JA2340 16 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 OK, I know that we were there in diofferent seasons and that may not be a valid comparison. However, I will attempt to discount the seasonal differences and concentrate on the resort rather than the snow. 1. Nozawa (season 2008/9) We spent 10 days on snow, stayed at a very handy (to lifts) place. Access to lifts is good, the first lift at 8.30 is a link to the main (long) gondola which starts taking punters art 8.40. The resort seems to be in two parts. Lots of quite flat bits (well very small slope factors) which require either a damn good run up or a lot of pushing. The lift exits and interfaces, between exit of one and load of the next logical lift to get where you want, are poorly thought out. eg to get to Yamabiko, you have a ride in the gondola, then instead of a quick traverse to the first lift to the Yamabiko area you have to either push across to that lift, or catch another (link) lift to get to the start of the first lift to Yamabiko. I do not have the lift names in front of me, so someone else could probably make this clearer with lift names. The resort also has a lot of quite steep bits. there is very little in the middle. Even the "red" runs (which equate to blue in Oz) vary in difficulty from quite easy to almost black. When there is fresh snow, the place rocks! Groomers leave a wide margin beside the groomed areas for "fresh snow" runs. Some of the paddy field runs are great fun at the end of the day. But, they need a greater gradient to be "great" runs! 2. Furano (one year ago). We found the runs OK, once you went over them, they were quite predictable from day to day! They tended to groom to within inches of the ropes (and frowned very severely about poaching under ropes). More later - battery running down Link to post Share on other sites
cheeseman 1 Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 Interesting, JA. How were each resort re: Cheese? Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 2. Furano (one year ago). We found the runs OK, once you went over them, they were quite predictable from day to day! They tended to groom to within inches of the ropes (and frowned very severely about poaching under ropes). No tree runs available (legally) and minimal "fresh snow" runs as well. No real "vertical" steeps but also not much in the "push or stop" range either. Furano zone gets a bit busy on weekends, as does the Kitamine zone. There are some nice runs, easy, cruisy and reasonably fast. The link between Kitanomine and Furano is a bit choppy at day's end. Finally, Which would I prefer? I'd rather ski the steeper bits of Nozawa, but would prefer not to have the pushes between steeps. I enjoyed Furano but would likely not go back, as there was no challenge after a week. OTOH, I'd go to Kamui a couple of times if it were easily accessible. Might work out a bit of a touring trip next year instead of a single resort. Only difficulty with that is the stowing (or storing) of gear. Will have to work that out. OK, there's my 2 cents. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Didn't go looking for cheese! Much more interested in the snow and skiing! However, cullinary stuff was important! Furano has a lot of choice in the town area, I don't think we had a bad experience in the food line there. Nozawa has a lot of "mum & dad" type 'restaurants'. The quality is VERY variable! A good okonomiyaki place scored 3 visits while we were there. Another place, a sushi restaurant, wasn't open twice when we wanted to go, It had brilliant food but was very haphazard with opening times. The place we went to on the last evening was a total disappointment. 8 deep fried shrimp, shell and all, does NOT equal "deep fried river fish" as the menu suggested. And to pay 800Y for that was way OTT. We were bitterly disapointed at this meal, cost over 5000Y and we went away still very hungry. Went home and got stuck into the rum & coke, malibu and anything else we had in the place. Sorrow drowning 101! Link to post Share on other sites
snowbender 3 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 No worries JA. Interesting to read, thanks for sharing. Link to post Share on other sites
Greenroome 0 Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 Yeah, thanks JA. I'm going to both for a week each so your info is much appreciated. Any chance of a name or directions for the okonomiyaki joint or the sushi joint in N.O.? I've cut my time in Furano back to six days, purely because of their off-piste policy. Planning on doing lots of groomer carving and Kamui trips. And some ice-hole fishing! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 You'll have a ball at Kamui. Get amongst the trees under the gondola, plenty of pow and great fun. A much more relaxed policy wrt "bounds" - anything inside the ski area is fair game! "see it - ski it!" Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Greeneroome, The okonomiyaki place is across the road and West a bit from Villa Nozawa. If you get an English trail map with the town map on the back, it will be in the square K7 just to the left ot the second intersection above the main road (from the Convenience Store "Big Mouth" in L8). The Sushi place is on the uphill side of the main "OYU Street" on the Western end. It is up a side path but the menu and sign are on the main street. On piste, we found the "Green House" to have decent coffee and a rather good menu. Enjoy yourself, and I sincerely hope the snow is as good as it could possibly be. Link to post Share on other sites
Greenroome 0 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Thanks JA. You're a champ. Much appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Have you been to Niseko too JA? Link to post Share on other sites
