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Good for you, Snowhuntress, and thanks. This whole talk about Japanese also being rowdy is totally beside the point. Just because some Japanese misbehave doesn't mean that we now all have licence to do the same. Bad behaviour is bad behaviour regardless of nationality. And while Japanese can be loud when they are drunk I cannot imagine the shit that you described coming from a Japanese.

Could be that wind has fortuitously blown a lot of snow from other parts of the mountain onto the pistes you were on. By the way, is this a live report? If yes, where are you?

Dusty- about the Camelback. I have one that is designed for wintersports (as opposed to cycling etc) and the tube has frozen up occasionally. You can pack in a small chemical handwarmer or such somewhere along the tube as well as the bag, that will keep things liquid. And if you fill in hot tea or such, naturally it will take longer until things freeze up. I usually by a couple of hot tea cans (green tea) from the ubiquitous vending machines and pour them in the Camel.

You need a helmet to increase your chances of survival. That applies anywhere, not just in Niseko.

There is a contrarian opinion out there. Run a Google search on Leonid Kuzmin. This guy published a doctoral thesis on his investigation of this very question and he answered it with a resounding "No". His wife even won some Olympic medal without wax. The argument is that P-Tex is already the perfect surface to glide on and does not degrade. Wax, on the other hand, degrades quickly and also may retain dirt on the surface of your board, thereby slowing you down. Apparently, the manufacturers of P-Tex confirm this and have been doing so for decades. They have nothing to gain from this financiall

Hehehehehehehegggghhhh!! Originally Posted By: Oyuki kigan Originally Posted By: Youdy Watashi wa baka na gaijin! i see. Quote: Which way to the terrain park? shoshinsha shamen wa doko desu ka? Quote: Any cliff drops we can check out? Onsen ni hairitai kedo, hadaka no mama wa hazukashii wa Quote: That was steezy! tofu ni butsukatte shinjimae! Quote: Which run has some nice kickers? Omae wa chikusanjo kara nigete kita no? Quote: When are you gonna come for a ride? teashi no waza wo oshiete kurenai? You can t

I am not aware of any local brewery. In Tokyo, you can get Tokyo Ale as well TY Habour's beers. These are really very good.

One other thing. You do understand that Sakaya is fullboard, yes? Every morning and evening you will be served a full scale course menu that begs to be accompanied - in the evenings! - by beer, sake and shochu. (Note: try the horse meat sashimi!) If after that and a hard day of riding you are still capable of venturing out to town and yet again next morning be up in time for the best snow then you must have an enviable condition. What you may want to do is see if you can be accomodated half-board on a couple of days and use those for your excursions to town. As well, unless you know what Japan

The Kanda area is most well-known. There are tons of shops there and you cannot miss them. Several on the main street such as Victoria, Murasaki etc., and many more in the back streets. Keep in mind though that they will carry mostly only sizes that are common in Japan. So it depends how big/tall you are.

Thanks. Snowboards are quite different from surfboards as the other post shows...

I got similar input from elsewhere. Sounds like too much trouble. Thanks.

I have been to both more than once. In my humble opinion, Niseko wins hands-down. The two don't belong in the same category, again imho. Where to begin? Niseko is glorious, grand. Myoko is "merely" a good resort of several of its kind in Honshu. The choice of restaurants and accomodation in Niseko is far larger and better than in Myoko. As has been mentioned, Niseko is an international resort. I am a fairly fluent Japanese speaker (I have lived in Japan for 11 years now) so I don't need the English language access but I enjoy the international atmosphere in Niseko immensely while in Myoko I fo

The most accessible as far as I can see is Gala Yuzawa. Shinkansen from Tokyo Station stops directly at the lift. No kidding. Takes about 1.5 hours or so from Tokyo I think. And isn't all that bad, either. Gets crowded of course.

Between Sapporo and Niseko / Rusutsu there are no toll roads (except maybe around Sapporo for a few kilometers). Between Sapporo and Furano there is a stretch of expressway you could use but it's not that long either. Rental cars often have a ETC device installed so you can slide in your own card. HOWEVER, all ETC cards I know are based on a credit card that is issued in Japan. You need to ask the credit card company to issue the ETC card to you. I just tried to find some info on the 1000 yen offer but I cannot find anything (and I do read Japanese).

