NoFakie
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Posts posted by NoFakie
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Quote:Originally posted by NoFakie:
There was a headline up in the onsen I went to yesterday about another two people being lost out of bounds. I didn't see the story, so any news appreciated.
It was a couple of guys that got lost on a (maybe 2, unclear sing/plural) snowmobile up in Iwate. One didn't make it back unfortunately.
Like Ivo says, it's thanks to the ropes that it takes so long for the inbounds pow to get tracked. You may get a bollocking and lose your pass now and again, but that's a small price to pay. If there wasn't such a risk, the snow would be tracked out in no time, especially for you weekend people.
Anyway, riding pow isn't everything, even for boarders. It's much more of a challenge and a noticeable skill to ride steep hardpack or mixed conditions well. The powder-or-don't-bother attitude sucks if you ask me. -
If you want to go to the main going out places at night, stay close to Happo where they are, not close to Tsugaike. You can probably get a bus from Happo to Tsugaike during the day to go skiing. No buses at night to go boozing from Tsugaike.
I reckon it must be over 10km from Happo to Tsugaike. Tsugaike is NOT in Hakuba, it's in Otari, so I would ignore the "very very close" comment if I were you. Over New Year (pandemonium on the roads) I heard of one guy taking three hours to get from Tsugaike to Wadano, but you can normally do it in around 20 to 25 minutes.
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There was a headline up in the onsen I went to yesterday about another two people being lost out of bounds. I didn't see the story, so any news appreciated.
A guy from got lost off Kurobishi at Happo last week, to add to the couple that got lost off Usagidaira on Jan 8/9. Last week's guy was all by himself. I've never been in a search party, but it must be one helluva pain in the ass. I don't suppose a hiker who went off unprepared into a strange part of the mountain in winter would get much sympathy, and it's questionable whether a boarder/skier should be treated any differently.
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This thread sounds like an invitation to gloat to me
40CM OF WICK-ED POW AT HAKUBA MORE TOMORROW YES ! YES !
Ahem, where was I?
Oh yes, city versus country, that one. A lot of you dudes complain about nowhere good to party, well that's it almost all the time. Virtually 3-6-5. There are wicked events on in Tokyo all the time. As just one example, that Brazilian drum'n'bass DJ, DJ Marky, played in Shibuya last Friday. He made one of my favourite tunes from last year ("LK" - check it out Klubhead) so had I had less work I would deffo have wanted to go. I bet the kids that got down with the man had a great time. Much better than the boarders in Sunday's gale, that's for sure.
If your idea of a night out is a skinful at your local chain izakaya, then I don't suppose you'll be missing much by leaving the city behind. The chance to ogle lots of good-looking ladies and dudes maybe. If your work situation, allows it, maybe you should give the countryside a go.
For me, I've found Nagano to be a nice place to live. Out of boarding season, you can always hike up the mountains, which stays with you a lot longer than a good day's boarding, or do a great variety of other outdoor stuff. Unlike the city, it's fun, easy, and pleasant to drive a car and it costs you bugger all to park it. If you're after perfection, the scenery and food are better in Hokkaido, I reckon, but it's too cold up there for me. In my part of Nagano (near Hakuba) it doesn't get very sunny in summer (cloudy/hazy most of the time) and the rainy season is vicious, but it's far more pleasant than in the city. The quality of the air in Osaka/Tokyo always shocks me when I get to go.
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For those of you not in Japan, theft of women's underwear and groping are rife. Like most rapes, they normally go unreported.
Theft from cars (shajo nerai) is on the increase too. My gf lost a bag containing viddy camera (thankfully insured) and her passenger side window (not covered) back in August. The car was outside my house. I know several other people who've had similar experiences, and I've noticed more and more restaurants putting up warning signs in their car parks.
Just a personal theory, but Yahoo Auctions and Ebay provide an easy way for thieves to dump stolen gear. Traditionally there hasn't been such a big market for second hand stuff, but that looks like its changing. "Recycle" shops and flea markets also on the increase.
Anyway, I'd lock your board/skis if I were you.
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You would have thought the name "head" would have opened up enough possibility for jokes....
On the subject of which
When it's my time to go, I want to die like my dad, peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming in terror, like his passengers.
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Mentioned it elsewhere but Hakuba had rain, icy snow and very high winds all day. At 47, Line E (the lift to Goryu) was closed by lunchtime, the gondola and quad went down at 2:30 and line D (the usually unused pair off the bottom) finished the day by stopping around 3:15.
By the end of the day, the rinkan course was strewn with broken twigs and branches, something I've never seen before.
