Davo

Classic name. Does he have that tag for the same reason as the character in the story? I wonder if he ever bumps into Ai Ijima on the tarento circut and chats about the old days.

AVS is Adult right? It would have to be the fictional(I assume) Choco Bon-Bon from the novel Speed Tribes by Karl Taro Greenfeld. One of the funniest short stories I've ever read. Oh, and that girl who keeps yelling Itai! Itai!- that's such a turn-on isn't it?

I did hear last year that someone did it once in Hakuba on a snowboard. You'd have to be a shit hot rider and kind of insane to try. I think the guy got arrested-does anyone here know the story?

WM45 you are surely not right in your assumption-it's kind of like comparing swimming at deserted beach with crystal clear water with swimming at a public pool filled with piss, chlorine and fugly people in naff costumes.

I'm engineering a 3 day weekend for the entire winter so I hope to get 30 or more days depending on the finances.

I hear that Hakuba highland resort is really good with kids. It serves as a place for a lot of parents who can safely leave their kids there while they head of to somewhere more challanging. Tsugaike also has a large area of extremely gentle slopes which would be perfect for kids learning while allowing you to sneak in some turns for yourselves. Tsugaike also has the bonus of the town being located right at the bottom of the resort.

yeah I find Japan to be not very diverse even though I live in Osaka where there's a lot of ethnic/cultural diversity compared to the boonies. Maybe monocultural is the wrong term but Japan isn't and never will be multicultural unlike where I'm from and have lived before. Just saying I miss that atmosphere and diversity.

I miss my family more as I get older but I have family here as well so it's not so bad. There are plenty of amazing NZ lifestyle things I miss but things are pretty good here most of the time-although some days I would rather be anywhere other than Japan as it's so monocultural that it can be overwhelming. I look forward to living somewhere more relaxed and multicultural one day.

Teleskier-I think the better direction involves getting on an international flight to one of those strange, exotic countries where apres ski starts at the bottom of the hill or half way up it depending on where you find yourself. Have to agree with you on the general lameness factor.

Hakuba may not be apres-ski central but it does have a couple of bars, izakayas and even the odd club night which qualifies it as downtown compared with the total lack of anything past your hotel dinner at Shigakogen. I could be wrong though, perhaps it's changed since I was last there and they've opened a new karaoke bar or something.

I thought I saw one at Family Mart but it turned out to be a Kamushka.

Deoderant and shoes that fit top the list of things difficult to find here. I have only found one resonable Japanese brand called Ban select for men-comes in a little roll-on bottle designed in the 70's but it does the trick.

The heat that remains & will continue to do so for another month or so I'm sure. I had to laugh when I found out the official start of autumn is some time in August. Was out shopping today and noticed the first autumnal themed advertising as well. I did enjoy going to the city provided public outdoor pool for the month it was open again this year. They closed on Aug 24th keeping in line with the mentality which has it closing at 5:00pm every day. A city which closes a public pool for the summer when it's still 35 degrees out everyday simply doesn't have the public interest at heart. It

Austria-St Anton area combined with a visit to Switzerland for either Davos or Lech.

yeah I did some pre-dawn riding under the lights at Dynaland in Gifu last year. It was great and when the sun came up I had one of those moments when you know there's nothing you'd rather be doing at the time. They open the lifts at 5 am or something mad like that on the weekends.

Being knee-deep on Xmas day 2000 at Happone and realizing that being back in Japan wasn't so bad after all. Only 4 months to go everyone.

More steep and deep more often with a strict regime of crowd avoidance. Do a backcountry riding /avalanche awareness course and ride safely. Bigger jumps/drops, improve switch riding and general techique, and maybe just maybe have a go at the pipe.

Yeah pity about the lack of snow-spoke to my nephew last night and he said it was a shitty season so far in Canterbury-last year was great at this time. Seems all the big dumps have been up north this year.

Hey thanks for the offer to include us in your exclusive club there mate. I'd love to take you up on it but there's a small problem-natto sucks. Sometimes when I'm in the kitchen I get a whiff of a very unpleasant odor ,and my first thought is that the dog has shat on the floor. However, the culprit always turns out to be a natto container left on the bench by my wife. Healthy it may be-appealing it is not. Oh well, guess I have to stick to being a gaijin then.

The Kano's are Japans answer to the Barbie twins.

I think your point is that snowboarding is easier than skiing, a fairly obvious truism for anyone who has tried both sports. I could get around on skis before I started snowboarding, but once I started the two plank thing was never an option again. Why bother? A more interesting angle would be the viewpoint of people who are good at skiing but have taken up boarding because they enjoy it more. A lot of people do both so clearly not all boarders are failed skiers. Most boarders are just enjoying themselves and could give a rats arse about skiing and it's merits because boarding is more fun. Bu

I went there last year for a day when Mt Hutt and others were out of action. Some pretty good terrain if there is enough snow but people tend to rate other mountains in the Craigiburn range more highly. I ended up getting a nice gouge in my board from the rocks. I'd say Broken River, Porter Heights and Mt Olympus are better options terrain wise. Have yet to go to Olympus but it looks sweet and often gets more snow than other fields.

If I start balding I think I'll go for that barcode look maybe with a little tash as well-ggrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

'kin oath it is-had to go out for an interview today all dressed up-not nice.

There are plenty of good Japanese electronica DJs and producers. Yoji Biomehanika is a NuNRg legend go to one of his Ultra Pumpin gigs for a guaranteed good night out. Tsyoshi is more into the Goa psytrance side of things-both have CD's out in the shops. There are plenty of good alt rock and indie type bands around-saw one on the outside overpass between Hanshin/Hankyu stations in Umeda 2 weekends back.