zwelgen

Sugadaira looks lame. Ive never been up there in winter because when I went in summer it looked like a bunch of small wide bunny slopes with quite short runs. I dont know whether you drive or not but the road is really twisty and windy and the suzaka side is in the shade a lot = ice. I seriously think you would be better spending your money somewhere else and for long runs and wide Id recomend Nozawa too like the other forum people. mind you I did hear they had a heliski operation going on at Sugadaira but dont know anything about that

I think it depends how its used. Is it in "that stupid gaijin did this" or is it, "I went skiing with my gaijin mates", just using it as a definer word and could be replaced with american, australian, brittish, nzer whatever. I dont usually take offence.

the salary crazy stuff you see at the supermarket interesting people you meet cos youre gaijin heated toilet seats onsen skiing monster concerts easy access to cities the unpredicitability of things here tabehodai/nomihodai (all you can eat/drink) things I miss from home: meat pies black liquorice insulated houses decent steak decent tv programmes coffee at a cafe relaxed attitude people

Yeah childhood is supposed to be enjoyed, before you reach school and have to do the exam hell (whatever...) and then join a company, get married and wear your apron to the supermarket and let your kids hit you. I mean if you cant enjoy your childhood then when can you enjoy it. Anyway its the schools responsibility not the parents to make sure that the kids are being brought up properly.... and you wonder why Japan has such problems...

Yeah whats with Japanese showers. Loads of people seem to have the same problem, ie not enough water coming out. One of my mates has onsens every day or mooches a shower off mates just to avoid hers! sad sad sad

Worst thing - icy roads and getting ouy of bed. Best thing - heated toilet seats!!!!!!!

Maybe it depends what you havent had for a while. At the end of October when I havent seen any soft powwder for a few months Id forego a shag for a days skiing, but if Ive been hitting the slopes all the time and havent had any action in the sack for a while then maybe sex would be much preferable. Depending on the weather forecast of course. And skiing AND shagging? If Im skiing hard enough then Im usually crawling into bed waaaaay too tired for any sex. Maybe I should just harden up...

Under the top lift at Nozawa - I love it! And climb up to the very top on a good day and you can see the sea sparkling faintly in the distance. mmm have enjoyed a few kitkats up there with that view. Cant wait to get there this weekend

That cheap pass for those mountains was selected by lottery. You had to fill out a form online and then if you were one of the lucky 600 then you could get the cheap pass. There was another one for ALL the resorts in Nagano too, same kind of deal. Sadly I didnt get chosen so have just forked out for my pass, ouch. I think thats the same deal as your mate, if not hook me up!

To be fair sometimes they dont have as many lifts running on weekdays and they are doing maintenence type stuff so there is a bit less open. Maybe its an incentive thing too to get people to go during the week, spread it out a bit you know. But there cant be much better than midweek and no one there! Ohh had an insane day last year at Nozawa, waist deep powder and not a soul there cos it was raining at the bottom and midweek. Id pay 10,000 for a day like that again.

Theres this freaky thing called panic clock, a bit like the hurricane at korakuen in tokyo. Also a bizare ride where you pay 100 yen and they give you a plastic bag type of poncho thing and you wait in line with the other oompa loompas in their plastic bags with kkk hoods and then go in a "log" upppp and then down, no nothing to see and get sopping wet from the spray hence the poncho. Worth it to laugh at your mates and so odd. Loads of rides, will keep you busy all day but just choose a non busy time Im still wondering about the racks though!

Im sooooo envious Barok! I dont know whats worse, not knowing its snowing or having to sit in the office and watch it dump. Predicitions for Friday anyone? Is it going to turn to heavy crap or is Barok going to ski it all out before then?! Barok where do you live in Nagano city?

My wax is pink. It goes with my fluroscent snow suit, ultra tight leggings and furry around the edge of the hood. Damn I look hot on the slopes

Generally the crowds werent too bad, but dodonpa kept breaking down so waited waaaaaay longer than should have. It said 1hr 30mins wait but we ended up being there 3 hrs as it shut down 3 times for saftey checks. But it was amazing, accellerating from 0 to 172km/h in 1.8 seconds. Not scarey or anything just afterwards you kind of went "sh*t, what was that?" uncomparable to anything Ive ever done, waaaaay faster than anything gravity can do and with the continual breaking down it added another element of fear... Fujiyama was good, only about 30 min wait and the panic clock was freaky as, w

how about brown rice (guess what I had for lunch). Its not so mushy and it tastes more kind of nutty. How about left over homemade soup. Give it 5 working days and by the weekend its all you need to live off, esp if theres the aforementioned brown rice in it. And pizza would win any leftover comp any day.

