snowywharton
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Posts posted by snowywharton
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I had 10 days at Shiga Kogen last month. Best Ski trip I've had since Canada in the early 90s. Will post a trip report, with reviews and photos when I find a spare hour or so on my home PC (Can't do it at work).
I owe a lot to this forum. Big ups for you guys!
Cheers - Snowy
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We stayed at Shiga Kogen last month and had an absolute ball. It's a huge resort, with the majority of runs linked. Basically you can spend the whole day skiing from one side of the valley to the other without catching a bus, notwithstanding the Yokoteyama area mentioned above. We don't speak any Japanese (other than some of the niceties we picked up along the way)and we got along fine with communication. There were surprisingly more people who understood English than I expected. There is a ton of accommodation, so jsut look at some of the links on this site and do a few web searches and something will grab your attention. Some people we met raved about the Shiga Chalet (or Chalet Shiga?) in Ichinose. Said it was comfortable and cheap. We ate there and the bar and food were pretty good. We stayed at Hotel Sunroute in Ichinose and it was comfortable and well priced. The service was fantastic, but the food wasn't anything to write home about, and definitely do not hire their ski gear - I think they bought it in the 80s.
Snow conditions were amazing, runs were varied and most runs were pretty much empty during the week.
Have a great trip!
Cheers - Snowy
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The forecast came from Snow-forecast.com. This morning it had a min of -29 and a max of -25 for Monday. However, I just checked the site again and it is now saying -15 to -19 with -25 wind chill, so maybe there was a typo error in the original report. Still bloody cold!!
- Snowy
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OMG, I just checked the weather forecast for Shiga Kogen, where we'll be arriving on Sunday and it is predicted to drop to -29C on Monday. In anyone's language, that is cold! My question is, how safe is it to go skiing in those temps (with -35 wind chill), and will the lifts even be open?
Cheers - Snowy
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Thanks for the input, guys!
I hear what you're saying, Banno re bringing gear from Oz, but with 4 kids and a few nights in Tokyo, we decided against the extra luggage.
Does anyone know whether the rental counters generally accept credit cards? I'd hate to have to carry all that cash just for ski gear rental payments....
Cheers - Snow.
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Indo, if you read Mamabear's post, you will see that she forgot to get insurance and this is the only time she has done it. It's not like she consciously elected to travel without cover. Lighten up, mate.
- Snow.
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Hey folks,
I am skiing at Shiga in a couple of weeks and will need to hire skis, boots and poles. I am having trouble finding any details regarding the cost of hire (for 8 days). Does anyone out there have a ball-park figure I can work off? Also, do hire places generally accept credit card payment, or should we bring extra cash to cover the hire fees?
Cheers - Snowy.
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Originally Posted By: MantasOriginally Posted By: snowbenderI often find myself shouting angrily at cyclists who either a) cycle together, all 3 of them, taking up most of the road
?
Down here the law states that cyclists (and tanks, horse and cart, wheelchair, moonbuggy......) are entitled to take the whole lane if needed. Selfish and dangerous yes but within the law.
Actually Mantas, it's more often than not much safer to take the whole lane than to ride in the curb and hope people don't squeeze you into the gutter or cut you off when they decide to drive into a service station driveway. The more visible a cyclist is, the safer he is, and there is nothing more visible than riding directly in front of someone in their lane.
Cheers - Snowy -
I'll be staying at the Sunroute from 11 jan. My understanding is that they do have a ski hire shop, however I haven't been able to find out what the quality's like. I believe there are plenty of other hire shops in the Ichinose area, so we may have other options.
Cheers - Snowy
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Originally Posted By: MotherhuckerJapan seems pretty clean for howmany people live there however...
My friend Kenji always throws all his garbage out the window at pedestrians. One time I saw him peg this kid in the head with a half full bowl of Yakisoba!! This kid is out of control!!
