NoFakie

For a group or family in particular, wireless routers are cool. That $3 a day is for a month, divided on a per day basis. For cheapskates, there is also the free one for tourists, on top of whatever you get at your accom. http://flets.com/freewifi/index.html

To take over the new car warranty when buying second hand, there is paperwork, a small fee, and I think the car has to go to a dealer of the manufacturer. If you don't do it, you don't get it. I bet loads of people don't, and many U car dealers don't go out of their way to help you do it. It would mean the manufacturer looking at the car they've just sold. If you pay for the s/h warranty yourself, you can buy an older car which will be much cheaper. Japanese wiki says most new car warranties in Japan are five years, though it does depend on the manufacturer. We got our three year warranty

It mightn't be a bad idea to BOOK NOW! if you want to get in at that one with a big group. The bigger high-end ryokans at Nozawa get lots of weekly stayers coming from overseas now.

I'm amazed any of them having bothered telling anyone anything about winter yet. They should wait until December at least.

Diesel X Trail is the cheapest, decently sized SUV to run by miles. About 9-10 yen a km for fuel. A bit plasticy inside, if that matters. I think you can get one for about 1.3 million or so. If you or the mrs is a bit of a worrier, a fair few s/h cars at a fair few dealers can be bought with a three-year, unlimited mileage warranty. New ones often only come with a five year one, so you can save a fortune buying used and still have peace of mind. Basically what happens is that you pay extra and the money minus commission goes to an insurance company that handles the warranty, not to the use

They probably are stupid to be honest. Its just that having less money wisens them up a bit. You can take loads of things older Japanese people used to be into and stick "banare" on the end of them. kuruma, ski, beach, onsen, tabi, terebi, kekkon. With domestic tourism, things maybe aren't as bad as they could be with the cashed up baby boomers all hitting retirement about now. Give it 10-15 years though and most of them won't be genki enough for bus trips to Kyoto, Kamakura etc. and the new generation of retirees will be fewer, have less cash, and will be more likely to have living pare

It sounds like the new new newest Ipad thing has a soft SIM, to help you switch providers when you feel like it. I don't know how important not having a physical SIM card is, considering that many companies including Apple already sell unlocked, "SIM free" phones and tablets, but if it makes it easier to switch providers, then bring it on! Stick the same tech in the phones please! The new Nexus phone I was tempted to wait for has been announced and is supposedly $650 off contract, so I don't suppose I would have got one anyway. Google have gone high end with it, and though it sounds reall

Domestic tourism is also way down over the past twenty or so years. With the population shrinking and aging and having less money, there are winners and losers, and will be more in the future. Any tourist town would be wise to clean its act up if it wants Japanese people to keep going there, to say nothing of overseas tourists. Calling yourself "yumei" for some reason, however spurious, and dishing up the same soba and soft creams as everywhere else won't cut it. People aren't that stupid.

Google and Apple are Big Brother, we're fighting some people for something no-one understands in Eurasia, and now Ito Yokado milk is Winston Smith's chocolate ration! This is 1984!

We've been to that one, it's a bit of an experience. The baths themselves are great, right down by a river, and most of them are mixed bathing. There was some bizarre 1970s touristy thing going on though, with bears in little cages and a number of shops selling bric-a-brac type souvenirs once you've paid to get in. I've never snowboarded in Gunma but I'd like to give it a try.

I was thinking the same. The Sunday default is to gawp at cosplayers in Harajuku/Yoyogi.

Any eatery, however crap, in a touristy part of Kyoto will have access to thousands of hungry suckers every day willing to pay 800 yen for sansai soba or nisshin soba you can make for under 200 yen with factory made noodles and cutting open some retort packets. Even a small place could make a million yen in the autumn leaves month alone.

If you pay $2000 a month, there is no waiting list for child care in Japan. In fact, if you pay that much, you can go to an elite institution that is hard to get your kids into. An international one, or some other one for talented kids. There are waiting lists for the $350 childcare facilities (here meaning ones for threes and under) because many local authorities don't want to provide any more than they do already. Given that almost every two-bit local authority in Japan will have numerous community centers, culture centers, music halls, sports halls, etc. with the national government stu

Anyone who can afford a foreign holiday to come to Japan can pay for their own bloody wifi! I sometimes think Japan is more keen on lots of tourists coming and saying "Japan! Sugoi!" so it can sit back in some complacent "utsukushii kuni, Nihon" glow than actually trying to make some money off them to pay for stuff. Like health care for the 25% of the population over 65. Or the Olympics even.

If its any consolation, every penny not spent on the "nihon - sugoi!" gaijin is a million or so not spent on some arsehole talento from Yoshimoto etc. Its basically the same approach as reality tv. Why pay celebs if people will still watch when you point your cameras at folks you don't have to pay. The other classic cost-cutter programmes are the ones where they just show YouTube clips for about an hour with some talento pulling facial expressions in a little box in the corner of the screen. They'll shows clips even at 240 pixel resolution. The NHK man then has the cheek to come around

Getting a regular phone number off a sim for a short time is tricky for non-residents. Prepaid sims for data aren't though. The government also says its going to provide lots of free wifi for tourists (presumably paid for by mugs who live here) so maybe someone who knows about can comment. I think you have to show your passport and collect a card at various tourist info places.

Out of interest, does anyone actually play console-type technical, graphics-heavy games on their smartphone or tablet, or is it just the casual ones? Despite smartphones and tablets having the screens and processing power, I get the impression people who like console games would rather play them on a PSP etc than on a phone or tablet.

Your plan sounds great! Maybe one of the ski schools at a resort will do something like that, possibly one of the ones close to Nagano City on a locals-only basis. It's the kind of thing you find out about from other parents rather than websites, because they don't like tourists knowing local kids are getting a cheaper deal. A school-based ski club will be more intense than once a week! They'll enter lots of races too, where parents have to go and help out and generally hang around all day.

This is a pretty good question, because things tend to get built up within walking distance to the slopes. That makes it difficult to build a big outdoor bath. I'm sure somewhere will fit your needs though!

Many Nagano-based clubs belong to schools or are resort-based but affiliated with local schools and have teacher involvement. Doesn't the school your kids go to have one?

Offroad caravans! I never knew such things existed! It looks amazing. Glamping in the wild!

After a year, I've finally worked out how to get my phone and iPod playing through my Toyota stock navi. The setting on the navi is for "video", but its hidden in the "audio" menu, not the "tv" one. The connection is through the old fashioned yellow red white video jacks. Its a bit quiet on the standard music player, but gets sufficiently rocking with PowerAmp on Android which has a built in preamp.

Yeah the Costco ones. They are super more-ish, dangerously so. Its a 2 pound (900g) bag!

Not really, unless your fingers wrap around completely to the front when you hold it. Mine's in a case so there's also a ridge. The screen goes right up to where the case starts.

If it's space, that's probably the wrong reason to buy a proper SUV, because the ground clearance means they are not that big inside. A people carrier of the same length/height will be much roomier. Everything is a trade-off in car design. SUVs original purpose was "go anywhere", but that's all been diluted with various degrees of styling and ride comfort which reduce the ability to "go anywhere". Obviously there are places where you don't need an SUV, and a lot of the bad rep they've got is the "Chelsea tractor" thing, people driving the big, flashy ones in town as a pose. As a genuine pr