nippontiger
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Posts posted by nippontiger
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From what I could gather, the only ones you could use here not only had to operate on certain frequencies but also had to have an extremely limited power (ie the range is limited to about 500 metres). The only radios you can buy which fulfil those criteria are about 3 times the price of other radios, which are readily available in Tokyo, but which, apparently you are not supposed to use here....
I might be wrong on that, but me and my friend went around loads of shops in Akihabara (he speaks fluent Japanese) and wherever we went and asked they told us we had a choice of buying either very cheap radios (ie 3 to 7 K for a pair) with about a 5 KM range which you were not allowed to use in Japan or ridiculously expensive ones (ie at least 10000 yen EACH) with a tiny range of about 500 metres which were legal to use here. Most places sold both kinds and the cheap ones with reasonable range all had written in Japanese that they were for use abroad.....
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Problem is in Japan, the only radios you are allowed to use without an expensive and difficult to obtain licence are a) about 10,000 yen or more each (i.e. not a pair) and b ) have a range of about 500 metres in optimal conditions. You can buy radios with a 5 KM range for much less for a pair in Akihabara, but they are illegal to use here and there are actually people checking at some ski areas and if you are caught with the wrong type, you are looking at a million yen fine or something crazy like that.
A freind of mine looked into it and eventually he actually bought a pair of the ridiculously expensive ones with "kids toy" radius which are legal to use, and we usually take them when we go out skiing together but obviously with such a low range they are of pretty limited use.
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Great pics! It didn't look like that when I was there a few weeks ago - blowing a gale and couldn't see anything!! Shame cos I really wanted to try some of those runs through the trees.....
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I don't have a back country pack either TBH. But I'd say if someone has a pack with beacon, shovel, probe, snowshoes etc - probably costing 50k yen or more, and they are venturing off into places where they need it, it probably wouldn't hurt to stick in there 10 metres of the rope I suggested which would cost 2000 odd yen, weigh less than half a pound, and take up not much more than half a litre of space. Whether or not a bit of slack country riding at Niseko warrants such a pack or not is probably a matter of personal preference - some people might just feel better if they are fully prepared for whatever happens even if the chances are, as GN pointed out, probably pretty small.
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Really Gary? There's been like one death caused by a glide crack as far as I can remember over the last decade at Niseko. There'd have been millions of skier days in that time. The chances of dying in a glide crack at Niseko are probably less than the chances of you slipping over on a sidewalk and dying. It's good to be aware of glide cracks as they do occur every season at Niseko but aren't you guys just taking this all a bit too far purely because of one death?
Some people were talking about what kind of rope they would use for pulling someone out of a hole and mentioned using paracord. I said that would probably not be good enough and then suggested something that probably would. Whether or not you choose to carry around something like that is going to be down to your preference and down to the kind of places you are likely to venture off to and the kind of riding you are likely to do.
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I reckon something like this would be good...
I saw a 20 metre pack of something similar in the shop today - didn't look like a huge burden to carry around TBH.
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What rope strength? Hmmm... Well modern climbing ropes are like 6000lb. Might not be practical to carry 10metres of that in your pack though and probably not necessary - hopefully if you rescue someone they won't be falling a great distance like a climber might. 550lb paracord likely wont be good enough though - tie a knot in it the 550 will be as much as halved depending on the knot. A decent sized bloke plus gear and clothes could easily be getting on 200lb thats just static weight, then you got to pull him out, jerking on the rope, swinging, slipping, rope rubbing on sharp rocks or corners etc - it will almost certainly snap. If I had to make a guess I'd say you'd want a good quality rope at least 6 or 7mm thick. I think that's what I use to strap my hammock up with and I could imagine that rescuing someone from a glide crack might involve similar kind of forces to somebody swinging around in a hammock. I think I got the stuff from mont bell, not too expensive for 10 meters and not impractical to stick in your pack.
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I'd have my doubts that para cord would be strong enough to pull someone out of a hole with. I might be wrong on that but I looked into using it for a hammock and it was apparently not strong enough. I know it's tested to 450 or 550 pounds or whatever but that's straight line tension - as soon as you tie knots in it and wrap it around stuff the breaking force goes down very significantly.
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Its possible, I guess but I reckon it's not necessary to go really fast to get good looking video - I think because of the wide angle it ends up looking quite fast anyway, even if you are going pretty slow.
