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Sorry, for the confusion. When I said agent, I meant travel agent. And my knowledge of music is limited, as is my talent for it.

BTW if you can make it to HK that would be great but even if that's a bit to far off maybe we can meet up with db at sometime in Japan.

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If you guys hook up in Japan let me know, I'll come and hang too (depends on the location).

 

Markie, thanks for all your info - I'm sure I can tolerate the music if it's mainly on the lifts, maybe I'll just wear earplugs on the lifts if I find it's killing me \:D (hee hee).

 

I'm sure I'll find my way around the slopes since I'll have a lot of time to explore. I'm going to be avidly following Harold Harb and Lito Tejada-Flores' skiing instruction so I'll have a lot to keep me going on my own without need of an instructor (unless it's someone teaching the same stuff that they teach). Still, there's nothing like having a local to show you around so it might be fun to take your advice and grab a lesson with someone who knows all the hidden places....

 

As for protection - I'm not really worried about it. Carl's not really an athletic type, plus he's never skied so has never experienced the joys of it all, so I'm not surprised that he might be worried about injuries himself. Actually, until you mentioned it the idea of protecting my hands never occurred to me! I didn't know skiers wore wrist guards - I thought that was more for boarders and I can't imagine doing it myself. Padded gloves is probably a good idea, though I've never had any injuries to my hands/fingers. But I'm currently using mitten shells and polar fleece undergloves and don't know if I want to shell out on gloves also. (as well as all the other stuff I have to get - ie - good goggles, boots and parka shell etc). On the other hand if someone can recommend a good glove that DOESN'T give you cold (and/or damp) hands in the bad weather - including wind I'll definitely look into it. I'm sure glove technology's probably advanced a lot since last time I skied....

 

As for boots, yes I agree, I'm definitely getting my own boots, there's no way I'd rent them. I'm hoping that this won't turn into a nightmare - getting women's boots my size in Japan could be tricky as I'm half a size larger than the largest 'regular' woman's size. Another problem with women's boots here is that high performance women's boots seem pretty scarce - they're plenty of low performance boots but I want boots that my skiing can grow into rather than boots that will limit my advancement. Many thanks to Higuma for all the great boot/alignment info he gave on one of his posts. Higuma, if you're reading this, it really set me off on a good path in figuring out what kind of boot would probably be good for me. I'm currently wanting go for a Technica Dual Pivot boot myself, though the highest women's model I could find here is a Rival 8x. I would have also liked to try the Head FR that Harb recommends but I haven't seen any women's version here. Actually the guys at ICI in Kanda have been helpful (re that old thread of problems with them) though I did call them on the phone, so maybe they take me more seriously because of that. I'll be going in there sometime the next few days and will get some custom footies made at the same time. If the Technica boot doesn't work on my foot I will probably try a man's boot but I've always had trouble with them and I'm sure my body shape and foot shape would benefit better from a woman's boot.

The great news about skis is that I found out all my rental is included with the gig (as well as lift pass) - so I can try out different shaped skis and use fatties on the powder days.

 

It's good to hear about other shops, though I must admit I rarely drink coke, maybe that's a Hong Kong thing? And thanks for the music and the HK egg rolls, never had them before - but hey, will they still be edible by the time I get there? I go on the 10th. Maybe Carl's eaten them already...

 

I hope to have a few friends come up and stay. Apparently the room is very spacious with 3 beds, so anyone up that way who wants to pop over let me know in case I can get you in... though I won't make any promises on that as I don't yet know the resort's policy on having guests.

 

Also, here's a question - I'll post in a new thread if I get no replies - I was wondering about zapping over to Niseko on a day off and maybe even staying the nite there. Anyone have any idea if there's any buses or other transport going between Rusutsu and Niseko? I wouldn't do it if I had to go via Sapporo.... Or, if I'm feeling really wealthy I might spend a few days in Niseko after I finish my gig before going back to Tokyo.... it would be cool to catch some SJ people on the slopes this season...

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Markie:
my trip to France is just skiing, that's all
Just skiing? What do you mean just skiing? And what do you mean by that's all? Skiing is never just skiing.....

Have fun in Froggieland..... it sounds wonderfully romantic.
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oops, sorry forgot about Carl's email. I don't want to post it on a public board so if you drop me an email via my website (or give me your email address here) I'll send it on to you.

 

Does that private message thing on this board work? I tried sending a message on it once but I have no idea where to go to get replies.

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Don't worry about the egg-rolls. They are in an air tight tin and are edible and crispy for months, though in my experience, they never last that long once they are within my reach.

Them wrist-guards are cheap and not really noticeable once they are on, just an extra precaution I suggest you try.

Day trips to Niseko are definitely easily done and highly recommended. There are regular bus services so just check with reception and they'll set you up. It's only 30 mins away so there is no need to stay overnight, and believe me, once you're set up in Rusutsu you won't want to stay in Niseko, just go skiing there. Wow, stay at Rusutsu and ski in Niseko, best of both worlds!

So your contract includes not only a ski-pass but also ski-rentals. How come Carl didn't get any of these goodies....I tried to weasel his ski-pass since he didn't ski but he assured me that it wasn't in his contract.

Ah, Froggieland, hard for me to think of it as romantic with such a severe shortage of J-girls there.

 

Lastly, my apologies to all the other forum members for continuously churning out this boring material. But I have to keep going to keep enderzero happy (and help him build up his appetite for his end of season feat!).

 

The saga continues......