OMG! And you are still friends with this tool? -
Originally Posted By: skidaisukiSnowywharton - everyone else seems to be avoiding making predictions - a superstitious lot here, worried about jinxing things - but I'll make one for you:
Shiga Kogen in January = low temps and lots of nice, powdery snow. And no apres ski....but it won't bother you because you'll be too knackered each night to care
Thanks Skidaisuki! I'll take that prediction! Apres ski doesn't worry me - with 12 in our party, we are bringing our own apres scene!
Cheers - Snow. -
This is great - love the feedback. Now I just need to know which WEEK there will be lots of snow.
Cheers - Snowy
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I like this one:
Doe, the stuff that buys me beer
Ray, the guy who brings me beer
Me, the guy who drinks the beer
Far, a long way to go for beer
So, I'll have another beer
La, la la la la la beer
Tea, no thanks I'll have a beer
...and that brings us back to (finds beer bottle empty) D'oh!
Cheers - Snow.
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Folks,
this Soubriquet character is obviously nothing but an offensive troll intent on abusing other forum users (and non-smoking bar-goers, it seems). Best to ignore this person as they have nothing informative or constructive to contribute.
Cheers - Snow.
ps - smoke ruins tastebuds and olfactory sensors. The best thing about banning smoking from pubs, is I can now finally taste and smell the beer as it was meant to be!
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Originally Posted By: MamabearIs that a new route Snow? Or has it been around for a while...
I had not heard of that one before - but being on the West Coast I am a bit out of the loop for flights from the East Coast.
Has anyone flown China Airlines before?
I'm not sure of the route, Mamabear. I just found it after a google search. Some of the safety warnings above are a worry, but I don't think they'd be in business if their planes kept dropping out of the sky. I've heard planes can be kinda expensive
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Originally Posted By: Soft LandingsRoughly $2400 to sapporo!
China Airlines have flights from Brisbane to Sapporo for around $1300 in January 09.
Cheers - Snow. -
Originally Posted By: BagOfCrispsRather early to be thinking of it.
A good place to hang around would be, er, here.
Yeah, I know....but I did say I was excited!!
Rather than specific long-range forecasts like "I see a weather system moving in somewhere around 15th-17th November.. yadda yadda" I guess I was thinking more around the general outlook for the season in relation to La Nina, global cooling cycles, snow ferret movements, grandpa's bung knee aching, etc.
C'mon, I want some straws to clutch at here!
Cheers - Steve -
Hi guys,
I know that Japan generally has some of the best snow in the world every year. But, obviously there are "good" years and "bad" years. Skiing in Australia, I've often relied on The Frog's long range forecasts to get a handle on what to expect each season. Are there similar long-range forecasters for the Japanese scene that we can check as the new season gets closer? I just booked our holiday to Shiga Kogen for January and as this is our first trip to Japan, I'm so excited I'm looking for any news on the snow front!
Cheers - Steve
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Thanks for that info, SKI! I see on the Sugiyama website that their "all day" program actually only goes for 4 hours. Is this generally considered the norm in Japanese resorts? I guess I'm used to Aussie resorts taking the kids for 6+ hrs during the day.
Cheers - Steve
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Hi guys,
I've done a search on this forum but can't seem to find the info I need. We are heading to Shiga Kogen in January and are staying around Ichinose. We will have 4 kids in tow and would like to get them into an all-day kids ski school for at least 5 days of our stay there. I have done a large search on the web and cannot find any specific information relating to availability or cost of kids ski schools at SK. Does anyone out there have any experience with this, or know of somewhere I can go to get this info?
Thanks for any help!
Cheers - Steve
Tickets - paper or electronic?
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Posted
Hoping to visit Japan next winter.
Looks like I have a lot to read up.
Got a question - resorts in Japan do they usually have paper tickets or electronic automated gates that you go through?
Friend of mine said they were mostly just paper tickets, thought it sounded a bit old fashioned for 'modern Japan' (of which I know little, don't laugh!)
Cheers
Shiga Kogen uses electronic chips.
Cheers - Snowy