SnowJapan#Andrew
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Posts posted by SnowJapan#Andrew
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We got this email last night, don't know who it's from but thought it was quite funny.
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It's not snowing enough in Japan.
And what's with the rain? That's not on.
Do something about it, now.
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I manage in a 2WD Celica here in Minamiuonuma, with frequent trips over to Gunma and Nagano in winter.
Obviously with snow tyres on.
Don't really have issues, though I recall it being a bit dicy going up to Zao Onsen and Marunuma Kogen.
We usually hop into my wifes Subaru when going anywhere particularly icy.
I think next time I'll go back to a 4WD, but I just liked this car too much to be put off by the 2WD thing when I got it.
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I/we make a point of not letting people who give such 'feedback' get us down. Rather the opposite actually. Wouldn't want them to think that they had any influence on what we do at all!
Though it's always quite good to have a few let-off-some-steam posts per season.
Happy New Year!
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I just want to add a few comments here, as some people seem to think they know more about us than they actually do.
This is mostly referring to mails that we receive from time to time, like the one yesterday (but not just that one!)
I started doing simple reports many years ago (2002 I think) because I was in Yuzawa, there was no info in English and I thought it would be great to share it.
It was for fun basically, and I enjoyed it.
I can't say that the enjoy factor remains in the same way as it did because we now find ourselves posting 11 reports each day.
A lot has changed since then and every year as we try to improve them and provide more information.
They take a fair amount of time and effort and we feel a real sense of responsibility with what gets posted - the more popular ones are read by thousands of people every day. It's much more than simply posting on a personal blog or something similar - we put a lot of importance on them and take the responsibility seriously.
But as David said, we don't have to post them.
There are no promises, no contracts, no commercial backing, no advertising commitments or anything like that.
You won't see us linking up asking you to buy stuff, go somewhere, 'book now'; you won't be bombarded by never-ending awesomely epic adjectives every day; and we won't conveniently not mention stuff that isn't endlessly awesome.
No, we do them because we continue to want to post them and think it's good to have our independent non-commercially backed reports out there.
But this also means that we could stop posting them immediately if we wanted to.
We, meaning the people posting them and the people looking after the system, could be out skiing in a morning and having fun instead of gathering info and sharing it with everyone every day.
I'm only posting this because people such as the ones that seem fit to write aggressively worded complaints about our free service need to understand that they need to take them as they are. Too early, too late, too honest (yes, we get that complaint sometimes from people with 'interests'), too long, too short, not enough snowfall reported, there was 20cm not 15cm..... whatever.
We don't tell anyone else how to do their job or what to do, and don't particular enjoy strangers instructing us as to what we should do. I can't imagine that many people do like that.
But that does not mean that comments are not welcome - they always are.
And I'll take this opportunity to thank all the people involved and everyone else who does support us.
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We missed the snowfall the other day but there's still a bit hanging around the base of the famous telephone box.
A rainy day here today, but I noticed that last year's thread was also started on 15th November.
May the box be completely covered this year.
(For newcomers, last year's fantastic and thoroughly exciting thread is here)
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Actually, as of this week, Mt Granview is the skijo that is closest to the new SnowJapan World Headquarters.
Quite excited about that.
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Oh, and I collect them all for future laughs and a possible book.
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Absolutely, Metabo Oyaji!
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It is indeed, SJHQ is moving.
Obviously, a dream move.
It somehow feels like this is what we have been working towards.
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Yes, dumbstick, it's the same as outside with the little metal hinge-like things. No need for any sealings though.
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End of October here.
On the subject of siding, we're having the KMEW on our place as well - it seems to be the most used siding in this region for some reason anyway.
Actually, having some on the inside as well.
Behind the telly in an alcove, and there'll be some gentle light shining down on it from the top. That's the grey-ish one. Not up and done yet, so it remains to be seen what it looks like!
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I heard those too.
It would be a dream for SnowJapan, for sure, and quite fitting too!
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The スノージャパン at the top and 雪 日本 bottom left are not fonts ----- we got a professional calligrapher to brush those for us.
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Oh yes, Mt Granview IS in the bottom graphics, you just can't see it. There's actually about 20 images in there before flattening it out... we wanted their 'soul' to be in it, even if you can't see them.
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I'm not quite sure Bag. But my colleague has been working round the clock, as they say, to fix that up and touch wood the site seems to be generally stable now. We are continuing to test everything and adjust, and there are a few more issues that we need to get sorted before we can think of taking things a bit easier!
