journey_man

I'm at Niseko at the moment having a great time in what snow there is. It seems like heaps of great snow to me, but the locals assure me that it has been a very dry season so far. The plan was to move down to Nagano for February and check out the snow there - however reading some of the threads it sounds like there isn't a lot of snow. What do people think, stay in Hokkaido or visit Nagano?

Went to Rusutsu yesterday and they have checkers on most of the lifts, but the way they are set up it is impossible for them to see many of the tickets. I never got asked to confirm that I actually had a ticket in my armband holder.

Hey samurai, great info. I read your "rant" carefully and went out and waxed my boards. It was the best home done wax job I've ever had! They were rocket ships. I always wondered what wax really did. One question: If after a days riding you still have some wax on the boards, is it feasible to just redo the structure?

20 Days so far, mostly on awesome snow. Started snowing again today, yay!

Klingon, you used to be able to take sports equipment free on some airlines in addition to your "normal" allowance. This has pretty much gone. Your sports equipment must now fit within what ever limit applies to your flight. Cattle class in the east is the 20kgs for all pieces whereas the west gets two pieces at 23kg. Those with lots of airpoints or money for business class usually get a bigger allowance. Now for a real weird one - given that your sports equipment is no longer treated separately from your other baggage, why do they insist that your ski/snowboard bag only has ski/board, bo

Today reminded me of good conditions in NZ . Send more pow now! Although it is snowing lightly, fingers crossed!

Black Diamond is cool (I just spent 2 weeks there) and if you want to really save money they have a dorm room (3750). There bar is good and the restaurant is outstanding. Higashiyama is quiet, however the Black Diamond guys will run you into Hirafu and pick you up later if there are a few of you who want to go party. I'm currently in Lodge Bam Boo in Hirafu (BDL was full), it's run by Australians and is a cool place. Costs heaps more than BDL though. Warning: Hirafu is a sausage fest. We were playing "Spot the Female" today... There aren't a lot of women here.

Tomorrow sounds good...

I'm in Hirafu at the moment, maybe catch a beer or three?

I have some ideas on where to go, but looking for some suggestions too. Places to look at so far are (scuse the spelling mistakes): Tomamu Sahoro Kamui Ski Links Furuno Teine Kokusai Asahidoro Asahidake Actually not too sure about Asahidake as it sounds like it is all about BC that can be quite dangerous. And while I know a little I could definitely do with a heap more avi knowledge. It really depends on who comes along.

I'm currently in Niseko (loving it) and want to explore some of the other resorts in Hokkaido. I have access to a cheap rental 4x4 Nissan van (approx 20k a week). Is anyone interested in joining me for a snow tour of Hokkaido? Dates (and destinations) are flexible but I'm thinking of setting off in about a week.

The basic rule for baggage weight is 20kg's combined weight for all your luggage pieces in the east and south pacific while the West gets 23kg's each for two pieces (the 32kg has been reduced ). A sports equipment bag is now universally considered to be part of your allowance. I'm in an interesting situation where I'm going London - Japan - New Zealand - London via LA. If I do the cheap thing and book all the flights separately I get 20kg's to NZ and 2 x 23kgs on the way back. In the end I bought a Star Alliance Around the World ticket and because part of my journey is through North Ame

How is the snow in Hakuba (or Shiga) at the moment? Am at Niseko at the moment but wondering about visiting?

Teine and Kokusai check. Those electronic cards in Niseko offer a wonderful way of doing some cheap (free) skiing...

TBW, in Higashiyama there is a great place called the Black Diamond Lodge. It's is run by a Canadian who has a Japanese wife. Cheap rates and has an awesome restaurant as a bonus. They will organise a bus for you from Chitose, so nice and easy. Only downside is that it's kinda quiet in Higashiyama, however if a group want to go into Hirafu they will drop you off and pick you up later - up to about midnight.

Well guys I'm now in Niseko and loving it. Ok, the locals are complaining about the lack of snow, but we've had a couple of ok dumps and it's great to be back out on some decent pow! So thanks to those of you who helped me get here!

Niseko had some good pow a few days ago but it's getting hard on piste now. Back bowls still have lines but there is now a crust with heavy snow underneath. No sign of the fluff I came to Japan to find... Hopefully on Saturday night...

Any sport that involves speed eventually uses helmets. Think about it, it is simple physics. If you hit your head on something hard at 20+ kays you are going to do a lot of damage. Any sort of helmet is going to reduce the damage. The better the helmet the less the damage. A few people have said that this is personal choice, well I'm not so sure it is. It is easy to say that the only person I'm hurting is myself, but if you end up vegetative or quite impaired it is often your family that takes up the slack - you can hardly call that zero impact. I used to motor race and was rel

Niseko looks awesome! So I'm off there first. Is Tokyo Narita the closest International Airport that has flights from Europe? I see that Sapporo has International Flights but it looks like there are only flights from nearby countries. Is this accurate? Are there any good Japanese travel agents in London or is booking on the Internet the way to go? Lots of questions! Thanks in advance for any help that anyone can give...

Awesome report. I so can't wait!!!

Creek, the main reason for going to Japan is for the amazing powder. I also love the steeps, but I can see from other threads here that is harder to find. Although I'd imagine that with so much snow avalanches would be a real problem on any decently steep terrain. So I'll settle for amazing powder! I was in Fernie for the last season and it was a good season. I'd never skiied in so much powder before. However the place really scared me with the amount of avalanches they had. There were a few BC deaths and some well equiped friends has some scares. So I have a lot of respect for the proble

Fatwins you are a star! Thanks for the detailed reply, it really helps cut through the huge amount of detail that is out there for skiing in Japan. Deciding where to go in Canada was easy in comparison!

Thanks FT, anywhere in particular?

Skier!

A trip to Korea might be the go to get around the 90 day rule. I figure it will be similar to Canada where it is far cheaper to stay in one resort (or area) and get a season pass to cover those resorts. If that is the case where would be a good place to spend the season?