Rag-Doll

Thanks for the support Ocean. I really didn't intend to offend or at least draw as much flak as I did. I might think twice about sticking my head above the parapet next time in case I end up with the kind of love-in you’ve got going on Iran over on the Off Topic forum

This is all a bit silly. Let me retract my comments fully and without reservation. No offence was intended, except towards the end and then only in self defence. PS. The above retraction was not at the request of the SJ.

No moron - the correct analogy would be that every Chinaman in the US is there because for some odd reason the locals regard his unusual features and ability to speak Chinese as being something special and so faced with the prospect of being a no hoper in his homeland, he hides out in the US where he can pretend something else and then bitches because visitors from his homeland show him to be the loser that he is. But I didn't say that about every foreigner in Japan or about anybody on this forum. But it is obviously something that you feel sensitive about FT. The thing is, a lot of the

CB Sorry about the crap syntax, I was of course talking about westerners living in Japan on a long term basis, but I don't think westerners make up anything more than a relevatively minor fraction of all foreigners reisdent in Japan, do they? Perhaps things have changed since I was last there. Apart from the above and perhaps the retarded comment(!), I agree with everything you're saying, I really do and point 3 was never any issue - depending on what you're after there are better resorts in Japan. I was merely making an observation on the motivation people complaining about

I'm sorry my comments have caused such angst. I didn’t realize the issue was such a sore point. I simply wanted to offer up an observation after having read the discussion on this thread and reviews about Hirafu that it did strike me that there seemed to be two distinct groups of people expressing concerns about the number of foreigners in Niseko - tourists who don't appreciate they're part of the problem and long term Japanese residents who would rather not share their little piece of Japan with other foreigners. Perhaps I was a bit indulgent about how I described the long term res

Calling people for bagging Niseko because they think there are too many other foreigners (Aussies) there isn't racist. It's pointing out the hypocrisy. I think it is perfectly legit to prefer other resorts based on terrain, location or whatever. All things being equal, I generally prefer a couple of places around Nagano to what is on offer at Niseko. I just wanted to make a comment on the aversion to foreigners that Niseko’s recent popularity has created as if crime, loud drunks and general obnoxious behavior is solely an Aussie thing.

It seems to be that a lot of complaints about there being too many Aussies and the overall increase in popularity of Niseko come from two distinct groups of people. Type 1 - Those who don't live in Japan and seem to think that skiing in Japan must also include some sort of cultural experience. Many of these people will have booked themselves a package deal offered by a tour company making its money from economies of scale. They then get to Niseko and bemoan the loads of (other) Aussies doing exactly the same thing. Many of these same people won't be familiar with the typical Japanese

I have a 25+5 osprey that has had a lot of use. You can create a third board strap by modifying (joining) the the two top ski straps that are located on the side of the pack. The other trick with the pack and probably a lot of others is to place the bottom strap below the bottom binding on the board - Tsonda's mate in the first photo seems to be doing that. It keeps the board high and away from the back of your legs. The modified ski straps help stablise the top/nose of the board. The guy with the swollow tail in the photo hasn't done this and it looks like he has had to use

A mate of mine who only recently converted to boarding thought that riding right foot forward was natural rather than goofy. So when he rented a board at Nozawa a couple of weeks ago he asked for and was given a board set up for a natural footer. On the second day of the weekend when we finally met up on a lift I noticed that his leash was connected to his back binding and dragging in the snow. I pointed this out to him and his reply was - yeah they've put it on the wrong binding, it's a real pain. On closer inspection it turned out that he was indeed riding a board set up for natur

Hi, I don't normally post on forums but have to jump in here to defend the big K. 4 times to Happo and never had a good day - although that Virgin cafe place is nice. Kagura is within day trip distance from Tokyo (a big plus) and if you're keen and don't mind ducking ropes you can spend the whole riding lifts and trees and not much else without any agro from the patrol.