you stomp the landing. It's called 'Obuse Kings' and is popular during the off season. The kicker surfaces are made of that brushy 'dry slope' material, so take care not to slam on the approach! The Ryuo one is so so. Seems odd to be practicing landing on a bag in the season, when you can just hike 15 minutes off the trail and build your own kicker into a powder landing!

Me too please

Korean license? You don't have a British license?...... It took me 10 minutes to change my UK license to a Japanese one. You can buy a 4WD Kei car with a year of shakken for pennies. Insure it for under 3000yen per month and drive to any resort you want. Before you go you can scrap it for 5000yen or just give it away/sell it. Minimal cost, maximum snow riding Plane would work too!

JTB and a car sounds good for you ippy

I am sure it's the same deal as when used with a GoPro, ipod, GPS, phone, portable sandwich toaster........

Can't find any but I will try to play around with my Tracker2 and my Contour Roam with my ride buddy and his Tracker 2 and ContourHD soon. Pretty sure any issues experienced using with the GoPro and transceivers are likely to be the same with the Contour models to be honest......

I got the Roam which I am very happy with. The HD lens is recessed slightly, but the Roam lens is flush to the housing which has rounded edges. No snow build up at all when I was getting the face-shot buffet last season . I think the GoPro has a lot going for it, but if you snowboard then it's a no-brainer to go Contour. You can't get POV footage following your exact line of sight when snowboarding with the GoPro sticking up from your helmet facing straight. You need the camera to be lined up with your back eye (left if goofy, right if regular) to get the right shot with your line of

Looks like Happo it is then

I would be inclined to recommend that you cycle that little bit extra to Otari and hike up from Tsugaike car park

Hmmm.... Do I really want to part with 2400 to ride that top lift?..... How much is a single ride up the gondola? I may consider riding/hiking/cross-country scrambling down to the bottom. Or just hiking some other place...

How much do you think a day/half day pass will cost for those 2 lifts?

Goryu looking to get that early start huh? Just the gondola and the top pair maybe?

I have a sintered base on my 'any day' snowboard. I waxed it before I used it for the first time, then didn't wax it again for 2 seasons. It still flies! You really don't even need to wax your extruded base at all, but out of habit I still wax them once before I use them.

Although now it looks likely that it will rain on Saturday So may have to wait a little while longer to get those first turns of the season....

So it snowed a decent amount in Hakuba on Tuesday night, Wednesday and last night too. Seems like up to 30cm in some places down in the valley and up to 60+ up top! Has anyone hiked up there for any early turns yet? How is it? Thinking to dust off the beater stick and hike up there with a buddy this weekend if it doesn't get warm before then....