montoya

ugachuga, I used to be in the same situation, believe me it's MUCH better to use one-day disposable soft-contact lenses, rather than trying to muck around with alternatives. If you biff hard, you really risk serious eye-injury, no joking. Plus, the best goggles don't seem to fit glasses, they fog up like hell and it's not fun when you can't see, and even less fun when you have to stop and try to wipe off the fog on both your glasses and goggle lens. I use glasses regularly. But for snowboarding, soft-disposables are ok, even though I lose a little sharpness. Give

It's kinda like the new JR-Suica railpass cards, but for ski resort gates. You zap your Swatch Snowpass watch with the desired time-length, and swipe it at reader at the ski gate, the turnstile then opens automatically. The old SSAWS indoor slope had an electronic system sorta similar, but with no watch, just a 4x4cm electronic token that you used similarly. Pretty cool stuff, wondering why never caught on with the J resorts here. Memory is a bit hazy, maybe Niseko Hirafu had some similar electronic system as well? Anyone?? -montoya

Just wondering, is Boarder-X that popular in Japan? If so, any ideas on hot-spots (eg Nagano, Niigata, or Hokkaido??). I've seen a few events on videos, would love to catch this wild-n-crazy sport in person, though... -montoya

Just wondering, can the Swatch Access/Snowpass system be used at any resorts in Japan? I had seen this during my last trip to Europe, it looked like a pretty interesting ticketing-ski pass system. peace, montoya

Montoya here, I live in Tokyo, but have been thinking about buying a small mansion in Yuzawa. Anybody have any recommendations for the better fudosan agencies that can handle this? Nihongo is no problem. peace

like someone else remarked, it kinda depends on your job/industry. with stuff like securities, marketing, advertising, for example, it's actually better being in the Tokyo rat-race, since most of the big clients/contacts are here. Anyway, kinda depends whether you prefer fast-paced, info-overload blur or not.

Probably, your experience in Tokyo really depends on how much money you're brining in, and where you live. The slightly run-down, quieter shitamachi areas are WORLDS away from the more fashionable areas like Daikayama, Omotesando, etc. Chiba/Saitama are loads cheaper than Kanagawa, but you get more style points for the latter. So yeah, just depends on what you're after. -peace

Just heard on the local tv new that the indoor ski dome SSAWS Zaus in Chiba will cease operations in September 2002. oh well...

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: I'd like to read a report about some of these places. Would anyone who's been care to put something together? One gets kind of desperate out of season... This is nothing definitive, but as a Tokyoite, I used to visit Ssaws way back when I was starting out. Anyway, it might be ok if you find yourself in Tokyo during the summer with nothing to do and wanna stretch your legs. But that's about it. Runs are pretty short (eg 20-30 seconds), and the artificial snow is nothing to write home about, but hey, think of it as a warm-up and it mig

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: montoya, whatcha riding now? um, sims montoya 156. I did see the Burton Fish at a Minami in Jinbocho today. it looked pretty cool, but upon closer inspection, I had a feeling somebody at the shop had taken it for a test-ride... 86000 price tag.

Just read in the Asahi Shinbun Feb 17 that this will be the last year for Hachimantai. Same article mentioned that other Tohoku resorts are hurting as well. If you can read Japanese: http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0217/007.html [This message has been edited by montoya (edited 18 February 2002).]

Man, I was up to waist-deep pow at Kagura and my board just wasn't cutting it. Looks like time for a real powder stick. What do ya'll recommend? Winterstick Swallowtail or Burton Fish?

If you can read Japanese, the current (March) issue of Transworld Snowboarding Japan has a very interesting feature (7 pgs) about backcountry riding in Japan, including some great coverage of David Enright's clinics. very cool.

I went to Family Hutte a few weeks ago, wife-husband owners seemed friendly enough and the food was delicious. They can arrange for pickup/drop off at Yuzawa station, if that matters. Not sure if they speak English, though. Here's their info: http://www.yuzawa.or.jp/yado/hutte/

Too much Yuzawa slush has gotten me keen on checking out Hakkoda. Anyone know of info about package deals out there? Info in Japanese or English is fine. Will be coming from Tokyo. peace

Hey SJG, here's an idea for an article - how about some interviews with some of the local Yuzawa resort management to see what their thoughts are? Looking at the latest tourist numbers, it seems each year they're seeing less and less visitors. They've gotta be concerned about reversing the trend, right? And maybe improving their resorts (off-piste access, etc etc) might be _part_ of the answer.

Quote: Originally posted by miteyak: just boycott the ones that do, should leave you smiling. I think alot of us already do just that. But instead of just voting with your yen, why not become vocal as well? Consumer power, dude...

any tips on tackling moguls on a snowboard?

regular. slight duck-stance. 157 montoya sims.

Quote: Originally posted by Ocean11: I've seen Japanese people riding powder. I've been followed by packs of Japanese who are looking for powder. My colleagues who snowboard all say they're bored of riding the piste but don't want to get in trouble going off it. So what do they do? They don't go boarding any more. It really is that simple. Yeah, I'm with Ocean11 here. Face it, it gets boring riding the same slopes over and over again, no matter the variation (hi-speed carving, fakie, etc). And it's by no means only foreigners doing tree-runs, at least not at Kagura when I wa

how about some ideas for action? *if any of you are journalists or have contacts at winter-sports periodicals (eg Yama-kei, etc), start writing articles about the virtues of powder, off-piste, tree-runs. I'm sure that there will be more than one of us who will be influenced to take a visit up to Hakkoda by Hutch's upcoming article about it. *contact various resorts and let them know our feelings about this. And, instead of framing it as complaints, think of it as constructive suggestions to help improve their resorts, and our sport. It could be another way that they d

[maybe we should start a massive campaign... Snow Riders For Better Snow Riding in Japan flood every ski resort with email complaints...would SJG sponsor this?] I'm down with that, sign me up..

Of all the places in the Yuzawa region, I've heard tha Kagura is probably the least urusai about a little rope-ducking/tree-run fun (maybe cuz it used to be an old yama-ski area) Any other places out there with similar policy?