skidaisuki

Hopefully the resort management teams are too busy making preparations for the season to worry too much about raising their prices and updating their websites! Actually, given the steadiness of prices over the past few years - I can't recall much in the way of lift pass price inflation since the mid 90s - any substantial price increase would be a bad sign, I reckon. As for the weather, it remains gloriously cool after the first typhoon of the season to hit Tokyo. Still, of course, far too early to make any meaningful winter predictions from this - but it is putting me in a good fram

My advice? (cue groans from others) - Karuizawa. Since you've never skiied before, you should have fun even though the Karuizawa Prince Reort will only have machine-made snow at that stage. It is quite small, but you can rent all of the gear that you need, and I'm pretty sure you can arrange an English-speaking instructor if you give them some advance notice. Apart from the guaranteed snow, Karuizawa's a very pretty town set in forested mountains only an hour from Tokyo by shinkansen. There's a lot to see and do there, a big (but tasteful) outlet shopping park, a lot of good Japane

The bars in Hakuba? There are a few good ones, though not at the resorts themselves. The biggest concentration of bars and restaurants is in Echoland, between Happo-one and Goryu and a short drive from the village centre and station. There are more bars close to the base of Happo and there's usually a friendly crowd of visitors and locals during the holidays at Tracks Bar, just down the hill from Escal Plaza, the base of Goryu. I'm sure the locals would have some other suggestions, depending on where you stay. It's easy enough to hook up with like-minded people when you are there.

I don't agree with the balance of opinion here - the times I've been in Hakuba for New Year's Eve, I've always had a laugh. On New Year's Day itself the resorts are no busier than usual in my experience, in fact often less so if the weather's poor, because most of the locals and visiting Japanese are at home with family enjoying o-sechi ryori - traditional New Year foods. It's rather like Christmas Day in Western / Christian countries. New Year's in Tokyo is all very well, but zerOstar - Roppongi's often not as busy as on other nights, just a higher percentage of gaijin and a greater li

The relatively cool weather of the past few days in Tokyo has been a welcome early break from the late summer heat, and a reminder that autumn's now not far away. I went to bed last night without aircon for the first night in a while and slept pretty well. I'm sure it'll warm up again, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. SdS

Go Native - I remember your very detailed comments on the weather and snow prospects in previous seasons and I look forward to more of the same, from your Northern perspective, when the time comes. Of course you're right, it is definitely far too early to have any realistic chance of accurately forecasting what 09-10 will be like. Starting a thread like this in Mid-August is a bit of a joke really, and I agree with your point about the locals (how many times have the old boys - or the stinkbugs - made predictions and been completely wrong?). However, it does make for some interest

Well Stemik, the opposite, La Nina, wasn't a right lot of use to us in terms of snow, was it? I think that we should welcome El Nino back... SdS

At some stage, it will be epic, of that I'm sure. mactos - I read about your early season trip to Niseko, and I hope you're right... I get a better feeling as we get into October, at least I think so. To ski at least once before Christmas is the most I ask for - and the Karuizawa Prince doesn't count!

What bigger, more attractive and captivating title for a thread could there be? (I guess I will soon find out by the response level...) All I want to do is start my annual late summer prediction fest about just how good the new season's going to turn out. Any pseudo-science, insect observations, thoughts of the local oyajis in the mountains or brain-box type detailed long range weather forecasts are most welcome... After the relative disappointment of '08-09 typified by a scarcity of snow in Hakuba right until Christmas, I'm hoping that we'll see a decent early start to proper snowf

Go Native - be glad you don't live in the concrete, humid hell hole that is Tokyo in summertime! This year has been milder than most, but I remember 2004 (I think) when there were something like 60 consecutive days over 30 degrees. Nuts. My only motivation for staying here is to earn enough cash to retire to my own custom-built lodge in Hokkaido, I sometimes think. SdS

My big aim is to get to Zao this coming season - I've never been, but heard a lot of good things about the place SdS

snowhuntress - good question... living in Tokyo, with the biggie long overdue, I would like to believe this, but I'm not sure whether such straightforward logic applies. Otherwise, they might have come up with a rudimentary way of predicting earthquakes - and they definitely haven't succeeded in doing that yet, despite chucking Billions into research towards that aim. It is simply better not to worry about it - and remember, walking down any street with traffic is far more likely to get you killed than living in an earthquake zone. SdS

