nippontiger

Think I'll wait until probably the 22nd or 23rd before hitting it - I doubt I can make it before then and with a bit of luck there'll be a deeper base.

Is it still too early to go off piste at Kagura? Says they have 130 cms there right now, I'm thinking it might not be enough...

I bought a pair of skis brand new for 23K, used them for about 3 or 4 seasons and just sold them for 18K. That means I paid about the same as what it would cost to hire a pair of skis for 2 days and the skis were a lot better than most of the crap for hire in Japan. Unless you want to try out a particular ski, if possible I'd recommend just buying a pair.

I should be doing that deal to Kagura quite a few times this season. Not likely to be weekdays though as I don't have those off. Last year they seemed to only have a very few seats on these tickets and pretty much every time I bought them (probably about 10 times in all) , they had sold out meaning I had to pay an extra 1000 yen - even on a day in March when the trains where pretty much completely empty

I'd really like to join this, but again this year I'd be relying on other people to get me up there. It does look a bit more promising this season because my friend in Ibaraki is buying a car and wants to go up there. Obviously relying on my friend for transport, I can't really make any preferences for dates, but for sure whenever you guys go I'll try to persuade my friend to drive up that weekend!

I guess the free expressways after the earthquake thing is finished by now...?

Dissapointed not to have got up to Fukushima last season, but I didn't know anybody with a car. Hoping to manage a couple of days this season, as I have a friend in Tsukuba now who wants to go and should have wheels...!

Im also interested in buying new boots - my last pair, I think are way too big for me (they are size 27.5 and I measured my feet and they are more like 26!) and are probably packed out now after a few seasons use. I would be interested in recommendations for any good bootfitters in the Jimbocho/Kanda area of ski shops (I live a 10 minute walk from there now). I read that 85% of skiiers have boots too big for them and 67% have boots 2 sizes too big! I'm wondering how much my skiing will improve with proper fitted boots....! I was interested in the Full Tilt High five boots - tried a pair

Just been doing quite a lot of weights including squats and deadlifts, barbell stuff but Im gonna start to include more cardio, jogging and so on before the season starts. I've been doing some kettlebell swings too, but not the overhead ones. I'll give that a go but we only have 10kg kettlebells which I think might be a bit light for me or 25 kg which I think might be a bit heavy.

Yep, seems OK for me now.

strange - when I go to the snowjapan.tv site AVG antivirus is saying a threat was blocked - Exploit Blackhole Exploit Kit (type 2170). This didn't happen before and I've always had AVG running... Anyone else getting this?

Its been a while since I've been to Nozawa, but as I remember, there is more challenging riding there. Zao seemed to be an awful lot of beginner slopes and people stood around taking pictures of the snow monsters.

Really? Oh man, I really am getting old......

Nice! I'm hoping to do one last day up there before the season's out - I might try hiking up a bit too.

I'm often out when the snow is falling so for me, the hoods are great. You can simply lift the hood up on a fine weather day. Perhaps I should be a bit more gnarly and stick to a nice, long "romance lift" during a howling blizzard - naked, of course.

Definitely some at Hakuba Happo and 47/goryu and I think at Cortina too. Also at Kawaba in Gunma. I thought they were pretty common at most resorts - didnt realise many of the places in Yuzawa dont have them. Its definitely good to have them when its windy, and you can just lift the hood up on sunny days when you want to enjoy the views - the more the better I say!

If I remember correctly, you didnt need to have a huge amount of cash in the bank for a working holiday visa - something like 1500 pounds with a one way flight ticket and 1000 pounds with a return ticket - that was 7 or 8 years ago though, and the pound is worth close to half of what it was back then relative to the yen, so you might have to take that into account. I would agree with everything GN said about Niseko, but you should also consider exactly what you want from your stay in Japan - if you want good nightlife, great skiing, a pretty easy time of it, then it is most likely the best

3. I originally came to Japan on a working holiday visa. You are limited in the number of hours you can work and I think its something like 20 or 25 hours per week. You need to put together some kind of itinerary detailing what you want to do while you are here - I think I just went through a lonely planet and listed a load of places I wanted to go to and supplemented with teaching English part time. Im not sure if you need some sort of part-time job lined up before you come - I did, but Im not sure if it is a requirement. Im sure you can check online about this. I did have to go to the Japan

It seems pretty straightforward - go under the rope opposite the very top lift exit and follow in the direction of Tashiro - brings you out at the link between Kagura and Tashiro and you can take the cat track back to the panorama run or head over to Tashiro. Its a very wide open run with few trees and even if a few people have been there, you'll still be making fresh tracks because of all the space.

Should be a good day there tomorrow - forecast to be sunny. I'd get there early if possible to get the best of the powder conditions.

Wasn't so busy - we queued for a lift for 5 minutes or so once or twice..

Just on the train back from another epic day at Kagura! Met up with the girl I met last time with the fat skis and we were just hitting knee-deep powder runs among the trees all day! She showed me a run I've never been on before linking the very top lift to the Tashiro area. Sweet! Should be plenty of powder left tomorrow for people lucky enough to be heading out there...

Yeah, usually travelling with a friend or two but even when I went alone it was the same. I know what you mean about the unreserved tickets, but you still have to pay 1000 yen extra for the unreserved ticket. Its a good point about the seats together though - next time they say its full, I will tell her that we dont have to sit together. I remember one time there were two of us going, and she said the train was full because there were no pair seats free - they did have triple seats free though! Complete madness!

I think its 8600 to Kagura + 200 for yokohama and you were fortunate enough to get the discount ticket on the train - did you buy the tickets early? Anyway, it seems the spring deals are simply not being applied to weekends this year - its an extra 1800 yen for the weekend (ie 10400) plus you've got next to no chance of getting the discount on the train (+1000) = 11400 and for me, subtract 600 from Omiya = 10800. It was the same price in January and February!

Yeah, its still a good deal, even at 10800 yen - the return shinkansen alone is 10920 from Omiya for a non-reserved seat, so you are pretty much getting the lift ticket for free. Its just a bit annoying when every time you go, the discounted tickets are all sold out - it involves getting the woman in the shop to check each train, which, this being Japan, seems to take ages only for them to say its full then you have to explain you will just pay the extra which often confuses the staff furthermore - in spite of the fact that I knew exactly which tickets and trains I wanted, it still took over 3