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Interesting plan ESR.

I'm curious about this buying and selling a car.

I presume of course you know it's not as easy as going and buying something off the shelf of a shop?

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Yeah, I'm interested in how the car thing will go as well. In my experience a used car only has value if you can sell it to another foreigner. Trying to sell a car back to a dealer means you'll get next to nothing or have to actually pay to have them take it from you.

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From what I remember, you need a "Shako Shomei" meaning, proof that you have a parking space, which means you either own/rent a house or an apartment with parking space within, or you pay rent for a parking place. Unless you have that, your car cannot be registered meaning you can´t take up insurance cover.

Exception is: you buy a Kei. (light vehicle)

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Totally forgot about the shakoshomei... we even had a guy from city hall come to our house to measure the parking space... he was pretty surprised because we can actually fit 8 cars in our driveway!

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To kill the buying the car plan you can not do it without a gaijin card as a start. Depending on where you live you also need a parking shomesho and a licence. Your best bet is to find some long term rental option or hope someone that has legal residence in Japan buys a car for you. If you like the 3 valleys then an option could be nagano city. Nightlife and Nozawa Shiga Hakuba and Myoko are all within 1 hour.

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You've got to make your own fun in Nagano city as in most bars you can't find two ojisan's to rub together. If you've got a good crew you'll have fun but it wouldn't pass muster compared to apres ski in a european city.

 

There is probably better nightlife in Hakuba than nagano city itself but as i lived north of the city i didnt really go out that way too much.

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re the car issue - I'm with the majority above - I can't see how a non-resident can register a car.

 

There are a few long term car rental places around. They usually cater to residents and offer 1 year rentals. The going rate was Y30,000-Y40,000 per month. It would be an uphill battle to get one of these guys to rent a car to you as a tourist.

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I think I would prefer to actually be based in a resort area.

 

But definitely interested in this car issue and if ESR realises the practicalities and hassles involved in getting and then getting rid of.

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Are there any places in Myoko that cater to long term guests?

 

Some English details about buying a car.

Buying

You have two choices when purchasing a car. Either purchase from a dealer (new or used cars) or from another person. The benefit to purchasing from a dealer is that the dealer will do a large amount of the paperwork. Also, there is some assurance of quality. The benefit to purchasing from another person is that the price is likely to be a lot cheaper. If you want to buy from another person, but do not want to do the paperwork, you can hire a dealer or pay someone at the Land Transport Office to do it for you.

The two basic things you have to do when you a buy a car are:

 

Register the vehicle and transfer ownership

Verify a parking space

 

These two steps involve a great deal of paperwork and complicated Japanese forms. Taking a Japanese-speaker with you is practically a necessity if you cannot read or speak Japanese. If you do not use a dealer, you will need the below (you may not need everything for a Yellow-Plate, but you will need most of it):

Documents you need to buy a car:

 

Alien Registration Card (gaikokujin torokushomeisho) or Alien Registration Completion Certificate if your card has not been issued yet.

Personal Seal (inkan or hanko)

Personal Seal Certificate (inkan shomeisho) from your local public office.

Parking Space Certificate (shako shomeisho) from the police station in the municipality where you applied for alien registration. (This may not be needed in a rural area. See below on how to get one.)

Valid Driver's License (unten menkyo)

 

Documents you need to transfer a car:

All of the above as well as:

 

Deed of Transfer (joto shomeisho)

Personal Seal Certificate (inkan shomeisho) of the previous owner

Alien Registration Card (or juminhyo if they are Japanese) of the previous owner.

Letter of Attorney (inin-jyo) stamped by previous owner if possible

Compulsory Insurance Certificate (jibaiseki hoken-sho) from the previous owner (or, if you are getting it for the first time, you can only do so once the shaken is in your name, so do shaken first.)

Shaken Inspection Certificate (shaken-sho) from the previous owner

Proof of Payment of Automobile Tax (jidoushazei noufu shoumeisho) from previous owner (may not be needed)

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Good wrie up rider69.

