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Great pics and updates - THANKS for posting these MikePow!

Originally Posted By: Greenroome I think that Japan has some of the lowest prices for quality local and imported spirits in the world. Especially in the convenience stores. You'd be spewing if you lugged pricier duty-free spirits all the way here. Originally Posted By: snowhuntress Agree GR we bought Duty Free and were devoed when it was much cheaper at the local supermarket than our so called Duty Free. That's great info, thanks. This appear to be the go, from what I hear too - others agree as well? For our upcoming trip to Niseko & back I might just look at duty

Re: a Rough guage of Yen expenses per day in a place like Niseko.. I was hoping to get away with around AUD$90 a day. But with the AUD-JPY exchange rates trends over the past 12 months that may have been realistic during Feb 2008 (when AUD$1 = JPY90), but now a year later when AUD$1 less than JPY60 this is looking difficult. I'll probably have to snag around JPY70,000 in cash for our 12 days (equates to around JPY5800 per day), which costs around AUD$1250 to buy at the moment. Even then I think I might be pushing it sometimes if we really hook into the booze a bit.

From another forum: "The rate is just under 59 yen/AUD today. If you change it at a bank in Sydney, you might get around 57 yen/AUD. If you change at Sydney airport you might get 55-56. If you change at an Airport in Japan, you might get 50-51. If you change at a bank in Japan, you'd be lucky to get 45 yen/AUD!!!!!"

The National Australia Bank (NAB) charge AUD$15 to transfer some hard JPY to a local (Newcastle NSW) branch (to be exchanged from AUD), and you have to order it in person at said branch and expect 3-5 working days likely ETA. Australia Post advise over the phone that there is no fees or charges to exchange JPY from AUD and that it can be arranged from any post office, with a likely ETA of 2-3 working days. So I am going to call into my local (quite small) P.O. this arvo and suss that out. I have heard that currency exchange at both Sydney and Japan (Tokyo/Chitose etc.) airports is

Oh, and re: AUD to JPY exchange rates over the past year, I have logged this: --- Exchange Rates from xe.com/ucc/ AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 93.98 (Yen) @ 28/01/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 96.98 (Yen) @ 04/02/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 99.04 (Yen) @ 24/02/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 91.20 (Yen) @ 29/03/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 70.72 (Yen) @ 09/10/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 65.20 (Yen) @ 11/10/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 66.83 (Yen) @ 16/10/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 67.57 (Yen) @ 22/10/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 65.12 (Yen) @ 02/11/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 66.02 (Yen) @ 09/11/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 65.23 (Yen) @ 14/11/08 AUD$ 1.00

Yea, lookin at exchanging AUD into JPY here before we fly out in around 4 weeks too. For Aussies: I have heard that the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) in Martin place Sydney, is one of the best place to exchange currency – if you have a CBA bank account and that location is handy for you of course. I have also seen this posted in another forum: "Mate, go the post office. They seem to give the best rate compared to the banks, no commission and only a business day or two for delivery. Easy, available and my research showed the best rate (for regional area!)." And thanks to so

Originally Posted By: Mamabear The photo ID thing is IN in Perth now too Gareth in case you havent dicovered it. A couple of old boilers from hubbys company went out clubbing ....and they had to go home and get thier ID! Ouch. That just sounds illy. Originally Posted By: Mamabear (and they were 14 and 15 last year)....however the elder boy got told by a bus driver when he presented his high school student pass that he looked 40!! Double Ouch! Poor bugger

Some good info in this thread, thanks all! Re: Jacket - I think I'm just gonna wear my Gore-Tex shell jacket over my fleece jumper when going out and walking around off the mountain etc. And a little off-topic.. Re: footwear (11 day trip to Niseko, 1st time going there, not going anywhere else in Japan apart from Airports) - what about Sorels (as the only footwear apart from ski boots).. thoughts? Having already paid for all acomm, transfers, flights, all mountain Niseko ski pass, would you think budgetting for around AUD$100 per day should be plenty? Prolly gonna eat out &

4 Mates & I fly from Syd to Sapporo Thur 19 Feb. 11 Nights in Niseko. Mon 2 Mar we head home to Australia. Lookin' forward to it!

