nippontiger

Originally Posted By: window-cleaner Originally Posted By: Gary Unless there are any other major disasters, then I really dont see anybody's skiing holiday in Japan next season being affected at all by recent events So, you just choosing to simply ignore comments by people saying otherwise? I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say - obviously if people cancel their trip and don't come, then their trip will have been affected. If however, they come anyway, then their trip won't be affected by recent events. If they come now, then obviously they might have some incon

I guess the smart people will be booking their ski trips to Japan in the next few weeks and most likely getting some real bargains. People are really incapable of assessing risk - I mean, now there's been a big earthquake, suddenly people just think "Japan - Earthquakes", but Japan is one of the most earthquake-prone countries on the planet - always has been, but before the big earthquake, nobody thought twice about coming here. Of course, there have been many aftershocks, but in a month or so, the risk from earthquakes will be pretty much the same as it always was. Likewise with the NP

Seemed like a normal weekend at Kagura - of course, a lot of the resorts nearby have closed so they would be picking up a lot of their customers - echigo yuzawa was quiet at the end of the day, but it is the end of March. It really was excellent today and despite some strong winds and white-out conditions at times, they kept the top quad open and even got the very top lift running for a while. Havent seen conditions like that since January.

If anyone has nothing to do tomorrow other than worry about radioactive iodine in their spinach, I would urge you to stick your skis or snowboard in a bag and get out there! Just got back from Kagura and it was brilliant today, absolutely brilliant! The Kagura website said 20cms, but if thats what 20 cms looks like then I should become a porn star - I spent the entire day blasting through knee-thigh deep powder - face shots right through till the end of the day! In a season of great powder skiing days, this was up there with the best of them and tomorrow should be the same. Anybody getting

From what I can gather, there are frequency converting facilities located at Shin Shinano, Nagano and Sakuma, Shizuoka. Also, Hokkaido and Tohoku are linked by a DC transmission line. It would seem that saving electricity wherever you are in Japan could help reduce the need for power cuts in the coming months.

Alts Bandai and Nekoma are almost joined at the top, but it takes about an hour to drive from one to the other - especially in the winter conditions!

Nekoma is just behind Alts but its on the other side of the ridge so it gets more and better snow and the season lasts longer. Definitely worth a day trip!

Looks quite nice! Was thinking of heading there myself at some point. Also worth checking out in that area is Nekoma - probably the best powder snow around there and a relaxed patrol. I'd like to visit the area for camping/hiking in the summer too - very scenic. Bus sounds like a PITA - I think it might be better to head to resorts further away on the night bus to avoid getting there at ridiculous-O'clock, hours before the resort opens.

Thanks! Most of this was filmed in the small valley to the side of the top lift accessed through the gate - you are allowed there but at your own risk. The resort was fairly busy. We were kicking ourselves for not making it on the 5th - really would've been perfect that day. The powder had firmed up quite a bit by the time we got there.

Here's a video of our trip to Kagura last Sunday! We had a big snowfall a couple of days previous, but a day of spring sunshine meant the powder had become a bit "chunky" by the time we got there. Still, a good fun trip though! This was filmed using my "GoCheap" 20 quid helmet camera imported from China. The field of view was so narrow I had to buy a stick-on wide angle lens to make it useable! Obviously the quality isnt up to GoPro standards....

Heading to Kagura this Sunday - top lift open, should be a blast!

That's a terrible thing to happen, but these things can be avoided - don't go to any girly bars for a start, don't go to places where you have a tab, decide for yourself where you want to go and don't let anybody take you anywhere - especially not some Nigerian. With a bit of common sense, you can generally tell when somewhere is dodgy. I'd advise anybody to stay away from most of Roppongi full stop. For the most part its cheesy, tacky, unsophisticated, and expensive and its usually a sausage party anyway. There are much, much better places to go drinking and partying in Tokyo.

