NoFakie

Anybody tried one of these out at Kiddyland ? http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/game/docs/20010822/toy11.jpg It's called GinGin Boarders. The thing's 7000 yen and might be a laugh after a few bevvies. Those of you with kids could always get them one for Xmas. It can withstand 90kg apparently. It plugs directly into the tv so you don't need a console.

47 has music on most of the time, as does Goryu. Low points of last season included a day of early Beatles (obscure album tracks included), Koyanagi's album (poor covers of poor English songs) back to back three times, and a daily hour of C+W in the spring. My personal nemesis is whingy love songs. I can handle inane throwaway stuff like MiniMoni no bother. At least it's upbeat. It's "sayonara daisuki na hito" and all that sentimental tosh by women who look and sound like they've never had a bf in their lives that gets me mad. Who wants to listen to that when you're out having a good ti

I was up the road at Hakuba Cortina on Sunday. We had a big booze up nearby on Saturday night and in the ensuing snowball fight, we found the snow too light and not sticky enough to make snowballs. We just ended up throwing each other in the snow. All in all around 60cm of snow over the weekend, though I didn't have a tape measure on me. There were only two lifts going, but thankfully they were the quad that's straight up the hill and then the pair that follows it. It was only 1500 for the pass. The upper courses were almost deserted with lots of pow and enough gradient to enjoy it,

Quote: Originally posted by Matt: Work and live in Matsukawa about 20 minutes from Hakuba. Non-stop at around 90km/h .... Yo Matt Where do you ride ? Let's hook up sometime ! I is in Omachi, 10 minutes ?!?! from Hakuba.

Just thought I'd share this one with all of you. The info is there on the map of Hirafu if you can read the Japanese. Anyway the deal is 6 tickets for 15000 yen. You've got to buy them in advance thru the Internet. One of the tix can only be used on a weekday. The tix can be used by different people on the same day. There are only so many available, so once they sell out, they're gone. You can use them at Niseko Hirafu, Sugadaira, Katsuyama, Tangram, Tanbara, Tateshina ... The link is here. There may be an English link, but I don't know what it is and can't be chewed to l

Sounds like what's known as a "family buro" that you can rent out and use as you like. Buy one of the onsen guidebooks and it should be in there as part of the price info, unless it's in one of the lodges and is only available to guests. It's nowhere near Hakuba, but one onsen I can recommend with a family buro is Marukoma Onsen. It's right on Lake Shikotsu in Hokkaido. I haven't been in that bath, but the men's part was wonderful. I've never heard of a mixed onsen in Hakuba. If you're there after late March, you can go to Obinata no Yu which is probably the pick of what there i

The Gulliver restaurant in the Hotel Scott at Niseko Hirafu was pretty good for a ski resort. Tasty, decent size, and around 1000 yen. The food at the KFC there was pretty stale and the restaurant was so full of smoking kids that the non-smoking area was totally meaningless. You can get a good pizza at the bottom of Hakuba47 but they're thin crust (not filling) and are pricey at around 1500. You sometimes have to wait 40 minutes as well. You can get a donburi at the place called Kitty (written using ateji kanji), but they're not very big. The evil empire (McDonalds) does their va

It's nowhere near the same rank as the Prince Hotel, but I'm in the Niseko Kogen Hotel at the moment. It's a really good deal. It's 9000 a night until Dec 21 with two day passes for Hirafu and breakfast if you book through the Internet (two in a room). It's 70m or so below the 1A and 1B lifts. The passes say Hanazono and Kogen, but they worked on the Alpen lifts as well. Half the rooms face the slopes with the other half facing Mt. Yotei. No view of Yotei today, only half a dozen lifts going and very windy, but wicked wicked snow. Fantastic ! The top lift and Hanazono open up tomorro

While Hakkouda (one of honshu's most northerly resorts) looks pretty good, it doesn't have a pipe or a park. Yep, nothing. Just lots of pow and offpiste-like tree runs. Many pipeheads have the wrong setups (short boards, duck stances) for serious pow. Floating's not their thing.

You got a fat pipe or lots of patience ? If you have, Japan's most bloated website (www.yanaba.co.jp) will give you the skinny on the terrain park at Yanaba (just before Hakuba on R148). Small resort, dodgy cafe, but lots of jumps and rails. Last year, you could test ride the entire Burton collection there, and hopefully that will continue. No medics at the resort so it's a thirty minute drive to hospital if you get crocked, or at least so I've heard. That "Snowboard World Heights" place at Yamanouchi in Nagano has four pipes (one for private hire). I've not been though, and it l

Here we go, same question every year. As if one area has to be "better" than another. Every major ski resort in Japan is better than sitting on your backside at home (period) I heard that the most popular destination for school trips that have been switched from North America following 9/11 is .... Shiga Kogen. Maybe some AETs out there can confirm. That said, Shiga is a great area with loads of linked slopes. My memory's a little hazy and I was a skier at the time, but I don't recall having to walk too far between the runs. I live in the Hakuba Valley and I can r

Yo Nat Try searching the Internet in Japanese. Funnily enough, the best info on Japan is in Japanese. It didn't take me long to find this page http://www.htb.co.jp/bigair/2002/tour.html Your friend is about right with the fare. Sounds like you'll have time to get some boarding in, though you might be better off staying close to Sapporo. Why it's so cheap on a weekend at that time of the season is a mystery indeed.

