best skier in hakuba 5 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 From another thread Originally Posted By: Mamabear Originally Posted By: iiyamadude And are there any plans at all for the lift-served area of Niseko to expand? I heard rumor just yesterday that the Gondie is being switched out for a high speed 8 person one, with redevelopment around that area to service beginners more and take some pressure of the family slope. Anyone confirm? Yes, coming due to "your hearty supports". Actually looks like there is more than one gondola coming! That moving carpet which enables easy improvement with fun sounds good too. I suppose there's not many English speakers in Niseko to help clean up translations. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Excellent. I am going to enjoy relaxed time! Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Nuts that they don't show this to a resident gaijin for the once over! Happens almost everywhere here though. You'd think that this being Niseko though!! Link to post Share on other sites
r45 4 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Unless of course all the gaijin in Niseko just ain't that bright and this is the cleaned up version Link to post Share on other sites
stemik 14 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 good to see some investment into lifts at Niseko. Terrible marketing brochure! Link to post Share on other sites
mitchpee 10 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Originally Posted By: stemik good to see some investment into lifts at Niseko. Terrible marketing brochure! Now if only they would change the Hilton Gondola and maybe allow us to ski anywhere on the mountain. I think that's asking too much . Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 It's already got one of the most liberal off-piste skiing policies of any resort in Japan Mitch! Just getting limited access to Mizuno no Sawa was a huge undertaking. Can't see some of the more extreme areas ever getting opened. That brochure is typical of Tokyu. One of the worst run companies I think I have ever come across. Useless **** the lot of them. If they are at all typical of the sort of management of ski resorts in this country I'm hardly surprised so many of them are struggling and why domestic skier numbers overall continue to decline. A whole lot of old men who can't relate to the needs and wants of their own market let alone the foreign one. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Don't they have any gaijin working there at all Go Native? Seems madness if they don't. And if they do, why don't they run things like this past them!? Link to post Share on other sites
LordSalt 0 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Have no rich gaijin companys tried to 'swoop in' and buy them out for some mad price tag? Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 No, of course not Muika. In all the years since the foreign market exploded here they still don't hire any foreigners at all. Think about that for a second and how ridiculous it is. Here they were, like most ski areas in the nation, just barely getting by with a dwindling domestic market. Then this new market (no thanks to them) starts to explode presenting an excellent opportunity of the likes they haven't seen in many years. Finally the possibility of some growth and maybe even some decent profits!! You would think you'd want to do all you could to take advantage of this market yes? Find out what this market is looking for, what are their needs and wants and what you can do to cater to them (and make money). At the very least you would think maybe you should get in a foreign consultant who has top management experience in a successful overseas resort. You would expand your ski school staff to include foreign instructors and expand your ski hire facilities to have western sizes. This would be at the very least. But no, none of this occurred. Most of the foreign investment here has been to fill the void of services and accommodation options that the foreign market would take for granted at any other ski area in the world. Tokyu had a great opportunity to provide all of these services and really cash in on the development boom. They've mostly totally failed at this though. It's a real shame in my eyes. They had such great opportunities, mostly all squandered due to their ineptitude and inability to hire consultants and managers with experience of the foreign ski market. Niseko could be so much more if only Tokyu would sell up. Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Originally Posted By: LordSalt Have no rich gaijin companys tried to 'swoop in' and buy them out for some mad price tag? Some of the gossip around here is that Tokyu are under a reasonable amount of pressure from the prefectural government not to sell. There has been a fair amount of backlash recently about foregners buying up Japanese land. They seem especially upset about Chinese investors (we all know how much love there is between China and Japan ). So there may be some political pressure not to sell up anymore of the land here to foreigners. Especially somewhat senstive land that falls within the quasi-national park which much of the resort is in. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 It does seem ridiculous. If there is one resort in Japan that you would think they would have foreign staff, that's it! Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I believe that they are finally going to expand their ski school to include foreign instructors and offer lessons in english next season. This is of course years too late and after a couple of foreign companies now dominate the lesson market and. We'll see how it turns out for them. They at least may (or should) offer cheaper rates. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Originally Posted By: Go Native I believe that they are finally going to expand their ski school to include foreign instructors and offer lessons in english next season. Are you sure it's not actually 'lessons in Engrish' that they might be offering? Link to post Share on other sites
Slippery Jim 65 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Cheaper rates? GN, you ought to know better. They'll charge a premium over the foreign-run schools. Link to post Share on other sites
tokabochi 9 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Let's new stuffs. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 But seriously it will be kind of sad when the silly English signs disappear from Japan. If ever, of course. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 On the Hirafu site the link is marked　イングリッシュ　not 英語. You couldn't make it up! Well, you could, but it wouldn't be as funny. Link to post Share on other sites
best skier in hakuba 5 Posted May 12, 2011 Author Share Posted May 12, 2011 love it Link to post Share on other sites
iiyamadude 6 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Well, at least they are doing new stuff. Is that replacing an older gondola? Link to post Share on other sites
masher of moguls 0 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Shortage of available foreigners isn't an issue there from what I gather - why don't they just show it to someone for a checkover? Link to post Share on other sites
gnarly-dude 1 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 What a silly suggestion, masher?! Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Originally Posted By: iiyamadude Well, at least they are doing new stuff. Is that replacing an older gondola? Yes. I would be interested to find out if they are re-purposing the old terminus buildings or if they are relocating the top terminus. I sure hope they train the gondie lifties to 'encourage' more than one or two people loading into a gondola at a time when there is a queue. Link to post Share on other sites
Karnidge 2 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 You'd think that wouldn't you masher. Unfortunately it just doesn't work like that often here. I used to work for a company and they would put out daft English like that --- and I WORKED THERE!! I was sat in the next office, and they didn't ask. I used to tell them how ridiculous it was, but it didn't wash.... they came up with some nonsense excuse about the English being for Japanese people who liked the Japanese style English (can you believe that?!) Link to post Share on other sites
Karnidge 2 Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 Originally Posted By: Mamabear Originally Posted By: iiyamadude Well, at least they are doing new stuff. Is that replacing an older gondola? Yes. I would be interested to find out if they are re-purposing the old terminus buildings or if they are relocating the top terminus. I sure hope they train the gondie lifties to 'encourage' more than one or two people loading into a gondola at a time when there is a queue. Gaijin are smelly, so that might be too much of an ask Mamabear. Link to post Share on other sites
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