nippontiger

I think on holidays and at weekends, many resorts are quite busy. Dont forget that most Japanese people are working during the week, and people dont get (or cant or wont take) many holidays. I think at this time, just after the new year holiday, it is fairly quiet - even on the public holiday weekend as its only one week after the new year break. Things will probably get a bit busier when the university students start their spring (!) vacation in February.

Apparently, there have been so many injuries in Swiss ski resorts, they're introducing speed cameras in a bid to warn people about how fast they're actually travelling.... BBC NEWS

Is the "powderyness" of the snow proportional to how cold it is? At different temperatures, different types of snowflakes form - presumably these different types of snowflakes will pack together differently giving a different consistency. Apparenty, just below freezing, plate and star-like crystals form, a few degrees lesss, you get more needles and pillars, go down a few more degrees and you get the plates and stars again. Obviously above a a certain temperature, you will start to get some melt and then theres the effect of the solar radiation, wind scour etc which will make things less pow

If you go to Gala, the bullet train station is at the ski resort - you dont have to leave the building, just go upstairs from the platform and you can get your lift pass, hire you're gear (Im guessing 3000Yen for gear maybe 4000 yen for gear and "wear" at Gala? - you can often get discount on rental if you buy the full day-trip package the day before from somewhere like "View" in main JR stations). Get changed and jump on the Gondola. Gala Yuzawa is very convenient. There are better places near Yuzawa - you have to take a bus anthying between 10-30 minutes, eg Kagura. In this case you would

If you're staying on groomed runs, the skis you have will probably be fine 90% of the time. The powder doesnt last long on the groomers. You can always hire something more suitable for powder conditions - maybe get a pair with 80-85mm waist, 165-170cm long? It all depends on how much you want to carry your own stuff/spend money on rental etc.

You're lucky to find an ATM in Japan that takes your Japanese card. I spent over an hour the other day in Nagano city lugging around all my skiing and snowboarding gear trying to find a cash machine that would accept either my Japanese bank card, my English bank card or my English credit card. It literally ruined my day.

Ive always used snow-forecast to give me an idea, and I think its usually OK. Obviously its not always right, and if you look at how the snow usually falls on the Japan weather radar, you'll see that often one place can get a huge dump and somewhere very close gets very little. I think if theyre predicting a huge, sustained dump over a large area, like they are doing, then its pretty much on! Just hoping that the timing is OK cos Im out there tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed folks and enjoy it if (when?) it comes!

Check out snow-forecast - 92 cm predicted at the top of Happo One from now until Monday night! Thats a serious dump! Snow and low temps predicted for all of next week - looks like this could be the big one!

Forecast looking great for this week - doing a day trip to gunma or niigata tomorrow and then going to Hakuba for three nights from wednesday! Good point about the ATMs - must get that cash. Japan must have the worst ATMs in the developed (and many parts of the not-so-developed) world!! Then again, looks like its gonna be waist deep powder this week, so Im not complaining!!!!

I think the special ski deals arent available in enlish on the machines, but just for buying the shinkansen tickets - Ill be going to the counter from now on. I havent stayed in Yuzawa, but Ive stayed in the backpackers in Hakuba and they're very cheap and freindly - Im doing this in Hakuba for the NY hols. I also stayed by myself in a pension (maybe "Pebo"? in hakuba), though not right at peak season - again, this was cheap cos they included lift pass, hire (didnt have my own stuff back then) and absolutely delicious breakfast and dinner - the guy even drove me to the ski-jo and back every

I did the JR train deal about 8 times last year - didnt go to Gala - been before though - you can go to better resorts on a similar deal (Kagura etc.). Ive had problems buying shinkansen tickets on machines (in English), for example, on more than one occasion the machine spat out the shinkansen and normal ticket for the outgoing, but only the shinkansen ticket for return (you need both), and one time I went to Nagano, my return ticket had expired, despite putting all the right dates into the machine - as I said, it was all in english. I recommend buying the ticket from the counter.

Im from the north of England and I think its cold in Tokyo in the winter! My dad came in February, and he thought it was freezing! Having said that, it is really quite dry and sunny for the most part - it doesnt snow much, mainly, I think, because the prevailing wind direction is from the north and the Kanto plain is sheltered from the mountains. The weather in winter will generally be good for biking, but bring something warm to wear!

I dont wear make up. Not to say that I dont pay attention to my appearance - I like to wear nice clothes and what have you when I go out, maybe put a bit of wax on my hair. Ive always been of the opinion that women would be more interested in more "manly" guys, and that these "Shibuya guys" with their hairstyles and fancy clothes wouldnt really appeal to most women. So, perhaps the girls on the forum could let us know what they think? Which is sexier, "metrosexual" or "real man"?!

