Recent events and the way forward...

[LordSalt 0]

They mentioned that on the news last night -- no, can't really store it.

[CptSlow 0]

People will come again, how could they not, Japan is such an amazing place everyone should visit, i'll be back one day for sure

[fukdane 2]

Originally Posted By: CptSlow

People will come again, how could they not

Totally no idea.
Just bizarre isn't it.
You'd think some scary event or something had happened in Japan.

[window-cleaner 0]

Nah, nothing much has appended fukdane.

[ippy 66]

so which resorts are on the cusp? Im not asking in an obnoxious way, but rather in a lets giving help to those resorts with our custom! type way.

 

I assume the bigger resorts will weather the storm for a few years fine, but im thinking about those medium sized resorts... but then they probably dont rely on tourist dollars so much... hmmm, this is trickier than i thought. Truth is this year if i was hitting japan was going to be the year of tohoku. And if anywhere probably needs people marching in its tohoku, so lets spend the rest of the year hyping it

[OzOzOz 2]

Been out of Japan for some time now and was shocked to hear all of this. Still am, I have plenty of friends in some of those coastal towns on that east coast that were wiped away. One who is missing presumed dead.

[nagoid 4]

'On the cusp' of what?

[pickled mushhead 0]

Sorry to hear about your friend OzOzOz.

[muikabochi 208]

I don't think many resorts were caught up in bad way re: damage, my guess is that it will just be being "in Tohoku / Fukushima" that will be a heavy load to shake off.

[big-will 7]

No-one knows what the situation will be next season, it's too early. I doubt many people on the east coast are really concentrating on next ski season just yet and I doubt that many other people in other areas of Japan are either. There are more important things to see to.

 

Perhaps one reason that not many Mr Averages know more than a few resorts in Tohoku is because there aren't really that many major resorts there. Lots of little ones yes but not that many biggies. Check out all the Zao stuff and Metabo Oyaji's posts, he has posted some trip reports from places over there.

 

I would guess that not many people could give you much of a more elaborate answer than Hakuba, Nozawa, Shiga Kogen and Yuzawa if you asked them about Honshu either. Or anything much more than Niseko, Furano if you asked them about Hokkaido.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

I agree. Most people for Nagano will only know Hakuba, Nozzle and Shiga Kogen. But there are over 100. For Niigata, people will know Yuzawa and Myoko and perhaps the names of a few within those areas. There's how many, 65?

 

There aren't many "major" resorts in the Tohoku region.... Zao, Alts, Hunter, Appi Kogen.... many more? But there's probably getting on for 100 or so in the region as a whole.

 

Them being so far apart from each other also does not help. Nagano and Niigata are so convenient because of the concentration of skijo in relatively small areas.

[Saitaman 1]

Originally Posted By: SJ-David

Four weeks have now passed since the terrible events of March 11th in north east Tohoku.

A few of us involved with running this site have experienced a fairly traumatic experience ourselves with the Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture back in 2004, so we know all too well the effects that a big earthquake and constant aftershocks can have... not just physically but also on the mind as well. It's a very stressful experience.

Of course the events of March 11th were on a different scale altogther and we truly feel for the people affected by them and send out our very best wishes. The way in which Japan and it's people have coped with the difficulties they face is truly inspirational and makes me proud to live here and be part of this society.

This is not to take away from the severity of the current situation, but there has also been a lot of nonsense and sensational headlines dished out by some media covering recent events. I find some of it very distasteful and at times extremely annoying. I personally know of a few people who have actually gone back to their countries - probably temporarily - not because they were scared of staying here but more to reassure their families that all was OK. Unfortunately the familes back home were being fed some at times pretty outrageous headlines and articles written by people who almost seem to revel in writing scary stories and stretching truths.

How this will all affect next seasons winter scene of course remains to be seen. With the current ongoing situation over in Fukushima, I can certainly see why some people might be pausing their plans for Japan right at this moment. But I hope that once that has calmed down, people will look at the situation calmly and with some perspective, ignoring some of the garbage and consuming correct and proper information.

The northern island of Hokkaido has been and remains pretty much unaffected by all of the recent events. Many places to the north-west of Tokyo region of Honshu and in more southerly regions also remained mostly unaffected. Most ski resorts that are not in the immediate area of north east Tohoku did not see any structural damage. There were power cuts immediately after, but by and large there hasn't been large scale damage in the mountains. Many resorts did indeed close before usual, but the main reason for that was an effort to save electricity.

Many ski resorts are now closed for the season (and would be in any year in April) but quite a few of the usual spring ski venues remain open.... take a look at our Now daily reports to see some of those still open. Zao plans to re-open. Nozawa has even extended it's season. Just a few of the positive stories of places getting on with things. There is also a lot of snow this year and so some great spring conditions out there for those wanting to get out there and enjoy the slopes.

I just wanted to say that if you are not affected by the events and are still interested, I totally encourage you to get out and have a slide down a mountain while you can in these last few weeks of the season. I'm off out there tomorrow. Some people have suggested that they would feel guilty about enjoying themselves. But as well as having fun, you would also be helping support the ski resorts and local towns economies many of which are experiencing very quiet conditions since mid-March. It's very sad to hear of stories of more and more people and businesses being affected indirectly by their customers not getting out and spending. That doesn't just apply to skiing and snowboarding of course. The economy really needs the rest of us all to get on with life as normal, while doing what we can to save electricity of course.

-----

We started work on our 2011/2012 site updates before all this happened. We have some exciting plans - things are going well and plans have been unaffected.... you should be seeing those new things come autumn.

We are also thinking about the ways in which we can try to clearly get across the correct message to our readers over the coming months and in the run up to next season. I really think that it is going to be very important that the right information gets out there and we will be trying to do all that we can in our position to help support Japan and our friends associated with winter sports here. If anyone has any ideas, we'd be happy to hear them.

OK, so, sorry for the ramble and thanks for reading!

Bit late, but good message.

[SnowJapan 178]

I just wanted to mention that I have edited out the 'argument' section of this thread, as all it was doing was very much detracting from the message and also probably annoying everyone reading it!

[SnowJapan 178]

If you live in a snow resort area, you can help out.

More info here:

 

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/409853/Tohoku_earthquake_tsunami_info.html

 

Thanks