obento

could someone tell me where i will find the Jimboucho of Sapporo? where would i go for snowboard shops? cheers,

speak japanese?

Quote: Originally posted by snowboard_freak: A pommie (or J-bar as Sam correctly called it) is one of those god aweful lfts that you put between your legs. Because the "pommie" is placed between your legs it makes it near impossible to ride these lifts on a baord. those are the things with the circular base right? if so, the remedy is to put it under your trailing armpit, so that the base is pushing against your rear shoulder, but dont they only have those things on the learners slopes? (if im talking about something totally different, my bad.) anyone ever ridden a nut-cracker?

wakkanai is the northern-most point of hokkaido i dunno, it doesnt matter where in japan you are, the coldest place is that place where you crashed so bad you got snow inside ya thermal underwears

im surprised nobody has touched on the marmite vs vegemite debate.. ive pledged allegiance to marmite, vegemite just doesnt cut it in my view infact vegemite disgusts me, and how about those people who claim theres no difference between the two?!? are there any truly devoted marmite/vegemite eaters out there?

im used to the beans now, but my first and rather unfortunate run-in with it was buying what i assumed was a rasberry ice-block, it turned out to be and frozen-anko-creation! yuk, but those little fish-shaped anko-filled pastries are pretty nice

gloves O mittens X i have mittens and gloves and it doesnt seam to matter what brand i buy, they somehow get wet and eventually die before ive saved enuff for a new pair. i go with gloves tho, my fingers detest having such comformity forced upon them by the mit, and i dislike losing the ability to hold multiple things in one hand which is possible with gloves. if my fingers get cold on the lift, i simply half-pull my gloves off and bunch my hand into a fist.

i worked at a smallish resort in Japan (8 lifts) and half the patrol team were snowboarders (3 outa 6), i saw them with the boats once or twice and they looked pretty good on the steep stuff actually, you know, the steep slopes where the ski-patroller turns sideways and sort of lies down to support the boat and the snowboarder ends up using his/her heel edge and is going straight although when the boats actualy had people in them it was usually attached to a ski patroller..

i looked around there the other day, infact i was originally in akihabara, and i decided to walk to jimboucho(not recommended), damn, i got lost so many times , but once i got there , theres that little one, `K-box` i think, which impressed me with price and a surprising selection for a ridiculously tiny shop.. then i walked past that big row of shops, because they were pretty lacking in my view, so i kept on walking for maybe a couple hundred metres, then i turned left and there were these two shops, i forgot the name of the one on the left, it was ok, and there was this

i havent heard of a fish-fish-fish cd being released, but i swear i saw what looked like its music video on tv a while back.. i wonder if itll come out in karaoke.. im thinking with lyrics like that, even the average-joe-gaijin with rather unsavvy japanese could impress in the karaoke box sakana sakana sakana, sakana o taberu to.. karada karada karada, karada wa yoku naru....

i cringe when i see a first-day beginner with all the top-of-the-line gear, they then spend the first season running over rocks, running into other peoples boards, having kids run over their board at the learners slope and generally making a mess of their expensive snowboard . boots need to be bought new and well fitting after that, get a second-hand board and bindings. make sure the board reaches up to around your chin, if you got big feet, 28cm+, try and get a wide board(ideally your toes and heels should hang about 1cm over each edge, but you wont be creating much edge angl

Quote: Originally posted by snowboard_freak: The wrist guards i use are "DaKine". they are small and only have a "plank" on the inside if the wrist. They are designed to be worn under the mittens/gloves. They are made from a similar substance that wetsuits are made of. If i understand you correctly Ocean, the design of these guards is such that there is not much of a risk of tendon damage. I certainly have not experienced it as yet, and hope not to!! I used these wrist guards when i was first learning to board - ie - falling over a bit! - and my wrists and tendons where always ok.

can someone give me an idea what niseko hirafu is like really early in the season? (from the opening date to mid december) is there a decent base of snow? are all the lifts running? is it snowing all the time, or does the sun come out on occasion? and the temperature gets pretty cold then? im just trying to form an image in my head so i know what to pack THANK YOU