If anything I probably end up skiing slower with the gopro on a stick, simply because I find it harder to ski like that. Obviously others might be different.
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Yep, the top forestry lift that opens in march (think it opens February this year). No hiking needed just get off the lift, duck the rope directly in front of you and go skiers left towards Tashiro. I'd be a bit hesitant to do it if there was much more than 30 cms of powder because it does flatten out a bit, but as you can see, Yumiko and I had no problems and it was at least boot deep that day.
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I think the most open part for me was the part where Im following Yumiko after 1m30 - I didn't know about that run until Yumiko showed me - it runs from the very top lift and down to the Tashiro/Kagura link. Might not be quite steep enough if it's really deep though, but still, its so wide and open, you won't be crossing anybody elses tracks much.
I wasn't sure about the song myself, just something I found on YouTube, but it seemed to work well for the video. Its the first video I edited where I think I timed all the edits well with the music.
I think Kagura is my favourite for a day trip from Tokyo - if there are any resorts with similar easily accessed powder runs which are as easily accessed from the Tokyo area (i.e. probably around Yuzawa) I'd love to hear about them! I heard the Myoko area and Madarao are good options, but not really do-able in a comfortable day-trip.
I guess the trees are a bit tighter and the terain a bit more tricky in other parts at Kagura - I think any decent skier who watches the video can tell that I'm finding it pretty challenging at times, but I think I am getting better slowly. My only problem with Kagura is that the runs are a tad short - the opening of the top lift improves this a little, but getting to that lift involves taking the quad, then making a bit of a traverse and a short ski down then the slow, final romance lift to the very top.
I still haven't really found anything in the Tashiro area - Just underneath the No. 6 and No. 8 romance lifts - other than that it all just seems like a lot of flat green runs when I go there. Maybe I need to search a bit harder...!
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Here's a new video I put together of some of my recent trips to Kagura (plus some from a trip I did last year). I tried to include more footage from times I went when it was sunny - actually the last two times I went there I was lucky enough to get beautiful blue skies and some deep powder.
Hope you enjoy it!
BTW - I tried to upload it to the SnowJapan TV site but I couldn't get it to work - not sure why - videos I made before using the exact same process went up fine. I spoke to the editors about it and they couldn't get it to work either but they are very busy right now with the new website so I'll probably until that's up and try it again then.
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I got the gopro hero 2. I have had a few minor problems with it since I installed an update. First off, installing the update was problematic - I thought I'd bricked the thing, but I checked on the gopro site and they had a walk through for the problem which sorted it. Since then, it seems to take a little longer to switch on 5 or 6 seconds from pressing the button to be ready to film instead of 2-3. Also, I had some problem where the camera ocasionally just stops recording about 5-10 seconds into the recording. Not the best really for what is quite an expensive bit of kit. I just installed another update though, so I'm hoping that will have sorted it - it seems to switch on faster now.
In terms of accessories, I'd say some kind of pole mount would be good - helmet or chest mounted footage in my experience is 90% useless - I got literally hours of it and it just looks boring - I'm just going to delete it actually, cos it's taking up space on my disk! For helmet or chest mount, you should try to have someone in front of you (quite close because of the wide angle view) and film them. If you don't have anyone if front of you to film then I'd only bother if it is sunny conditions - if its cloudy, snowing, or just flat light at the end of the day it's gonna look boring - you'll be much better sticking the camera on a pole and filming yourself. Also, you can stick the camera on the end of a pole pointing away from you and use it to film a freind close up (without getting so close you'd bump into each other!). Don't forget to try to get lots of different camera views though - that will help you to edit an interesting video - it'll probably be a bit boring if it's all one view.
I guess the wifi backpack could be useful, especially the little wrist mounted control pad thing - obviously you don't need this if you are buying a 3, and also the dive housing, which again you don't need on the 3. You might also want to pick up the desicating inserts which could help with fogging problems - I think they can be re-used by heating them in the oven for 10 minutes.
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GoPro 3 Black edition - that's a pretty hefty sacrifice to the snow Gods right there. Looks like it might've worked though - potentially the biggest storm of the season so far is in the forecast for this weekend.....
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You can try to scrape it off (some gloves have a kind of plastic scraper built in onto the thumb), failing that you could take a quick break and melt the ice off with a blow dryer in the restaurant toilets or you could whip out your emergency goggles from your pocket which it is always a good idea to be carrying on snowy or deep powder days...!