There were always very probably going to be some technical issues when we launched this - it's inevitable with such a big change. With complex coding like this, some things only show themselves when an application is live in production, no matter how hard you check things in test environments. And we have been testing and refining for many weeks now. We weren't expecting that loading issue, I must say. The server is plenty powerful, apparently it was more a coding hiccup that too easily bottlenecked when there were too many connections.
Obviously it's frustrating to have such big issues when you launch something and when everyone is looking, but there's no panic.
We just have to take the things one by one - bigger ones first - and calmly try to get everything to normal as quickly as possible.
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The Smiths, 20 July 1986, University Of Salford
Had a stonking headache that morning but willed myself to be good in time for the gig. Definitely a classic!
Was also at the classic gig at Preson Guild Hall when Morrissey got hit by a coin/cup/sausage/piece of bacon during the first song and the gig was cancelled.
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We're using a local builder and for options/upgrades go with a few things with them and request some things of our own as well.
I imagine some people might just like the simplicity of choosing options that they offer. After all, it's very time consuming doing it all yourself. But hopefully rewarding in the end.
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Yes so many options.
Definitely should go into the process with a chunk of contingency budget.
Some of the optional upgrade costs of things I have seen though have been pretty ludicrous. That's optional extras for you I suppose.
The nicer shower head, 1m rail, shampoo stand and different colours on the bathroom adding 500,000 yen (list price) comes to mind. I'm sure the builders would be able to bring that down a lot as part of their package, but still.
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Interestingly, I think almost everything that has been added has come from us, the company we are going with don't do the pressure sales thing at all.
Which I like a lot. I'm allergic to pushy sales.
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Nothing's confirmed yet, still got a few options being looked at, muikabochi.
But hopefully here in the Minamiuonuma valley, not that far from where we live now actually.
Been here over 20 years now, think this is where I want to be.
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Good idea about the underfloor heating might have to look into that.
The roof on our bulding - as the plan is now, always changing! - isn't crazy steep. We're going to get the ido water go up there to the roof and melt the snow as well as sprinklers along the front and side of the building. I think. Luckily, there's fair bit of space either side as well so no real worries about any snow that does come down anyway.
We'll have 3 floors and still wondering whether to go 高床住宅 or not. Not mad keen on the concrete slab look myself. And talking to more people I don't see that they fare any better in quakes, if not worse like noted above. If we get a big quake, we're going to shake and get very scared anyway, so it's more about the structure remaining that I'm concerned about.
Like others have said though, it's fun planning. In the middle of the seemingly never-ending work to prepare our new website, this has been one little fun diversion keeping me going.
One thing I've noticed though. Start off with one price and then you'll add (lets have an ido!) and add (oh, nice kitchen upgrade!) and add (oooh, like the look of that bathroom!), it transforms into an altogether different price tag. Well it has for us anyway.
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We're planning a building for here in Minamiuonuma and going through the process.
Looks like there's two options for the sprinkling water thing. The first is digging a well and have that sprinkle around the front of the house or wherever and also have it circulate up to the roof and melt snow up there. That water is natually warm and they have to dig down 70+ (what I was told) metres. Costs around 1.5-2 million yen but running costs are pretty low. If you do that you won't have much snow building up on the roof/falling off the sides and also don't need as much free space either side for that consideration.
The other is to have some kind of big tank that you fill up with water (basically normal water supply) and it pumps up to the roof. It circulates and is reused and so you're not constantly using new water. That water is heated up (?) but can freeze up and be problematic in that way. Obviously cheaper than getting the well thing done, but not as convenient or reliable.
As for the whole of the ground floor concrete or not, garage or otherwise. The only rule on this seems to be that the houses must be able to withstand certain strong quakes, not whether the ground floor is made of wood or concrete. Those rules have become much stricter since Chuetsu especially for 3 floor buildings. Seems that concrete is more expensive and won't shake as much. Wood will shake more, but is actually more resistant. There were cases in Kawaguchi town during the Chuetsu jishin when the houses with the first floor concrete 'moved' as one, and took some huge damage. The ones that did not have the ground floor all concrete survived better, apparently.
This is all what I have heard talking to various people round here, or should I say what I have understood anyway.
There's a name for the ground floor concrete way of building houses here in Niigata: 高床住宅
http://www.town.yuzawa.niigata.jp/upload/1/chiikiseibi_tokurei_kijun_kaisetsu.pdf
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He definitely needs a break. But not yet Pete. Keep at it!
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I don't think there was another lift.
Haven't been for ages, I used to go there 2-3 times a week for nighta after work. I think it was the first skijo in Yuzawa to really welcome snowboarders.
The resort behind is/was Kayama Captain Coast, now closed.
Heavy snow please. Now!
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
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Thinking up a cunning plan right now!