My final ride on the quad took around 15 minutes and with a strong north-south crosswinds carrying sharp cruddy snow, it was a relief to finally get off the hill.
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Yo Barok
I posted this on another thread but Iizuna kogen doesn't look up to much, I'm afraid. I had a look up there in May last year (long after their season finished). I had a good look up the hill and at the lift map there, but it didn't look worth going to be honest. The facilities at the bottom looked on the well-worn side as well. I think the area is best known for skunk cabbages (mizubasho) that bloom in some swampy (due to the snowmelt) woods nearby. That and Togakushi down the road.
There are so many other good places in easy striking distance of Nagano City (Hakuba, Nozawa, Myoko, Shiga Kogen), that proximity doesn't really count in this case. From Nagano, you can jump on a free shuttle bus to Arai or Hakuba 47, so there doesn't seem much point in going to Iizuna. Unless you want to see that white elephant road maybe.
Now if it were that close to Osaka or Kobe
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Yo Loi
That is one cool icon man !
How do you do that one ? It's not on the SJG list. I read somewhere that UBB supports 14 in all. Anybody know where there's a list...Cheers
(Mega blizzard at 47 today. All lifts went out of operation just after 3. From the top of the quad it was impossible to go right towards r2 and r3. Really wild weather)
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Yo Migraine
From this question, I assume you're not the married one in your group....
Easy to justify a purchase if your new baby can do what the others can't. In descending order of coolness....
1. Split board. Coolest is to make your own, if you've got a circular saw knocking about in your oshiire. Don't forget the beacon/probe/shovel.
2. The gentem swallowtail board. 160,000 so buy a big lock. No, make that two big locks. They'll love you in Niseko.
3. Snappy freestyle board for doing flips and stuff on, like Barok says. If you're not in pow, short boards are cool.
4. (Obvious to an ex-skier I would have thought but) Alpine board. Take it up to Iwatake and get Chabara to teach you how to Eurocarve. I've seen vids and pictures and the boy is good. Gets the Chairman's thumbs up too. Must be pretty wild when your face is only inches off the snow (and you're not in the process of falling over).
Happy shopping !
Yo mogski
Saw some Pocket Rockets today and boy are they phat ! We are talking Larry Graham B-line !
Can you get them in the slots on the gondola ? It must be like having an alpine snowboard on each leg. The ones I saw had tele bindings on which seemed kind of right. Helluva price though. -
Read any Japanese guidebook (rurubu etc) and you'll see. Even though its a very small place, there are still about 20 soba shops there. Some of them do soba ice-cream and all the other spinoffs. Even within Nagano, it's famous. It's even got a soba museum.
Iizuna kogen down the road is famous for mizubasho (flowers) that bloom in spring.
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If Snowbeds is full, "Villa Happo" on the road from the station to Happo Iriguchi has a sign outside saying
sudomari (stay/no breakfast) 3500
Never been so YMMV
Get the phone number off the net/directory inquiries
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If you're going from Nagano, you get to go up that amazing road that spirals up into the heavens next to where it looks like the dam isn't going to be built. From the looks, the old road through the valley that isn't going to be flooded can still be used.
Togakushi=soba for most people, I think. I've seen Iizuna kogen nearby, but it didn't look up to much.
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Yo danz
I had the countryside remix of your experience.
It's where you have to walk for thirty minutes on icy paths at 10:30 at night to find somewhere open that'll let you break a 10,000 for change to get your car out of the car park. Great fun when it's minus 8. I must have passed three banks, so yeah, a 24hr cash machine would have sorted me out.
As for controversy, given the spectacular failure in Japan of Merrill Lynch (closing 20 of 28 branches in just two years), do American (or other Western) "experts" have any right to make sweeping judgements about the Japanese economy and write articles like "Japan's voodoo companies" and "Japan is the new Argentina" in Newsweek ? Wouldn't their probing and corruption-busting be better spent on Enron ? Why go out for a teriyaki burger when you can have a nice, fat, juicy steak at home ?
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Yo Cal
Some nice fluffy stuff fell for the first time in a while last night. Not so much though.
That's how busy Goryu gets this season when its half price (hakuba thanks day).
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I think it's a bit rough on the 1970s comparing skiwear with 70s fashions.
The 70s were cool ! All those nostaglia programs always dig up crap british glam rock/osmonds and flares as if that's all there was, but there was a helluva lot going on back then, with outstanding music even in the mainstream.
The decade for true anal retention was the 80s, the time of yuppies, Reagan/Thatcher, "just say no", flashy fashion like Gautier, and god-awful overproduced music (club music and stuff like the Smiths excepted). Culturally bankrupt times of money uber alles.
Apart from gentems, the coolest board I've seen is the old Burton Custom with the "Shaft" design from a couple of years back. The yellow, not the grey one. Always reminds me of the Simpsons Japan episode where Bart does "Shaft" at karaoke. "Listen to the man !"
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Sounds like you've got the same one as me Blazer. Mine's a silver (not shiny) Protec deal with thickly padded ears. Nice and comfy. No problems with overheating so far, even during a fall and subsequent long wade through waist-deep. Doesn't look particularly stupid either, even on me.
As a minor complaint, I wish it were a bit easier to fasten the chin strap with your gloves on, but I might get the hang of that with time. Maybe that's something to think about in the shop. I tested mine before buying with some dragons, so I've no problems with the goggles. My gf's Smith goggles seem to float slightly above my face though.
It's not good when 11,000's one of the cheaper ones....
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It's hard to expect a clear message from the resorts if by saying yes to offpiste they lay themselves liable for the behaviour of everyone that goes in those areas, irresponsible clowns and beginners-who've-heard-its-wicked included.
If resorts are increasingly having to pay up for collisions on groomed courses that aren't their fault, there's little incentive for them to open up tree runs or other more difficult terrain. Customers can't have it both ways.
Controlled access to offpiste area is one solution, but that would take a massive retraining of patrol staff and still requires policing to ensure that the wrong people aren't going in there. You've got to remember that even when resorts are busy, at most places you can still escape the crowds by going down the most difficult run. This does not suggest that there is a big demand for more difficult terrain. If you want plus-alpha, why not get the gear and do a course like the man says.
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"Blows goats" = sucks big time. That's if I'm in tune with US slang. Don't ask me about the etymology.
If they ever played any JB on the slopes I'd probably fall off the lift. Even the semi-duff 80s ones.
Gravity
The big G !
G-R-A-V-I-T-Y !
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Good to see JB, the Soul Brother Number One, on this thread. Go on, give us a few lines of Funky President, will ya !
People people
We gotta get over
Before we go under !
People - Gotta get some land
Grow our own food
Just like the man !
That Southern dude is still knocking em out solo. Apparently he did the surfer one coz he started surfing on the wrong side of forty. As someone tempted to start on the wrong side of thirty, he gets my respect for that one.
His tunes still blow goats however
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So that's what they use at the Happo and Nozawa fire festivals....
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Nothing cheaper than the back of a car @ 47/Goryu/Iwatake car park
(Most of Happo's car parks charge, as do Tsugaike's)
Lots of selfish gits park all night at the 7-11, so that you get folk having to stop on the Olympic Road just to get some noodles/have a wazz. Just what you need when visibility's poor and/or the roads are frozen.
I heard of one guy getting snowed in his van and taking 30 minutes to get out over New Year, but these things happen. If you want a proper roof, check out Mitch at snowbeds. It's something like 3000 yen per person.
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Yo Migraine
Check out the pipe. Usually lots of good boarders in there. The pipe/park are the main (only??) way to go pro here, so that's where most of the good 'uns end up. Should also be pretty easy to get talking to the woman of your choice, and anyone that can pull big airs should have no problems carving up the main courses.
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Freaky thing is that one half of Japan is 50Hz and the other half 60Hz. Most modern appliances are designed to cope, but it's still worth checking out if you're moving across the country.
Tsugaike Kogen
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Posted
So there you have it. 10km is very close. I must just be a lazy #$%$#&@ ! I hope that isn't the standard used when judging places in the SJG accomodation guide. (Personal recommendation - Niseko Scott - 70m to the lift)
Yo vi
If you want easy first tracks, there are hotels right on the edge of the course at Tsugaike. There's a Jamaican food place (run by a reggae-loving Japanese fellow)called Hot Pot down by the main road, but other than that, I doubt there's much life near the resort. What there is in Hakuba is centered on Echoland. The area's also well serviced by buses, so you should have no problems getting to Tsugaike and back to do your skiing. If you're driving, Tsugaike's car park is 1000 yen at the weekend and 500 during the week. Not a huge amount of money, but bloody annoying all the same.
Tsugaike's got long and wide slopes. Great place for cruising. They slopes aren't so steep and the run ups to some of the lifts are really flat, but that shouldn't be such a problem if you're on skis. Only one part of the regular courses gets mogulled, a 100m part of the course marked "muzukashii" on the gondola side, so you should be able to enjoy the whole hill. The part marked "muzukashii" on the north side hardly warrants the description either, but should be less crowded.
Japanese couples make a big thing of ringing the bell in the funny white rocket-shaped tower on the south (left as you go up) side of the resort. It's a very romanchikku thing to do, apparently.