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marnix

SnowJapan Member
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Posts posted by marnix

  1. Originally Posted By: Rag-Doll


    Maybe this is all a grand strategy by Iran to obtain concessions, who knows?


    It might be who knows, there are plenty of examples including acceptance and even help to the Indian nuclear programme!? but are they really after that? After 20+ years of sanctions based on what?

    Sofar Iran denies that they are after nukes with their nuclear programme. Why dont we believe them, although most signs (heavy water reactor) are against Iran + the statement of ahmedjinedad "Iran has no plans to attack Israel". We dont hear anything from Iran unless it can used by western government to point to Iran. Who knows it might all be another made up story by Bush and his neo-cons, but this time their script got stalled, but it looks kind of similar to Iraq (where are the biologic weapons?)

    I believe that Iran wants very much to be accepted as a respected member of the world community. An Iran that is an accepted member of that community would be an enormous benefit to everyone. But working towards such a situation has been (willfully) squandered, by the pointless hostility and belligerence of US “diplomatic†language --- starting with the “axis of evilâ€. The use of the quote from Khomeiny about wiping out Israel by Admedjinedad can be seen as a late response.

    I am not a supporter of Iran and I think a lot of strange mishaps are going on in that country. But I am a supporter of their snow. It is easy to see this issue form the US/western perspective, just read a newspaper or watch the tv. Try taking a look at it from the Iranian perspective.
  2. Originally Posted By: Rag-Doll
    I reckon the blame lies with Iran. They are the ones who deny Israel's right to exist (not the other way around)

    I am not so sure about that. I think since the islamic revolution the US and Israel are trying to neutralise or completely trying to bring the country down, probably using words like mentioned above behind closed doors.

    Just because 1 guy says something adressing a crowd of supporters and that is used by the US and Israel as reverse propaganda and easily picked up by Fox news and CNN and then the rest of the world. Thats why Iran is to blame?
  3. I believe many phones have a preinstalled tipcalculater buttons these days. Never bottered using it, but some of my friends I have seen using it all the time.

     

    The best that was ever given to a waiter in my presence was in Chicago. After sitting through a meal that was ruined by an annoying, rude, unattentive waiter, that bluntly asked for his tip. A friend of mine snapped back: "i'll give you a tip, be nice to your customers." It might have made him a lot of money, although I seriously doubt that.

  4. I used to have a list. but I think I threw it away when I moved.

     

    There must be an official list by Gaimusho, but I got one that was made by some embassy drivers, but it was a complete list (back then).

     

    basically it is in alphabetical order, although recently a lot of 'new' countries opened an embassy in Tokyo. Those countries were just added to the list. Then there are some embassies having so many cars driving around that they have more than 1 number (USA, Russia, China, Korea and some others)

     

    From what I remember

     

    02 Argentina

    03 Australia

    05 Brasil

    09 Chile

    10 China

    38 Korea

    48 Korea

    58 Netherlands

    68 Pakistan

     

    The first 2 or 3 digits is the country code the last 2 digits is the car number. If the car has 01 as last digits it is the official ambassadors car, but all other numbers can be at random (or not)

  5. One of the special things they offer is full moon skiing. As they have a cat they can go on the mountain whenever they want. If the weather permits they go full moon skiing, but also on other nights they might just head up the mountain the enjoy the spectacular night view. We tried it but we ended up in a snowstorm and it took us 30 minutes to just find the tracks back down the mountain.

  6. Last week I went catskiing in Macedonia, not the greek part but the independent country just north of Greece. Somehow there is a lot of discussion about the name and the use of Alexander the Great betwen Greece and Macedonia, but TsondaBoy might be better informed about this.

     

    eskimo47_600.JPG

     

    Anyhow in the northwest corner or the country very close to Albania and Kosovo there is the little sleepy village of Popova Shapka. It has a number of lifts but those weren't running, but there was the newly started cat skiing operation. Somehow they named it Eskimo Freeride, but then without any eskimos within a circle of 3000km of the place. That doesn't mean that there isn't snow on this crazy mountain.

     

    It started snowing the moment we arrived and we all got really excited. The following morning I was out at 6.30 and it promised to become a great day with some fresh snow but also bright blue skies. But we had to wait for some other and by the tiem they came it was already 9.30. so we hopped into the snowcat and went up to 'Antenna'. There was a lot of wind blowing away the freshly fallen snow from the night before.

     

    eskimo19_kl_600.jpg

     

    So we jumped in towards the lower parts of the mountain where the snow was better. I went in second behind the guide . Following him a part down the mountain. Somehow he fell and me not realising what happened hit the same zastrusi when my ski released and I crashed into the compact snow. We I stopped I immediately felt that something was wrong. And yes on my first run I broke my thumb. So instead of the good snowtrip I can tell you a lot about the hospital in nearby Tetovo, but not so much about skiing here. Although the mountain looks promising, maybe not really steep but with plenty of shutes, some cliffs and trees to have some fun days.

     

    eskimo26_kl_600.jpg

     

    I will go back next year to really enjoy of what I have missed here.

     

     

  7. Shinagawa Prince is a good hotel and close to the aquarium but that's about it. There is so much more to see and do around Ueno. So staying there you will need to take the train if you want to see something of Tokyo.

    Novotel in Ueno is alright. strange looking christmas tree like building south-west from the JR station.

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