wattiewatson

I dont think Nozawa has insurance included in the ticket price or as an option. However i dont buy day passes so im not sure. matt

mate, i cant believe you didnt ride at new years. I cant talk about Hakuba, But Myoko had the most snow on it i have ever seen. A good meter of fresh stuff.

self defence. i think its a defence to many crimes on the books. Seems like a goer if someone is throwing knives at you.

Maybe a lesson as well......

are you kidding quattro? need gear to ride the courses?

Oyuki kigan, Im a beginner intermediate rider and i just started riding switch. When i first started riding i had my weight on my front foot. However i dont think this is the best way. Sure you feel like you can turn fast and control your speed but what about all the bumps along the way. If you have your weight forward you get thrown off balance. I think you are better off having your weight centered or even slightly backwards. You can feel the board flex and pop as you turn at a decent speed and you can ride through the bumps. What do others think?

you dont sink in powder at high speed. Im a bit taller and lighter than you and i rode a 150cm no brander last season. I think it was branded 'extreme' from memory. A $50 setup with boots thrown in. Flexed like a japanese bird doing yoga but i still got it through the powder. get some lessons my friend.

sorry dude. I think you were in the wrong. 100 percento my friend. You have to be able to stop. Pretty simple in my opinion. You bowled over some cyclists. Suck it up and realise you wernt looking far enough ahead or were driving to fast. Either way you **** up. Dont buy the in the middle of the road, side by side or on my side of the road excuses. You bowled them over. Matt

yeah, the Japanese resort industry is fragmented. To the point that there are even ski grounds that have different sets of owners for different lifts within the same resort. Its like having subset shareholders, or different class shareholders. I think its difficult for them all to agree and offer an area wide pass which suck for me as i would like to visit more resorts but i am not willing to cough up for heaps of day passes when i might just want to do a couple of runs at a resort. I would pay international prices ie (Whistler is not cheap) for a pass if it gave me a good number

Hi Mate, Who are you? If you want to have a beer sometime give me an email. I live in Iiyama too. Cheers Matt wattiewatson@gmail.com

Flow are great bindings if you just want to cruize down the mountain on piste. If you want to go fast, park or go off piste i dont think their that flash for a number of reasons. Too heavy, pain in the powder to get on and they seem to feel a bit loose at speed. However i have seen people that are much better than me rocking them so i guess its just a preference thing in the end Matt

I rode Suginohara quite a bit last year. Overall i think its got better terrain than Nozawa. The pitty is that the lifts dont go up to the top of the hill. I think Myoko is around 2,400m and the lifts probably go around 1,800 maybe a little more. If the snow is good its a great hill but the pitty about the place is that all the ski hills arnt linked together. As the other people said Suginohara isnt in the town but im sure there is a bus or something to take you around. matt

Pretty reasonable about the girl friend thing. A lot of the Nagano eikaiwa's are pretty small operations. It would piss me off if i stumped up for a few costs only to find out that the competition got a free ride. Ive seen a few jobs advertised for Niigata on Gaijinpot.com

I didnt think much about climbing Fuji. Its sort of ruined really. Its just a path up a long hill. However i was amazed that most people were unprepared. i saw people up their with jeans and an unbrella. At the end of the day its a high mountain and i think you got to take enough gear to stick it out for a night if a storm rolls in. Most people i saw up their would be up shit creek if the weather changed dramatically. Climbing it in Jan/Feb would be tough. 3,700 is a long way up in deep snow. i know i couldnt do it. Im not saying its impossible just that its not somethin

Onsens I like them but i cant see why some people make such a big deal out of going to them. Live food I dont mind killing animals for food. However it has to be done humanly. If its not i tell the group why im leaving and just walk out. I cant compromise on this, no matter who im with and what offense they will take. I cant change some peoples practices but i can choose not to support them. I dont do it in a softly softly way either. i dont believe culture can support things that should not be practiced in a civilised society. So i dont believe you can hide behind cult

There is a good weather section on this site. It gives you the five day forecast for each resort. It would be great if this was a bit easier to get to, maybe putting a link to it up the top of the page or linking it with the NOW reports. If this is already the case, sorry i just always have trouble finding it. Great site anyway. I love it matt

Lifts in Nozawa: i agree. i am very surprised that they dont have a ski school and singles lanes. I wish they did. I go over to Suginohara (Myoko) sometimes and although the snow is not as good as Nozawa, they way the lifts are operated is so much better. Thats not to say that the Nozawa lift crews dont bend their back, far from it, they are very hard working, its just that there lift line system is not the most efficient.

oh and all necessary gear is rentable. Dont worry too much aout googles, jacket and pants. Sunglasses are fine instead of googles as long as its not pelting down with snow. Any old jacket is fine. Doesnt have to be a flash jacket. Doesnt need to be particulary waterproof. Waterproof pants. May need these. Should be able to rent them some place. You can get them pretty cheap at department stores. Dont buy plastic or else you will sweat too much. Gloves: again, dont need to be the flashest gloves out there. You should be able to find something cheap. Its

Hi Mate, I dont think that there will be much snow in Nagano in April. We are struggling here already. I wouldnt book anything in advance as i dont think you will need to. I think things will still be open at the end of march but in april if things are open it wont be worth the money or it will only be stuff too advanced for a person just starting out. Try and get up a bit earlier if you can. The next two weekends should be fine.

Well that poutine business never really did much for me when i was on the chop down rue St Catherines. Mind you i wasn't really after a meal. I reckon you have to go a long way to beat the humble mince pie. Theres nothing like a couple of mince pies from the servo to steady the hand before driving home. Mind you i have had to change my ways now i live on an island with more people than sheep. matt

Hi guys, i would like an invite to aussietorrents.com and diwana if someone could hook me up. After all, it would be a bit rough not being able to see the all blacks lift the cup later this year. Matt wattiewatson@hotmail.com

I dont go to Hakuba but there are busses that go up there. If you can get to nagano railway station you can get up there fine. i have no idea when and where they go from. cheers matt

I think Obuse is just north of nagano city. Suzaka is about 10 minutes further north. If its the Obuse im thinking about it is just on the outskirts of the nagano city. Suzaka is about 30 minutes from Nozawa. Hakuba is a bit of a hike. maybe an hour or two. It might be worth going there but i dont know as i dont bother. Matt

I agree that the person coming down the slope has the responsibilty to aviod everyone else below them. I have hit a couple of people this season and also been hit myself. i guess it shows a general lack of skill really. If they were trees could have been nasty. But when i have been hit, i havent rolled around in pain. In fact i dont even think it hurts at all. I reckon the only time it hurts is when you hit something solid - like a tree or when its totally icey which i havent seen this year. I just think when you get hit you just have to get up and keep going. A friendly

well into the 20's. Should hit 30 pretty soon. Plenty of snow around i think.