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A few of my Japanese friends were talking about some rumors of some resorts that may never reopen the other day. The "biggest" one they mentioned was Hakuba 47? Anyone know anything more about that?

 

ww

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If AK47 closes down and Goryu stays open, doesn't that mean the ungroomed slopes of 47 will be swarming with naughty boarders from near and far enjoying what they always wanted, all unharassed? I'd definitely go for some of that... There'll be a kicker to suit every style.

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I and a few colleagues have also heard that rumor. But that is exactly what it is....a rumor.

 

Over the years there have been rumors of various resorts closing down or facing trouble that turned out to be completely false, so we shouldn't really take much notice of this.

 

Halo

SJG

 

[This message has been edited by Ski Japan Guide (edited 13 April 2002).]

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I've got no insider info on 47, but before the season I heard that the management at Iwatake were desperate and that they had decided to go for broke. Either way, they ended up slashing their pre-season prices. A season ticket bought in November was just 30,000, and they were also selling advance tickets (1 day pass, 900 lunch ticket and entry into Iwatake no Yu onsen) for 2900 right up until Dec 20. A lot of the local lodges snapped up loads of these tix for their guests, so that what I think has happened is that a lot of boarders ended up going to Iwatake instead of 47. I went to Iwatake six or seven times this season (mainly weekdays) and it was busy every time. Much more so than 47. The restaurants were surprisingly busy too, and not with ski mamas giving their kids homemade onigiri or young 'uns making do with a kitkat. Iwatake hosted the DBD this year, but I didn't see many people in those and I doubt it was a big factor. Iwatake's got a good rep for their pipe (thru Olympians Miyawaki Kenji and Hashimoto Michiyo), but it's still not as good as 47/Goryu.

 

One of my gf's mates worked as a liftie at Iwatake this year and she said that the resort had been busy because the tickets were yasusugiru. Make of that what you will.

 

Happo's established as the Olympic ski hill and doesn't get so many boarders, so I don't think it will have been as affected as 47. Tsugaike gets the beginners and couples, so it probably wasn't so affected either. It will be interesting to see the numbers for Hakuba, with Iwatake getting more of a smaller pie being my prediction. In the long term, Iwatake has nothing to gain from bleeding its neighbours dry (goodbye Hakuba's choice of resorts), so things may be back to "normal" next season. Either that or 47 will start discounting too. Let's hope it's the latter.

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Not in Hakuba, but not very far away. I'm looking to move there when somewhere decent comes up. I'd better start doing some lower back exercises to prepare for all that shovelling I going to have to do. Not to be underestimated, from what I hear.

 

2900 for a day on the hill, lunch and an onsen is a good deal. Weekends included. Free car park too.

 

Despite the falling numbers, it seems like some new money is still going in in some places. There's that gondola thing at Tashiro or wherever it is and all those s****y hotels they've just built at Arai. There's even a wacky redbrick "castle" with parapets. Arai was deserted when I went there, but I presume they must know what they're doing.

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I heard a "rumor" about a few of the smaller places in Yuzawa - ones that pretty much no-one will miss at all. Have been hearing the same thing for a few years now..~

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It appears that my last post has been autoedited by a profanity filter that has zapped a character string from the middle of one of my words.

 

The word before hotel is s-w-a-n-k-y, not the other one that might spring into your mind from the asterisks. I've not stayed at the hotels at Arai and have no negative comments to make about them. They're brand new, they look very nice and the rates at the best one are very high. That's all I wanted to say.

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Just goes to show what happens when you leave machines to police people.

 

For some reason, four letter words meaning 'faeces' and 'defecation' are left alone, while that equally offensive, or inoffensive, Britishism for 'masturbation' or 'one who abuses himself' gets turned into a string of asterisks, with unpredictable results. (See the thread regarding interesting Australian excuses for snow.)

 

Daft as hell. Do we really need this?

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The rumour that Wada-toge will shut down is also subject to a counter-rumour that it won't. However, if the lady with the wart on her nose who constantly rushes out to tell boarders not to scoot down under the chairlift because 'we're growing trees' has her way, then I guess they won't have much choice.

 

[This message has been edited by Ocean11 (edited 15 April 2002).]

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Just seen the figures for Jan to March for Hakuba. They were in last Friday's "Hakuba Shimbun", a single broadsheet I saw for the first time today.

 

The area as a whole got 99% of last year's numbers. 47 got 90% of last year's figures through Jan and Feb, and 100% in March. Iwatake was up to 130-140% of last year's figures. The other big gainers were the smaller resorts, Highland and Minekata, which probably corresponds to parents taking their kids somewhere cheap.

 

Without mentioning Iwatake by name, the article mentioned that a 2900 yen pack had been available at "ichibu no skijo" (some place(s)) and that it had been really popular, resulting in the tiny drop in numbers representing a 50% fall (the Japanese word "hangen") in revenue. From the general tone, it seemed to suggest that the strategy had been unsuccessful and that we won't be seeing such discounts next year.

 

As for the rumours, it's one thing for someone to say things are "kibishii", another to say "we're going to close for good in two months' time". People shouldn't get the two mixed up.

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If it gets too kibishii they could always 'restructure' the ski patrol and hire out those sexy red outfits. I'd like to try boarding for a day off-piste in a ski patrol suit just to see the look on people's faces.

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