Ocean11 0 Posted March 23, 2002 Share Posted March 23, 2002 Has anybody tried any of the resorts on Shikoku? If so, how were they? I don't imagine they'd be anybody's first choice of location, but for the desperate...? Link to post Share on other sites
snobee 0 Posted March 24, 2002 Share Posted March 24, 2002 Yes, there's a few of us deperados. Mind you Shikoku skiing is not something that you would dwell on for long. I think there's 6 resorts with the biggest (Mikawa-10 runs???) and the highest (Ishizuchi - 1,700+m) both in Ehime. When it's a good year, lots of the white stuff falls in the relatively high Shikoku Mts. but conditions can deteriorate quickly. All said though in this the warmest of years, Ishizuchi still had a 200cm depth until 2-3 weeks ago. Normally this would hold for much longer. BUT, for me and many others, the time to travel to these slopes, is not much different to going to the much better conditions of deep Hiroshima and Shimane ken, where good dumps of the powdery stuff are common enough to make life bearable. SHikoku ski jo(es) are good for mid-week fun & practice or fixing a habit with friends and beers. If you happen to be here in mid-season try it, but don't come for it - unless you want to catch some winter waves after. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted March 25, 2002 Author Share Posted March 25, 2002 Thanks snobee. I thought this thread was going to die in a corner... I'm thinking of moving to Matsuyama at some point, but I have to calculate how this will affect my need for snowboarding. Where do you live then snobee? I suppose Shikoku would be good for all-season mountainboarding, and canoeing on the Shimantogawa, besides some not-so-hot-so snow. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted March 25, 2002 Share Posted March 25, 2002 For someone out of Japan, where is Shikoku? Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted March 25, 2002 Author Share Posted March 25, 2002 You've got four main islands, Kyushu at the far southwest, Honshu the big one, and Hokkaido at the far northeast. Shikoku's the island tucked in underneath Japan. Nice place but increasingly covered in poured concrete. Link to post Share on other sites
oo 1 Posted March 26, 2002 Share Posted March 26, 2002 Just curious, any particular reason why you're interested in that O11? Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted March 26, 2002 Author Share Posted March 26, 2002 Simple domestic issue oo. My missus's family are all down there, and visiting every year costs more than travelling abroad (surprise!) Now that I don't work for anybody else, I'm free to live wherever I choose. One of those choices would be Shikoku. The sea, mountains, and rivers are all at hand. The thing I didn't know about was the resorts. Actually, it snows a fair bit in Ehime, but it may be possible to fly from Matsuyama airport to Hokkaido or Aomori anyway. Link to post Share on other sites
snobee 0 Posted March 26, 2002 Share Posted March 26, 2002 O-11, I'm in Takamatsu, Kagawa - definitely a Snow Free Zone - which means driving, driving, driving. A move to Matsuyama would surely put a dent into any regular "Big Sno" ambitions, but it is there. Probably even back-country stuff, absolutely no ones on about. But as I said Hiroshima & Shimane are fairly close and they can serve it up in doses- but not exactly Aomori or Niigata. And yes Shikoku sure has it's expanses of other offerings in Mts, Coast etc with a minimum of people - although you wouldn't think it trying to stay alive on a dinky 3 run ski jo on a Sunday with 1,000's of smilies intent on "unitentional destruction". One big plus - It'll make you tougher. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted March 26, 2002 Author Share Posted March 26, 2002 Cheers snobee. I went to the summer festival in Takamatsu (my first in Japan) 11 years ago and had a ball. Had some fun in the big waves near Naruto Ohashi too. Hiroshima had the first big dumps of snow of this season I noticed - 100 cm before Nagano had a single flake (do I sound like I'm talking myself into moving?) Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 28, 2003 Author Share Posted October 28, 2003 I just saw on the NHK news that the people of Ehime are working very hard to get some slopes ready for me to slide next month. 'kyuupicchi' is how the announcer described it. At Kuma resort, they've already made four large mounds of snow which they'll spread out to make a gelende. Actually, in the closeup of the snow, it looked more like broken ice cubes to me. I expect they'll change the settings to 'powder' early next month. I'm looking forward to it a lot. I just knew this was the place to be. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 Ocean, We will just have to have a battle of the West Japan slopes to see who has the most powder!! Or least amount of jinkouyuki, eh? Maybe I could stealthly imput some pics of me from Niseko last year You would NEVER know the difference... " title="" src="graemlins/cry.gif" /> Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 28, 2003 Author Share Posted October 28, 2003 I may just have to cross the water to see who has the better jinko. I wonder if you can arrange to have them blow some in the trees too... Link to post Share on other sites
snobee 0 Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 If you really want to see gut busting jinko-sno for us western hard cores, check out Ikawa's site in Tokushima. http://www.ikawaski.jp/ Every day another mound appears to be levelled soon for opening day in just 3 weeks. No powder on tap here. We take it as it comes - no pussy footing. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 28, 2003 Author Share Posted October 28, 2003 This looks similar to the access road to Sol-Fa! I think Sol-Fa maybe has more tarmac on it, but the curves are more curvy. And steep. Iwasaki seem to be taking a different approach from Kuma with their aisubaan construction. But it's all good eh? Link to post Share on other sites
snobee 0 Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 O-11 - without doubt that would be one of the finer sections of the road. Even has a guard rail. It's always worth going to Ikawa after a dump just for the driving practice. We should organize a "collective" meet there one "snowy" day for any interested Cowboyz & girlz from the sticks. Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 Ahhh, Shikoku is such a beautiful place!! That pic of the road looks like this one trail up Ishizuchi san. My girl and I drove up it on an epic day a few summers ago. Start getting to the top, gets cloudy, then windy, then hailing. Yup, it was like a hurricane was coming through. We had to take refuge in one of the small tunnels at the top before trying to sprint back down the mtn. That was crazy weather!! PS. Snobee and O11, lets have a SJwest party on some epic jinkoyuki somewhere Link to post Share on other sites
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