Glen Falting

nice one Ocean, keep them coming.

Is Shingo the guy with bleached hair that was on that show where he had to use his newly acquired English skills against other celebs? I can see why the girls would go for him. Regading Norika, let's get something straight folks, Norika is a goddess. End of story. Such is her unassailable beauteous nature that even with bad legs, talentless acting and overly large head she is still beyond compare.

"Miss-Snowflake" - that's probably one of the best names on this forum. Kawaii neh! Did a final run with a tear in my eye a couple of weeks ago. For me this season is dead and buried. Ocean, hitting kickers on that dirt surfer would have to be a fast track to some pretty serious injuries.

forget the clothes, what happend to its ears?

Are there two Tokyos in this country? Where on do you guys live? Most of the people I know (simple snow lovin' regular joes like myself) spend a couple of hundred thousand a month. And that is for a pretty modest place. A couple of friends of mine have just moved apartments and were able to knock the rent down quite a bit, no key money and one or two months deposit. The real estate market is in such a sad state that stupid things like key money is very negotiable.

Ocean, I have actually, although to be honest it hadn't occurred to me to bookmark that site. On reflection, its probably a good thing as I'm not sure what the IT people here at work or my bosses would say if it was discovered that one of my "favourite" sites featured young sexy Japanese girls in bikinis. We usually have sites like The Times, BBC, SnowJapan etc. Something like "Megumi" or such others would be considered an undesirable deviation from acceptable behaviour. What can I say? It can be a cruel world sometimes!

nothing to say, just gotta keep this baby on the active list.

mmmm, no comment.

Ocean, sounds like you're speaking from experience. Anything more to add?

Nekobi - did the taxi driver seem disappointed when your friend showed up?

that hbo show was pretty good. it was shown is Aus quite a while ago now, but from memory it reminded me a lot of that movie "One Night On Earth" all sorts of strange people spilling their guts and getting up to all sorts of things in the back of a taxi. one of those wortwhile real life tv shows before the idea was flogged to death.

maybe this should be on the snow related forum. i was at myoko suginohara once when i saw a bloke haing a piss at one of the staging areas at the top of one of the lifts. not off to the side, but right in the middle of the area. a woman and another bloke were standing there talking to him and waiting for him to finish just as if he was adjusting his ski boots. one of those "only In Japan" epxeriences

agreed Kamo, add the smoke to the stale smell from the driver sleeping in his car for hours on end. some of the cabs really get whiffy.

Does anybody know why it takes so long for movies to be released in Japan? It seems to take months before the appear. Except for The Ring remake which was released here almost immediately after it was released elsewhere.

i agree mogski, given the flag call, i would have thought heaps of short runs would be better than one long one. i flagged a taxi the other day, he saw me and turned on his hazard lights and slowed down at which point i bent down to pick up my shopping. when the driver got close and could tell i wasn't a local, he drove off leaving me standing on the side of the road. i was too amazed to be pissed off. for those drivers who pretend not to see you, a good bang on the bonnet usually helps. if even they wave you away, it makes you feel a bit better.

given the number of taxis clogging the streets these days its hard to believe they would ever turn down a fare. they are pretty bad, but there are a couple of things to say in their defence: a. i've heard that opening the door manually wrecks the automatic door opening thingy - hence the dirty look from the driver. b. at night a lot of the drivers are looking for the big fare out to the burbs and don't want to be bothered by foreigners who live around the corner. this is particularly important if they've been sitting in a cab rank for ages. c. (although this is more suspec

Two Towers is better than the Fellowship? What a bunch of blood thirsty, insensitive yobs! Fellowship had those scenes from the great last battle when Isldur captured the ring, it had the fireworks in the shire, it avoided the whole boring bit with Tom Bombodile (sp?), the life and death struggle in Moria, the death of not one but two of the main characters, enough gory fight scenes to satify most normal people (not many on this thread apparantly - normal people that is), several demonstrations of the terrible power of the ring and even a hint as to how the whole thing ends (!). Two

oo, is that a vote for "Echineko" as the SJ code word and/or sticker

I hope they don't get DLS here, it fades the curtains!

Pretty amazing stuff, got home last night and watched it live. One of those images I guess that will be around for ages. It would have been pretty funny if that US armoured vehicle was unable to pull the statue over and the crane broke off instead. Not much chance really, but its a nice thought. Also would have given Al-jazeera something to broadcast. Gotta wonder what planet Syria is on. Talk about a sitting duck.

probably fellowship is a little better (more enjoyable?) coz there isn't so much action taking place on the grand scale of the two towers. its a bit more personal and intimate. being the first one, the fellowship is perhaps always going to be just that little more special still, two towers was amazing, the helms deep scenes were mind blowing. can't wait for the return of the king, more huge battle scenes and lots of other stuff. i think i must now be officially a geek. i post on a computer forum and talk about sword and sorcery movies - this is what japan does to people.

the english version is available at kinokuniya in shinjuku. not sure how the translated version stands up to the original.

Thanks IM. Pretty scary stuff. Has anyone on here ever been caught in a serious avalanche?

Thanks guys. Like most things to do with sporting gear, its seems to be more to do with personal pref than anything else. The reviews I've read of seem to indicate that the Atlas straps are better and there seems to be fewer stories of things breaking on the Atlas. Weighing in at a well fed 88kg and with gear and board, probably approaching 100kg, I guess a larger size is in order, unless I can convince the wife that a new split board is required...

IM, I don't know much about these things, bugger all actually, but do you reckon the headache would be from lack of oxygen, even with the avalung? Also, what do you reckon about the idea of trying to make a space on front of your face while the avalanche is still moving?