[Getting to Hakuba and general slope advice]

Yeah thanks for the heads up. Apparently Iwatake should be a good option if Cortina is closed.

[Getting to Hakuba and general slope advice]

In Hakuba and loving it.. Dumping down at the moment, gonna hit some fresh tracks at cortina tomorrow.. Whoo!

[Getting to Hakuba and general slope advice]

If you need a hotel in Tokyo, the Citadine in Shinjinku is great value. A night out in there is awesome too. Try DNA - great trannys.

 

Haha, we've booked in there! Booked it before I even read this.. great glad it's good.. and wtf, trannies?! Yeah got three days in Tokyo after the boarding, based around Shinjuku. Thanks for the info on how to get there but I really wanna experience a bullet-train so gonna stick with the Shink.

 

Flying out in 14 hours.. time to pack!

[Getting to Hakuba and general slope advice]

Great info all, thanks very much for the responses. I think we'll book the Chuo taxi as they can take our board bags and definitely get the Shink on the way back - can't visit Japan and not travel on a bullet-train!

 

Thanks to the feedback.

 

Pleased to hear there's a big system on the way - hopefully it holds.

 

Thanks again for the info - incredibly useful.

[Getting to Hakuba and general slope advice]

First post for me, mods please move this if it's in the wrong place.

 

Myself and four others are heading to Hakuba from London in about a weeks time and I'd really appreciate some help from people who've been there and done it. We arrive early in the morning into Narita (landing 09:15) and want to make our way to Hakuba as quickly as possible. I've done some extensive reading and it seems the two most viable ways of getting there quickly are by the Shinkansen/bus via Nagano, or by Chuo taxi.

 

The transport issues I have are;

 

Shinkansen: have belatedly realised that we're landing just after Chinese New Year and I've read that the trains will be packed, with little chance of catching one to Nagano. We land next Thursday (26/01/2012). Is this likely to be the case? Is there no way we will get on (with 2x board bags between the five of us, in addition to normal luggage). I'd offload the snowboard bags on to the Takkyubin but we'd really like to be boarding the next day, and their website says delivery can take up to three days.

 

Chuo taxi: door-to-door which is great, but again I can't find an answer about whether or not they can take our board bags. One is a big Burton 180" bag, the other is about 3/4 of that size.

 

Can you recommend one route over the other?

 

Secondly, does anyone have any general advice on where to board in Hakuba? We're staying at Hakuba House which is Sappo / Wanado / Happo One area (none of those areas means anything to me - yet!). I've heard that if it dumps down then Cortina is the place to go, but with the number of resorts in the area how do I know which ones to head to? I'm a relatively experienced boarder, looking for maximum slope-time, not too fussed about snow parks. Any tips on where to go for off-piste (I've read that Happo-One is quite strict on not going off-piste).

 

Sorry for the disjointed questions, just trying to gather as much info as possible! Appreciate any info at all.

 

Cheers,

Keith