JohnPaulIII
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Tsugaike Kogen in Hakuba, Nagano is open (only the top of the mountain) and conditions are good! If you're not too far away, its worth the trip to brush up your skills for the season!
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Awesome! I will recommend the camp in Niseko and Colorado. Looks expensive though. He is 17 and comes from a very poor family. Kid skips school to work so he can board on the weekends. What I told him is that he should get a Job at a place like Hakuba or Niseko and learn English from all the Aussies there. The points made by others about working holiday visas and NZ might be another great opportunity. Thanks guys!
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hakuba Hakuba Goryu - Train or Bus
JohnPaulIII replied to marjude's topic in General off-topic discussions
Listen to this Man. Any bus will take 3 hours just to get you in to Nagano Prefecture. Take the Shinkansen as much as possible assuming you have the pass. -
Sorry I was slow to reply to this. Thanks for the information. My student doesn't speak English well now, he just wants to. He does ride well. Big air, jumps, half pipes etc. Dunno about contests. He seems to think there are schools that teach you how to be a pro the same way you can learn to be a scientist. I spent a good 3 hours looking for red bull on a map but I could only find mountain dew, and that just won't cut it.
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I hope General Snow is the best category for this. I live in Nagano and work as a HS teacher. I've got a student studying English under me right now, but mostly he's just an awesome boarder. Living in Nagano he is used to the amazing conditions we have here, but he wants to go to an English speaking country and work at a resort or enroll in some kind of advanced "pro-making" lessons. The internet being a very vast place, I've found an enourmous ammount of information on places. Too many to be honest. If you were trying to make a living snowboarding, what English speaking cou
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I had the luck of winning TWO sets of tickets this year. THANK YOU SNOW JAPAN!!! However, I used one set as quickly as I could but the second set for use in Sugadaira turned tragic. I had been checking reports that there was still 75cm left to ride on at Sugadaira on Monday April 1st. I took that morning to drive up and come face to face with the sadness of springtime fate. I really am greatful that you have such a great promotion going on, I'm ashamed that I became part of the problem this year!
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THANK YOU SNOWJAPAN for the free lift ticket!!! Here is my review of Myokokogen's suginohara from the perspective of a lower intermediate level boarder on a wednesday. Finding the place was quite easy as the toll booth attendant from the highway gave us a map and told us how to get there. The parking for this place is convenient, better than a lot of other places since there is really only one massive lot. Of course, it was a weekday so it was at about 5% capacity, a MAJOR plus. Myoko in general doesn't get nearly as many foreigners as Hakuba so there seemed to be more exci
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Sugadaira or Myoko?
JohnPaulIII replied to JohnPaulIII's topic in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Thanks for the responses! I really did mean Sugadaira in north eastern Nagano. Sounds like there is a slight bias against myoko haha, thanks for your advice -
I've got an invitation this week to go to either sugadaira resort in Nagano or Myoko kogen in Niigata. I'll have to drive to both so transportantion isn't important. I'm wondering which is your preference?
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Awesome! Thanks for a great report!
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Important news of the day thread
JohnPaulIII replied to grungy-gonads's topic in General off-topic discussions
I'm not sure that is a good thing -
I went up to Nagano's Tsugaike resort last weekend and they were having a discounted price if you are a resident of Nagano. I believe it continues until the end of the month. It was around a 600 yen discount. So not too much but, hey thats basically a free lunch.
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Gary's post about buying is VERY correct. Even going to second hand shop you can pick up a decent board with bindings for under 10,000 yen. I got mine for a third that price and have been riding it hard for the last 2 seasons. Skis are also available in abundance. Boots may be a bigger challenge though if your size is above 28 Japan (10.5 USA)
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Nagano has a direct bullet train from Tokyo. I don't know if you'll have a rail pass or not but its less than 2 hours from Tokyo to Nagano city and then about 1.5 hrs to Hakuba from there via one of the many busses from Nagano city. I think if you want a more Japanese experience going to Myoko Kogen in Niigata would be nice. It's much more "authentic" than Hakuba. I like Aussies too but when in Japan its nice to be in Japan. I've only heard amazing things about the Niseko experience though...
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Matsumoto would be a great day trip. Hakuba is fun but Matsumoto castle is one of the only remaining authentic castles in Japan. ie the castle is osaka has an elevator in it as where Matsumoto castle is complete with super steep staircases and all. Check the train schedule carefully via hyperdia to make sure you dont have to sit and wait on the train for an extra hour though.
