bobby12

Japan were really weak in that game, the defence was terrible. Hopefully it was just a blip as they have been doing so well in the previous ten games or so.

I thought AI was a fascinating movie, co-made by the best two directors of all time (kubrick and speilberg). Not only is a great film, but it is fascinating to look at it terms of 'what was kubricks idea, what was speilbergs' etc. I think it is a bit weird because it mixes Kubricks twisted angle on the human psyche with Speilbergs overt sentimentalism. I think a lot of people had trouble with the movie cos it was slightly different, hence the large number of criticisms. Personally I found it quite disturbing and moving, with lots of freaky moments thrown in on top - fantastic!

Every game will be shown live on about three diferent sky channels. One in japanese, one in english, and one in another language. Something like that. Normally they offer 'subchannels' where you select the language you want within the channel, but according to the TV guide they are gonna dedicate several channels to each game. I may have made a mistake though, it could be that each channel offers different camera angles or team bias. Can anyone clarifiy this? I got the info from the TV guide in the official world cup magazine.

yeah but he will have no match fitness.

Well, every game will be live on sky perfect. And for free too, as long as you have a subscription and a dish etc. I got the impression from an advert on wowow that they are going to be showing england vs argentina, and some other (crappy) game. But font quote me on that. They were naging on about that game for ages, and showed times etc, so I assumed it meant they were showing it. Maybe some games will be on terrestrial TV too. You'd think so. I'd get a dish if I were you.

Ferguson said he is out for about 6 weeks, which means he might be back at the end of May. So he might be OK for the June2 game against sweden. Fingers crossed...

I don't think there will be ads during the games. The games are all on sky perfect, and they never show ads during any of the other soccer they show. So I can't see that changing. Why will it be a nightmare getting to and from the games?

It stuns me when people, even now, go out and buy a PS2. The x-box is an amazing system and I can''t understand why it isn't doing amazingly well everywhere in the world. PS2 is outdated, and the gamecube is for kids. That only leaves the X-Box for console gamers over the age of 12. It *almost* makes me think that Japanese consumers are biased towards their own companies (Sony and Nintendo), but this is surely not true?

I found snowboarding to be more intuitive to pick up than skiing. I progressed much faster. However, I agree with the above post about direction of travel. There is something unnatural about facing sideways, and I dont like it. Obviously both are unnatural though, as we aren't born with huge flat things attached to our feet. I think this post is hard to answer because 'natural' is a very difficult word to define.

any good one day (or two days with guesthouse) hikes in Nagano?

Keane is out for a month though - bad timing for your premier campaign, but great for me as a Liverpool fan. Arsenal are obviously the real threat though. I really fancied Real Madrid for the Champions Leauge, I even got great odds of 9-1 on them before the tournament started, but the Bayern game didnt exactly go to plan. I reckon they will still go thru though. I wonder how long it will be before they buy Beckham or Owen...

ah OK I think I know who you are, you support Real Madrid right? The match you saw was the first leg, the 2nd leg is next week but a day earlier. Would you be willing to tape the game for me next week? I can furicomi you postage money if you send me the tape, or I can send you a fat tape of The Simpsons or something (I have sky perfect). You can email me by clicking the email button next to my username. If anyone else will tape this for me I will send you a FREE DAY PASS for ARAI in Niigata. [This message has been edited by bobby12 (edited 04 April 2002).]

Sorry about this but that post about beckham remind me of something. Does anyone have Wowow (on cable tv)? I cant find anyone in my ken that has it and I need some football matches taping (namely Liverpool's match against leverkusen next wednesday at about 3am Japan time)

In order of purchase: Waverace (8/10) Super Smash Bros DX (7/10) SSX Tricky (9/10) Biohazard (Resident Evil 1) (9/10) Not many good games on the horizon though, maybe the new Zelda game in the summer(?) and the next Bond game.

i have a gamecube and the pros and cons are this: PROS: cheap better than PS2 graphics-wise CONS: nearly all games are in Japanese, and thus difficult not many games out (maybe 20 now) games are 95% kiddy oriented not as good as x-box graphics-wise no DVD, internet etc If I could turn back time I'd get an x-box for sure. But, I have fun with my cube. Wouldn't consider a PS2 even though you can get the games for free on pirate, its that crappy. Who is buying this machine now???!?!?

get real, it was a test-out team and half the first team were injured anyway.

will you be a new JET?

How does that game compare to Gamecubes SSX Tricky?

I dunno, I have spent this whole season (my first) boarding. But now I am getting a bit sick of it. Its such a pain getting in and out of your bindings everytime you go thru a ski lift. So I am thinking about going back to skiing next season, maybe getting some of those short skis so I can still do jumps and stuff. Theres also something a bit tragic about snowboarding and its hip image, but I cant quite put my finger on it. At the same time though, some skiers look diabolical in their garish pink and purple shellsuits. I think as you get older skiing seems more appropriate. When

Can someone please post on the current conditions in Hakuba (specifically Yanaba). Is it worth taking two days off to go up there now, or should I wait and pray for snow next week?

London too. (Islington)

Just found that Yanaba (south Hakuba) has a lot of good small jumps.

Cheers dude, I will check it out in two weeks time or so. Any other suggestions? Nozawa is a bit far north for me. Any in Hakuba?

Where is the best place for a beginner/intermediate to learn to jump in Nagano? I have been to about 10 resorts but it is really hard to find more than one nicely sized jump anywhere. All the runs are either flat or have these huge 2 meter jumps. I am looking for some small knolls or ramps that are really small, like between 10cm and 50cm. In Iwatake there are one or two on different runs, but I am looking for a run that has like 4 of them or something, so I can really get some practice in. Any ideas?