Its important to realise you are not safe from head injuries when wearing a helmet - a moderate to high speed head on collision with a tree will likely be 5-10 times or more too great a force for the helmet to protect you. You would need a helmet 6 inches thick with current technology. You are just SAFER wearing one - it can offer you protection in the event of a lower speed collision with a tree or glancing blow or impacts with the surface of the snow which accounts for most head injuries. I think that adults are quite capable of deciding for themselves whether or not they want to wear a he

Originally Posted By: JA Also, I'd be interested to see any stats (with appropriate acknowledgement and sources) around the effect on the neck and upper spine of the additional weight of the helmet. I suspect (and have absolutely zero proof) that the extra weight may exacerbate the effects of inertia on the neck of any sudden change of direction, let alone sudden stops. This point is often brought up as an argument against wearing helmets. This has been examined by laboratory testing, computer simulations and also out in the field and there is no evidence that wearing a helmet incre

Originally Posted By: JA Originally Posted By: Gary Recent research suggests that wearing a helmet is safer than not wearing one. Be interested to see some quoted sources that are NOT tainted by funding imperatives. (and, yes, I could do a google, but the statement made without sources is no evidence at all). Sorry my bad. The research to which I was referring was recently published in the British Medical Journal and can be found here: http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d857 and the articles findings (in case you don't have a subscription to the BMJ) are summarised here: http

Once, a huge icicle fell off the lift pulleys and landed on my head! If I hadn't been wearing a helmet, it would've ruined my day!

Recent research suggests that wearing a helmet is safer than not wearing one. It is important to understand that no helmet can protect you in the event of a high/medium speed head first collision with a tree. One should not take any more risks when wearing a helmet than without. As Go Native says, they certainly reduce light concussions etc. I would also suggest that they could offer protection in lower speed collisions with trees - for example, a glancing blow etc - a helmet could reduce what might have been a lethal blow, to one which just knocks you out. It is very difficult to estimate how

You can pick up sets containing waxes, brushes, scraper, iron for less than 10000 yen. I use an old iron on medium heat but the temperature varies from too hot (smoke from the wax) to not really hot enough to melt the wax easily. Wouldnt mind a proper waxing iron - can get them for 4000 yen. A wax job is easy enough, but scraping can be a bit of a pain and messy - definitely best with a proper plexiglass scraper.

Yeah, 2nd half January seems to have been the peak of the peak in recent years.

I should clarify: even though I said "mostly garbage", the conditions would most likely have been better than you would ever see in Australia or NZ! Its all relative!

Somebody visiting anywhere in Japan for a week at anytime is not guaranteed to get powder conditions - it simply isn't that consistent and predictable - I don't know about in the past. This year, January was incredible, February mostly garbage. Obviously the longer you stay and the closer to the peak months of January and February the better your chances of seeing some decent powder conditions.

Its forecast to be 22 degrees in Tokyo and Saitama tomorrow. Good news is that it looks like some colder weather will be moving in next week. As muikabochi said, we wont be getting January conditions again, but if you can pick your days, I reckon there's a good chance you could get some boot-knee deep powder days at the higher resorts before April.

Quote: Oh and I wanted to hire some skis for an hour or so just to try it as I never skied before, no intention of learning in that time space obviously but just for fun, as thats what the girl is doing and was like 6pm and they had heaps of skis down at that ski hire at the bottom of Hirafu fmily run and they\re like sorry we only hire for a whole day. Seriously if that was my business that dude would have been sacked! its not like I wanted to do it first thing in the morning and there was like 100 ppl lining up to hire skis and they only had a few. Anyway just saying, thats what I think anyw

Nice video! I just bought a "GO-cheap" 30 quid helmet camera from China and Im hoping to get some footage at Zao this weekend! I tried the vid-on-a-stick thing, but its not wide-angle enough - all you could see was my head! Hopefully I can get some nice footage though and I'll post it up here next week!

Longer range forecast for Japan: Right now it looks like some very mild weather and rain Thursday Friday next week, but the charts suggest some cooler air coming in on Saturday so it might turn out ok. 9 days is a long way off though. Anything after 9 days you can only get a general idea at best and it is not possible to predict the weather on a particular day or two.