DJElo 0 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 thx for the food tipp,will be there in end of feb n def. gonna try tha okonomiyaki place Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Originally Posted By: JA Only difficulty with that is the stowing (or storing) of gear. Will have to work that out. What do you mean by stowing? One of the things I love about traveling in Japan is a delivery system they have called 'takyubin'. It's great when you don't want to hump all your gear around. For example, you can send board bag jam packed with all your stuff for 2000 Y to almost anywhere in Japan. Last time I sent my stuff from Hokkaido (Niseko) to Hakuba for 2000Y and it arrived within 1 day. You can also specify the delivery date so you can send it from Hokkaido take a few days off for sight-seeing and then have all your gear arrive just in time for your next day on the mountain. All for 2000Y! Most of the companies even have English websites... Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Forgot to mention that it's door to door delivery so you just call them up and have them meet you at your hotel... very very convenient! If anyone wants to know more about this I can post some links when I havfe more time. Link to post Share on other sites
dyna8800 3 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Just a quick note, legal poaching (although guess it ain't called poaching if it's legal) is much better on the Kitanomine side. On the Furano side, there are ropes EVERYWHERE along with signs stating that out of bounds is considered backcountry and not to be entered, rescue cost at own expense, etc. On the Kitanomine side, there were plenty of poles but there were no ropes alongside the ski runs, only nets and ropes at strategic locations where you would not want to enter and fall into a creek bed, etc. The best powder to be found was on the Challenge course, which had untracked powder in the trees as well as many spots along the run. We were getting knee to thigh high powder and I got a couple of face shots on some steeper drop offs. There was plenty of poaching being done with rope duckers going in the trees underneath the Downhill No. 3 lift, between the Panorama and Technical runs. That being said, there was virtually no patrol that was seen, unlike in Niseko... To compare, in Nozawa, the Grand Prix run off Skyline was much better for steps, and some pockets in there held windbuff pretty well. Compare to Zao. P.S. Cheeseman, the best cheese to be had was in Shizukuishi, from Koiwa farms. If you find someplace with decent raclette, please be sure to let me know! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 Originally Posted By: Black Mountain Originally Posted By: JA Only difficulty with that is the stowing (or storing) of gear. Will have to work that out. What do you mean by stowing? One of the things I love about traveling in Japan is a delivery system they have called 'takyubin'. It's great when you don't want to hump all your gear around. For example, you can send board bag jam packed with all your stuff for 2000 Y to almost anywhere in Japan. Last time I sent my stuff from Hokkaido (Niseko) to Hakuba for 2000Y and it arrived within 1 day. You can also specify the delivery date so you can send it from Hokkaido take a few days off for sight-seeing and then have all your gear arrive just in time for your next day on the mountain. All for 2000Y! Most of the companies even have English websites... If you've read any of mu posts, you'll know that I am a great fan of Takkyubin. I used it this time for the trip in, a week "touristing" then to snow and the gear was there before us. However, If I do a touring trip, ie not staying in one place but skiing different resorts each day, I would find the whole gear and clothing transport thing to be a pain. Not keen on driving, so might have to find a central(ish) place to stay and travel to skiing on bus/train etc. That is just a little too miuch like Jindabyne for my taste, but that's just me! As I said, I'll have to work that out! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 Originally Posted By: pie-eater Have you been to Niseko too JA? Yep, did a week there Dec05/Jan06 (fabulous snow that year!) and again Jan 07. Why for you ask? Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 Trust me, you'll not be disappointed! try the shrimp okonomiyaki, or the fried octopus legs. Yuuuummmmm o!! Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Just wondering.... how was Furano vs Niseko? Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 As I recall (hell, it is over 2 years ago! and Alzheimer's is rushing upi to claim me) the slopes were good. Reason for not returning for a 3rd trip was manily to do with the high (and growing) number of Aussies. If I'd wanted to ski with Aussies, I'd go to Thredbo or Perisher! We were very happy with the skiing (the run across to Higashiyama was a bit of a puhs the first time, but you got used to letting the skis run so you didn't have to push too much. Some nice steep runs and a lot of intermediate, which was good since I had skiied a total of 12 weeks in my life (in 9 years) at that time. I know some here say that Niseko is Flat, but I have never been into 60degree slopes! Link to post Share on other sites
frannyo 2 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 I think if I was coming from overseas I'd make sure to go somewhere different each time, no matter how good the first place was. Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 Partly, that's why we went diffferent. The other part of the reason was that we wanted to get away from the aussie invasion of Niseko. Link to post Share on other sites
klingon 10 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Were there many in Nozawa? Remember reading in another thread there were... Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 Actually, there were quite a few. I was surprised, but apparently Deep Powder Tours started running into there this season. We ran into one of their people at our last supper in the place. Still when you consider the size of the place, it wasn't overcrowded with Aussies. Link to post Share on other sites
iiyamadude 6 Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Hardly the only people "running into there"...... Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted February 3, 2009 Author Share Posted February 3, 2009 Possibly true, but they have a good operation (they were the people we started with waay back in 05/6!!). Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts