RayInJapan

I am retiring next month, and will be moving back to Okinawa in June so our snowboarding from here on out will be back to Hokkaido via JAL Ski tours...you can go from Okinawa to Hokkaido (Rusutsu) and stay for a week of boarding/skiing for about the same price that air line tickets cost to go from Okinawa to up here in Misawa/Aomori. There are a lot of good resorts up here, but the airfare alone is too much money...I suspect that we'll still try to come back up here though if we can stay with the friends we've made while we've been up here...

If you are flexible with your departure time then you don't need a reservation because there are like 12 leaving every day. If you want to leave on a specific one however, then you should have a reservation. My experience on them has been that they are full most of the time...

I just spent a week at Rusutsu. Never been to anywhere else up there so I can't compare but what I do know is there is a lot of off piste stuff up there and you don't need snow shoes for any of it. Most of the off piste stuff you can hit right off the lifts/gondolas, and when they run out, they put you back onto a regular gerende or right back at the lift. And no walking either. I've been told that Niseko is "better". If that's possible, than one of these days I will have to go there but to be honest, for the money and travel time, and the fact that I now know every nook and cranny of it,

Unlike baseball, which is generally a guy sport, and where a guy can "throw like a girl", and some girls can throw very well, I see skiing and snowboarding as a genderless sport where the only difference is skill level. I know some timid guys and girls on the slopes, and I know some guys and girls who rock. I've been on the slopes with you Siem, you are very good as far as I'm concerned... p.s...spent all last week in Hokkaido boarding...if I had could only choose one word to describe it, I'd have to choose "epic"...already saving my $$$ to go back next year...

Very sad when things like this happen. I know 2 people who have been up in that exact same spot over the last two weeks...both got lost in there on different days but made it out ok. After reading about this, I don't think they know how lucky they were ...

Yamakashi, You're right, snowboarders can't see who is directly behind them. With that said, if someone is boarding/skiing right behind them, moving down the slope at the same/faster speed, the possibility for an accident exists. Boarders however can simply turn their heard to the right (regular stance) and look up slope to make sure the slope is clear before making radical turns across the slope (or entering the slope from somewhere else). Skiers however have a blind side too. They can't see whats behind them so they can't see up slope and can't see someone else coming who

If you are trying to go from Aomori city to Tokyo, you'll have to catch a regular train from Aomori City to Hachinohe. From Hachinohe, you can catch the Hayate Shinkansen to Tokyo Station. To get from Tokyo station to Narita, catch the Narita Express... If you're trying to go from somewhere else in Aomori prefecture, you'll still have to get to Hachinohe first before heading south. The website with all the info is: http://www.world.eki-net.com/ Depending on your departure time, you don't necessarily have to spend the night in Tokyo. Also - if you buy your airline

Don't give me that "more violence only begets more violence" bullshit. I wouldn't give a rats ass about what the kidnappers family would think. And the proof is that as I'm typing this, I'm watching the news on TV about the 8 year old girl who was kidnapped and then murdered. The killer also had the gall to take a picture of the little girl and then send it by email to her mom with a note saying "I got your daughter". I cannot express enough - the rage I feel at this moment. If the killer was in front of me right now, I would do my best to kill him. And if his family was naive enou

I never said I was above the law, or that I never break the law. I think I said EVERYONE breaks the law. Those who knowingly do so should be prepared to accept the price if they get caught. When it comes to protecting my loved ones, or exacting my own revenge if I thought the the punishment the law dished out wasn't enough, I would have no qualms with "breaking" the law and then accepting the consequences.

Kinda scary sometimes how OC and I are on similar wavelengths... Momo and I are quite happy with our daughter Jenny and don't feel the need to have any more children so I was gonna see about having myself spayed too. Anyone out there have any experience with that? I'm thinking its still warm outside, no real snowboarding in sight yet so maybe now is a good time so I'm recovered by the time the slopes open. How long does that take anyway? (to recover that is) The alternative is to wait until the spring cause I dont' want to miss any mountain time once they open up...

Excluding a few part time jobs when I was in high school, I've had just one for the last 25 years. I'll be retiring from it in a few months cause I don't like the way the war in Iraq has turned out, and I don't like the way my "boss" has deceived most of us...so its time to find a new path in life - still trying to figure out where, but it will definetly not take me out of Japan...