Yamayamayama is right on the money - the end of January will be fine. Each season is different, but fortunately there are some things we can still rely on... Hopefully this season will start early and the snow will keep falling well into spring time. Christmas at Hakuba would be great, but I'm not counting on the snow yet. SdS

I still say Hotel J-First in Hirafu is an excellent choice - just a couple of minutes' (flat) walk to the base lift, good food, clean and comfortable accommodation and pleasant service. It isn't ski-in-ski-out, but comes pretty close. And the rotenburo (outdoor onsen / bath) is very good as well...

liptun, I'd say you got some good answers above. Anyone who likes good snow and beautiful scenery will enjoy Niseko during the season, but the debatable point is whether it is actually the full "Japanese experience" you mention as the majority of people on the slopes and in the village are Aussies and other brands of gaijin. Nozawa, Yuzawa, and Hakuba are to my mind much more like "proper" Japanese mountain towns and so it depends what your priorities are. If you have never been to any Japanese ski resorts then provided you come when there's decent snow, you will love any of these plac

Hi Go Native! Enjoying your summer, are you? I wish I could make it up to Sapporo...

Yes indeed Lin, everything's really slow here and because people are away basically no decisions get made during O-Bon week. This is quite convenient because all of the people we deal with in Europe seem to be on holiday at the moment as well. O-Bon is a traditional holiday in Japan, not recognised with a national holiday, but thanks to lucky timing, we can look forward to a 5-day weekend next month, from 19th to 23rd September. I'd prefer if it fell in late January or February though! SdS

I wasn't begrudging anyone their hard-earned holidays...only teasing, and pointing out the difference between Japanese attitudes and those of other countries towards time off. Guess which philosophy I prefer? Seemore - the Japanese do have national holidays over new year, although Christmas is irrelevant here. If I'm not abroad, Christmas is a work day, though obviously it's not a busy one for international businesses. You can usually get several days off for skiing over new year without missing any work. It gets harder when you are married to a Japanese person and expected to

Blimey! Judging from some of the plans, all I can say is that there are a lot of rich people - or people with a lot of time to spare - posting on these boards... You lot don't know you're born! Try having a career in Japan and taking 3 weeks (or even 2 weeks) off during snow season! Yep, suppose I'm just envious - the best I'll do is a few days over Xmas / New Year and hopefully the usual 4 days at Niseko - which makes me pretty lucky by Japanese standards, anyway. SdS

A good katsu curry always goes down well when skiing. Would like to find somewhere that does cheese fondue on-piste in Japan for that Euro-Alps experience, though - any ideas? Skiing hard takes all guilt out of eating hard. "I'll burn it off later"

snowjunky, trouble is I seem to be an eating machine when I'm on ski trips as well... The 600 kcal / hr was the figure I read further up this thread. I have my doubts

Skiing versus jogging ? No contest... The funny thing is that despite burning 600 cals + per hour for about 6 hours a day when I'm in Niseko for 4 days, I always come back having put on weight. Must be I overcompensate by stuffing my face at breakfast, lunch and dinner. "I'll burn it off anyway"

Yes, have to try and get up to Sapporo during the summer. I love the place in summertime! (and I can't say that about most places in Japan). My original point was that the main reason I enjoy summer in Japan is because it is followed by autumn and winter and those are the best times of all. As I said, it's hiking season for me, and I'm looking forward to some good summits. Enjoy SdS

I love hiking during the green season, but I always feel a bit sad when the last of the resorts closes for skiing in May. I did 13 days skiing this season. Not nearly as many as some, but a lot more than many people ever do, so I'm pretty glad about that. My target for this summer? Shiroumadake. Fireworks. Barbecues. New ski boots for next season. Generally sort my life out! We shouldn't wish our lives away, but yes, I'm looking forward to autumn already, and an early start for 09/10... In the meantime, enjoy your summer! SdS

Caitlin - you're taking the right approach. Remember that many of us posting here have a lot of experience of skiing several seasons in Japan, and unlike me, some are actually living in the mountains. Clearly, SJ posters know more than travel agents anywhere - and we have no vested interest in telling you anything about snow conditions but the way it is. Check here. I think it is right that travel agents don't plan ski tours to Japan in mid April, as there's too much risk that conditions will be unskiable. However, plenty of us have skiing experience at that time, and I am hoping