skidaisuki

Begging your pardon, Niseko man

Do 3 stink bugs count as 'lots' under the definition of snow prediction though? I don't care how they smell as none can get into my place

Fatts - thanks for the comment. The answer is no - I just spent some time wandering around the ski shops in Tokyo recently and liked the look of the K2 range. Since I have been on the same skis since the late 90s I have no recent experience of buying, and whatever I get is likely to be quite a change. Thursday's pointed out the manufacturer's website (thanks). Any guidance much appreciated

Has anyone got experience of K2 Apache skis - have been looking to replace my trusty Atomic carvers with either the Crossfire or Stryker model this season. I am intermediate level, skiing mainly on groomers but with some excursions into powder, so need an all-purpose ski. Any alternative suggestions?

From the weathernews webcam, it's 2 deg C in Asahikawa this morning. Nice and fresh. Don't seem to be getting any updates from Niseko at the moment....

why is this thread turning into another H vs N debate? Both places are good, from my experience

OK - I ski corrected! Most places in Nozawa are a walk to the slopes, but still close. From the tone of the original question I'm guessing he doesn't want to go to some dull Prince hotel somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Hence Nozawa's one of the best places.

I like the front page - new resort reports to read. Mobile functionality's nice too. Excellent

When does Asahidake normally get started? Mid November?

Shiga's excellent for the snow, but that's it - a few hotel bars and nothing much else. Nozawa is more like a European style ski village but with lots of onsens. There are some bars there but it's not that exciting for apres ski. You can't exactly ski into Nozawa, but the base lifts are a short walk from the centre of town. Hakuba is a bigger town over a larger area but not so 'cultural'. I think Nozawa's the place for you.

This thread refers to a different event, I know, but... Went to the Winter Sports Festa at Yurakucho yesterday - they were asking us to queue for an hour and pay 500 yen for the priviledge of getting in - to what appeared from the outside to be a heavily snowboard-biased sale. Said no way and went to the back streets of Jimbocho instead. Skiiers beware of that particular event. If you can walk straight in then it might be worthwhile, but no way was I going to hang around queuing just to buy some discounted gear - without an idea of whether it was any good for skiiers.... Any v

I quite agree - it IS pointless because it has such big provisos attached to it (understandably in these days of even more unpredictable weather). The fact is, good season or bad, snow's on the way and there'll be a lot of skiing and boarding to be had

Looks like a cooler week for the whole of northern Japan this week - hardly surprising but welcome nonetheless. Max daytime temps in Asahikawa in the low teens, nights around freezing level. Even Tokyo is fresher. Another month perhaps until the real resort snow is starting in earnest...

From my experience, neither should disappoint you unless you are a veteran rope-ducker. I'd say Furano is a bit more ski-orientated.

Sorry Markie, I am in Tokyo and looking at webcams. A good one for Hokkaido as a whole is Webcam Sapporo: http://www.stv.ne.jp/webcam/en/sapporo/index.html Has a good Asahikawa cam, as well as showing how bleak Wakkanai is in wintertime.

2C at Asahikawa this AM. Cool

buses infrequent in the middle of the day? Perhaps things have changed but I remember a couple of years ago that there's a regular bus service running between the 3 main resorts throughout the day (free as I recall, at least to pass holders). Otherwise you'd be holding an all-mountain pass and stuck on one resort because of the weather...

That's about a billion times better than the view out of my window. Cheers

Markie - so you only want to look at webcams if there's snow in them, then? 6 degrees and sunny in Asahikawa this morning. Wish I was up there rather than in grey and wet Tokyo! Perfect monday weather...

It may have no bearing at all on the snow season, but there seems to have been a marked lack of typhoon activity this year, at least in Kanto. I just read the updated comments on the Niseko Now site which sound encouraging. I agree with the skepticism on the seasonal forecast. The law of averages suggests that this season won't be as good as last, but even if it's half as good, we'll all be loving it...

Gives me an excuse to eat more, too

Sorry everyone - I become a total weather otaku this time of the year onwards. Since we have no Resort reports to look at for now, it's good to go to weathernews Japan (in Japanese, but an excellent site): http://weathernews.jp Good to look at the cam in Asahikawa and see single-figure temps, with night time close to zero... mind you, it's about minus ten or less there in January

Sobriquet: "Ten metres over three months" Would that be BELOW average for where you are? I think we'd be crazy to expect another season like the last, but my main hope is that it isn't too late a start...

If the chopper's free they probably got bored and faked injury

Hakubastards??