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We are a group of four kiwi girl's who are keen snowboarders. We want to work and snowboard from November to Feb 2001-2002. Where should we go??????? Please help us!!!

We are sooooooo overwhelmed by the amount of resorts/fields, we have no idea where to start! Please write back soon with names o places you woulkd recommend. We are all at intermediate stage of snowboarding.

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Hi there.....new members - cool!

 

1 Niseko

2 Niseko

3 Niseko

 

(I am a little biased, sorry).

 

Other picks;

 

Nozawa Onsen (Nagano Pref, off the courses);

 

Hakuba 47 (Nagano Pref, choice and nighlife of town too);

 

GALA Yuzawa (Niigata Pref, easy to get to);

 

Tenjindaira Tanigawa (Gunma Pref, small but grrreeeat!)

 

Zao (Yamagata Pref, what a great place this really is)

 

Appi Kogen (Iwate Pref).

 

Hope this helps. Where will you be based when you are in Japan???

 

 

Don

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hey kiwi girls back again,

yeah! someones listening!

What is the acccomodation like? Are there any jobs? Could we get work on the resorts and have accomodation with this?

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Someone is listening, yep. Loads of cool stuff going on in the winter here, but unfortunately Japan is now hot and sticky, so not as many thinking about the white stuff...!

 

Accommodation? Pretty wide question. Some great places to stay almost everywhere, but it is difficult to know where to go - and who will welcome the gaijin. Trying the places on this site is probably a good place to start, as they obviously want the foreign business. I have stayed at 2 places from this site, and they were both cool. Difficult to find other places without a long and boring search for crappy sites on the web. Seems they are going to expand that section here too for the next season.

 

Dont really know about the work Q. I have personally never seen a gaijin worker at a resort in Japan.

 

Good luck anyway

 

don

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I would be tempted to stay away from the crowds and the rabble and stick to the relatively non-discovered places in Tohoku (Appi, Shizukuishi, the beautiful Tazawa-ko). You may not want to listen to me though as I am just wanting to escape the hell that is Tokyo and be alone with my lady.......

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Wow- 2 and a half month!!???

 

The 2 I stayed at were Villa Alpen in Shiga Kogen resort area and the Pit Inn in Iwappara Yuzawa. Both really friendly, and the latter has some jazz events which kind of clinched it for me!

 

Listen, must get back to work now. Will be back online tomorrow.

 

Cheers

 

don

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Emily,

Id really think about going to Sapporo. Its a big city but you can easily access heaps of resorts. Finding work at a resort could be difficult but if you are in Sapporo with a working holiday visa you could get a part time joband travel around to a variety of snowboarding spots. I work full time here but there are places so close or even inthe city that I can still board before or after work everyday if I want to. On the weekend Its tough deciding where to go, so many great resorts to choose from. Oh by the wayHokkaido also gets the best powder in Japan, and lots of it. There are also a lot of snowboard events to check out if youre into that kind of stuff eg.The toyota big air and the world cup. Northern Honshu is definately good too as others have said but Itll be hard to find work in that area and Hokkaido is better anyway, I used to live on Honshu and I moved up here for snowboarding.

Anyway Good luck

Sorry If My Sapporo fixation offended any Honshu residents!

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I have to agree with peaker. If you want a resort job you usually have to submit a japanese CV and apply now. I lived in a ski town in honshu as an english teacher so I was lucky but I never saw any foriegn lifties.My friend tried to get a job at a resort but it was a real hassle and that was with conections. youre better off going to Sapporo and getting part time teaching work or something it pays better and make regular trips to different resorts. Theres no sense in restricting ourself to one place. Honsu is great but the crowds are bigger...up in hokkaido the snow is fantastic and the runs relatively open. If you want to actually live in a resort town its much harder to get jobs and if you do they often dont pay.Some pensons hire foreigners by giving them board and lodge and a pass but Japan is expensive so you need some money.

good luck anyway

macca

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I agree with the Sapporo idea, but am in the "hokkaido is overhyped" camp. Im sure it is not so much better than everywhere else - sure wasnt when I was there last season. Thats not to say it isnt good - just keep the comments in check.

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Thanks guys for all your imput!

I've just recieved my monthly New Zealand snowboarding mag and there was an article on Japan. We realise that iots really expencive and so we are looking for the cheapest avenues. In the Mag it said NOT to follow the crowds...Hokkaido, this way you will save money. Is this true? Niseko was talked about alot. It didn't say how expensive it was there. What is the accommendation like in Sapporo? Peaker because you live in Sapporo could you do any asking around for us, for example Jobs,accomendation Etc? Macca you say that you taught English? I myself am traning to be a teacher so thats the kind of work that I am looking for. Even working on the resorts helping with child care! Please keep the comments rolling in, its really great and so so so helpful!!

thanks Em

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The "hokkaido" best is the argument that is just wheeled out since forever - no crowds (did you see any in many places in Honshu this last season? No, me neither); the best snow (yes it is great, but there is great snow in MANY places if you ask me). On the other hand there are the older lifts and the facilities.

