ausi ski bum

Well my trip is pretty much set now. December 20 fly to Tokyo for a couple of days, sending the ski gear ahead to the resort via courier. Dec 23 travel from Tokyo to the Hotel up the top of Yokoteyama at Shiga Kogen, I figured being early in the season, head high to 2350 mtrs, plus its an awsome Bakery / Hotel Staying up top for Four days including my families first ever WHITE CHRISTMAS. The kind folk at the hotel are preparing a nice dinner for us. December 27 heading back to Nagano and picking up the hire mini bus (4WD) and off to Myoko for five nights staying at the Al

I have given it a try. I was originally dealing with one of the Prince Hotels staff who unfortunatly left the hotel group. I am sure I will get there, I have my Myoko stay sorted by the very helpful Amy and I think I have Yokoteyama sorted but again communications have been very difficult.

The link on this site is to an agent, I have been trying to ask a couple of specific questions of the hotel itself but I believe it is only opening from 28 December so most likely there is no one there to take my question.

Its very difficult to book from OS at the moment, I find most of the emails sent go unanswered and when you do get an answer what is sent via a translater makes little sence. For example I have been trying for weeks to get the Prince hotel in Shiga Kogen to answer,

Well my trip is well on the way to being organised staying at both Shiga Kogen and Myoko with a few days in Tokyo. Hey if things get to bad we can always go night skiing without the need for lights, a nice gentle glow off the hills.

I live on a 6 Acre property 7km from Cootamundra, we are in a nice valley surrounded by farms, its very quiet. I could never live in a city again

I love my books, I read Clive Cussler, Steve Berry, Dan Brown, John Birmingham etc but I also love to listen to audio books when I drive. I swim every morning in Junee a town 45 minutes from here and I listen to my Audio Books on the way, very relaxing start of the day. I just finished listening to the Millenium Trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc) and before that I listened to Birminghams Axis trilogy. Trouble with E Books when you do a lot of short flights ie Wagga to Sydney which is about 1 hour, you cant read an e book much as you cant have them switched on for take off a

Still considering options, is there anywhere in Japan that really does Christmas special, it does not need to be the ski resorts, I can head up there a few days later if I have a good plan B. I am considerng grabbing a Rail Pass for a week then heading to the mountains for New Years.

The point is peoples opinion of conditions sometimes give a more detailed picture than the statistics do. I have only seen Shiga later in the season and it looks to be super groomed and skiable on little snow however for all I know I could be completely wrong in assuming this. The resort where I own two properties, Falls Creek in Victoria Aust is a prime example of this, many of the runs can open with 30cm of snow however the Summit area and the Maze area really need 1 metre of snow to open.

Yeh been scanning the reports, very good source of data but as all skiers know, 50cm at one resort can be brilliant where as another you will need to ski on rock hoppers.

So what is the safest bet at Christmas in your view, I get the impression at that time of the year its much the same at all resorts

I loved what someone said a while back, Obama should show his birth certificate when Palin shows her high school certificate. Of course he is American and what is it with America where an immigrant can not be President of the country, surely equal rights apply, the Aussie Prime Minister was born in England (Mind you they are welcome to take her back)

I would love to do a snowmobile trip with our group as we have several times in Hokkaido, is there one operating near Nagano that does more than drive around in circles. We are at Shiga but I will have a vehicle.

I arrived at Shiga Kogen last year Jan 3 and it was pretty good, next year however (well later this year) I can only go from 23 December to 3 Jan and I wondered what Shige Kogen was like in general around those dates. I was looking at yokoteyama for the first four nights then moving to Shiga Prince East after that. Your thoughts

Of Course mate, she'll be right once the rooted reactor's fixed will be bonzer again. I do love Japan, it is a great country.

Theres discussions about peoples plans for visiting Japan in 2011/12. It appears to me there are still a huge number planning on coming, the thing will be, if the reactor situation gets worse and if if continues on for many months then I suspect many will look at Canada and the US for that season. I was planning on meeting another family in Japan next season but they have chosen the Canadian option now.

I thought all Japanese were seafood mad. How wrong can I be. I love Sushi but its so hard to find good sushi here in Country NSW

I don't think its fair to say that could be a simple language issue or even my emails not getting through, I prefer not to think the worst.

The Bakery is really nice, they do a really nice lunch set that you should cconsider if you are skiing that end of Shiga. I wanted to buy some items to take back to my room but I was staying at the Prince hotel so it was a long way to carry bread back. I think staying up there for 3-4 nights with my family over Christmas or New years would be very special.

Tried again unfortunatly still no response. Hmmm I guess its not urgent I may get a response in time.

Yep its about time you got the reactors fixed, its really upsetting the Merkins (Americans) on some of the forums I go to you would think it was located in LA. It will work out I am sure, I am still planning on being in Japan for Christmas and New Years this year.

Hi Krusty I have emailed Yokoteyama but no response, can you find out if they have any staff able to read my english email, I fully understand if they don't.

Excellent, thanks and they are really nice people that own that hotel as well.

Maybe they should be dropping huge snow balls from the helicopters instead of buckets of water, they still might miss but it would look kewl. Perhaps these guys can help

Yep the Bakery, I just can't find any email cotact on the site.