Hotaka Scott

Originally Posted By: tripler How they going to know who's stoned? Lifties do a red eye check? The lifties?

Interesting .... but unfortunatley not so suprising. There was an article along similiar lines in this years issue of Soul Slide, which contrasted the teaching styles of ski instructors in the US vs Japan. The magazine is mostly in Japanese, but this paricular article was tranlated into a 2 page English article as well. Found it a good read.

Whacha using for a helmet cam?

Nikwax makes some pretty good stuff. I've used it a couple of times and it's pretty easy to find in Japan. If you're dealing with down though, be careful. The down gets quite heavy when wet and can end up ripping the stitching in some cases. Also do as your ski shop guy recommends and toss in a few tennis balls when drying the down - it'll help break up the "clumping". A few socks knotted up also works too.

Originally Posted By: Campa happo that was my 1st choice! and mice pies?? wtf. It's "mince" pies, not "mice" pies - a British thing I believe. Not really sure what they are myself. And x2 for Happo, or Tsugaike as well.

good way to spend Christmas! thanks for sharing. Also wondering what the mts were in the 7th picture?

Originally Posted By: thursday Originally Posted By: Hotaka Scott Trailer... Tried to order that. THey won't ship to HK. Shame, I was willing to part $25 for it. Wonder why they don't ship to HK? You should be able to grab a copy next time you're over this way. Also, Backcounty Magazine is (was?) running a deal where you got the DVD if you signed up for a 2 year subscription.

As Creek Boy said you can get ski goggles with a prescription built in, but before doing that perhaps try out a different pair of goggles with the contacts. I've got pretty dry eyes too, but have never had any problems with skiing with contacts and goggles, so I'm thinking the goggles you're using could be the problem. Using the swimming goggles could be an option too but I think you'd get ridiculed for that unless it was a really deep powder day and had a snorkel to go with the goggles; in that case most people would think you were really core.

Originally Posted By: Creek Boy best night skiing Ive ever had - Niseko, Japan That was sweet. Those freeskier podcasts are golden.

^^^ In a perfect world the pow would last forever under ideal weather conditions and no one skiing it. But as you pointed out tripler, a crust would develop over time. This however is usually caused by wind (not ideal weather) and/or sun. There's nothing better than skiing on a bluebird day but unfortunatly the sun that accompanies these days usually causes some melting of the top of the pow and when temps dip lower in the evening it freezes up and creates a thin crust. But if it's sunny and extremely cold, the suns powers lose out to the coldness and the pow will remain as pow.

Originally Posted By: Korbzy Some people are so stupid. Ok whats with this, when its a nice clear day some idiot spams blizzards.but when its snowing(check webcams) snow has come down and they dont vote anything, Hakuba 47 had no snow at all yesterday now look at it! Either they were trying to use reverse psychology or just dumb Skiing is about 2 things Korbzy - powder and the beers after a day of skiing. Maybe 3 if you count chick-pulling factor but there's other variables involved in that, so we'll stick to the pow for now. The length of time pow lasts will depend on 2 thin

^^^ Made it up there for 3 days last week. The snow wasn't the greatest but the weather made up for it.

Originally Posted By: MikePow Originally Posted By: Creek Boy Originally Posted By: MikePow No idea. It's reduced from US$49 (but everything is reduced in the US at the moment). Always been happy with Dakine stuff. See no reason why this won't be good. Will let you know. you skiing this winter MP? Yep. But not in Japan. 1 day under my belt so far in the Powder Paradise of Wales. TR to follow shortly Sorry to hear you won't be here this season Mike Pow - will certainly miss your pics.

Keep 'em coming Black Diamond, keep 'em coming

Some quality pics here. I think I may have just voted for 5 of Mike Pow's shots.

That is an awesome shot. You have set the bar quite high early in the season Black Diamond. Hope to see more. Black Diamomd of Black Diamond Lodge??

Looking good there Mr Wiggles. Definately enough for a few turns, but you have to watch out for those rocks just below the surface - they've been known to end a season before it even begins.

Bump cause it getting close to that time. Their web cams are showing a little more snow but still a bit dodgy.

Good luck with that part of the trip. I'd be curious to see how it turns out - few pics and a follow up report perhaps?

How about a splitboard and skins? I know knothing about BC boarding but this always struck me as the lighter way to go. Bit costly though. And as Black Diamond said - beacon, probe, and shovel.

Might be "old" stoke but still lookin' good And, yeah, what's up with this warm weather?

^^^ Got in a few turns but it wasn't pretty - rocky and windpacked. But it was good just to be on snow again. SKI - re Tateyama in the other thread, I may try getting up before the 3 day weekend if the weather looks good. You still thinking of heading up too?

Can't help you much with woodworking in Hokkaido, but there's a Japanese woodworking forum I lurk on where you may get some help http://www.japanesetools.com/phpBB3/index.php . Also, if you're in Kobe there's a great museum of old Japanese woodworking tools and techniques. It's the Takenaka Carpentry Museum ( Takenaka Daiku Doku Kan ). There's a few books out there in English as well. "Japanese Woodworking Tools" by Toshio Odate and "The Complete Japanese Joinery" published by Hartley and Marks. Some of the joinery techniques are amazing . Glad to see another woodworking/t

Originally Posted By: grungy-gonads So, Scott-san ---- season over? Yeah, we just finished actually. How'd you know? Finished boarding up the windows and shutting things down 2 days ago. Ended off the season with over 40 tons of water left.

Great pics jishipi! This one has "photo of the year" contender potential...