ausi ski bum

When I was skiing at Shiga Kogen in January I cam across the hotel up the top of the mountain at 2350metres. I grabbed a business card so I could look their details on the net but alas, its all in Japanese and I can not find an email contact. I wanted to contact them to see if the family can stay there at Christmas so if anyone has an email can you post it please. Much appreciated if you can help.

Masive ships washed inland, oil refineries burning, I saw a housing estate in flames as well, its messy for sure, my thoughts to you all, I was in Japan this time last year.

Watching the wall of water coming in live, its frightening, I hope people are safe but I fear the worst

I felt much the same feelings on my visit there in 2008, My kids and I spent some time at the museum and we alked the precinct. I always feel guilty I never visited Nagasaki as well, will have to fix that one day, its sad the went through the same but get forgotten by most. I read a facinating story here a while back about three guys that survived both bombs. After visitng Hiroshima we went to Myajima Island for two days.

I am not so interested in reading, while Japanese script facinates me I figure start the spoken and then look at the reading as it will make more sense once you get a grasp of the grammer. OK some good advice, thanks, I will be back in December / January so it would be great to be able to speak with the locals. Trip number six for me hence the interest.

Well my wife and I would lov to learn Japanese but we do not have access to lessons where we live, I recently got Skype and wondered if it could be used to learn Japanese, I have seen the services that do this but they are expensive so I wondered if anyone had heard of alternatives that work.

Skype is the free video phone system you can get on the internet, its great

Has anyone done this, I live in an area where there is no lessons and I wondered if skype could be used to learn Japanese, or visa versa

Well I stayed at Prince East and I loved it however its very isolated and I was considering a location like Ichi, Anyone stayed in other hotels in the area they can review, there will be a need for two to three western style doubles. Looking on this site the Sunroute hotel looks nice, anyone been there.

Business is business, money from local or OS sources is the difference between survival or not. Clearly the resorts that have best embraced this, are the ones doing the best today.

Even the bigger resorts could do better re foreigners. Many like Shiga Kogen don't even have an english trail map and information is hard to find, for example 90% of the buildings there have no english writing on them so someone like me planning to return has no idea what hotel is what. They don't do themselves any favours.

I just left Shiga Kogen after 10 days skiing there, its an amazing place, I will be back. Thats five trips to Japan now.

Well I am heading to Shiga Kogen

Hi I just booked a flight to Tokyo on my own this time, I need to find a nice ski resort for 10 Days I can easily access similar to Sahoro in Hokkaido where I got meals lifts etc but in Hakaba Nagano area. Any ideas

Funniest one I had was a Qantas flight to LAX, we were standing down the back having a chat when we were told under US law we were not allowed to group on a flight, I reminded her we were Aussies on an Aussie plane over international waters, so WTF. The hostie then smiled and said, yep **** um, another beer boys.

I would like to get to Harbin China in January for the huge Ice Village they create.

Looking at the bookings for my two apartments in Falls Creek, I will be lucky to earn enough this year to pay the Management fee's, most likely the worst year since I bought then in 2002

I loved my stay on Myajima Island near Hiroshyma so if you do get that way take the ferry over or stay a night or two, Grand Hotel is nice, excellent food.

I stayed at the Galleria for 5 nights, nice spot overlooking the resort from the 26th floor, it did cost a few $$$ but it was the last five nights of a three week tour so i wanted it to be special.

I doubt that is the case GN, a lot is said about the current youth but they live in a generation where the loss of members of the military is real, this is the first time in 30-40 years that this is the case so they have a connection with the past that my generation didn't. I have a house full of Young people at times most were Air Force Cadets and now many of these are in the military but they genuinely respected the ANZACS and polatics had little to do with this.

I was born in 1961 and as a young kid and teen I watched the Anzacs parade in Perth with the much younger WW2 vets marching proud, today the WW2 vets look like the Anzacs did back then. I always felt ANZAC Day was the real Australia Day. Today my kids are in the Navy and RAAF and I still watch the parades with pride and a heavy heart. Its sad that we have to have this day but Australia is what it is today because of the ANZACS, true mateship, a sence of community and doing the right thing. I find however the greatest pride in how the teens and young people of today view ANZAC day as the

I hired a RAV 4 from Toyota Car Hire at the Chitose airport this trip, over the three weeks we were there we traveled over 2000km and the car never missed a beat, I only lost traction once on black ice at Tomamu but regaiend traction within metres. Hiring a car in Japan is very wise we have seen so much more of the country than most Aussie visitors but just being able to drive from your accom to the lift car parks makes the holiday so much easier, remember walking up hill with ski gear is not what skiing is all about. As for the GPS, the RAV 4 has an English speaking one and it t

Looks like the front of my car, I live in the Riverina region of NSw and the Locusts are back in the day and swarms of huge moths at night, I am having to high pressure wash the front of my car every two or three days and the windscreen daily. I get a new car next week, it will be trashed on the 100 km trip home from the car yard.

Anyone ? its Genuine

Kuradake (I think) above Sounkyo has a very long season I believe.