Davo

These days I wear long johns,fleeces,wooly slippers and sometimes a beanie. Summertime I just kick back in my undies.

I think that, apart from Sapporo, Nagoya has the best proximity to snow out of all the big cities. Sendai is fairly big too and close to some good resorts I think. Sapporo sounds like the go to me for you guys. A big city with local ski hills and near Nisseko can't be all bad. Himeji is close to Hyogo-ken resorts, the pick of which is Hachi-Kita. It's pretty good for a day trip from where I am, and it's a lot easier than the Nagano mission, but I'd say Himeji should maybe be one of your last choices. Living in a big city is good for the work opportunities, and I'm always kind of je

Wagamamas was ok as a place to go but the food definately isn't very authentic Japanese and I've never seen such expensive gyoza. Any supposedly Japanese ramen I've eaten outside of Japan has been disapointing. Haven't eaten Japanese food outside of Japan for over 5 years though.

When I went up to Nagoya to meet my parents at the airport last year I noticed that there were a lot of hot girls wearing miniskirts. I even told my Dad that we just needed to follow the girl in the very short mini skirt cos she was going in the direction of the hotel. They really enjoyed their week up there going to Expo and stuff. My buddy told me that its where lots of the porn is made in Japan. The city seemed pretty cool to me. Sakai had a vibe not that disimilar to Shinsaibashi-just a bit smaller scale I guess. All Japanese cities are basically similar looking in many ways. Go

Hakuba Alps is definately in business but just too busy to update the site . There's also the backpackers above Tracks if anyone is planning on getting really trolleyed and doesn't want to have a long trip from the bar to bed.

Ahh so it was Marmot not Mammut. I got a Mammut beanie from Rapies, seems like a good quality brand. I would imagine 40-60,000 yen would be the top price range for quality jackets in a shop like Sportaka in Osaka. You'd probably get a nice, good quality set of pants and jacket(snowboard) for about 50-70,000 yen at this time of year. You'd pay more for cetain brands of course.

Ha Ha, you sneaky ****ers ...you could also just try the "I got lost, lucky you found me...why wasn't there any fence?"

Sounds like a ripoff to me dude...unless of course that's an all inclusive package covering the flight over etc.

True dat...buy the cheapest ticket to Japan and use the internet and guidebooks etc to bone-up on info that'll minimise the costs.

Welcome to snow country. Obviously the ticket to Japan is pricey, but this aside, how would you rate the cost in comparison to the same sort of trip in Europe 2pints,mate? I know you guys had a great trip last time and it's cool that you were satisfied enough to come back again.

No need to have a heart attack Fossil, it's probably a typo and should be more like 50 Aust bucks a night. No way is Switzerland cheaper than Japan for a holiday.

Concur-it's a sweet shop and the prices are pretty good for the quality of the gear. I think your Euro will go a long way in Japan. I'll let you look into the exchange rate yourself but ,just for example, Rapies had down jackets on sale for 15,000 yen (I think) in October. They were some famous brand, Creek Boy may be able to elaborate.

Ski,I kind of felt the same way at first when I went back this holiday. First day I went down to get my drivers license renewed and was surprised by how "in yer face" customer service was. Soon got used to it though. Projecting a direct, confident, slightly aggressive, yet friendly and familiar demeanor seems to be "the way" in NZ. It may be all good for an insider but I can see how it wouldn't go down well with visitors from overseas. Definately a world away from Japan.

That's too bad Touque. I don't have any broken bones but I'll probably not be getting much snow action either this year. See you at the party.

Creek Boy, Snowglider is younger than you right? Anyway you're out of your 20's now so welcome to the old man club. You should come Slow--nothing to fear now that Creek Boy has been tamed Look forward to meeting all the rest of you lot who're coming.

You'll have to put up with me and snowglider as well in the car. I can't wait, but it seems like a long 2 more weeks of work away.

I hope he can pull through-don't know him well but he seems like a really nice guy. First season on the job and he gets hurt while trying to make things safe for the rest of us, it's a bloody shame. Good luck Tets.

Staying there or at another backpackers is a good way to meet people, get useful info, and generally have a fun time. If you go to a hotel or pension you're far less likely to get to know anyone else staying there, even if you do speak Japanese. For someone in your position Joho you can't go wrong at one of the backpacker places-they're all good fun places to stay and are run by good people.

Agreed. I went out on the 3rd at 47 and it was pretty tough conditions even for a powder munter like myself. This is partly to do with the fact that it was only my 2nd day out this year, and that I should've waxed up the board properly, but it was still hard conditions. Nothing wrong with that, I usually thrive on it, but it isn't great for the majority of punters. It's a shame that the great snow won't necessarilly be a good thing for resort profitability.

Legend. Sad news but what a life he lived. I hope I can go riding/skiing with 3 genrations of my family one day.

Its next to Dotonbori bridge on Midosuji-closest stations are Shinsaibashi or Namba on the Midosuji line. Hard to find anywhere else as good or large in the central city, unless anyone can enlighten me. Should be some good deals now after the New Year break.

My Mum & Dad could use their JR pass on regular JR lines as well the shinkansen as far as I remember. Don't they have the info on their site? 5,000 yen doesn't sound too expensive for a lesson and you'll probably have to pay for a ticket seperately. If you want lessons in English I know you can get them in Hakuba-wouldn't have a clue about other places. Hakuba is about 2 hours drive from Nozawa and probably a lot longer by public transport. Lugging your big bags around sounds like a pain in the ass-why don't you minimize your luggage or stick to one resort area. Enjoy

One of the good things about my old apartment was the security camera which showed me who was buzzing downstairs. If they weren't in a takyubin or posties uniform I wouldn't even bother answering. Unless they've got a legitimate reason for coming round they're not welcome. I was pretty annoyed when some god botherers woke my girl up by buzzing the bell a while back.

Mrry Xmas 2 U 2 I'm not big on the texting thing but getting used to doing it. I try to write properly when I text. Haven't seen much text type abreviation on this forum. Hardly anyone seems to use those acronyms like ROTFL etc. A lot of the time when people use them on forums someone posts to say "WTF does that mean?". At least they can let you get around the swearing filter.

Osetchi sp? isn't really my favorite food. It's pretty austere when you compare it with Christmas dinner. Given the amount of food I consumed back home it'll be a good thing for me to eat cold renkon and the like for a change.