snowdude 44 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Sat 16th I went to Fujimi Panorama in Nagano ken, about 20 ks from the Yamanashi border. Again sorry not many photos as I was with my daughter and her friend, and during their lesson I skied but didn't bring my camera. It's a reasonable size resort with seven courses from beginner to advanced. Except for the number 4 (754m) and number 7 (2489m) courses the others are all very short, ranging from 285 metres to 515 metres. This was my first time to come here and I felt that the courses were quite spread out, albeit most of the courses very short. The is a gondola that takes you to the very top course. The snow was a mixture of real and man made snow, which was not to bad during the day, but tended to get a bit sticky after about 3pm as the temperature rapidly dropped. It was hardpacked under a powdery layer. The intermediate slope was fun to a degree, but due to the lack of length and no real turns except for one turn at the top meant that it was a bit boring. The longer slope is much better due to the various turns and of course the length making that a much better choice if your level is high enough! Lift lines were very short with no real wait at all. All in all ok for beginners or families, but not the sort of place to spend a day by yourself, except for maybe the advanced course. Some parts of it though are not easy if you are not upper intermediate or above. The canteen was good size with a reasonable amount of seating space, but like any resort during lunch time gets quite busy, so better to get your seat and table early if you plan on sitting down to eat. They offer various standard foods, such as ramen, tonkatsu, etc. We again brought our own food so can't comment on the taste. Price wise, in line with any other ski resort, and as far as rental goes, you can rent everything you need for the day, both for skiing and snow boarding. Except for using the one long course, not sure that I would go there again? Especially the snow conditions were not excellent by any means, but of course to be expected in that area as this is not in the snow area and rather it is an area that tends to be mainly sunny. In fact it was a nice sunny day while we were there. As it is only 45 mins door to door from our house we went there to check it out and because it is good for children, but I would not recommend taking a long trip to this resort when there are manu other resorts that have much better snow conditions and courses. Comparing this to Nobeyama that I went to just before xmas, although Fujimi has one course that is longer I would choose Nobeyama over this as the snow is better and although only five courses they are longer and have many turns making this resort more fun for any level. In fact I shall be going to Nobeyama again. Ok thats it for now until my next report from another resort. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Japan's center of downhilling mountainbiking. Very close to the Chuo for you folks with cars. Link to post Share on other sites
Thundercat 60 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 Great photos. This place brings back some great memories of when I first started learning to snowboard in Japan. Good 'day trip' distance from my home. We used to go as a really big crew 12 - 15 people and take over the place with just friends... (tear coming to my eye...) Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted January 19, 2010 Share Posted January 19, 2010 No snow down in the village I see. Chees for reportingh snowdude. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Is ths the resort that's near to karuizawa? At New year when I was riding the shink to Nagano, we passed a small ski-jo that was close to Karuizawa ski-jo.....don't know what it was though Link to post Share on other sites
snowdude 44 Posted January 20, 2010 Author Share Posted January 20, 2010 No this is a totally different direction to Karuizawa, what you saw was probably the ski resort that is in SAKU, as that is not far from the Saku Shinkansen station, which you would have passed. Both Karuizawa and Saku ski resorts are close. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Another one I have never heard of. Like the nighta shot. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Same here. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Never been there, so thanks for the info and the pics. waaay too flat to snowboard was my first impression, but then on second thoughts, actually a great place to learn first time, how to get on a board! Link to post Share on other sites
Metabo Oyaji 71 Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Thanks for the pics. I've seen it from the expressway, and looked into it on the net before, though I don't get down that way much. On their site they advertise the "Snow Mob", which seems to be staff members (or maybe volunteers who get free tickets in exchange?) on the slopes who can be tapped at any time for one-point advice. Seems like an intriguing idea, in lieu of full-fledged lessons (especially with a kid who doesn't want to "waste" a solid couple of hours out of the day on lessons.) Any experience with those folks? Link to post Share on other sites
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