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Oh very cool, I didn't realise it was that close to Niseko. Maybe I can hook up with some SJ people over the other side of Yotei-san who'd like to have a few runs with sunrise. That could be very fun indeed. Or I'll just go on my own... that'll be fun also. I skied Higashiyama before but not Hirafu. But I would imagine that wrist guards would get in the way of fluid pole placement. I don't think I'd want to wear them. Were you wearing them yourself? Any other skiers wear them?

 

Markie, your post isn't frivilous it's right on topic. I'm really glad to hear how easy it is to get to Niseko and I'm sure enderzero will be too even if he's not going anywhere near there.

 

As for Carl he told the resort people up front he didn't ski and didn't want to ski so he doesn't have a pass and would have had to go thru all the hassle and red tape etc to get it which I doubt he'd want to do for someone he doesn't know very well for only just a couple of days, even though it was our Markie. I had a gig some years ago at Joetsu Kokusai where they also included the lift pass and probably would have included rental if I'd requested it. (don't go there unless you like FLAT slopes). Whereas when I worked at the Valley Inn at Perisher in Australia I had to pay for my lift pass. Mind you, the people who owned the Valley Inn didn't own the lifts.They also didn't treat their staff so well, but that's another story.

 

I'll check out the egg rolls. And forget the J-women - think of all those French women! Happy new year to you all.

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Originally posted by sunrise:


Markie, your post isn't frivilous it's right on topic.
Don't worry about that one, it's just part of an on-going joke between ender and me.

Carl is such a great guy, I would never have wanted to put him through any trouble, it's was sort of a "did you happen to have a ski-pass in your drawer which I could borrow?" kinda question.

As for the wrist-guards, I only put them on when I do moguls or jumps or other crazy things. And when I do these, I don't hold poles so I can't really answer you whether it affect the pole grip.
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You crack me up, enderzero!

 

Btw, sunrise, I notice you have Furano as your favourite resort, followed by Niseko East-Mt. Furano is one of the other places I would like to try out (the others being Kiroro and Tomamu).

So what was so great about Furano to make it your No. 1 choice?

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Actually I liked both resorts and it was hard to choose one over the other, but I gave Furano a very narrow #1 because of it's larger, wide open area compared to Higashiyama (though Higashiyama opens out up top) and I seem to recall the snow might have been a touch drier in Furano, though the conditions were better at Niseko cos it had been dumping when I was there, but the snow hadn't fallen for awhile by the time I got to Furano so I didn't really see it in 'peak condition' after a dump.

I remember finding it strange and frustrating at the time - having only been a few months in Japan - that at Niseko there were several separate resorts on one mountain instead of being linked. This was in '92. Maybe they've sinced linked it up to one ticket? Anyone out there know? I notice that most reports I see on Niseko are about Hirafu so maybe the majority prefer to ski that side of the mountain. The people I was with were skiing Higashiyama so I never ventured further. In terms of 'great' - well, I've only skied at 4 places in Japan and two of them aren't worth mentioning, so my choices may not be the best in the region but hey, they're not bad places to wind up at.

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Yes, Niseko links up at the top. You can either buy a "Free Passport" which gives you access to all of them and is a bit more expensive or separate ski passes to each area. There is an Annupuri pass, a Higashiyama pass and a Hirafu pass. The Hirafu pass covers Kogen, Alpen and Hanazono.

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The Free Passport is 4500Y for a 1-day pass up to 4.30p.m.. The 2-day pass is 8800Y which includes the nighta for day 1 and ends at 4.30 of day 2. The 3-day and 4-day passes are 12300Y abd 15800Y respectively including the nightas and ending at 4.30pm of the last day. There is also an extra 1000Y charge as a deposit for the pass which you can get back at the end by depositing it into one of the many machines all over design specially for collecting used passes.

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Yeah, I did the Free Passport thing last year in April and tried out all the courses in all the areas (except them blackies). However, if you are only doing a day trip you could consider doing only one area a day and save since the normal lift passes are cheaper. For example, you could do Annupuri on one day, Higashiyama on another and then Hirafu (including Alpen, Kogen and Hanazono) on another. Try to get a Gelande map in advance and plan your route then you can make the best of your time. Trying to do more than one area in one day is possible but quite hectic. You would probably enjoy yourself more if you slowl explored one area a day.

Just my suggestion.

During my trip last year I only had two full skiing days to cram in everything (I sure wish db would learn to burp for a little longer) so I went with the Free Passport and traversed course to course like a busy beaver. Had good fun but definitely not my ideal way of enjoying Niseko.

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Well, I made it! I'm writing from Markie's lobby computer. I'll get the skis tomorrow (sunday), there should be a couple of inches of new snow tonite so it'll be nice stuff to christen (spell?) my first day's skiing for 8 years (ridiculously too long....!) Snow quality looks very very nice....

 

It's a damn big resort. It takes me 10 minutes to walk from my room at one end to the issekaya at the other end! Very nice, though. I've kept away from the disney side of things, so it just seems like a big hotel so far. Deebs, you'd probably like the rooms. And the food's great.

 

The gig's easy going and the staff are all really nice. Nice working holiday...!

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Glad to hear you're settling in at Rusutsu. I know you're just going to have a great time.

It's also great to hear you are using "my" computer lobby...like "when did I get a computer lobby in Rusutsu?". Never mind, use it as much as you want ex gratis, just make sure everyone else is paying to use it. After you're finished with the computer lobby, have some fun on "my" pianos there. There are at least 3: one in the Dolce Tea Lounge, one in the Obrigt Main Bar and one in the Belle Vue Restaurant. When you're got your skis, you are also welcome to try out "my" many ski trails there.

Have fun.

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