u-tan

Thanks everyone. I had never heard of Marunuma before. Looks the goods for late season. All depends on the generosity of the snow gods. They have been somewhat frugal with their blessings this season..

Bushiman, Your picture is freaking me out. That is one spooky snow demon indeed. Anyway, hope you have a safe drive and get some snow this weekend. I have been reading this thread with interest. I am moving from Niigata to Tokyo next month and I am looking for closeish snow options. Gunma Boarder, thanks for the information so far. I have a related question, where do you think holds good conditions later in the season. I was planning some snow jaunts from my new home in Tokyo around late March. Where do you think is more likely to have OK quality around that time? Whit

All that melting is such a depressing thing to think about.

Foreigners did me a big favour today. Showed me a new line that I had never noticed at one of my locals before.

Yeah, I see where you are coming from. Some bits were frustrating. I found myself saying, "Just let me see the whole line for once" while watching.

Has anyone mentioned "Into the Mind" yet? It might be too artsy for some but the actual ski scenes that are in it are just incredible.

Disgraceful.

I won some tickets to Ninox. I am waiting for some snow to use them. It has been down right hot up here the last couple of weeks. Today is 10C and rain here in Shibata City. Seriously, this is April weather. I have pictures from some earlier visits though so if things don't improve soon I will whack them up here with a review.

There is one in Oguni town in Yamagata, quite close to the border of Niigata. It is a tiny resort and I have never been there. I met a few people at the local skate park that make the trip up (from northern Niigata) just for the half pipe. http://www.snowjapan.com/japan-ski-resorts/yamagata/oguni/yokone Once again, I have never ridden there so can't say whether it is worth the mission. Maybe you can find some footage on youtube or something to give you a better idea. The place is called 横根 (yokone). Okutadami in Niigata have one. They are closed at the moment but will open again

Since I started this forum I thought I should let people know how it ended. Against some of the very sage advice above I decided to take a risk and order from the internet. Did a lot of reading, foot measuring etc. Finally had an online chat with someone from the salmon website and decided on a boot that I could buy within Japan in my size. In the end I chose the Salomon Focus. Not an expensive or super deluxe boot but it is wide and has soft bits at the side you can stretch out as described by Snowdude above. They are apparently park boots, and might not be stiff enough for some of

Seemore, I am wearing a triple 8 brainsaver. https://www.triple8.com/shop/product/Triple-Eight-Brainsaver-Rubber-Helmet-with-Sweatsaver-Liner It is the soft type too so apparently you dont have to replace it after an impact. I think the soft ones provide less protection than a hard shell which absorbs more impact but also splits/cracks while doing so. Reading around the forums on other sites, there were mixed opinions about wearing skate helmets for snow. If you haven't already done so, do a search. I wear a beanie under it to keep the ears warm. Hopefully, you won't ha

I ran into a bunch of the SDF last year at Sanosaka. They got onto the lift before me on the run you can see on the Sanosaka webcam. I noticed straight away that some of them were on straight plain white skis mounted tele and they were wearing leather boots along with their army camo gear. I waited for them to regroup at the top and was pretty excited at the prospect of witnessing some serious drop-knee old school tele action. Leather boots are the soul of telemarking! You can therefore imagine my horror when they all set off doing the most wooden snowplough imaginable. Austin Powers could hav

Lots of great advice here. I really appreciate it.

Kayama Captain Coast!!!?? Is that the strangest skijo name in Japan? What is the story there? Assuming there is a story... Nice pictures by the way. Always interesting to see the layouts from a distance.

Those konbini chicken pieces are tempting but dangerous. My brother ate a Family Mart one in Tokyo that gave him 48 hours of fevers, hallucinations, and liquid projections from from both ends. And that is after he got through a few weeks in Gulmarg, India, with relatively good gastric health.

Thank you for all of the replies so far. I guess yeah, it is a bit risky to buy over the internet. Chriselle, what do you mean by pack out? Stretch? I tried on a 30 and a 30.5 in the shop and they both felt too narrow for me. My boots now are cheap ones I bought a couple of years ago when I started skiiing and one of the reasons that I want to replace them is that they are a bit tight... also they have no padding to speak of so I really feel it when I land a jump or something. Damn, ski boots are complicated.

Those vitamin jelly drinks in the foil packets are good pocketable provisions too.

I guess this should be in the Gear forum but I couldn't start a new topic there. I am in the market for some new ski boots. My feet are on the large size (31cm) and I live out in the inaka so my options are very limited. The only boots at the local shop that fit my fat, hairy hobbit hoofs are Head Cubes. Anyone ever used them? Recently, I have started to get into park skiiing a little bit and I am interested in the Salomon SPK 85s. According to the Salomon catalogue they only go up to 28.5 in Japan. A search around rakuten etc. confirmed this. Does anyone know of anywhere sel

Well, it seems the verdit is unanimous. Maiko it shall be. Maybe next weekend... Thanks the replies everyone.

Hello, I usally ski around the north Niigata area. I just discovered a company that have pretty cheap bus/lift pass deals. The buses leave from Niigata station and go to Yuzawa area. The cost is about 6000 yen. It seems pretty cheap considering the price of a lift pass and train or highway tolls. The resorts they go to are Maiko and Ishiuchi. I have never been to either. Which do people in the know recommend? If possible I would like some ungroomed/tree runs but nothing too gnarly that requires a big hike in/out. Any opinions are appreciated.

Nice to see some accumulation. Hopefully Kagura will be able to open the Tashiro section in the centre this weekend to connect to Mitsumata/Kagura areas. We are having snow flurries in up in Shibata today, but none is sticking.

Thanks Muikabochi. Not good news at all. Perhaps by next weekend it will have sorted itself out. I am an optimist. Meanwhile, my brother is sending pictures and reports of deep fluffy stuff from Fernie, Canada. That is the main reason waiting for the season to start this year is harder than usual.

Muikabotchi, I am in Shibata. Ninox is the closest but I guess I go to Wakabuna the most. I also go to Tainai and occasionally to Mikawa for a change of scenery. Good news is that Budoh is opening again this year. They closed for "various reasons" last year. I heard rumours at the local skatepark that they didn't have appropriate approval or safety inspections or something. Kind of hard to beleive as the place is run by Murakami city. It is a small place but I really like it and it is a great, protected option when the high lifts at other places around here are shut down by the wester

I was taking all the references seriously, wondering how I had not heard about this gem before. That explains why websearches in English and Japanese revealed very little and the less than modern look of the official webpage.

This thread popped up, "Mt Granview (Minamiuonuma, Niigata) - the resort that time forget" in similar topics . That answered my questions pretty well muikabochi.