AK 77

Avy probes on now really cheap (240cm Camp for 17$) If anyone sees this and buys one, i'll take one too!

I'm not sure of the exact origins of Bonfire, but as long as i've known them they have been part of the same company / parent company / family of companies, since before Adidas bought Salomon in the late 1990's. Bonfire makes good stuff, imho.

Well said. Have fun in Iwate. Hachimatai is small but in my opinion the best resort in Japan! I say that as a snowboarder rather than as a winter holiday-maker. I feel safe saying that (and it won't become overrun with Ozzies, ha ha) as it's far away enough that any more visitors will just keep it open until i visit again.

Originally Posted By: SJForums SnowJapan Hakuba Photo Contest 06/07 - The Results Here are the winners* of the SJ Hakuba Photo Contest 06/07. All valid photos uploaded to SJ last season were given to those friendly people at the Tourism Association in Hakuba to choose the winners. Just to be clear, the names of the photo files and SJ members were coded on the photos submitted to Hakuba - making them totally anonymous. There was no favouritism and no bias - just the photos to choose the winners. 1st Prize - 07/08 Hakuba Village Season Pass Winner: Kumapix http://www.

Originally Posted By: Domokun_72dpi Black and Blue. Jeez I hope that's not an indication of what I will bruise like =) Ha ha could be a dangerous combination.... if you subscribe to the craziness! (see below) For the reason you suggest, I don't wear black and blue together near my ankles, and definately would not skate if I did. I do wear black t-shirts at the same time as blue jeans, but try to avoid blue boxers in black jeans, and stay well clear of black socks with blue jeans or vice versa! I don't know when I decame unhinged in this department... just beware of playful super

Originally Posted By: Fattwins Im louder than AK could ever think of being. I even got a nod from him for style so I know that im over doing it for sure. My BC wear is blah though. FT is colourblind (really!) so I'll answer on his behalf. He will be wearing a darkish purple jacket (kind of blue purple, rather than pink purple) and some wild blue and white crazy print pants... for resort anyway. For BC, probably something that smells (as everyone should do!).

I don't disagree! I just point out that money is hardly the prime motivation for people to be here, and (to get back on topic) that NOVA teachers are hardly cash rich, unless they were in rural locations, very frugal or exremely anti-social. Still am kind of glad such a crappily-run company went down the pan.

or something like.... FT in trendy outerwear will be a fish out of water? or... perfectly suited to the goldfish bowl of Japanese resort fashion. or... FT should snowboard in those, cos he's old, so he could do stalefish grabs. omg, it's time to go home. I'll get my coat.

To keep it secular.

So who was your favourite? Snowbaorder magazine

Originally Posted By: Kumapix Originally Posted By: EustabiaChiq And where does that work as camouflage? duh, in an aquarium of course! duh, some people ask the dumbest questions. Fishy, FT, fishy.

ha ha - fill us in on the details....

Teaching in Japan, it is clearly possible to save a reasonable amount, but this now equates to less in your home currency, and is usually a choice between save OR socialise for that month. I'm not sure anyone would come to teach English here for the money as their main motivation. Assuming you need the minumum of a University degee - that's an average debt of 14,000 pounds at the end. Taking the standard pay of 250,000 - that's 12,781 pounds BEFORE tax. This is about the same you would make as a high school graduate doing office temping on a weekly contract! Obviously

While those who have just arrived (when it takes 3 pay checks to balance the cost of arriving) get my sympathy, I'm not partcularly sad to see NOVA go under. They used very unprofessional and bordering on verbally abusive interview techniques on a good friend of mine at their interview centre in the UK - which didn't address ability to teach or adapt to living in a new culture, but consisted of very intrusive person questions aimed at seeing how the interviewee coped with being humiliated! I'm talking about a mature (late 20s) person with a Masters, not a recent uni graduate here - a

Oops, my bad. Nice place anyway.

Lovely pictures! .... but isn't Matsushima actually just in Iwate? (belated Iwate pride - everyone laughs when I say I lived there, so got to claim this one for Iwate)

That one closed on October 14th... according to my poor japanese!

damn it i didn't enter. oh well.

Watched 'Sakuran' the other day - it was ok, very colourful and vibrant to look at, and quite funny at times, but cheesy thin plot really. 6/10 - not bad. Last night watched 'Rashomon' - the acting was so much better than most modern films with their stagnant pathos-ridden melodrama and made for tv style wooden acting - it was great. I can't say I understood all of it, as it didn't have subtitles, but it was still enthralling.

Originally Posted By: Kumapix yeah i hate twins I don't hate twins. remembering their names can be tricky though!

decent snowbaord bindings on now - Salomon SPX Pro for about a hundred bucks (normally 220)....

twins are a cn$t if you are following then at speed in spring slush - they throw up quite a spray!

Originally Posted By: samurai just a few months of privates sounds like wwaaaay more of a headache than I would care to indulge for a few months of riding. Just save your cash, budget yourself and skip all the research, set-up, scheduling, management, blah, blah and do it right. You're not going to come out ahead by working a few hours a week to ride everyday. Just do it like the broke pros do it, save and budget. 99% of the guys on the world tour aren't rich or have any financial support. I know, that was me. and I see people pull off entire seasons abroad all the time. "But I just wa

Intersting, I rode the Unincs of friends 2 and 3 seasons ago, and found the 158 to be pretty mellow flex-wise, kind of standard medium flex, but the 156 was much stiffer between the feet - a very 'solid feeling' flex. 152 would feel softer, i guess, unless you are a small person, due to more weight pressing on it, as you say.

Originally Posted By: thursday Originally Posted By: stemik Originally Posted By: snowdude Could also try pre-season shagging it's amazing what parts of the body can get exercised then. LOL And of course for any sports one of the most important factors that so many of us over look is stretching. I agree with Snowdude exercise tip...I always stretch before and doing this kind of exercise didn't know there was an off season for shagging. It's called winter... free time is finite, snowboarding takes priority.