Darkest day in the Hakuba Valley for a long long time (source mywindow@home). And yes, it did snow. Not a dump, but every little helps. http://www.hakuba47.co.jp/today47.html But no need to give mr/ms hakubanow a hard time. He/she isn't getting paid, unlike the folk at yon nana. And the speed at which the weather can change up here means that any report posted first thing may not prove correct. The resorts only fully opened around Christmas Day last year, so no need for concern just yet. Where's Suwa ? Christ get a life man.

You can often get tix even in resorts without electronic barrier gates. You'll just have to be more patient and wait near the car park. Ask anyone on their way to a car. A token 500 yen may coax a ticket from a reluctant owner. I've done this at several resorts including Arai. If there's a blizzard, you should be able to get tickets very early in the day, and then have the bonus of still being able to lay some tracks. When there's been decent overnight snow, you're still better off paying and getting on the hill as soon as you can. Otherwise bust out the snowshoes and go hiking like

Dodgy straps by the sounds http://www.dryslope.co.uk/news_burtonrecall.htm Anybody out there got any experience of winged bindings ?

I was checking out some bindings the other day and I see that the some of high end models from Burton (Mission GT), Salomon and Flow have high backs with "wings" that extend sideways to curve around above your ankles. Anybody have anything to say about these ? While I presume that they must make it easier to put your bodyweight on your heel edge, does that not encourage bad technique ? Are they only for folk with highly angled stances ? BTW, Mission GT were recalled last year, so anyone buying non-official Burton seconds in Japan be warned !

Sounds a bit like one for Denpa Shonen this one... You'll not get back soon enough to take an organized day trip, so you'll probably have to hire a car. This year, you're talking who's got the most snow machines. In a decent radius from Osaka, my guess would be Winghills Shiratori in Gifu, but you're talking 5 hours by highway from Kansai Airport. For the same price as the car, tolls and gas, you could buy some top of the range X training gear (inline skates etc.), which'll probably do you more good in the long term.

Quote: Originally posted by Jinja: NoFakie, I gotta say, it's got absolutely NOTHING to do with money that there is no apres-ski scene in Japan. It's just in their culture; Japanese people need their relaxation in a hotbath and then a big sleep. Japanese sleep every chance they get. True about the magical ability to sleep anywhere and in any position. However, sometimes the reason they can do this is that people are burning the candle at both ends. When I used to work at an office, almost everyone went to bed at the same time as me but was getting up well before me at 6 or ther

Otherwise known as riding "fakie". Most people angle their bindings forward, so when you ride switch /fakie your feet end up pointing up the hill rather than down it. This makes riding switch/fakie difficult to get the hang of. Quite a few riders who do spin tricks that leave them riding switch ride with both feet pointing outwards. This kind of symmetrical set-up is called a "duck" stance. Believe or not, the Japanese for this is "dakku".

The photo on that link http://www.npg.ne.jp/html/ is dated December 1, 2001 Either way, it's snowing in Hakuba right now on November 27 (source:mywindow@home) Get the studless on folks ! It all starts from here !

Quote: Originally posted by Nat: Fakie, sweetie, I tried 'suppamucho'... taste not same!! (NOOOO!!) BUT I found WALKERS-Salt&Vinegar at the bar in Akasaka, Tokyo!!(Wooo Hooo!!) That's why I said "not as good". Anyway I still think Walkers crisps are crap. Salt'n'vinegar in a green bag ? Cheese'n'onion in blue ? Crisps in the UK went seriously downhill with that Spice Girl campaign, and they've not recovered since. No wonder people buy Pringles and other reconstituted and genetically-modified rubbish. Yo REBO ! If you want chewing gum, I wouldn't bring it with you (well

Quote: Originally posted by barok: Also wondering, Is the party scene in Japan a downer in general ? or just that associated with skiing, snowboarding, and the villages ? I suppose it depends on what do you mean by party. In the big cities in Japan, I think there is every kind of event you can imagine (well, thankfully no toga parties or similar). Even if you're more into dancing than drinking, the club scene (i.e. club music, i.e., people spinning mainly vinyl) in Japan is still vibrant and there are great events on all the time in Tokyo and Osaka at least. Some of the fore

You can sometimes get salt'n'vinegar in Japan. The crisps are called "Suppamucho" and come in a similar pack to the "Karamucho" chili pepper ones you see everywhere. Not as good as the ones from the UK, I'll grant you, but most of them aren't what they used to be since Walkers wiped out a lot of the competition. Phileas Fogg are still pretty good though. I don't know why but frozen cocktails made with conbeni ice stay frozen much longer than ones made with ordinary ice from the fridge. Try knocking up some daiquiris and you'll see for yourself.

Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbboarder ! Put on my old ski boots (1993 vintage cheapo) one morning last March, waddled around a bit like Frankenstein, thought "Oh I don't like these" and went boarding. That said, a fair percentage of the folk left skiing are pretty hardcore, so rrrrrrrrespect to you guys ! A lot of the snowboarding posers could learn from the other side of the rubicon, methinks.

Konbu ? Never heard of that one. Isn't it a bit hard and scratchy ? Also bone dry. But if that's the way you like it.... I've heard of people doing things with stinging nettles, and this may be the Japanese version. Everyone says the seafood is better in Hokkaido, and this may be why. Some of the locals cut holes in konnyaku but that's far too conventional, don't you think ?