namenya

Anyone know what Naeba is like at the moment? The info page says just 50cm of snow, but the resort has been open since late November. With the snow we've got now looking like it is continuing for the next few days, I'm getting ready to go to Naeba on Wednesday, but it would be nice to hear from anyone who has seen it first hand... The (cough) has definitely got worse...

2 days at Myoko Suginohara this weekend. Thinking about how to get a midweek trip in from Tokyo too while it's snowing... Got to get enough snow now to help make up for the pain of lying sunbaking on a beach in sunny Queensland for 2 weeks over Christmas... :-)

Snow glorious snow! About 5cm of sweet powder snow lying on the roofs and on the ground. Cars driving at 5kmh because they rarely see the stuff. Me wondering how I can get from Tokyo to a ski field tomorrow or wednesday... Taking the day off isn't a problem, I'm already feeling a (cough) (cough) bit of a cold coming on...

Anyone heading towards the snow from Tokyo this weekend and want someone to share costs? I was trying to figure out ways to get a day trip in on Sunday via JR, but it isn't looking good - no packages so high costs. So, if you're heading out and have a spare seat (or two), let me know! Gotta feed the need...

I want to quit work and go live in Nagano. Hell, I've never wanted to live in this fetid hell trap of a city (Tokyo), I've only ever wanted to be near the mountains, and the snow. Ah, the snow. Why? Why was I made to feel pain?

What's the seminar? In order to get a licence renewal does everyone have to sit through some sort of refresher course?

And spitting and peeing in the street! (seems we can't write ******* ) I detest those foul stinking mannerless throwbacks who hoik up a big loogy and spit it down on the road/stairs/train platform. They could at least aim for a grate in the road, the nearest garden, or the train tracks. But no, they have to slag where everyone stands or walks. Walking from home to the train station the other day there was a lump every couple of meters. Then you get the old (and young) guys peeing on the street, quite often right next to a convenience store which has a toilet ready and waiting to rec

I didn't know that the cops were cracking down on it. But then I didn't even know that I was driving illegally until yesterday. miteyak: It seems that until July it was just an 'administrative recommendation'. In July it was upgraded to an enforceable law. Penalties are fines or up to 1 year in jail. The biggest problem is with insurance - if you are in an accident, then you aren't insured, although it seems the insurance company might pay out for damage to the other party, just not damage to your own car. This seems pretty optimistic to me - insurance companies usually try to write

Excellent - being an Aussie is always an advantage. I'll have to work out a time to go and get it... sitting around in bureaucratic offices all day is such a pain though.

midget hurling

As a frequent pedestrian it pisses me off that drivers have a complete disregard of pedestrian crossings. You could wait at a crossing until nightfall and no car would stop. I asked the police if cars are supposed to stop at pedestrian crossings where people are waiting. His answer was "Yeah, but they don't do they" with a laugh. Perhaps if he did his frickin' job instead of stopping innocent foreigners on bicycles. I'm now in the habit of walking out in front of the traffic and making it stop (with an eye out for escape routes if in case it doesn't).

I just found this out... It seems that in July this year the road rules were changed such that any person living in Japan for more than 12 months must have a Japanese licence to drive legally. Any other licence (including valid international driving permits) are considered invalid once you've lived here for more than 1 year. You have to leave the country for more than 3 months in order to get another 1 year of non-Japanese licence driving... http://www.relojapan.com/general/polling/information.asp?spl=0&from=1&formon=November&foryear=2002 This unfortunately affects

Unrelated to skiing, but this one is fun. Physics majors would especially have fun, but anyone who's ever watched someone falling down a set of stairs in a movie and thought "That's _gotta_ hurt." should get a kick out of this... http://taat.fi/taat/porrasturvat/ Download, install, push the sucker off the top of the stairs.... top damage score so far is 67932.

The site looks good and I like the new name. At the moment I am finding it a little more difficult to navigate around the site than the old sjg but I guess that will come. Some suggestions ... * Please get rid of the realtime clock on the main page - I have a clock on my computer. I have one on the wall. I have one on the mobile phone. I don't need one on the web site. * The animation of the snow japan logo is nice, and even though it only happens once every 7 seconds, I still find that the movement draws my eye to that corner. Perhaps if you made it so that it doesn't loop, o

I find that one of the biggest mistakes I see my friends make while they learn, is leaning back on the board when going through a turn and the board starts to speed up. It seems to be a body's natural reaction to feeling that they are getting out control or going too fast and that they may crash is to lean back on the board. Unfortunately, this usually is then the cause of them losing control and crashing - a vicious loop. When I taught my girlfriend, that was something that I really worked on with her, and once she realized that she was actually leaning back (despite thinking tha