Very interesting topic. As usual - the basic two sides - those who smoke "support", and those who don't smoke are "against". Kinda like ducking ropes... TP - I applaud you for sharing your story. Folks need to know that "if you do the crime, you do the time". Its that simple. Obviously you did some time, and also learned something from this experience. It is amazing to me how others chime in with how "unfair" TP was treated, or how "the laws are screwed up". I'm sure there are many a rapist sitting behind bars thinking they wished rape wasn't against the law. I'm not saying

I guess its all working out to your satisfaction but were it me, I would have called the cops immediately. Had the situation been reversed, you being a gaijin and hitting a Japanese person, you would likely have ended up with some jail time or heavy fines and a crap load of bills. Well maybe not in your case if you actually know them personally - but the norm is a gaijin will get screwed bad. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was making a right turn and almost hit an old lady in the cross walk. It was his fault for ALMOST hitting her - not looking closely first before turning - but he

I've gone snowboarding for the last time this past weekend, and its time to focus on jet skiing so its time for me to say goodbye to SJ till the fall... Overall, I'd rate my season as a 6 on a scale of 1-10. Didn't have any bad times, but didn't have any that really blew me away either. I need next weekend to prep for a trip to Okinawa - I go down there on 2 april to prep a friends jet ski for a 2 hour endurance jet ski race being held on 11 April. I didn't race at all last year cause of my neck surgery so I'm out of shape for the race but maybe my tuning skills might help make up

I was at the jusco's mall in Morioka last weekend...went into a shop that sold Rolexs and they had a purse that cost 1.5m yen. That was absolutely the dumbest thing I ever saw. There wasn't anything special about it. The damn thing cost more than one of my jet skis brand new. I don't care how rich I could ever be, I couldn't spend that much money on a friggin purse. And I wouldn't let Momo do it either.

FT - I have to pay tolls myself. They did pay when I moved up here but that was cause it was cheaper to do that than to pay for air fare from Okinawa. Japan has few "bummers" but one that sticks out is how much it costs to travel within Japan. Toll roads, express/bullet trains, and air fare. If you want to go anywhere - you gotta pay...its doubled the cost of my snowboarding thats for sure...

Rest assured FT - these guys will be investigated, and if guilty of wrong doing, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. There are very specific prohibitions against what can be brought back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The military has already investigated and returned items of value that belong to the Iraqi "people". I wouldn't take everything you see on Ebay as fact...we laugh all the time about guys selling jet skis they say can go 70mph...

When I moved from Okinawa to Misawa, we drove the length of Japan on the expressways. The max speed that we saw was 80kmh with the exception being an area north of Tokyo where the speed limit was 100kmh for a relatively short difference. Many of the signs are electronically controlled so they can change them to 50kmh during bad weather. I usually do 120 on dry pavement if the temps are above freezing, and there are people that pass me like I was standing still...

Things to do in the summer: Jet ski, jet ski, jet ski... Mountain biking too... Wind surf on the nearby lake or Kite board on the nearby lake... Check out the babes on the beaches... There's probably a lot more to do, but I only do the things that involve water...

Here Here OC, Here Here... You're 100 percent right - nobody, can do anything bad on a large scale unless a government somewhere backs em up. That includes both terrorists, and leaders of governments as well...

Interesting Indo - the same thing happens to tourists from Hawaii who take rocks from Heiaus (ancient Hawaiian temples), and certain parts of the volcanos on the big island.

So, now that winter is practically over, which was right - the jelly fish or the stink bugs? Perhaps we should do a poll on this. I think the jelly fish were correct... Anyone got any ideas on how to predict how the summer will be?

Pluckster - Back at you bro! Had an awesome time hitting the snow and hanging out with a fellow SJ'er and the rest of the MM'ers. I wish we'd have hooked up sooner - too bad the season is about over. You gotta take care of that knee though so I guess "over" is good. The bar at the Royal Hachimantai Hotel was a blast. I'm glad Rus brought the Tequila. You guys are too cool. Thanks for asking me to stay up there and party with you guys. Momo had a great time meeting us up there too. Wish you weren't leaving this summer. We'll definetly have to get out on the jet skis before you leave. Hakk

I don't have any problem with it - looks like their simply catching more bad folks. What gets up my nose is the fact they released the satanic murdering 21 year old yesterday. He's the one who dismembered the little boy 7 years ago and put his head on a pole in front of the boys school for everyone to see. They say "he's all better now". If I were the father of the little boy though, I'd be relishing the fact they let him out of a protective cell...who knows what accident might happen to him now that he's a free man???

Racist? No "racist" implies I don't like someone simply because of their asian ethnic background. Nothing could be further from the truth. I edited these posts because this is not the proper forum for me to vent my personal feelings about certain life experiences... I'm not apologizing for anything - simply eliminating a potential source of controversy on a forum that should be about fun...