Halfflat

A late reply, but thank you all for the advice! Perhaps Furano next year, but next week will be Niseko for me!

Hello! It's been a long time between postings for me, but I hope I can ask your collective advice! I'm hoping to head back up to Japan early March for 10 to 14 days of skiing, and wondering what my best options might be: I'm currently thinking of going to Furano (I've never been before), as it seems fairly affordable and has a good reputation for snow, but how is it, typically, in March? Last two trips have been to Niseko, which was remarkable for snow in mid-March; before that, I was living in Tokyo and could escape to Yuzawa as conditions looked good. Any suggestions?

Well, I've gone blown it now.

I'm sure it's just a consequence of having been deprived for so long! By day two, I'm sure I will have reverted to a steady, healthy diet of ramen and curry rice.

Watching the "How to eat natto" video made me hunger for natto maki. Can't get it here! Looking forward to making up for lost time, when I get to Niseko in Feb. Natto: made of delicious! ... But don't sniff it.

Let me echo the recommendation for the SII (SR-T6700) for all the same reasons. Much better than my old Sony (suffered a degenerative disease after being knocked about in a bag.) And the kanji dictionary has much easier lookup than the Canon Wordtanks in my opinion. Also has quite an extensive E<->J phrase book which is a good source of examples; there is in fact a huge searchable collection of example sentences from various sources included. Downside is: no available English manual that I know of, and the jyukugo search from the kanji dictionary seems a bit limited.

Speaking of boots, can anyone recommend places in Tokyo for advice, buying and fitting? The big problem for me is that I'm still very inexperienced (generously falling in the 'intermediate' camp at ski school) and my Japanese is really poor. I was really hoping to get some fitted boots to make skiing more comfortable and make improvement easier, before taking some holiday time in late February for a week's skiing. Up until now I've only ever used hire boots, with mixed success. Any suggestions?

Had lunch at GALA when I went up before New Year's for a daytrip ... and indeed had the katsu curry and a cold beer! Very satisfying, but must say the local curry place does much better It was also really expensive (maybe twice as much as you'd expect to pay out here in the Tokyo suburbs). Made the mistake of trying the 'Malts' beer. Ew, not again!

Went to GALA Yuzawa just for the day, today -- and it seemed pretty popular in the afternoon. But it's the first time I've been, so I don't know what constitutes 'busy' for there. The morning was quite open though, and so was the lit evening skiing.