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Blair

SnowJapan Member
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Everything posted by Blair

  1. Hi joshnii Thanks for the post The earthquakes were as you say, and there has been a tremor here and there. The resort has pulled through fine though. When the facilities were designed, care was taken to build them to withstand the weight of the snow in the area - this with the fact that all the infrastructure is new, including the highway to/from Nagano - means business as usual. The only time my regular routine was interrupted was a roadblock on Route 18 following the first earthquake. The Police wanted to make sure northbound vehicles were not heading to the Chue
  2. Dear white-void The nearest place I understand to be affected is Tokamachi, which is a 60-90 minute drive northwards from the Joetsu region.
  3. Hello charlotte As far as I can tell the earthquakes have not affected the resort structurally - facilities are all fine and the runs on the mountain as well. There have been a few cancellations given that the resort is within Niigata Prefecture, but to be fair the Joetsu region in the south did not feel the impact the way the Chuetsu region did. I live down in the Joetsu valley and we have been able to remain in our homes, with water, electricity and gas supplies unaffected. I feel very sorry for what has happened in the Chuetsu region and trust that people there will be
  4. Hello merryJim Thanks for the question - off the top of my head the night hotel guys put in long hours. I usually bump into them just before 3 PM as they are showing up for their shift to start at 4PM. They then work officially until 10 AM the following morning but have been known to keep at it until the early afternoon on busy days...
  5. Dear Karnidge It really depends on what part of the season you are talking about, type of staff member(full time or seasonal worker) and time of the week for that matter. Staff tend to use the facilities when the resort is quiet, and work when it is busy. Personally, I find that full timers tend to view the resort as a place of work, while the seasonal workers can instead afford to have a "work to ride" mentality. Blair.
  6. It's nice to see that powder hounds are beginning to wake up again following the annual summer hibernation! To briefly answer some of the questions so far: 1. Shift rotas depend on many variables, both controllable(number of staff available) and non-controllable(weather). During peak season though when the snow hits, it is an "All Hands on Deck!" type of job; 2. Graveyard shifts are popular with the true powder hounds, who love to squeeze in some snow either before or after their shift. One of the reasons the resort kept "Nighta" operations going was to keep such powder houn
  7. Hi Curt Quite a bit depends on the type of visa that the foreign staff enter Japan on when they initially come to work for the resort. If staff come on a working holiday visa, then chances are samll that they will receive another such visa the following year; However, if staff (like our house bands) enter on entertainer visas, then renewing a visa usually proceeds smoothly. Blair.
  8. smiler - I covered the topic of where the native Japanese seasonal staff go in an earlier version of the setting journals here: http://www.snowjapan.com/e/features/setting-journals-5.html As for the international staff this year, the kiwis returned to the next semester at Uni back home, the Aussies went to work the white season in Australia, and the bands picked up some gigs either back in the Philippines or some other part of Japan.
  9. Hi Veronica Yes, there have been several native English speakers working at the resort over the past few white seasons, in addition to our two house bands. The title of this column, "The Setting Journals" is named after the daily process of setting up the mountain every morning so that it can be opened up to the public. Until I did it myself, I had no clue about all the variables that are involved in opening up a mountain daily over the 140 or so days of the white season - it is a labor intensive job! You can read more about the process of setting the mountain here:
  10. Hello Thank you very much to all of you for contributing to the thread. Fattwins - appreciate the hint about not rotating the features. I also like what you said about building up the land in the summer and will keep an eye out to see if it is done or not. Ocean11 - that is quite a photo you posted. Is it you on that bike? xxx - yes I am listening danz - thanks for coming to ARAI and checking it out for yourself.
  11. Hello Well it has been quite a month here at ARAI with the weather all over the place, new staff arriving, and guests coming out of the woodwork looking for accommodation and snow. To cover briefly the points in the mail below: rach: Each staff member tends to grumble about their own pet peeve, some grumble more than others, and some even complain about the cold if you can believe it. grungy-gonads: Most companies in my opinion make a mistake at some point. It really comes down to the culture at the company as to whether that company then wishes to discus
  12. Hi Fattwins I just caught your comments - they are really appreciated. Briefly in reply: - ARAI will offer a Terrain Park from the 2003-'04 season; - We do offer a 700 to 1,000 yen menu during the daytime. Let me know if you head up to ARAI this coming season, as I'd like to hear what you think of our new Terrain Park.
