nippontiger

OK, I just did some experiments using an old pair of goggles and a boiling kettle. I rubbed various things onto one side of the lens and kept the other clean and then held the goggles in the steam coming from the kettle. Results: Low fluorinated ski wax : no noticable effect. Lip balm : no noticable effect. Washing up liquid : Side wiped with washing up liquid did not fog up in the steam at all - non-exposed side was almost dripping with condensation! Conclusions: Smearing neat washing up liquid on you goggles and wiping off the excess with a tissue could significantly reduce goggl

Yeah, think it was maybe two or three years ago. I went to Hakuba few days before NYE - no snow in the village and raining, but when I left 3 days later, it was something like a meter deep!

Has there been a worse start to the season in recent years? I remember a couple of years ago, there wasn't a lot of snow near Xmas, but I thought there was an early dump that year? Was really hoping to get out this weekend, but it just doesn't seem worth it with even Kagura struggling to fully open.

Its pretty much guaranteed that, the one year the resorts decide to move their opening dates to a more sensible two weeks later, it will absolutley dump with snow two weeks earlier than usual, nowhere will be open and the rest of the season will be mild and rainy.

For some reason, its always "Grand Open!" in Japan. I guess they'd put an "-ing" at the end if for some reason they wanted to put a "let's" at the beginning!

When I checked the Kagura opening date a while back, Im sure it listed the opening date and then said "yotei" after it - meaning planned. It just seemed like common sense to me that, being early season, they meant "we will open on this date if there is enough snow to do so." It seems perfectly reasonable to me, for a resort to give an optimistic opening date, bearing in mind that the snow may well arrive early. If they give a later date and the snow arrives early, they may well not be ready to open, customers will be complaining they cant ski and the resort will lose a load of money. If yo

Certainly not up to hucking cliffs and the like right now, but I think my skiing improved a lot last season, so who knows where I'll be at the end of this season or next. Some Gotamas just went up on Yahoo auctions starting 40k, think they're 08-09 season. Seem a bit long for me at 183 - Im 5'7 and 70 kg. Im not sure what year Volkl started to use rocker in the Gotama. I'll try to demo some rockered skis if poss. I remember last year just at the end of a run on a fairly flat part - going slow into a small pile of powder - one ski dived into it, and even though I was going ridiculously slow,

Most places have at least one mogul run, but they can always be avoided. You can get rain/slush in March, but at the higher resorts, I'd say you'll most likely get good conditions - packed powder/groomed most likely. If you are unlucky, you could get the rain and slush, but equally you could end up with knee-deep powder. Higher resorts easily accessible from Tokyo include Kagura, Hakuba and Shiga Kogen. I think also Nozawa Onsen is fairly high, and is an interesting place to visit, too. These are the main ones, but there are many others. Obviously, the best conditions will tend to be found hig

The Gotamas look like an excellent choice! The reason I mentioned the Prophet 115 is because I might be able to pick up a pair cheap-ish. I dont have a huge budget, so I'm kind of limited to what I can pick up maybe 2nd hand or in a sale. I'll certainly keep an eye out for some Gotamas on sale. It seems the manufacturers are all over rockered skis this last year or two. Pretty much all of K2's skis this year have some degree of rocker, as do Line's wider skis. The Gotama too. Manufacturers claim rocker gives you better float and easier turn initiation. Is it all just hype, or is it really wo

I'd forgotton about the word "flabbergasted", Im going to start using it from now on!

Was thinking of buying a new pair of skis. Usually I try to get out on powder days, but dont tend to stray too far from the lifts - bit of slackcountry, easy trees from top lift at Kagura, chopped up powder by the afternoon, that kind of thing - not up to any serious backcountry or big mountain stuff right now. Dont hit the park or serious moguls much. Currently on an 85 mm waist ski, would going up to something like a line prophet 115 (115 mm waist, slight tip rocker) be a bit overkill? Any recommendations?

End of December.

Weathernews.jp has snow falling in pretty much all Japanese ski resorts, north to south, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week. Looks good to me!

In the short term, things are looking up from Tuesday next week! Northerly winds and low pressure on Wed/Thu could hopefully bring snow even to resort levels and perhaps allow a few resorts to open! Fingers crossed...!

Hope it keeps up - I wanna do a few days in Fukushima myself this season!

Didn't somebody come and dig it out last year?

Doubt it. I think Japanese companies make some pretty high tech solar cells, but they're going to be expensive, and for a vending machine company to use them, they'd have to think it would make them money. I just don't see people in Japan going to use a vending machine in preference to another cos its solar powered.

Although things have improved somewhat, Japanese banks and cash machines are quite possibly the worst in any developed country! They really are unbelievably bad! My bank doesnt open at all on weekends and closes at 3pm every day. My Japanese cash card is not only completely useless abroad, I cant use it in other banks cash machines in Japan, which means outside of Ibaraki, I can only use the machines in the combini (doesnt work in all combini) - and I have to pay to use the machines (price varies depending on time of day)- even at my own bank if its outside of normal bank opening hours! I cant

Just to give you an idea of the prices you can typically expect to pay, go to www.google.co.jp and paste スキー ウェア into the search box. This should give you lots of sites with ski wear/various brands and the prices you can expect to pay. You can convert the prices to your currency and compare to whats available in Oz or in the US via mail order. When buying stuff for skiing/boarding, I would advise not to skimp on the seemingly small things like gloves/goggles something to cover face etc (you dont want any flesh uncovered on a niseko nighter in feb!). You really dont want to get sw

There are lots of ski shops in Ochanomizu, Tokyo. As pointed out above, the brand new stuff/this years stuff is probably a bit expensive if anything. Having said that, there are so many shops there, that there is quite a lot of choice and you can certainly find some good bargains - especially in the smaller shops and on slightly older stuff. Just have to shop around. The other thing to bear in mind is the very strong yen. Typically, a mid-range jacket might cost 20-35000 yen, pants maybe 5000 yen less. Having said that, you can probably pay double that for top end and branded stuff. I wou

Once you are fit enough to jog for a few miles, I think its a good idea to turn up the intensity in your workouts. Try running close to your maximum speed for a minute, then jogging for a minute and alternate between the two. If you're cycling, try doing some hill climbs. Its possible to jog/cycle/swim or whatever all day, but if you're not doing it at a high enough intensity, it wont do a lot for your CV fitness.

Think I've had about a dozen days this season, including some of the best skiing I've ever experienced. Getting a bit better too, and might even have another day out there this weekend!

You can get an app for the iphone/ipod touch which does exactly the same thing. Its called TiltShift.

That reminds me, I asked for my usual cold Soba noodles in the cafeteria at work at the beginning of September. I was told they werent serving them cold anymore. The lady added that she was surprised I had asked!! Also, people often ask me if Im not cold wearing a T-shirt in October - even though its still 27 degrees!

One thing I've noticed in Japan, is that people here tend to do things only at the "correct" time. For example, people dont really hit the beach any time other than July/August, even though the weather may be great at other times. People cant believe it when I tell them I go swimming in the sea in Okinawa in October - its still 30 degrees with very warm seas at that time! A guy once told me that you shouldnt swim in the sea after 24th of August, because of the jellyfish - 23rd was fine, but 24th, absolutely not. I think there might be a bit of that with the skiing season too - January/Febr