3da5snow

Although not very big, Karuizawa Prince Hotel in Nagano is also just a 10 minute walk from the shinkansen station. If you're traveling with people who don't wanna go skiing/snowboarding, they can go shopping at the nearby outlet mall while you're on the slopes.

Mountain High in Southern California would have these thin plastic tickets you have to feed into the ticket gate and have spit back out everytime you go to the lift. Annoyed the hell out of me!

Actually, I approached the Green Plaza Hotel shuttle first and the driver asked me if i was staying in the hotel or day tripping (higaeri). When I told him I was day tripping, he directed me to go to the other side of the station where a shuttle bus for day trippers would pick us up at 9:50. Being 9:45 at the time, my friend and I hauled a** to get there. Another girl working there directed us to the bus stop, which was across the street in front of a japanese restaurant.

Thanks sj #5! When we got to the shinkansen stn yesterday they told me there was a free shuttle bus that leaves at 9:50. So we didn't have to wait over 2 hours for the train thank goodness. It was a beautiful day yesterday at joetsu. It was actually pretty warm. Snow was nice and soft. An awesome day!

So I'll be going to Joetsu Kokusai this coming Tuesday by shinkansen to echigoyuzawa. My shin will arrive in yuzawa at 9:34. My question is, are there any other ways of getting to joetsu kokusai without having to wait a freakin hour for the train connection to joetsu kokusai ski-jo mae stn? Are there shuttle buses running during the weekdays? How much would a taxi cost? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I just enjoyed a nice tree run at Miyagi Zao Eboshi the other day. Nice fine powder compared to the hard packed groomed runs everywhere else on the resort. Good fun!

New Year's Day at Iwappara! The weather cleared up nicely for that day and the skies were a deep blue. Used the ticket I won from this website!

Tsugaike is where I first learned how to board. Nice wide open runs!

The guy looked like he had a bad landing from a jump over a tabletop. I only spotted him while I was on the lift. He was on all fours hunched over in pain. Later when I slid by the area, there was some blood on the snow and he and a friend were sitting by the side. I didn't get a good look of the injury. I went down to tell the lift operator about the incident, but the guy before me was already telling him about it.

Didn't really listen to it much because I had my pod. But they were playing some American top 40 music. Heard some Sean Paul and Madonna at the lower lifts. An awful lot of foreigners came out that day. Stopped to break for lunch and found a huge German family in one restaurant and a Chinese family in another. The snow wasn't all too good. A bit of the snow melted from rain the day before and it was a bit mushy. But weather was pretty warm though.

Just got back from Ishiuchi and the speakers were annoyingly crackley most of the time.

Hey guys! I finally got a helmet! I buckled down and bought the protec b2 snow. It fits my head nicely and has removable earpads and lining for better ventilation if i need it. It's also pretty light too. I rode with it for the first time at Ishiuchi and hardly noticed it was on my head. Unfortunately, I saw a guy take a bad spill in the park area. He was bleeding pretty bad. Didn't look pretty at all. Thus I'm encouraged to buy some other protective gear as well.

Ski tour buses that have to stop to put on tire chains when I'm just minutes away from the resort tick me off proper! You'd think that a bus that's bound for the mountains would already be outfitted with snowtires to save time. One time, I was on a bus that had to stop and we didn't get to the ski-jo until noon.

Rusutsu is a pretty big resort too. I went there and had a blast!

Why don't you call them and ask if they have the sizes you need? phone (0135)34-7111 Sapporo Sales Office phone (011)512-4333

Quote: Originally posted by Nads: Is it normal to work Tuesday to Saturday instead of Monday to Friday? Should I steer clear of jobs that work Tuesday through Saturday? That really depends on your preference. At the English school I work at, we get at least 2 days off. Usually Sunday and one other day of the week. There are pluses and minuses about having this work schedule compared to the traditional M-F schedule. The good thing is that if your days off land on a weekday, you can go to the slopes when it'll likely be less crowded. The bad thing is it's tougher to hangout with other f

Could it have been an alpine snowboard with plate bindings ?

Whoa! I just got back from shopping in that Ochanomizu area. What a butt load of ski/snowboard shops! A lot of overpriced crap too! After trying on a bunch of helmets and getting odd looks from a few posers, I think I might opt for the Burton Red Skycap, which is more in my price range and fits my head better. The Giro 9 also seemed to fit my head nicely as well.

Just south of Aomori in Iwate there's Appi Kogen which is huge. Dunno how long it takes to drive there, but I reckon 3 hours or so. When I was but a beginner boarder there was this little skijo called "hiraniwa" I liked. Really cheap.

If you have a board, and don't already have a stomppad, get one big enough for the size of your boot. place the stomp pad as close to your back foot binding as you can. When I dismount, I put my backfoot up against the side of my backfoot binding.

I think this was recently discussed on this thread: http://www.snowjapanforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/1/6291.html? Also according to my handy dandy ski package leaflet I got from the local travel agency, Madarao Sympathique and Ikenotaira Onsen should have all the park items, although I've never been to either of them.

Mi cabeza thanks you all for your input! I still have yet to buy my helmet, but I'll let you guys know how it goes. Last time I went to a local sports authority, they only had a handful of helmets to choose from. Anybody know of a good shop in the tokyo area that would have a decent selection?

Can anyone recommend a good helmet, or any brands I should stay away from?

Don't know about buses, but if you go by shinkansen, you can transfer at Takasaki stn. There's a whole mess of other ways to get from Nagano to Niigata without having to go through Tokyo. I always found Hyperdia to be a useful resource for finding train routes and schedules. You can find it here. http://grace.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperd01.cgi?

Quote: Originally posted by snowglider: what if your birthday is in summer? birthday discrimination! I'm sure you could probably head to Australia or New Zealand for that. Or maybe find an artificial slope or something?