onehunga

Looks like the pile of Skis at my local Book Off

If I remember the Top Gear episode that had a Robin Relaint on it, the idea came about because you didn't need a full car licence to drive one.

Nice pics, a lot of snow has gone since I was there in mid March. Not so much off the runs, but there was a lot less snow in the background of those shots than a couple of weeks ago.

The Queen will still be around in 40 years. She may even be a fembot! Well I expect my telegram in 52 years, how long do fembots last?

Given that I hope to live long enough to get a telegram from the King, I can therefore define middle aged as 50. In which case I'll be middle aged before the kids start school.

Best you start practising your photoshop skills.

Looks like you will be joining your wife to be at the "Hair and Make" salon

Will try, next season we intend on getting them ski lessons. By then they'll had had a year of swimming and gym lessons so should be able to be "good" students, follow directions, listen to instructors. My wife also wants them to ski so she can sit at the base drinking hot chocolate. Apparently the hot chocolate at Kusatsu is very, very good.

I hope to try Manza next season, will depend on the amount of snow there is as the access road looks a bit hairy.

The way to do it is too have twins, two at once is a real handful, after 6 months my wife was very happy to go back to work.

Second the interest in the Kusatsu report, but you got me curious about why Kusatsu is the only place you get to go skiing... In-laws run a ryokan there or something? (Don't need to answer, of course.) Lots of reasons really: My wife doesn't like snow or skiing, lots of Onsens there that she does like Kids don't ski yet, next door Hotel has swimming pool which they enjoy The company my wife works for has accomadation there, means it's cheap to stay My wife works, I stay at home looking after the kids, like most Japanese she puts in lots of overtime, so it would be a bit unfair to

I think I'd beat you, I spent two years at Nova, about 7 years ago. Have no teaching qualifications at all, only got the job though my wifes mums friend knowing someone at NOVA. Then got banished to the furtherist school from my house because I refused to teach kids. (Joke was on NOVA though, allthough it was the furtherist away by train it was quite close by bike, so got the train money and rode my moutain bike there) Never did like teaching there, felt too much like working at a fast food place, I was tempted to ask the students if they wanted fries with their lesson. Ha! amateur! i

But most places expect you to have a degree, after all you need a degree to get the working visa.

I think I'd beat you, I spent two years at Nova, about 7 years ago. Have no teaching qualifications at all, only got the job though my wifes mums friend knowing someone at NOVA. Then got banished to the furtherist school from my house because I refused to teach kids. (Joke was on NOVA though, allthough it was the furtherist away by train it was quite close by bike, so got the train money and rode my moutain bike there) Never did like teaching there, felt too much like working at a fast food place, I was tempted to ask the students if they wanted fries with their lesson.

Look forward to the report, for many and varied reasons Kusatsu is the only place I get to go skiing, so I like to see what other people think of the place.

Just for fun I thought I'd try to find the offending post, didn't find it, but did find another company using a similiar picture to promote Niseko. I guess if you don't know Japan very well any photo will do.

I couldn't see any reason for it being shut, (but then what I know about snow and hills could be written on the back of a matchbox), and although on the map it's a black run, it didn't look to steep. There is also another run on the map, out to the left of lift 4 that wasn't open both times I was there. What can be seen of it from the lift indicates it's fairly steep and very narrow. Which may be why they have shut it.

No it wasn't. Wasn't open in Feb either. Not only was it roped off at the top, but it appears that something had been "driven" across it halfway down to discourage anyone from trying it.

It's always been dark when we drive in and out, but I'll certainly look out for it next year.

No, didn't get a view of Mt Asama, not exactly sure where it is. But if you mean on the drive back, it was snowing getting out of the resort, then dark. Didn't get a view of anything except hundreds of tail lights.

I went to Kusatsu for the second time on the weekend of 10/11 March. According to the weather forecast it had been snowing since the previous Thursday night, and it was snowing when we got there Friday night. Overnight about about12 cms fell, judging by how much was on the car when I went out Saturday morning, and it continued snowing till just after lunch time. This meant a lot of fresh nice snow to ski on, much nicer than the icier hard stuff I skied on in Feb. To my mind the resort has two halves to it, halfway point being the gondola station and the top car park, you can go from top o

I think you need to be a bit more specific in what you are looking for. I could have skied down my street yesterday, and a few hills around here would have been skiable, but I'm not sure that makes Kanagawa a prefecture you can ski in. If you are looking for prefectures with ski resorts or facilities just follow SJ-Davids advice. Note: if you do find anything skiable in Kanagawa please let me know

They also sold gloves and helmets. The gloves were good, 3000 yen and were warmer than the NZ$150 gloves I got sent up from NZ. Not too sure about the helmets as I couldn't find one that fitted

Last weekend I used Bolle Goggles from Costco, over glasses or prescription sunglasses. Had no fogging problems, other than when I forgot to remove them walking into the resturants. They cost 3,000 yen, but I was at Costco today and they have gone, replaced with summer gear, however for next season you may want to try.

One movie that I can recommend as so bad it's good is Maiden Voyage. Especially interesting to anyone from New Zealand. See the following info and review on IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397524/ I sat though it in horror, only keep watching because I couldn't believe it was so bad, but in the end actually enjoyed it. In the, it's so bad it's good way.