Does anyone here know of a shop in Tokyo that can paint snowboards? I am looking for somewhere that has solid experience with this. Given how modern boards have their designs literally pressure-steamed into the plastic of the top sheet I don't think a car paint shop will know what to do with that surface...

Originally Posted By: hknz I refer to this turning technique "when going toe to heel lift the front foot toes whilest pushing on the back toes and when going heel to toe do the oposite. ie push on the front toe and lift the back toes." So, i guess the technique you mention would be only suitable for softer board and without upper body rotation. it would more or less induce counter-rotation. correct me if im wrong. I guess you are asking soulboy, the poster of this, but I think you are right. At least this wouldn't work with stiffer boards unless you want to use a lot of force.

Originally Posted By: soulboy Interesting post. Actually I was taught about upper body and foot work. I am guessing by foot work you mean stuff like "pedaling" ? I was taught to when going toe to heel lift the front foot toes whilest pushing on the back toes and when going heel to toe do the oposite. ie push on the front toe and lift the back toes. Cheers Not exactly. The book I mentioned teaches to exert pressure on four imaginary points on the board (basically the four "corners") not to lift your heels or toes. You can read up on this here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/20

Originally Posted By: jcpops That Neil McNab book sounds interesting. Can someone post more info about it? You can look it up on Amazon and such. It's called "Go Snowboard: Read It, Watch It, Do It (GO SERIES)" This guy also has a website for his school that's located in the Alps.

Errr... not too sure what you mean and not too sure why you apologize. There isn't any fundamental contradiction between what I reported and what GN says (except - possibly - for my assertion that Nozzie is safest). I reported my personal positive experience with Nozzie and I don't see the data GN posted contradicting that experience. What GN points to is snow depth which certainly is a good indicator but given that this is Japan where absolute snow depth rarely is a problem, I think that my point - risk of rain fall - is a fair one. GN's data don't say anything about that. What good are 200 c

Two separate issues here. The first thing is that some small ryokan owners who do not speak English are simply imagining that foreign guests will mean trouble. Could be that they cause trouble because they don't know how to behave themselves (and then can't be told what the correct behaviour is) or could be the other way around that the ryokan owner feels he can't adequately serve the foreigner because they can't communicate. And both things can indeed apply. Second thing is the question of foreigners generally being rude etc. I talked with a *western* hotel employee at a Hakuba hotel la

>As usual we shouldn't take one persons one or two experiences as a good indication of average conditions. True, of course. What I'd be interested to know is if there is any place that is safe from rain in late Dec and Jan. This was a problem in Niseko and Kiroro several times while I have never had that problem in Nozawa (at least not in the upper parts of the mountain). Furano perhaps? >Furano can often have better early season cover not because of altitude but because it is a bit further north and colder. You are right. I thought Furano was higher than Niseko but it

I am an intermediate-level snowboarder. I have learnt snowboarding mostly from Japanese instructors. They teach you to turn using upper body rotation. Having read up on this a bit it seems to me that this method is outdated and being criticized for the instability it introduces. Only French and Canadian instructor associations still seem to teach this while American, Swiss, etc associations teach making turns by working solely through your feet. There is a book by Neil McNab, a former British snowboarding champion, that illustrates this foot-dynamic approach very nicely. Does anyone know of sp

I do not know this place. But I can warmly recommend the ryokan Sakaya.

Over the last three years I have each year gone to Nozawa Onsen for a couple of days of early-season riding and things were always good. The snow was terrific, the weather beautiful and very few people there. I think Nozawa is safest in this regard. Only a limited selection of slopes is open before Dec 23 or so though. Good for a fun warm-up but after a couple of days it gets boring if you are more than beginning intermediate. By the way, at that time of the year the village may not have any snow and instead be subject to rain showers. But not to worry: just a few meters up in the gondola and