jared

Been a while since I was there but you can get a prepaid mobile from almost any convenience store. a few years ago it would cost you about 10,000yen but it might be different now.

FL Studio you can set up the computer keyboard to be notes but I'v never done it so I dont know how easy it is. Any MIDI keyboard will work better though - Im sure you should be able to get one from hardoff or somewhere for next to nothing. I use the one my parents got me in 1989 - it was still sitting around at my parents house. Also there are tonns of tutorials on youtube for when your getting started.

I have got FL Studio hooked up to a MIDI keyboard - now I just need more time to play with it. Lots of fun stuff and fairly easy to use. There are lots of more advanced programs out there but I found them much harder to use.

Given that you would be living right next to Tazawako if you go to Akita, that would win from a convenience point of view. In Iwate you would have alot more choice of places to go but if you are east of Morioka they will all be a bit more that 15 minutes away. Akita girls are the most attractive in the country if that makes any difference (may not be true, its just what I heard). Also, its not that much of a drive if you do live in Tazawako and want to hit some places in Iwate, its just over the hill (45mins? from memory)

I dont think I will ever be visiting the UAE. 0.004g of pot stuck to the bottom of your shoe gets you 4 years jail. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7234786.stm

Originally Posted By: boardbaka I like the slippers for some reason- seems strange that your shoes got ninjaed - The only other thing is people like you are killing the industry in NZ - there is a noticeable decline in the number of skippys visiting the S Island and Japan - Hirafu in partcular is a big reason for that I was under the impression that they were getting record numbers of "skippies", (or shackle draggers or whatever you want to call our friendly neighbours)in Queenstown last season and numbers are growing. I would rather go to japan.

I would expect a Canadian beer to use new world hops like Cascade. A traditional IPA would use more English hops, fuggles, goldings etc.... I never came across anything purporting to be a "Canadian Ale" when I was in canada but I would expect it to be like an American Pale ale

dont they alturnate which mountain stays open and which one closes early? If you like park then hope that its blackcomb that stays open as they have the good park built there. Had friends visit us in whistler in early may and we got some fresh snow during thier visit. I would go expecting spring skiing but prepared for pow just incase.

Not Getou - somewhere near Hachimantai - from japantoday 2 Iwate avalanche victims identified Monday, March 10, 2008 at 04:44 EST MORIOKA — Police said Sunday they have identified the two men killed in Saturday's avalanche in Iwate Prefecture and have recovered their bodies. The victims are Kazuhito Takahashi, 39, and Makoto Hyogo, 50. They worked for the Iwate prefectural government, police said. Rescue workers were unable to recover their bodies Saturday from Mt Gentagadake in Hachimantai in the prefecture due to strong winds. The two men went to the mountain Saturday

I went on a tour with the guides from Sukayu (the ones involved in this incident) I was afraid for my life to the extent that my wife and I took measures to try and provide for our own safety. We took turns going right to the front of the group (of about 30) and the other went right at the back to spot the person in front (as we were the only two with beacons). Once the first person got to the bottom they had to try and find a safe place to stop and wait (while trying not to get too far from the rest of the group who were parked right where any potential avalanche would end up) There were time

Samurai - If you were independently wealthy and didn't need to work to live would you teach English at a Japanese Primary School? It's not a loaded question and I'm not trying to prove anything I'm just curious.

I disagree. There are not too many people on earth who choose to do a job because they want to see that job done. I dont wake up in the morning and leap out of bed because land needs subdividing and I'm just the man for the job! I go to work to get money. If I'm good at my job then I will be likely get more money in the future. I dont have to make my sole life objective Surveying to be good at it. Why cant teachers be the same? That said, in a regular job if you are useless you will be trained or fired - Jets are pretty much unfireable and sometimes (often?) take advantage of that.

Not quite mead - in this case the vast majority of the fermentables are from barley and wheat malt. One day I will try and make some mead though.

3 different Japanese people on 3 separate occasions have told me that it is illegal for people to produce their own alcohol in Japan. One of those people planned to do it anyway and took a bunch of homebrew kits back to Japan with him. This weekend I plan to brew a wheat beer (of sorts) with Manuka Honey in it. It’s loosely based on a recipe from Canada with maple syrup in it. I suspect it will be very good or very bad.

5-20 mins drive to get to lifts Depends on where in Kutchan you are staying as to distance to food/drinks most likely short walking distance ski shop there is worth a look, also supermarkets there unlike Hirafu

The mountain out to the side of Geto ski resort is called Usagi dake or mt rabbit (I dont know why)and we skied there quite a bit so the DVD we made was called "rabbits". That clip is an excert from the introduction to that movie. A little bit random but there you go. first scene to a new movie in NZ is here if you are interested http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=1Efb4E0gPDE

I got the Panasonic SDR-H250 I took a while to decide not to go Hi-def but in the end I want to put the edited footage on DVD so its just easier to film in the same res as I want to view it in.

Hdd and DVD models record in Mpeg2 which is the format DVD's use. On the model I have you can select the bit rate (quality) that it is recorded in. Top quality is 10 mbps, regular is 6 or 7 and low quality is less. I recorded everything in top quality mode which would be good for a short movie but if I want to make a longer movie and want to put it on a single layer DVD then I might have to re-encode it at a lower rate to fit it on the DVD. The audio is recorded in Dolby Stereo which is the slightly tricky bit. Our older version of Premiere Pro didnt like that audio format. It can enco

I went with HDD - So far we have done a fair bit of filming but we are just starting to edit the stuff now. For filming and capturing the HDD made life way easier. Never have to worry about running out of tape or taping over something that you want. Dont have to fastforward or rewind anything to get it in the right place for filming. In Japan DV tapes were cheap, in NZ they are $10 each. Capturing is a simple drag and drop process. I will comment on editing after we have done some more of it. So far its been OK. Most of the problems I have read about will be solved when editin

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver Nice! So I take it NZ recovered after a slow start to the season? Not really a recovery just a last gasp before it died completely. Most of the club fields are closed now. Hopefully we will get one more trip to snowpark or somewhere to do some parkin before the end.

You may be so bold. I should update that - I have lived in about 4 different places since I was in Isawa. I was doing what most gajin do in japan - teaching English (me in Kitakami and the wife in Isawa)

A couple of years ago if you got a pass to Geto you could also use it at Appi (this might be cheaper than buying the appi pass). We were paying about 4man for the pass if brought before october - check the web site.

Hi there - Hisashiburi. Got some snow pics the week before last on a trip that renewed my faith in NZ skiing. Pics are on and around Mt Cheeseman. Seems you have to click on them to see the bigger picture.

There is a big old fat man that coaches olympic swimmers at the pool I used to go to. Some of the people he trained won medals. Im pretty sure I could swim better than that old fat man, if only I was the coach for the olympic team they would do so much better.

My Brother had a very similar injury last season in Whistler. A big haematoma on his thigh from a tree collision. He was off work for about 6 weeks. During that time he was seeing a physio a couple of times a week. I understand that he was doing lots of range of motion exercises and spent a bit of time on a stationary bike but was on strict instruction not to over do exercise outside of the sessions.