I don´t have a Japanese passport anymore, so that helps wink

 

Don´t forget that the parking space that you rent has to be within certain distance from your residential address. Off top of my head, something like 400m ... like you said, depends on the area.

Parking space is expensive in Tokyo, too.

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The above car write up was not written by me just a copy and paste.

 

I’ve been thinking about this, where to set up your base thread. I haven’t met many bad European skiers in Japan, so I gave this some thought. Euros just don’t come to learn skiing in Japan it doesn’t make sense. Most Europeans doing a few months of skiing are generally pretty good. Most come with gear and an ABS backpack these days as well.

 

I personally like Myoko. It has great trees and can get bucket loads of snow. It tends to come in a gaint wave and can just continue on for a week. Not as much as Arai(closed) or Charmont (still open) get, but still Myoko can become almost unskiable at times with 1.5 meters of unsettled snow. I find the backcountry limiting (due to length of the tour) around the area but good. sking the cater is pretty fun and if you are a keener you can tour all the way to Nagano prefecture (Hard to due in mid winter). If you are looking for the classic Japanese tree skiing and pillows it is a good place with some steep bits.

 

Nozawa

 

By far my favorite resort to ski at. Great trees but most off piste is quite steep with lots of cliffs and slides through the trees. The legal trees are pretty flat IMO. There are many options but, certain lifts have to run and certain courses have to be open. Also a fine policy was put in place last year. If you get caught out of bounds you can be fined 100000 yen. As of yet I haven’t heard of a person having to pay this fine. I think the patrol have it in place to secure rescue fees. You would basically have to crash into a patroller to get caught. The backcountry, I have not personally skied but I can see nothing but tree lines on the map. Basically the same types of lines that you can access from the lifts are what the back country is. Across the valley though there are options. Nozawa does have long term accommodation on this site.

 

Yuzawa I havent been there in years. I was there at the end of the bubble. I loved Naeba some great lines. At that point in time patrol wasn’t that bad as no one ever ducked ropes, so the patrol really didn’t do anything. I hear that the patrol are more strict which is strange because the same company owns Kagura which is famous for not giving a crap. Personally I don’t have much interest in Kagura. However if I lived in Tokyo I would hit it up as a day trip for sure on a powder day. Looking at the terrain, the BC and reading some books also having friends out there saying how busy it is, equals not enticing. (pure personal choice). Elevation in this area is key IMO.

 

Shiga Kogen for a season you won’t get bored on the slopes but there is nothing to do at night and the challenge isn’t there. I don’t know of any long term accommodation but if there is, this site would have it in the listings. Not very steep and easy to get lost in the backcoutry. Some of the forests can get a bit dense. Ryuo ski park down the valley has some interesting terrain though. Great snow at shiga due to high elevation too. You don’t want to drive in or out of Shiga on a weekend morning or night unless they made the road improvements I don’t know.

 

I’m jaded because I am a Hakuba fan! but as you are a European it is worth considering. Happo and Hakuba Goryu ski much like the European resorts all be it on a smaller scale. You can also get your fill of the Japanese trees down at Cortina but man that place is getting busy. Cortina is one of the few spots in Japan with legal tree access and it is cheap. Much more touring options in the Hakuba valley as well if that is your thing. Accommodation there are long term options on this site.

 

One more point resorts like Happo Kagura Myoko Nozawa etc don’t actually have legal tree skiing. What they have is not enough staff to even consider putting in an effort to catch people. This means if you are going to ski off-piste be a prepared as nothing is controlled and they wont look for you at the end of the day.

 

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Honestly, the car thing sounds like a nightmare to me. Who wants to spend time and a ton of hassle buying and selling a car in a foreign country?

 

Get a long term rental deal if you can that would surely be better.

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Quote:
Shiga Kogen for a season you won’t get bored on the slopes but there is nothing to do at night and the challenge isn’t there.


Agree with the latter but not the first bit. I would.
Though of course if you were there you could easily get to Nozawa and others.
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