joshnii

Ocean11, perhaps given time I'll feel a similar way. Not right now though

When would puberty years be? And would we be "teenagers" for 10x longer than usual? That would be sad.

Mmmmmm. Coffee machine. Want.....

Yes I hope it is coded well so as to not raise suspicion. That would be dangerous.

The quake has passed and the region to the north of the ski resorts is now recovering. There's probably more chance of another region - eg Hakuba - having a big quake now than there is Niigata again now.

Lets plan something together sanjo and get out there asap. I vote for somewhere down in Myoko or Arai.

Yes that would certainly have been scary. Not sure what is/was the scariest situation to be in when this happens... in your (old) house, on a train, asleep on the 2nd floor, walking about outside....

Sorry, but I cannot see how anyone could possibly think that a 5.5 earthquake is 'cool'. Unless they had a warped mind. I'd been waiting for that "no quake day" for about 5 weeks, it took long enough. Seems we can expect very small ones to carry on for a bit longer though yet - ones that can only really be felt right in the "central zone" or whatever you want to call it.

That sounds sick. Kintaro - whats that museum like?

CheeseRipper Whats that called then? Perhaps some of the resorts here could play it to get some ideas

My place had one last night, it was a fairly low key do as they go but ok. The place was happy to have us there, seems a lot have been cancelled.

Not had any noticeable problems on mine yet. Battery doesn't seem to last as long as it did at the beginning though.

You're not going to duck ropes are you, thunderpants

Good point sanjo - people who are not familiar with the names of the stations and everything might get the wrong impression. As the man said, the shink is running as normal from Tokyo to Echigo Yuzawa without any problems (and actually also from Nagaoka to Niigata city, but thats not a "ski route"). snowglider - you think 3 or 4 dudes can move a shinkansen the size and weight of them things, along with the chance of aftershocks? I'd say they are doing a fine job.

Do they actually?

I'm sure they won't mind me posting the faq What's this site about? Most people who think carefully understand that Americans are not really any more jingoistic or xenophobic than people in other countries, but it never hurts to reinforce, especially considering what happened on November 2nd, 2004. What must it have looked like to the world outside our borders? America proudly re-appointed her reckless, incompetent and corrupt government. How much of America? Fifty-two percent. The rest of us are aghast and dismayed. Lots of fuss is made about the “global village.” The Internet was

Yes I was actually meaning November tourism rather than the winter. I would surely hope that aftershocks have quit by the time next month rolls round. (Today there have been almost none so far, fingers crossed that will continue). As far as I know - and I have been looking at the quake pages on the web since this all started to keep up to date, places like Nozawa in Nagano and Kitashina/Minakami/etc (Gunma) got pretty much just as much shaken up as Yuzawa did. So I wonder if Nozawa is on peoples blacklist as well......? Or perhaps Nozawa's "not Niigata" status makes people feel b

Blair, how strong were the earthquakes in the arai region? I imagine about 3 or 4 maybe? And how about aftershocks - are you still feeling them periodically or what? I hope it doesn't affect your resort too much. Cheers

I think this is surely going to depend on the big issue - do you live right on the slopes and can you pick and choose when you go? People who go for their hols from the city don't get much say in the matter. People living nearby can be picky!

Definitely, its a big occasion even if the person doesn't want to celebrate getting older !

OK out of interest. If you had a ryokan/travel holiday planned for November or even December in Niigata-ken - even places not really affected that much by the earthquake (eg north, Yuzawa, Myoko) - would you cancel or not? It seems 90% or so of November bookings are history.

Check this out. http://www.savenishikigoi.net/ That and the nice save the flying cows story are at least a glimmer of hope/happiness in all this mess.

You'd think they might delay it or something. It's really confusing now with all the new names for all those towns down to the south of me. Even the people who live there aren't up with it - and don't really care given their circumstances.

So another national holiday here, more bad weather. Why is nature punishing us so much? Really pissing it down today here.

That sounds good, if it is indeed true. I presume (read: hope) it is. The last few days there has been hardly anything, and getting less every day