NoFakie
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Posts posted by NoFakie
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In Japan you can buy boxes of condoms (Michiko London's) with the Union Jack on them. This in spite of the persistently high rate of teenage pregnancies in the UK, which would suggest that we're hardly the most responsible nation when it comes to contraception.
Best Union Jack story of late was that the UK Embassy here has complained to the Japanese riot police. In their preparations for the World Cup, the boys in blue have been practicing baton charges on groups of Japanese students holding Union Jacks.
Like the man sayz, in spite of being a country with no mountains over 1400m, Britain has a rich tradition of mountaineering and mountain sports. First ascent of the Matterhorn and many other peaks in the Alps etc. Kind of funny when you think about it.
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Another thing to consider if you're cutting it fine. If you're young and coming in alone, you may get taken off to a room to have your gear searched and the pleasure of an all-too-predictable drug-related questioning. This is especially likely if you've been to an Asian country. One of my mates had some gunk from his pockets placed into a flame to see if it would turn an incriminating colour. I don't look like a hippie (in case that's your theory) but have been in the room at least three times. A work visa and Japanese ability don't make any difference, I've found.
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Thanks SJG people
Sorry I missed the link there. So much for being computer literate.
One thing though, where I'm from "razz" means to puke as in "I razzed all over my shirt". I didn't think it meant this
Unless that's some razz and not a tongue....
[This message has been edited by NoFakie (edited 11 January 2002).]
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I live near Hakuba, but I went to Niseko back on December 7 and it rocked. Before Christmas it's a no brainer. Niseko every time. Even early season though, it felt much much colder than Hakuba, so you've got to take the necessary precautions. The other amazing thing was how fast the weather changed. In less than three hours in Sapporo, it went from near whiteout to bright sunshine to near white-out and then back to sunshine. I grew up with changeable weather in the UK, but this was something else.
This is probably offtopic for a snowsports forum, but despite living in Nagano and doing outdoor stuff all year round, the scenery in Hokkaido still knocked me out. The area around the lakes Shikotsuko and Toyako is fantastic, much nicer and far more untouched than anywhere in Nagano. I'd love to go up there and get a mountain bike/canoe. I've seen photo collections of Ririshi, Akan, Daisetsuzan and Biei, and they look wicked too. There aren't the jaggy near-3000 meter mountains like here in the Alps but that's about all. The seafood too is heavenly. If you've got the time, I would strongly recommend doing more than just skiing/boarding on a Hokkaido trip.
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I had someone walk off with my rental board two years ago at Biwako Valley. The rental boards were identical, so it was probably just a mistake. The rental people just gave me another (identical) one. Spent around half an hour messing around tho'.
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We built this city !
Thus started one of the sad tunes they had on at 47 this week in an 80s revival. They even had Sting's "Russians" on. I was hoping I'd never heard that one again. Check out the Welsh raver film "Human Traffic" for a great Sting gag.
Among Belinda Carlisle, Heart and all the normal dross, we did get "Alphabet St", but good tunes were few and far between.
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Yo SJG people
How about telling the Ocean how to get a little green with envy face up ? I's searched your faq but couldn't find a list of "all 14" emoticons on UBB. Those animated ones are really cool.
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Hakuba 47 were kind enough to keep the quad closed until 11 o'clock today to let even more pow amass on the top runs. 70cm of untouched on R2 and R3. Bombed down em in a straight line for once like someone in a video. Yeeehah !
Top prize went to the Champions course at Goryu. The same depth on big moguls. Bouncy bouncy. Great fun.
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Bunny ears sound a lot better than the skier's headgear I spotted in Niseko. It was the same animal hat that the guy who murdered that girl in the summer had. It was a particularly gruesome case and was never off the news, so you would think people would have a bit more respect. I was half tempted to take him out on purpose, but didn't want to hurt myself early in the season. If I'd just had a stock to use....
I'm tempted to try X-country skiing or telemarking, but I can't see myself putting on my old skis on again at a normal resort. I'm a better boarder, so there doesn't seem much point skiing somewhere I can board.
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Yo Nat
You're right about Tateyama. It's up near me. Access from the Nagano side is via the Alpen route, a road best known for giving access to Kurobe Dam, Omachi's biggest tourist attraction. The road closed on Dec 1 and won't be open till mid-April. I was up there in late November to hike up Mt. Renge, but gave up halfway since the path was narrow and snowy and I was alone without snowshoes. I think the main backcountry season up there is April-June, but you still see people with skis at the end of the road (Ogimachi) in autumn.
Tateyama is listed in the (Japanese) Japan Ski Guide book if anyone is interested. It says there is 60% (!) advanced terrain, but "advanced" has a subjective meaning in Japan. I think access is cheaper from the Toyama side since it's closer. The North Alps at that point are crossed by a series of trolley buses and cable cars. The return cost for the entire route is around 10,000, but if you're going for a good session you'd probably have to stay up there.
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Just out of interest, what is Strawberries actually like? I went to Niseko but only went down to the bottom of Hanazono once because of the lack of vert from the top of Hana 2 onwards. From that virtual Niseko thing, I get the impression the run is down there somewhere (no I'm not looking for you to tell me where it is), so I'm intrigued that such a famous run could be in a place that looks so innocuous to the uninitiated. We went off to the top of the Hana side and Miharashi instead, and yeah we did have a really good time. I didn't grow up in Switzerland though.
Yo Migraine
Thanks for the heads up on those other places. If I ever get good enuff, I'll try and check them out. That Bohemian one looks mental. "Mama Mia" indeed !
As for the point you're making, many of the foreign teams were less than impressed with Nagano during the last Olympics. Happo may be Japan's fourth (I think) largest ski resort, but "a joke" would seem to sum up what a lot of people thought about the downhill event there. The ski world cup tour hasn't been inspired into setting up an event there either, in spite of the obvious financial potential. For environmental reasons, I'm pleased the runs weren't extended as demanded, but at the same time it puts the size and degree of difficulty of Japanese resorts into perspective. A lack of snow also had everyone at panic stations in Hakuba in the weeks running up to the Olympics, so while it may have fallen like mad last season and especially this past week, it's not exactly etched in stone.
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Best: Hakuba on many days last season. Especially during the all-day blizzards.
Worst: Mid-april 2000 at Kiroro. Nice conditions on the first, bright day followed by an overnight freezing that blanketed the hill with ice. Only the steeper runs off the top were open, so hard work for a snowboarding beginner. The only good thing was that the ice made the l-o-n-g flats at the bottom easier to traverse.
Despite its southerly location, Karuizawa opens very early (dec 1 this season !) with manmade. Obviously it doesn't say that in the reports, but if there's no snow at Nozawa/Shiga/Hakuba etc. nowhere in central Honshu's going to be very good.
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Quote:Originally posted by Ocean11:
I saw a fallen skier at Nozawa - it looked bad, the guy was totally immobile - and it took enough time for 3 rides on a lift and slope before the ski patrol arrived to help.
The pocket-sized course map they give you at Arai (I think it was Arai) has the patrol's telephone number clearly marked in big letters. They may do it at other places too, but Arai's is the only map where I've noticed it. With so many people carrying mobile phones, there's no need for things like this to happen.
That said, last season I saw a snowboarder who had overshot the zigzag middle bit at Goryu. He was hanging by both arms from some netting. Had he slipped there was a 12-15ft drop onto the next part of the course. The gondola passed directly above him and the patrol's office is right at the top of the gondola. From the patrol's reaction, it was obvious that no-one else on the gondola had bothered to report it. -
Nihon Hosou is showing an hour-long special of the X-Trail Jam freestyle air event that was on at Tokyo Dome a couple of weeks back. The channel number will be different depending on where you live, so just keep flicking till you find it.
It starts at 12:12 tonight (thurs).
Terje and a few other famous boarders showed up so it might be pretty good.
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Some of the hotels have recruited foreign staff to cater for foreign guests. Now if all the dream guests that come and block book a week at a time, using the local restaurants not 7-11 everytime they eat can just go "Nice snow, but how about some English signs and large boots in the rental shop ? Oh and could you turn that bloody music off" we may see something being done about it. Some hotels have a big say in how resorts are run.
Ocean, you've gotta have both if you ask me. Just the right amount of cinnamon too.
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Quote:Originally posted by riddles:
Being surrounded by 99.9% Japanese people.
(Good thing)!
Good to see such nice sentiments on a web site made by non-Japanese with the admirable intention of letting more non-Japanese know about winter sports in Japan.
As if gaijin don't have a hard enough time without other "better than thou" or territorial gaijin making snide comments.
I used to go to house/techno clubs a lot in the main cities. Especially in Osaka, it would often be that the only person in a club who wouldn't respond when spoken to was the "I'm so cool" gaijin who was doubtlessly ego-tripping on having escaped the lumpen gaijin bar scene and found some trendy Japanese mates. It was as if the presence of other gaijin was shattering their little dream.
With the yen going through the floor, it's getting cheaper for you overseas readers to give Japan a try. A tour party of 500 Americans hit Hakuba last spring and the resort is aiming for more this year, as ever pushing the "we did the Olympics" line. If you ask me, people with experience of skiing/boarding in other countries can only be a positive influence on Japanese resorts. I would imagine that the resorts are far more willing to listen to people coming specially from overseas than to day-tripping foreigners living locally. -
Normally just loads of skiers following the same line, isn't it ? Cutting at the bits where they ski and spraying onto the bits where they don't which then harden to form bumps.
In a program I saw about "mogul pixie" Aiko Uemura, they showed a 30 degree plus competition mogul course being built with the assistance of the shovel-wielding SDF (the Japanese Army) since they couldn't get them big enough by repeated skiing alone.
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(My view on the offtopic drift)
I know there are geniune ski bums who have great attitudes and enjoy the sport for what it is. However, I do think skiing has a major image problem that is a turnoff for people like the Ocean and myself.
When I was back in the UK (before snowboarding went mainstream), I always felt like skiing was something that only rich, snobby people and wannabee rich, snobby people did. You know, people like Prince bloody Charles and his nobby cronies. The school I attended had organised ski trips, but it was only the kids that got everything (flash bikes, table tennis tables, cars on their 17th b'day etc.) from Daddy that ever went on them. It never struck me as an accessible sport at all. The message was never "Come on my son, have a go !"
After coming to Japan, the proximity of the mountains and the chance to earn my own money helped a lot, and I ended up becoming a skier. However, my overall impression of the sport (i.e., prim, elitist) hardly changed. I recall having a lot of empathy with a comment in an old version of the Lonely Planet guide to Japan where the writer says that the only time he couldn't get a ride when hitching in Japan was when he was passed by a long succession of skiers' cars. Not wanting a backpacking toerag in the car kind of epitomised what I felt was the attitude behind skiing. Thanks to skiwear, the general appearance of skiers (rather like golfers) only reinforced the prim and elitist image of the sport.
If anything, the fashion-business aspect is probably bigger now with boarding than it ever was with skiing, only now it's a skate-inspired street look. Boarding equipment is also no cheaper than skiing equipment, so thanks to boarding winter sports are no more financially accessible than they've ever been. However, snowboarding (esp. freestyle not alpine snowboarding) does not come across as an elitist sport at all. It feels like a fun thing anyone can try. Maybe it's because snowboarding has stronger links with surfing and skateboarding than with skiing, or maybe it's because the sport comes out of the USA of today and not the hyper class-ridden Europe of old. I don't know. However, it's certainly not just because snowboarding is a new sport. Other new sports, such as windsurfing, strike me as far more elitist and inaccessible.
To use a comparison, the way I see it skiing is like wine and boarding is like beer. Both are great, and there's no reason why you can't enjoy both. However, wine drinking, especially in countries where it is not native, is traditionally surrounded by so much snobbery and pretension as to be a turn-off for many people. Beer tends to be seen as loutish by the wine-drinkers, but does not carry airs and graces, making it available a larger group, something that should not be underestimated. Like the Ocean, I'm sure some of the people boarding now would never have been skiers.
As for moguls, I don't mind parts of certain courses having them and even being roped off special, but it is a bit of a pain when they're on every slope with a decent gradient. People skiing moguls are aiming at going at in a straight line, so there's no need for them to be all across the hill. I've seen many kickers built by boarders themselves get flattened by the patrol soon after they're built. For ordinary punters, it's far easier to find a way around a kicker than a field of moguls.
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47 surprisingly empty today. Hard snow so some v fast riding. It also forces a larger proportion of the people on the flatter slopes like the run at the top in front of the goryu gondola. You know, the one with the really slow lift.
Carve it baby !
Typical Japan though in that the lift attendants that had been wearing santa suits all week didn't have them on today. Christmas in Japan for you. Anybody queue to get in a love hotel last night ?
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Yo Ocean
Not into MC Solaar then... Tres sophistiqué though he is. I've heard some wicked African rap in French. Forgotten what it was though. A lot of seriously good club music is coming out of France (and Germany and Finland even), so time for a reappraisal methinks. It's not just "Je t'aime", Plastic Bertrand and Vanessa Paradis anymore.
The one in Puffy that was married to TM Revolution looks like she's left him, so you could be in with a chance there if you keep saying nice things about them. Invite her down the slopes and see if you can impress her with a rodeo flip. An intentional one, of course
chikizukitai yooo
kimi no risoo ni ...
(running for cover)
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Yo Mlg
Like the MoodyMann sez
Don't be misled....
It's doesn't matter how many times anyone has ridden Japanese slopes or how "experienced" anyone else is. Just get out and enjoy yourself, especially if you live in one of this country's many metropolises coz the fresh air will do you good. Even if you're an absolute beginner, you won't be the only one on the hill bending at the waist and not at the knees :-D
I've been out getting on for sixty-five days total (two planks then one. I still get frustrated at being crap and not busting thru the pow quite like terje and jim rippey on those videos :-S It's just as well is boarding (skiing) is as much fun as it is. I don't think I'd go otherwise.
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Best example meaning the best music ? My favourite Japanese pop tune is the epic "Linda Linda" by the Blue Hearts (the former incarnation of the High-Lows). It's like the Toy Dolls or the Ramones, but like, really really good. Wicked lyrics too. Play it to some young Japanese snowboarders and they'll probably go nutso on you. It's an absolute stormer !
On a totally different tip, some of UA and Chara's older stuff is definitely worth a listen. Of the tunes I've heard lately, "Drop" by Cornelius made the biggest impression. Dreamy bossa nova-tinged pop. Well groovy. If you like that French group Air and their ilk, check him out.
Club music doesn't count as JPop, I suppose, but there's loads of great Japanese club stuff. Acid Jazz, techno, d'n'b, you name it. Some Japanese hiphop even is better than you'd imagine.
In my experience, the training rooms at health clubs in Japan always seem to have on all those Eurobeat tunes that folk do para para to. You know, Venga Boys and Steps and that phreakin' speeded-up version of the Mickey Mouse theme. In other words, all that crap that gets in the UK charts. Compared to that, Sting and Phil Collins, JPop is a relief if you ask me.
I read somewhere that Captain Sensible is a big Puffy fan. The first "ikiru michi" one was pretty catchy at the time but none of the rest really registered. While prone to overexposure, some of Hikki's tunes are all right in my book. She's gone a bit Pizzacato Five on this last one.
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In terms of height of the walls (as advertised), Happo has possibly Japan's highest half pipe. It's on the Nakiyama side and the walls are said to be 5m. I've never heard of one that big anywhere else. Come April, there was a massive table top on that side of the resort as well last season.
It's probably a skiers hill because it's big, prestigious, and is popular with the folk who still go skiing. This results in lots of mogulled runs, but a good overnight fall and anyone can get down them. In terms of things like demo days for equipment, the setup is definitely pro-skier, but it's not somewhere where boarders can't have a good time. There are loads of courses and there aren't long flat sections or major climbs between lifts, for example.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I've got a 20- minute drive to go and a season pass, so rest assured I should get enough real boarding in.
The reason I'm asking is that it has been proposed as a novelty Xmas present for yours truly. I got a skateboard a couple of months ago, otherwise that's what I would have asked for. I'm only interested in this game because you stand on it and control it with your feet, not your fingers. While I doubt it approximates to the real thing, it looks like more fun than a wax iron, which is the only thing I can think of at the moment.
Just look at this great Goryu webcam
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
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That's the busiest part of 47/Goryu as well, so it's a fine barometer for how many folk are out on the slopes. It didn't look busy today, a bright sunny National Holiday, so things don't look too good for the resorts. There was wet, heavy stuff coming down all day Friday, but I doubt that's a factor.
Warm front on the way by the looks. We may see rain later this week
Back to work...