Went & saw Public Enemy @ Newcastle Panthers Club, Sat 03Jan09, was fantastic! Doors opened around 8pm, show started 8:30pm. Watched a bit of each of the supporting acts – “Beats Working†Aussie Hip-Hoppers were pretty good actually, and another crew with both a female & male rapper (+ male DJ) were also quite good (finishing up with quite a cool mix based on that song with the line: “I still call Australia homeâ€). Whilst the other lead-up act “The Tongue†were pretty ordinary for mine. PE didn’t actually hit the stage until 11:15pm – much later than I t

Originally Posted By: MikePow Ben That is simply outstanding colour co-ordination, except the top of his board needs to be supah-bright flouro, and he needs a bright thick fuzzy orange flouro headband with big badger tail attached.

Originally Posted By: SG in the real rugby that was on at the weekend, The Welsh stared down the All Blacks haka and then refused to move afterwards, they all just stood there staring, so the AB's didnt move either - a stare down, it was awesome. The ref had to plead with them to get the game started! Wow that's awesome!

Oh, and /ontopic The Maori / AllBlacks Haka is legendary, and a fantastic part of Rugby (union and league - though I personally will always consider the All Blacks Rugby Haka as the most intense.) It, along with all other countries' "war/tribal dances" at the start of footy matches should never fade away and always be embraced by all involved. Each team, therefore, has the right to prepare in thier own way (within reason - dropping the dack and mooning your opponents, for example, might be pushing the spirit of it all) during that time. BUT, I beleive they should all genera

Great to see one of the few "World Cups" of teams competing in a REAL contact sport. Oh, and check out this footage of some amazing interpretations of the respective teams' traditional War cries.. The Aboriginal War Cry vs the Maori Haka just prior to the start of the game of Australian Indigenous XIII vs New Zealand Maori XIII in an entertaining curtain-raiser match of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup at the Sydney Football Stadium last Sunday 26 October: Btw: Result: Australian Indigenous Team 34 (Rhys Wesser 2, Rod Jensen 2, Jason Carney, Yileen Gordon tries; Ja

THe last 5 random/shuffle audio files of mine just now: 1) Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen - Paul Robeson 2) Holy Diver (Live - Dio Cover) - Killswitch Engage 3) How I Could Just Kill A Man - Rage Against The Machine 4) Ride On - AC/DC 5) Desperate Cry - Sepultura

Black Osama's victory song. (They considered Bodycount's "KKK Bitch" but decided against it) ---

Great to see one of the few "World Cups" of teams competing in a REAL contact sport. Oh, and check out this footage of some amazing interpretations of the respective teams' traditional War cries.. The Aboriginal War Cry vs the Maori Haka just prior to the start of the game of Australian Indigenous XIII vs New Zealand Maori XIII in an entertaining curtain-raiser match of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup at the Sydney Football Stadium last Sunday 26 October: Result: Australian Indigenous Team 34 (Rhys Wesser 2, Rod Jensen 2, Jason Carney, Yileen Gordon tries; Jamie Sow

LFC Double Knockout - Nice.. Japanese Train Station - Now that is efficient use of public transport.. 100% Accurate marksman - Well done..

Toy Fail: Not quite the best result for the marketers/creaters of this ad - http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=1o-obIuin7E Dolphin Bubble Rings, cool: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd67QwVbMxU You think you have seen a filthy house? Check out this disgusting place (and some of the discussion in the forum it's at.. geez): http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=486938 The filthy rooms pics alone: http://www.houston-imports.com/dirty/dirty.html Now the filthy ciggas alone are enough to make me shudder, but that bathroom is SOMETHING ELSE a

Originally Posted By: panhead_pete My lack of attendnace will be resolved in 3 months and 3 days, not that Im counting....... Yea, My lack of attendance to date will be resolved in just under 4 months - To Niseko for 11 nights, here's to lots of nice light powder snow during that time! Very much looking forward to it, trying to get a little fitter, save money, and learn some basic japanese language words/phrases.

In australia, thru a travel company in Sydney, We paid about half our total cost in Late June, and the other half during September. For a 12-day trip to Niseko incl. flights, transfers, accom, 9of10day Niseko lift pass; and there was/has been no changes to the original quoted price. Exchange rates I have logged this year: AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 93.98 (Yen) @ 28/01/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 96.98 (Yen) @ 04/02/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 99.04 (Yen) @ 24/02/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 91.20 (Yen) @ 29/03/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 70.72 (Yen) @ 09/10/08 AUD$ 1.00 = JPY$ 65.20 (Yen) @ 11/10/08

Rich or html. Please. Replied/forwarded emails from an outlook installation that uses plain text removes the formatting down to the real basic "courier new" or some such ugly font, and actually makes some of it harder to read.