Seems like you can get some decent stuff pretty cheap at "Hard-Off". Just bought a brand new 2008 Head Matrix Classic snowboard for 6000 yen - just checking on the net, they're going for 250-300 US$. Also got some brand new Goldwin Gravity Goretex and leather gloves for 3000 yen.

I still think Japan are way behind other 1st world countries when it comes to issues of discrimination. It is very common here to hear things like "Oh, Im very sorry, but the landlord doesnt accept foreigners" when looking for a place to live. This is racial discrimination. A Japanese person once said to me that this is not racism, its a totally different feeling. I pointed out that if this happened to him in England, he could take the landlord to court, sue him, and he would almost certainly win significant compensation, because he was a victim or racial discrimination. On the other ha

Sure, you can get Japanese citizenship, but even then I dont think you have full rights - eg, you have to give your fingerprints at customs. You probably wont be eligible for certain jobs. You will still be a gaijin to Japanese people. Even if you were born in Japan to foreign parents, you will be a gaijin. Im sure Ive heard Japanese people say you have to have ancestors living in Japan for seven (?) generations before you can be considered true Japanese. Even then, if you skins the wrong colour, I reckon you'll still be gaijin!

You can do Kagura for around that price before christmas, going up to about 10000 peak season. You gotta take the bus as well, but it doesnt take long. Other than being slightly less convenient, I reckon Kagura is better in every respect. Fisrt time I went to Gala, I waited two hours for the gondola There are quite a few different resorts around echigo yuzawa, several available on that similar shink+lift ticket deal. Gala is the most convenient, Kagura is high so often has good powder. Watch out for windy days (check forecast), when lots of Kagura and Gala will close - Id recomend a more

If anything I reckon it'll get worse - no doubt they brought in extra staff during the introductory period. The gaijin line took an hour without the fingerprinting. I dont know if the system checks your print against previous prints, but that would probably make things ten times worse, and we wouldnt know about it for a while. Anyway, at least all of Japans xenophobic morons will be happy! We can think about those that subscribe to the views published in "Gaijin Hanzai Fairu", while we wait in line, and, of course, we mustn't forget to smile for the camera!

Cant you get those plastic sticks which you melt into the gouge to fill it? I'm not sure if these are suitable for something that big though...

This is gonna work flawlessly isnt it? Well, let me tell you about how the Japanese handled my bike getting stolen the other weekend. I went to the Koban to tell them it had gone, and they came and spent 15 minutes measuring exactly where I told them it was - even though I told them I couldnt remember the exact spot. Then it was to the Koban, to fill out a form...simple yeah? More simple even, than getting your fingerprints and photos done at immigration....we filled out the form, they checked my gaijin card and got me to write my name on the form. The young police man filled out what had ha

I think different resorts have different opening dates - some higher resorts as early as end of November I think - weather depending of course. I had a day at Kagura a couple of weeks before Christmas last year - knee-deep powder and nobody there. The day before it was raining, and then they didnt get much more snow until after Christmas. I dont want to tempt fate, but I reckon you should have a pretty good chance of some reasonable conditions before your Ireland trip....especially if you can make a decision a couple of days before. They're expecting a bit of snow in Niigata over the next da

If you're going before Christmas, I would recommend checking the forecast and conditions just before you go, if possible - you probably wouldnt have to book hotels so far in advance as its not so busy at that time. Last year - a bad year, for snow - I went to Hakuba, I think 27th-30th December - when I arrived, there was no snow in the town and it was raining! Fortunately, Id checked the forecast and knew there was a cold front moving in - there was 1 metre in the town by the time I left!!

Big-Will wrote: Do we have any other PhD people here? I have a PhD in Organic Chemistry!! I did it in England, where we had to pass the viva voce at the end of year one, and then a second one with an external professor at the end. We also had to do a public presentation about our research (colloquium). Writing up that thesis was the hardest part....! Well done Tsondaboy, if you do the work, and know your field, you shouldnt have too many problems with the rest of your PhD!

As I mentioned previously on this thread, the Japanese legal system isnt up to much either :- BBC News

big-will wrote: Go on, tell us why Good DJ, great atmosphere and about 8 million amazing girls wearing "halloween costume" I honestly think it was one of the best nights Ive ever been to - I wont miss it next year! As for Lexington queen, I think its re-opened and its tidied up a little bit. 3000 yen all you can drink is great for tokyo - but you get what you pay for