  13. Hello rach - ARAI presently provides a great deal of info. on the site concerning how to do ARAI on a shoestring. It was one item that I made sure was incorporated into the design of the site. Concerning budget accommodation, while ARAI can continue to indirectly provide information via the telephone for example, several questions quickly arise if such information is provided via more formal means such as on the official website. In my mind, it is a matter of pointing the person in the right direction, which the site presently does and will continue to do, with that person
  14. Hello Good to hear from you all. I have been away writing my lines as assigned by that naughty and cheeky HoTRoD: Arai Arai Arai......... Seriously, lots of great questions and points. Going through the thread: mikazooki best of luck passing for an elementary school pupil. grungy-gonads Though I can't see the price of the early bird coming down, there is nothing stopping you from being first on the lifts at 8:30. While it is not exactly the same, the snow is still "sweet" at that time. jared I agree with you but in my biased mind, while the earl
  15. Cheeseman: The cheese is good at ARAI - we bring it in direct from Europe via our food importing company, and lots of nice wines as well. Does the Cheeseman enjoy a wee bit of wine every now and again? Kenta Takahashi ARAI has a BBS on our Japanese HP and it receives lots of intersting questions - check it out if you have a moment. Your question though is a great one for SNOW JAPAN though. If we're doing this kind of thing on the English Forums, is there a chance that it can also be done to the same extent on the Japanese Forums in the future?
  16. Hi Lots of really interesting points since I last checked the thread. I'll do my best to address them all here: sweetaz 1 - ARAI does not share a mountain with anyone else. It also is not part of another range of mountains such as the Myoko range which contains several related peaks. 2 - ARAI has a sports promotion foundation known as the Morita Sports Promotion Foundation. The purpose of the foundation has been to raise the next generation of downhill Olympic ski racers from the senior high school level. ARAI has also sponsored the Japan Paralympics for several years
  17. Nice to see some input, I'll answer a few items here. rachael: ARAI is spelt in capital letters because that is how our corporate brand manual specifies that it must be done. kobet: Yes, the resort will close through December the third. To make things clear, ARAI gets a significant amount of visitors during the Japanese school holidays in summer, but fewer in the shoulder periods. In my mind this is a pity, as ARAI is very beautiful in the fall with Autumn colors, nice weather etc. The decision to close during the Autumn was made during the peak of the SARS cr
  18. Hi Ocean11 Thanks for the observations - hope that your summer has been going well. ARAI does limit overnight parking to one lot (historically this has been the P1 parking lot), and such a limitation has enabled ARAI to more closely monitor those cars that arrive during the night/early morning. While ARAI discourages overnight camping in the parking lots, Hotel Guests also arrive at the resort via the one access road in the middle of the night, and we need to be able to accommodate them. Accepting vehicles that arrive a few hours before the slopes open , and overnight c
  19. Hello It has been a long time since I last wrote on the forums. It is nice to be back. Going through your points as they appear on the thread: nagoid - To be honest at this time I don't have any solid theories as to why the numbers are slightly down at ARAI for the past season; 1 - ARAI usually does close for maintenance twice a year. Disruptive maintenance can involve disturbances to the hydro supply - so the resort picks a quiet point twice a year to carry out such work; enderzero/scouser - I will be "Taking On" all the questions I was given, and intend to answer t
  20. Hello HoTRoD I appreciate your constructive suggestions, and agree that some of ARAI's Restaurants cater to high end clientele; However, one can have a restaurant dinner at ARAI for much less than JPY 5,000. I've done so myself on many occasions. Fattwins I like to save money too, true to my Scottish upbringing and roots; However, with time I learned that finding the best deal can sacrifice convenience, comfort, privacy and safety. For me, I've come to enjoy and appreciate these luxuries - especially as the frequency of my holidays have decreased over the years. A
  21. Hello I learned about the snow industry in Japan by working at ARAI, and base most of my observations from what I see at this resort. I'd like to hear more from the readers of this thread concerning their own theories on the numbers in the Niigata Nippo article. Blair.
  22. Hi HoTRoD Before I came to Japan, I was in the restaurant business for five years in Canada. During that time, my thinking changed quite dramatically from, "How can anyone in their right mind charge Cdn $ 20.00 for a steak?" to "How can Cdn $ 20.00 cover all of the overhead involved in delivering that steak to the customer?". To this day, I still have trouble seeing how restaurants make money. All restaurants are not the same, and having washed dishes in Nenohi on several occasions, I can say from experience that the overhead in that restaurant is astronomical. Nenohi offers fr
  23. Hello A man of 45 years of age did die while skiing at Arai on Sunday. I've just talked with a senior patrol member, and nobody saw the accident happening. All attempts to resuscitate the man following the collision were fruitless. The man was at Arai with a group of friends on course. It appears the man lost control for some reason, and fatally collided with a tree. I do not know any further details other than those listed above at this time. Blair.
  24. Hello I have not seen the Niigata Nippo article, though I am looking forward to reading further on SJ this summer concerning stats for the season. ARAI had a good start to the season just finished, with numbers up compared to the last white season for both December and January; However, the latter half of the season was disappointing. I learned this year about the "CNN effect", and how when a big thing such as the Iraq War is unfolding, alot of persons stay home and watch TV rather than go out boarding for example. I feel this "CNN effect" hampered the latter half of the seaso
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