Siem Reeves

... where I first slapped on a pair of skis and could barely stand up without crashing into something... that seems like a long time ago

If you rough it, you can do a heck of a lot more skiing... and that's what it's all about!!! For our honeymoon, we didn't have much money, but we managed to go skiing for two weeks instead of a few days staying somewhere flashy - I suppose it depends on what your priorities are The best deal of course is when you can get the nice stuff for cheap, then you can do both!!

i could ask you in person Jared, but i might forget , how long are the runs??? so does this mean we'll head up there when we finally go home?? ...

"SIA Semi Gold, SAJ　1st"... so does that mean the instructor needs to speak good japanese - or does the fact that this is advertised in the English section mean they want an English Instructor??? curious cos I know someone who would love that job, but will have NZSIA certification...

under 25 - too young?????? nope - married at 22, now 24 and pretty happy...

It all sounds pretty pricey to me... In Isawa Town (Iwate Pref) the following is average for summer... water - 1207 (flat rate, but strangely goes up sometimes... 2 or 3 times in the last year) gas - less than 4000 electricity - less than 3000 car park - extra 1500 on top of rent rent (teacher's housing) - 13500 gas and power go up a bit in winter... by about 2000 yay for the inaka

Well, personally I don't agree with tipping... but don't get me wrong, I have done plenty of waitressing. Maybe it comes with living in a non-tipping country (NZ) but I got pretty crappy pay and when I did get tipped by foreign customers, I didn't get to keep it... but that's another story... Anyway, I figure, I went into the job knowing how much I would get paid - and my job is to work hard and be nice to the customers. Being friendly to customers should be something you do anyway if you're a nice person... but if people choose to tip, it should be an act of appreciation, not something

Ha Ha!!! I'm the first one to reply to my own thread No, really, I'm not that pathetic... I just wanted to say that Jared, you do not count, I know where you ski!!!

I'm just curious becuase judging from all the threads and stuff I've read, most people here seem to be from anywhere but Tohoku... so I just wanna know It would be nice to have a few more keen skiers up here at little ole Getou (and maybe Appi this year - only cos I can go there with my season pass...) By the way, I wrote a short review on Getou, I felt sorry for them cos they only had one review, and it is a pretty good resort (if you can even call it a resort ).

HOORAY!!! Yay, yay, go, go the All Blacks

Ahhhhh, wouldn't that be wonderful... AC in the office... Unfortunately for me, my school has no AC at all - hold on, the new computer suite has AC, but the teachers slowly bake in the staffroom all day long ... I just daydream about skiing in winter and the lines I'm gonna ski!!!!!

Go to New Zealand!!!!! Even with the exchange rate at the moment being quite bad (in other words, the money I send home isn't worth as much as it used to be...) visiting NZ is cheap for both Americans and the Japanese. But don't go on one of those package tours offered in Japan. A friend showed be a travel catalogue and they are highly overpriced. We worked out everything would cost half of what the travel packages charge. Seriously, spending money in Japan is very painful when you convert to NZ dollars because everything seems so expensive ... but when you are earning yen and spendi

We don't have to stop paying anything because I don't have to pay any extra for Jared to be covered by my National Health Insurance. Technically, he is my dependent since he theoretically doesn't work as many hours as me (I say that becuase he actually does a hell of a lot more teaching than I do in a week!!!). I would prefer some better insurance, but I don't have a choice and my other 30% is covered by a private company that JET pays for. Anyways, thanks for the info Chauncey... hopefully we won't need to claim much cos I really don't want Jared wrapped around a tree!!!

Try it!!! It will be fun!!!! Find some nice skis (Fattwins will surely point you in the right direction) and go, go, go I want to try out snowboarding sometime next season (don't get me wrong, I LOVE skiing and don't plan to give it up any time soon) for something to do when I can't ski the powder in the trees cos there either isn't enough or the snow is crummy... looking forward to that - got a friend with gear I can borrow, so that's convenient!!!

i've been missing going up the hill ever since it stopped. i've still got things i want to do, but will have to wait till next season. i think about the last pocket of powder i got (when everything was starting to get springy) and can't wait for more!!!!!!

kinda, but it's for safety cos they have to do avalanche control and stuff before they can let people on the mountain - and they are big mountains (in other words, no trees like here). Unlike Japan sometimes, in NZ you know that when things are closed there is a good reason.

I think youll find it dulls the pain rather than causes it. There was one line in "Oh brother where art thou" that got me - made the whole movie great.

never never never pay full price. (unless there is one pair of boots that fit you in the country) There is always plenty of last years stuff around if you look for more than 5 mins at half off or better.

If you really think about it, it's not that long at all. Its beginning of July now... we had snow in November in Iwate last year, so that means only 4-5 months to go... yippee 3ish more months till we apply for our season passes... Can't wait till the end of summer!!!! Can't wait to get back on my skis!!!!!!

Yeah, you got a good point there. Maybe I will do it for a laugh one day, but I love my skis too much right now. I would definately recommend my skis if they still sold them. They are Rossi Pow Airs (look exactly like the Rossi Moguls) but now they make the Scratches - you should try them out. Dunno about the specs compared to mine, but they are great for everything - and fat enough for me in powder since I'm a bit of a midget. The skis that Fattwins has would be good too (if I had the money right now I would buy me some of those in an instant!!!)

So why hasn't anyone replied to this thread??? There must be some female boarders out there. I can't help, cos I'm a skier...

So what's wrong with flowers??? I personally wanted to cover my old skis with daisies... but then again, I don't have the desire to do the same to my new skis (they have flames - I like em!). I suppose I'd have to see the skis in question though. My opinion is, if the skis look naff, then ski so well that people look at you and not the skis ha ha jared, i used the smiley faces!!!!!!

I know what u mean Zwelgen, I hate to give ip the old skis. The only ones i have parted with are ones I snapped in Niseko then lost in the pow trying to ski back on one ski and my last pair of bandits which I didnt like all that much. I would have just kept them but my friend wanted to buy them so I almost gave them away. Even though they were not my fav skis I still ensured they went to a good home and I can visit them from time to time (and my friend for a beer). Also, for your new skis have a look at the line darkside or skogen or one of the new models.

Yes there are!!!! Well, at Geto in Tohoku there are. If you buy before the end of October, you save 10,000yen on your season pass. That's 50,000yen (including 2000yen insurance) instead of 60,000yen. Sounds pricey, but if you go every day, its very cheap Oh, and Geto just got bought by Appi up near Morioka, so Geto's season pass will get you half price lift tickets at Appi too not that i have been to Appi... Hachimantai would be better, but it's better than nothing!!

booked 2 weeks at Hakkoda from new years. got the last cheap room at sakayu onsen and we booked in march. gotta be quick