montoya

Well, if you want recent people, baseball players in America are pretty famous and appear regularly in the US media: Hideki Matsui Kazuo Matsui Ichiro Suzuki Hideo Nomo For recent movies, Ken Watanabe from "Last Samurai" has also received alot of press coverage in the US.

kinda off-tangent, but found this informative write-up of a recent workshop by the Canadian Avalanche Association, including a talk by Werner Munter. Lots of good stuff there: http://www.clubtread.com/articledetail.asp?ID=40

The video doesn't seem that cheesy; it has people like Bruce Tremper talking about snow pits, etc. Anyway, a good intro for newbies like myself. Speaking of Bruce Tremper, I picked up his book: "Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain" on Amazon.co.jp http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898868343/250-2127866-9861858 Good stuff, clear and very detailed..

Shimba, I had the same problem and contacted their customer support. I got my copy about 4 days after ordering. Here is what they told me, hope it helps out: "You can order it online by substituting UT and 84124 for the State and Zip fields. Just make sure you include a physical address for delivery and a daytime phone number. It is probably not a bad idea to re-enter the important info in the "instructions" field so that we can double check everything." If you need more help, try contacting them via their contact page: http://www.bdel.com/custserv/

Found this recently while researching educational videos for friends here: "Think Like An Avalanche" http://www.telemarktips.com/VidRevThnkAvy.html There's a short video excerpt on the above page also. I think Black Diamond is carrying copies. Would love to see a Japanese-translation someday.

We finally got all our gear, after figuring it's better to have it sooner rather than later: Tracker beacons BD aluminum shovels G3 probes MSR and Atlas snowshoes Osprey packs compass 1:25,000 topo maps Most expensive items were beacons and snowshoes, but found a mountaineering store in Tokyo (Kojitsu) with reasonable prices. Overall, spent a crapload, about 8-9 man each, but at least now it's done with. Just need to find a good avie course, preferably someplace near Tokyo.

Naeba/core-games avalanche.. yeah, I remember that. Here's more info from the Tracker site, if anyone wants to know more: http://www.bcaccess.com/techlibrary/press_releases/canada_journalist.html NAEBA, JAPAN (March 5, 2001) - A Canadian ski journalist rescued a buried avalanche victim today using the Tracker DTS avalanche transceiver. Leslie Anthony, 43, of Whistler, B.C. performed the recovery outside the Naeba ski resort, approximately 100 miles northwest of Tokyo, Japan. The victim, 31-year-old cinematographer Ben Mullin of Olympic Valley, California, sustained a skull

cool photos... but I'm wondering, with powder so deep around the trees, how do you tell where the tree-wells are? are those non-coniferous trees?

Covers mostly the US, but kinda interesting for snow-resort industry news: http://www.snowjournal.com/index.php Anybody know of any similar sites/resources covering the J-snow industry in-depth here?

On my old Sims posi-link, I had to whack on the ratchets in order to unbuckle'em, but on these Salomons, they work smoothly. So, no problems there. Paid about 32,000 at Victoria. Try asking the salesperson for a waribiki, they might knock off the sales-tax.

I got my spx6 at Victoria a few weeks ago. Really like'em. Here's what I can say so far: Pro: *you don't have to fully unstrap the front-strap to get out, just loosen and flip 'em down over the shoe-front *ankle strap is comfortable *there are 3 sizes (s/m/l) to choose from. I also use salomon boots, and they fit really well. *aluminum, not plastic, ratchets *pretty stiff/responsive overall Con: *not especially light I was using some old Sim Posi-links before. They were ok, but had some slop with the new boots, and the ratchets were wearing down, so it

Figure about 70-90 minutes from Tokyo Station to Yuzawa/Niigata area by Shinkansen. Tack on how long it will take you to get to Tokyo Station, that should give you a start. I'm sure other people can give better info on Gunma/Nagano resorts.

I like my Salomon Malamute boots, fit well, comfortable and no problems so far. Surprising, but Victoria (Jinbocho, Shinjuku, etc) often has good deals. If you have a Victoria card, you can get 5000 yen off when buying boots (they were running a sale campaign when I bought mine). I'd check out their main Jinbocho store for best selection.

If you need more info, would recommend accessing their website, which has a list of phone #'s and email addresses: http://www.immi-moj.go.jp/info/index.html Best bet is to go to the office nearest you and consult with someone at the info-center.

Do you mean "permanent residence" visa? If so, I would think your being married to a Japanese spouse should help out greatly. In my case, have been living here 10 years, received it last year. I have heard that regulations regarding it have been relaxed somewhat the last few years. If you are ever in Tokyo, check out the consultation/advice-section in the immigration office, they were very friendly and helpful for me regarding the paperwork I needed to get, etc. By the way, one strategy they highly recommended to me (which I did), was to apply for both types, permanent an

Caught this today: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/040205/kyodo/d80goo181.html Thursday February 5, 8:19 AM BizTrend: Ski resorts try to lure customers amid frigid economy The ski industry, which has been another victim of the frigid economic conditions, has started promotional campaigns to get more people back on the slopes. A white paper compiled last year by the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development (JPCSED) estimates that the ski population stands at 10.9 million and the snowboard population at 5.4 million, unchanged for the last several years. Bu

Curious about NASPA (since I'm a snowboarder and have never been there), what kind of special services do they offer? I have some overseas (gaijin) ski-guests coming over soon, wondering if I should recommend it or not.

Milk and Yellow are ok, haven't been there in awhile though: http://www.milk-tokyo.com/ http://www.club-yellow.com/

Last year, I got into mountaineering and climbed Yarigatake, Kita-Hodaka, Tsubakuro, etc. I'd say about 80% of the other people I saw were +50 in age. Many were in organized tours. And many go back to the same mountains, year after year. I'm guessing I didn't see many other people in my demographic (30's) because they were too busy with work, raising families, not interested, etc. This seemed to be the same during the winter months also. Point being, there's a large population that's interested in the mountains, but apparently not in the ski-resort-gerende variety. But, I have a fee

Quote: Originally posted by stripper on coke: Btw, BCAccess 'Companion' shovel stores a probe in the handle of the shovel, saving space, and keeping it handy in times of need. Yeah, was looking for that model, but no luck yet. Know any stores in Tokyo that carry it?

still looking around, but will probably go for the BCA-Tracker. also, the other day I was asking a salesperson at Ishii Sports about shovels. He mentioned the plastic-bladed models are kinda worthless, recommended the heavier steel blades. How about aluminum? Is that going to be strong enough for snow when it's really icy or like concrete?

are you taking the bus up, or the shinkansen?

well, I did find that tatami mats are great for at least one thing, which is doing yoga and stretching on it

Just got back from Jinbocho, Ishii Sports seems to have lots of telemark stuff in their yama-ski store, if you're in Tokyo. Have never tried split snowboards, but it looks interesting enough. Although, kinda wonder how strong the board is going to be: http://www.snowboarding.about.com/library/weekly/aa_how_splitboards_work_a.htm http://www.snowboarding.about.com/library/weekly/aapr_VoileSplitDecision.htm http://www.snowboarding.about.com/library/weekly/aapr_burton_split.htm

Went up to Tomamu last year. Kinda smallish place, though had some fun in the trees on the right-side of the resort. Although, if you have the chance I definitely recommend the backcountry-tour there, it's in most of the promo-pamphlets there. About 4 hours total including climb and route down. Here's a link to it: http://www.tomamu.co.jp/04winter/04win-sports/dozi.htm#Off-Piste