North Shore

Ok, two pairs of snow tyres! As for the baseball, we wandered into the Nagano stadium after a previous event, and there was a game in progress. A Jr. Highschool in Niigata vs the same from Nagano. Some high school championship, I think. It was hot and sunny, and both kids seemed to enjoy it, so we sat down to watch. South facing stadium, so I even managed to get a bit of a sunburn!

Bought a new pair of snowtyres for the car today! No snow seen on the local mts. today, sadly...watching baseball in the sun and 24c...

Perhaps children to 12 is a little excessive, but say, 10 and under? I don't mind paying for a full day pass for myself, cos I can go and rip it up, but when I've got to pay that, plus pay for my 6 year-old, who's good for one, maybe two, runs, a hot chocolate inside, and then one more run, lunch, etc.. My teeth start grinding at the costs... if I stop bringing my kids, because it gets too expensive, then they don't learn snowsports, etc... Maybe they'll pick them up later, maybe not, but if the hook is set now, then they'll come for life... If they take up soccer, say, because it's cheape

It's not always skiing, but always a collection of good outdoors films, with some skiing thrown in for good measure, and it always gets me stoked in the fall: http://www.banff.jp The Banff Film Festival...

Thanks, Wiggles, I'll look into all of that!

Ha! don't know about that- didn't think to ask..I'll ask child # 1 to ask his teachers, #2 is still in K, so I'm sure they don't have a club. I just assumed that it would be resort-based, and schools would stay out of it. What's the skiing-to-bureaucracy ratio for school clubs? I got the sense from another thread that touched on this area, that there's a whole lot of faffing around in meetings ( or is that just on the organization side for the parents/coaches?) Essentially, I'm looking for an ongoing series of lessons, one day a weekend, for the whole season, so that I can get off the leas

Does anyone know of any alpine racing clubs in the Nagano area? I'm looking for a club that offers a junior racing program for kids aged 6 and 9, similar to the Nancy Greene program in Canada. Thanks!

Going back to the hydro discussion, while most of the major rivers may have been dammed, it seems to me that there's lots of room for micro-hydro setups. Lots of small creeks and streams that could run a turbine to power a number of houses in the local area...

Bogans being ill-mannered, what the Brits would call Lager-louts? I assume?

Meh...plastic aeroplanes... Still, from an airline point of view: lighter, newer, more fuel efficient, probably quieter both inside and out...