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dyna8800

SnowJapan Member
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    273
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3 Got that first like!

About dyna8800

  • Rank
    Ski and Scuba Instructor

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  • Nationality
    Americano
  • Living in
    Japan
  1. Hey, snowdude, which resorts? Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a ski instructor license to teach skiing. Most ski instructors at resorts in North America do not, gasp, have any sort of license at all. The better ski schools have in house training and encourage instructors who do not have certification to obtain at least Level 1.
  2. I missed this thread...were you on skis? I saw exactly two Western gaijin at Kusatsu today... (and heard a few Chinese speakers)
  3. At Gala, that 1,000 yen lets you open and close the locker as many times as you wish during the day...not like those coin ones where if you forget something you gotta pay again. Of course, those are usually 300 or 500 yen for the larger size ones. Am going on another bus tour tomorrow morning, hopefully the Tohoku highway to Hunter Mountain will be better than that darn Kanetsu...plus I am hoping that we can jump on right out of Shinjuku since they made that underground tunnel (fingers crossed).
  4. Lift is still there, but no access, it is roped off, and there is a patrol office there. I am tempted to ski down and hike or skin back up. Remind me to buy some AT gear. What a shame about Alts. It used to be THE place for snowboarders. And that left side was the best part of the resort.
  5. Man In Japan, you mean more time than sense, right? Cause if I had the money, I would be on the first shink out of Tokyo station. In a half day at Marunuma Kogen, well, make that about 3 hours, I got over 2,000 meters of vert. or about 14 km. That was on a snowboard, no less. If I were on skis, I probably would have covered 50% more. And if I were going for the freshies, that would require the overnight bus, but ain't that young anymore, although am still considering it for one trip...
  6. One man's poison is another man's pleasure...or so they say. Kandatsu is actually one of my favorites, in Niigata, that is. It is a smaller scale resort. I actually wrote a strategic guide sometime back about how to cover the resort, with some lifts only opening at certain times and all...
  7. From posts I can see that people are taking the night buses to various resorts, but how about the morning tours? I am planning to post a mini review of my experience(s) with taking the morning bus from Shinjuku. The tour prices are much less expensive than taking the shinkansen. For example, some tours midweek are 3-4,000 yen. That is less than the price of the lift ticket. There are also other companies departing from Ikebukuro or Tokyo station, with shuttle bus pickups from various other stations around Tokyo, Yokohama, and Saitama. They normally depart about 7 or 7:20 am and return
  8. Marunuma Kogen I won a lift ticket last year for White World Ose Iwakura. But I had already written a resort review a few years ago and did not feel that it needed to be updated. Instead, I offer this review of Marunuma Kogen, which boasts of Gunma-ken “super fine snow.” Executive Summary Marunuma Kogen is a medium size resort in Gunma prefecture, perhaps one of the more popular ones. It has a bit of something for everyone, including a terrain park, mogul bahn, and a kids play park, the only thing lacking may be some more advanced terrain. There is even an onsen (hot springs) at th
  9. At Rusutsu there is a corridor that has trail maps on the wall going back to when only west mt had lifts, it is pretty cool to see the how the resort has developed over time. Ah, that hallway which shows the 30 or so years of evolution of Rusutsu with the ski posters. That is fantastic!
  10. How about ski trail maps? I have some from the same resort, showing the evolution of the ski area...and some from Japanese resorts that do not show the non operating lifts, even worse.
  11. At many resorts in the US, there are 2 parts to the ticket, the main part must be attached to pants or jacket with zip tie. Both parts have bar codes and your full name. If you lose your lift ticket, you go to the ticket office/window with the other bar coded receipt/proof of purchase. Then they issue you a new ticket and void out the old one. Ah, computers... At some resorts in Japan, such as Furano, the lift ticket has your photo on it, so they can verify who the real owner is.
  12. Glad that it helped...that is exactly the reason why I write them. Cheers,
  13. Seemore, you still around? I got stuck in some trees as it flattened out, thigh deep in powder. Seriously need some powder planks. Ate at the BBQ place and got all smokey...Italian steaks last night with a nice bottle of wine. Cricket Pub has half price drinks for happy hour, 5-6 pm, just made it in time for a few pints, just myself and a large group of workers (?) Looking forward to another pow day. Lines untracked until the end of the day, even on some groomed runs, there is fresh pow right next to the cord...
  14. Thanks for the intel. I did a search but could not find the thread...
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