I worked at a ski field in Japan over christmas one year and had been watching all the christmas adds on tv, decorations in shops blah blah blah, it felt rather festive. Then on christmas day said the "merry christmas" to the other people working there and got a blank look. Business as usual, udon for dinner but there was a sponge cake with strawberries in it for lunch. Bonus!Dont believe the advertising hype and for goodness sake try and reeducate people that KFC is not traditional christmas food! What a very clever marketing ploy by Colnel Sanders

The snack thing, Im used to munching on an apple or muesli bar if Im hungry, something to fill me up when I want it. But here were I work (city office)its the big DAME, you SHARE here, even if it means putting in a kitty and buying shitty chocolate and rice crackers that dont make a dent in your hunger. Maybe eikaiwa and more gaijin friendly places are different. It really pisses me off as it means I eat a big lunch and get sooo sleeeeepy in the afternoons. Liked the rice cooker joke(?)

Ok for all you drivers a question My racks say not to drive over 80 km/h with skis on them, and although I dont really drive on the expressways with skis anyway (advantage of living in Nagano) but I was wondering what you all think. How fast with skis on? How fast with just the racks on? I went to fuji-q amusement park this weekend (fantastic!) and noticed the drag with the racks on a lot. cheers for any thoughts.

If youre skiing try and get some tough material on the inside of each leg as when you wipe out the edges of your skis can slit your pants there. Its easy enough to fix with this tape kind of stuff but why bother. I had just a shell up until this season and it was good. I bought some insulated ones for this season and on a hot day cooked. Definatley agree with the vent stuff. Also if you get bibs (with the straps over your shoulders) make sure you can go to the toilet with out taking the straps off. Strategically placed zips are really useful when you are busting BUSTING

Cheers for the weblinks fellas. But what I dont get is how are you supposed to know which wax to use. I just ask the people in the shop for their advice, but if you wax every 5 days out say (Im much lazier than that) surely the snow conditions are going to change a lot, say if you go out 2x a week thats nearly 3 weeks skiing and snow changes a lot over that time. And its hard to predict when youre going to get a dump. Ahh maybe Im just being too specific, I mean Im not a super-G or whatever In it for the buzz!

And I have to agree with you deebee, if people want to get coy and flirty then maybe they are on the wrong website. I log in here to read about skiing not a romance chat room or whatever. Dont get me wrong, I like a good flirt myself , but mmmmm what am I trying to say? Maybe dont make yourself sound like such a stupid bimbo? Unless thats what you want people to think? err thats going to cop me a bit of flak. But am with you deebee re the sunglasses post too

Christmas... stay in Nagano, house chocka with 9 mates, turkey, roast spuds and vegge, mulled wine and 1 of the yanks that is staying is making pumpkin pie. What is this? Ive never had this so should be interesting but I admit I am a tad skeptical about a veggie for dessert. If you stay in Japan do it up big and party hard with the trimmings with your mates. This is my 3rd christmas here (errgh) but I have to say that the snow and powder pre New Years is hard to rival. BRING IT ON

OK heres my 5 cents worth I hate that: Everyone avoids eye contact with everyone What you did in the weekend is a HUGE secret Who you date is an even bigger secret People look in your shopping trolley to see what youre buying The way people only turn their lights on dip when its pretty dark People I work with dont talk to me much, then they drink and talk loads, then drink more and turn into 12 year olds on cask wine. You cant bring your own snacks to work as its rude just a few off the top of my head, no I dont have the november blues really...

Where I live in Japan the majority of people hate the cold but I think what the problem is that very few of them ski. Everyone does it instead of PE at school, the little ones are hooning around the school ground in their cross country skis and they have days at the ski field, so I think the novelty wears off a bit. Perhaps a bit like a big grassy field for us but thats open to debate. To be fair there is a lot of snow to shovel here in winter and being good citizens everyone (except me) does it religiously, gets up at like 630am to dig the front door out. But it does get you warm and toasty a

Making cakes is easy, just get a basic recipe, whack all the ingredients into the rice cooker and turn it on. You might have to push the cook button again half way through but YUUUMMMMYY cakes, moist, easy delishious mmmmmm. Just make sure you wash the bowl properly before you cook rice - leant that one the hard way.