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If you are looking for some powdery runs on the side, Kagura is one of your best bets around Yuzawa. Hakuba area you'd be looking to go to Cortina - hard to find anything at happo or 47/goryu. Nozawa onsen has some easily findable/accessible tree runs if I remember rightly and also some of the Myoko resorts but I've never been there - perhaps someone else could advise you. By far and away the best for easily findable/accessible tree runs is gonna be Niseko - sure people know their stashes at hakuba and so on but try finding them without someone showing you. Also, the nighta is great. Having said that, Niseko is a bit far for a four day trip, you will only meet Aussies there and I heard that its pretty busy these days and gets tracked out quite quickly, but again, haven't been there for a few years.
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Rental of everything is typically 5000 yen per day at most resorts and that's usually for the cheapest stuff from 10 years ago. Much better to just get your own stuff - particularly if you plan on going more than one or two days. I bet you can get everything for next to nothing on yahoo auction if you are not too fussy (and if you plan to rent, you'd better not be...!). In terms of paces to go, also consider Hakuba, Nozawa, yuzawa, Zao. There's hundreds of others but these are among the better options for a multi day stay IMO and would be a good intro.
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Haven't watched any telly for ages, but the other day I watched the first episode of a new series on Channel 4 called Utopia. Seems alright. The "chillies, sand, bleach and a spoon" part was pretty nasty to watch, but I'm looking forward to the remaining 5 episodes....
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I think there might be a very small chance you could buy it in the airport, but even if you can, "airport premium" usually way more than wipes out any savings you make on duty compared to online buying.
It's not something that is generally on sale in many shops - you'll be struggling to find it even in the big electrical stores.
Best online price will be around 47-48K for the black edition (Amazon.co.jp) and people are bidding very close to that on Yahoo Auction so that I think would represent about as cheap as you can get it in Japan. That would work out 530 US dollars - the US RRP is 399, so it's not exactly cheap here...
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Well, I had a cold all week, but just starting to get over it so hopefully I'll be good to go in time for a day trip on Sunday.
Was gonna head up to our usual day trip place, Kagura, but as we are in car we thought we might give something else a go. Im thinking Tenjindaira - ticket is only 3.5K as far as I can tell. Never been there before but apparently the resort itself is small and a bit boring but from the reviews I read, there are a lot of good runs through the trees.
Im wondering if it's easy to find the good stuff there. Also, I heard of this place called "avalanche alley" gets a couple of very large avalanches every season and quite a few smaller ones - not sure I like the sound of that - we wont be properly equiped....
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On a couple of occasions now, I fully charged my gopro battery the night before, popped the gopro in my bag and arrived at the ski area the next day to find the battery almost completely flat! Im not sure the explanation for that - perhaps it was accidentally switched on when packed down into the bag? Anyway, to avoid this I now take the battery out of the gopro completely and pop it back in when I'm ready to use it at the ski area. In any case, definitely pick up a spare battery or two - I didn't get the official gopro one, just some cheap thing from Yahoo Auctions and it works fine - they are hardly a lot to carry around.
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Just not quite getting there so far this season - although I went to Kagura this weekend and last, and both days were amazing - deep powder and blue skies, so can't complain!
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Think you'd have to go back as far as Omiya, not all the way to Tokyo.
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I have the GoPro 2, and the battery life, while in no way fantastic, is certainly a lot more than 10 minutes. I think I probably get about 1.5 to 2 hours filming.
You should turn off the camera completely with the switch on the front when not filming - seems like it uses quite a lot of battery just in standby. You can pick up spare batteries for about 1000 yen. I usually carry two and use one in the morning, one after lunch.
Buying a gopro in Japan
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
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I think the Sony one has some sort of image stabilisation (digital). Im not sure how well it works, but it's something I wish I had on my GoPro.
Other than that it seems that the Sony can't match the Hero 3 Black edition in terms of the range of resolutions and the number of different modes etc. Not sure about the image quality and I read that the firmware can be a little unreliable (actually the firmware on my GoPro hasn't been great since I updated it a while back so...)
I think a good thing about being able to film with the higher resolutions that the GoPro 3 Black offers (eg 2K and 4K) is that you could then use some digital zoom in your editing software without the image becoming a pixellated mess although at only 15 fps for the 4K mode, you won't be able to slow it down at all.