AK 77

Saw something about this at a talk by someone who had done a PhD on the railway system in Japan (wouldn't be my first choice, i know), but this signalling practice was sometning that UK rail authority was looking at, because it would have prevented at least one of the train crashes in recent years .... except they could never get people to do it over here. Looks funny, but if it stops driver going through a red light, i'm all for it!

"Because of the lax attitude toward standards in this country, U.S. guides with the requisite skill sets are enrolling for IFMGA exams at a record pace." I'm not sure about that - you can hardly say that the US in general, or in ski resorts, has a more lax attitude than France to safety! Maybe the guide standards are so high in France because there are so few safety rules/laws acting as a safety net - all the responsibility is individual - on the guide. Whereas in the US there are already so many laws already individual guides are not so exposed??? unless they get sued, i suppose!

Just goes to show that whatever the culture/rules regarding off-piste/BC - Canada, Japan, France - you still get the same problems. Just different ways of dealing with it, i guess. In Fernie I didn't ride Fish bowl that often, but the bowls over the opposite end of resort, mongolia / outer mongolia were nice.

Fattwains and Dougy, your tales make me cringe with familiarity and also the serious side of it. These scenarios have happened to me and friends in France; don't you just love(hate) the way these people always nonchalantly enjoy the view after following your bootpack up, maybe even comment on it, while hanging around waiting for you+friends to check your stuff and drop in ... as they have no idea where to go! It's so casual, if it wasn't so bad i would find it so funny.

The context of this question is academic study: are there enough of these people in Japan to be a 'siginicant minority group', or are they all abroad - in Canada, USA, etc.???

I wonder if any of you have any opinions / observations on the following: Do you see many young (18-30) Japanese people who work in spring/summer/autumn in order to not work in the winter (hence furiitaa, in some respects), to ride all winter in Japan - either just for themselves or entering comps and trying to 'make it' as a pro? (or with this as a background dream) I know whistler has many Japanese doing seasons there, allong with Fernie, and other well know destinations in N.America, like Mammouth, and NZ obviously caters to a high percentage of Japanese vistors, especially freestlye

Damn, that's one thing i miss about the skis - the ease of going fast. snowboards are just too inherantly unstable going in a straight line. In the magazines, Marc-Andre Tarte was featured clocking 89.something km/h using radar gun, while on the run-in for the SPC summer camp 'super roller' kicker, which was pretty huge as you can imagine. this attracted atttention as it was SWITCH - and he was doing switch 1080s. yikes.

Hello there everyone, any feedback on the following questions really appreciated: Are there many opportunities for qualified, Japanese speaking (kind of...), snowboard instructors in Japan? I am planning on getting qualified in NZ this summer, but want to find out if using this in Japan is a realistic goal... or should I just spend the money on doing a TEFL and getting a driving license instead and come and teach again? The issue is partly a financial one, as I would be borrowing some money to get the qualifications. There are the 2 or 3 western-run centres in Niseko, but are the

Cheers people. Dizzy - no, unfortunately they climbed and skied Fuji-san in golden week (i think) of '99, before I got there. I did join them for Niseko Millenium new year trip, and many Hakkoda trips. My favourite was Hachimantai though, as there more variety of terrain, especially for the freestyle end of freeriding (if that makes sense), with the windlips and natural hits. Also saw some J-Pro's riding a big (15m gap) powder kicker there - although I wasn't up to hitting that level of kicker then. Amazing to watch still. The areas around Hachimantai that you could hike to had some of the

Quote: Originally posted by SerreChe: Welcome AK 77. By the way what is JET? Thank you for the welcome. JET is 'Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme' - It's the Japanese Ministry of Education's scheme for employing foreign English language assistants for state schools. Teaching english, basically, but part of big network of people on the programme and (depending on location/individual) local community. A good job! (unlike all jobs since then to fund time on snow!)

Quote: Originally posted by Karnidge: Hi there ex-lurker. Planning on coming back sometime? Yeah, am planning to take NZSIA Stage 1, New Zealand snowboard instructor qualification this summer, and hopefully then work in Japan - although don't know how ambitious this would be - as numerically few jobs in Japan, compared to Canada/US. Otherwise, might apply for teaching jobs again for the following year, or continue in Japanese Studies direction some more... will get back there eventually!

Just to say hello, as finally signed up after a long time of occasionally lurking to see what is going in the snow Japan world. Also, I was in Iwate as a JET in '99 - 2000 so hello to any Hakkoda / Hachimantai riders, as have many good memories of those places (apart from the dislocated collar bone and subsequent op.) Don't suppose anyone from that I knew from then is still around in Japan? Hutch (Jamie)? Toby Weymiller? Dean Reutzler? Anyway, enough of this 'It's me, hurrah' (not really - how do you say hello without it being like that?) Take it easy, Andy