IM

I only did Tateyama in late October. Yes, you can hike and ride till May/June. If you are not experienced climber, I suggest to join a tour hosted by many ski/board shops, Mountenering shops, tour houses. It is the safest/easiest to have some serious fun. Those are not the only places, others like Hakkoda and Hachimantai are much more easily accessed and not as hard as Tateyama, since you can take an advantage of transportation (lifts, gondolas, etc..) Cheers

Since I am going there this week, let you know. But I think I know which one.

There are numerous web sites with information on the ORBIS installations around the country. This helps when driving on highway. I have bought a fuzz buster with GPS, as some of those do not emmit anything (reactive coil type buried in the ground), so the locations are in the memory- this may be was too much.

Cotton anything is a NO NO as they do not wick away the moisture. Also, the outer shell sould not have any insulation - you adjust with layers inside. And stay away from waterproof/breathable fabric anything other than Gore tex, as others are truely not breathable and wil trap heat inside. My typical set up is: Top: Patagonia silk weight base layer Mid weight layer (like Pata R1) 3 layer jacket (Burton AK, Marmot, etc..) Bottom: Wacol CWX performance long john Knee pads and a 3 layer pants Plus a neck gaitor if really cold. and a very thin vest in

If I had a choice, I would pick Nozawa. The place is nothing special about it-mondane hills.

Oku Tadami has A LOT of snow every year, so they have to close for mid season. It is about 45 min. from Koide exit (Kanetsu), by a fairly good size resvoir. It is not huge but has plenty of snow and last year they were charging 1800 for use of the pipe - park itself was free. Also, this time of the season, watch out for a cop at each on ramp of Kanetu - they check for seat belts and sometimes for DUI (anyone does apri ski drinking at parking lots of resorts). cheers

Sunny Scottsdale, Arizona USA

A Japanese American (stealth gaijin) being pretty much native in both.

Since I am from US, I can only tell you in comparison between US/Tokyo/Osaka Cost of living ~200% Cost of real estate ~300% Tax loading ~ 200% Real estate in Hokkaido is substantially less.

Strawberry, in Hirafu, you can see it from the lift (hana 1) it is on the left side bound by biginners escape route on the far left and main trail runs on the right. Another good one is Mirahashi, especially at night. Higashi one from the peak is good, hike is very easy 20-25 minutes. Instead of hiking out to hana 1, you can go down "Jackon" the steep bowl and ski out to bottom of Hanasono, this one is also good. But my favorite is North side, ski down to Gsohiki onsen, and after onsen, you can ski to Annupuri after a short hike. BTW, all off piste riding requires equipment and

I once saw a guy who dropped both his golves and poles into a net - you know the one they have over a creek.

Here is another one but Tele (and alpine and board). Having to make biz trips back to Boston too much this season - bummmmer..

Actually, Gentem stick is NOT a swallow tail, it's a Double Pin Tail (DPT). But if you are really into powder, get Gentem TT (short for Tamai Taro, some say Takaku Tomoki). It has no camber, so not ridable on groomers but great on powder. Others are Burton cascade, Fish, K2Eldorado. But my view is none beats the TT.

You might want to try this page: http://shinshu.online.co.jp/nozawa/ Nozawa has been developed around Onsen which has been in existance for 300 years. So there aren't any western style night life there, that I know of. People just go as a group and party in there rooms.

There are some resorts that have programs to ride in the ungroomed and/or get to back country stuff (submitting “üŽR“Í in Japanese may be required) Hokkaido: Asahi dake Niseko Shiribeshi Aomori: Hakkoda (gueded tour highly recommended) Yammagata: Zao Tengendai Iwate: Hachimantai Niigata: Arai (In bound powder areas) Kagura Mitsumata Myoukou Nagano: Happo Tsugaike (Shizen en) Amakazari (Otari onsen) Toyama: Tateyama These are only a few ones comes to mind. There are bunch of books sold to describe a lot of classic BC tour rout