Slippery Jim

Surra de bunda!

Yes, stops at Myoko & the Togari train station would make a BIG diff.

Once, but a long, long time ago. Was pretty nice, as I recall.

Jackson Hole is awesome. But don't take my word for it, get there yourself (and post pix).

tasty, tho

My younger brother used to rent a room in his house to a buddy who kept two good-sized boas (or pythons, I never looked closely) in a cage maybe 4x3 feet and 5 feet tall. The wooden back of the cage (front and sides were some fine mesh wire) was lined with Playboy/Penthouse/etc centerfolds. This waa a rather strange dude, and I was glad when my brother told me he'd moved elsewhere.

Those are the famous New York sewer alligators, not crocs. They used to sell baby alligators to visiting tourists in Florida. I'm sure many of them did get flushed, or dumped down sewer gratings, and quickly became rat food.

You have to read the entrails...

I gotta say, the whole idea of pet rats just does not work for me. A rat is sort of a squirrel with no fashion sense; my family had a pet squirrel when I was a kid. The damn thing was dumb as a post, crapped any & everywhere, bit my kid sister twice and my mom once. After it bit my sis the second time, it got ``freed'' out into the back yard. A few days later we found it on the front porch, quite dead, in the same place our trusty old tomcat typically left his bluejay trophies -- I'm just saying...

Doesn't look like this shuttle stops at the Togari-Nozawa train station.

What a lovely cool day! Yeah, OK, it pissed down rain. I got soaked from the knees down. My shoes got all squishy. I DID NOT SWEAT!

You & me both, GG

Hard to resist mentioning that in 10 years she'll be able to take the shinkansen Tokyo to Niseko!

Probably about the same calculation for me. A lot will depend on JR vs airline subsidies for package tours, winter & summer. Right now, the airlines make it very cheap to fly up (I'm going to estimate about 15k round trip) on a package deal with hotel & bus. One question is whether they can afford to keep doing that. Another is if JR will compete on that level. Well, all a bit theoretical for me anyway. My serious skiing days will probably be over by the time it's up & running

That is one nasty looking little critter!

Is the extension going to be profitable? Not likely in the immediate future, but so what? It was widely argued that the original Tokyo-Osaka shinkansen would never show a profit. Same for the Panama & Suez canals. It's going to be built, and there's no knowing how the economics will work out; the point is how useful will it be for those of us who want to slide on snow. Certainly, it's not going to help people in Kansai travel to Niseko, that will always be faster to fly. Numazu, I don't know, but I'll take Black Mt's word that it would be about the same in time and would cost

Also, any weather severe enough to shut down a shinkansen line would very probably also shut down Chitose airport. Of course, JR may never provide the kind of subsidies that make package trips to ski in Hokkaido so inexpensive, and you might wind up paying a premium over flying. But it'll be good to have the choice.

Not to dispute that Japan makes domestic flights pretty easy, it certainly does, but I think there will be plenty of people who'd opt for shinkansen to Niseko. I live pretty equal travel time to Haneda or Tokyo, and for the sake of argument let's say transfer/check-in time is about the same for 7 a.m. departure. Shinkansen: arrive Kutchan 10:45, taxi to Hirafu, lodging at 11 Plane: arrive Chitose 8:30, wait required hour for bus at 9:30, 2.5 hours to Hirafu parking lot at noon. Of course taking the train would mean missing that $1 million toilet with the player grand piano,

You'd be much better off waiting until January. It's certainly possible to get decent coverage in early December, but the smart money doesn't bet that way. Maybe Asahidake or Kurodake in Hokkaido, more likely the WROD at Naeba or Marunuma. Wait til January.

As they say at Irish wakes: Just prop him up in the corner and keep the party going!

Bump to appeal for votes

With SJ's kind permission: Here's URL where folks can vote in support of a grant request for funding of back country education, avy awareness, some equipment contributions, etc. The lady seeking the grant lost her son in an avalanche a few years back, and it seems (to me) worth support from the snow community. You must register to vote, but it requires only an e-mail address, and you can vote once a day. http://www.refresheverything.com/basebackcountryavalanchesafetyeducation Yoroshiku

Danger zones: http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/find_regions.cfm An Aussie colleague told me the broken pavement is causing problems for the streetwalkers after the quake:

Brooklyn

Volunteer to man the desk during CNY and come in a different week There are some pensions at Rusutsu. I haven't stayed at any of them, but they look fine from outside.