 

I think the argument is out of date and espeially from a mag out of Japan - are they really in touch? - take with a pinch of salt.

 

Just my 2 cents

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Definitely a good idea to avoid the crowds - no one said do that. But crowds are really down compared to even 3 or 4 years ago, man. People who came here then would not recognise many of the resorts in Nagano and Niigata any more.....lack of skiers and boarding-dudes is a serious problem for them.

 

(All the better for us still wanting to get out there!)

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Sounds like a good plan you've got there girls.

 

If you work at the slopes you should be able to get a free pass. For Niseko that was like 87000 yen for the 2000/01 season. Many other resorts don't have them (for unconnected folk anyway), so it's hard to compare but 60000 is common. Some resorts, like Happo One and Zao have lifts operated by more than one company, which doesn't affect ordinary customers but means that certain hotels and restaurants only get complementaries for part of the mountain. If you don't get a pass but are busy working in the morning, you should be able to scam tickets off early leavers most days. Especially at resorts where they use electronic chip-type tickets since everyone goes to the same machine to get their deposit back.

 

I don't know much about Hokkaido, but would 2.5 months in Sapporo with no car be fun ? How good is the transport to the resorts and how cheap ? If you live at a resort, no problems with that one. Like people say though, you're not going to make very much money working at a hotel/ pension/ restaurant. Some places full board+pass is all you'll get. If there's four of you, making your own entertainment should be no problem, so that a specialized resort-type place shouldn't be too boring. Going to loads of resorts and comparing them is fun, but costs loads more and is usually only done by the folk that commute to the slopes from the city.

 

Many kiwis go to Hakuba, where there's good snow, good scenery, nightlife, and good access if you only have to come and go once a season. However, be warned that lots of stuck up people who write to this forum slag off gaijin temps who work there for some reason. Maybe its just jealousy or some kind of crappy territorialism, but it doesn't stop them. The main mountain Happo One (like Nozawa) has too many skiers and too many moguls, but the other hills are cool. Esp. 47 and Cortina. Happo's best in poor visibility when the patrol won't get you on the nice runs.

 

Given the January we had this year, coming in January is recommended. First two weeks of Feb were nothing special, then it started all over again. This year was exceptional, mind. Don't come to Honshu before New Year, unless you've got some teaching or something lined up.

 

As for the crowds thing, avoid the baby slopes on weekends (esp three day weekends) and you'll be fine. They're a thing of the past.

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There sure are a lot of great places to Board in Japan andeverybody loves their local area, thats cool. Snowboarding is such a rad sport.

Im sure everyone who has written in hopes you guys make itover and have a great time.

Living at a resort could be cool but there are four of youtrying to get work and accomadation and you dont have a lot of time, money or language skills. The kind situation youre looking for may be difficult to hook up especially if you are out of the country. Id still reccommend sapporo

because

1. Work- If you decide to go to Honshu youll land in Tokyoor Osaka, there are plenty of Jobs in these places but these cities are too far from the snowboarding spots. Youll have to travel to a resort area which will cost heaps and then youll have to deal with the language and hassles of trying to find work in a smaller town. Maybe Nagano would beOK but I think you still need to travel to the resorts from there? Im not sure about that though!

If you come to Sapporo you can basically step of the planeand go snowboarding! There are a wider range of jobs to check out eg teaching, bars ect. From here you can easily contact or travel to a few resorts eg. Niseko / Teine/ rusustsu/ furano..... if you can get a job at a resort, great you pack your bag and go if not, no big deal you still have snowboarding at your front door and the opportunity to find other work.

2 Transport- Ive personally found it cheaper and easier toget around in Hokkaido, I dont have a car. The rail and bus companies have some great deals. For example the JR Skip ticket. This is a combined travel and lift pass lets look at Niseko for example

cost of one day lift pass \4500 (at mountain)

cost of Skip ticket including lift and train from sapporo \4900

There are a lot of deals like this, The cheapest is probably Teine Highland you take a city train and bus to the resort about 30 mins from the centre of town. Travel plus four hour lift pass \2990 or travel plus night boarding About\1700

these are just a couple of examples Itll seem expensive when you convert to nz dollars but these are some good deals for Japan

3.Accomodation- Again if you base yourself in sapporo youve got more chance of finding what you need and access to english information. There Is an International Communication plaza here with a noticeboard for finding accomadation ect. Id be happy to put a notice up for you. Youd have to provide your E mail though so perhaps youd prefer to contact them yourself at www.plaza-sapporo.or.jp

 

Once again, Good luck in your search

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heyyo,

 

ayeee,,,talk about droppin knowledge! ..lol

its nice to be able to read up on your crazyinformative replies as my situation is kinda similar to that of Emily&co...(im a M/NZ)

 

but im hopefully going to snowboard instruct. (getting [minimal] qualifications)

looking for a field with good freestyle snowboarding facilties and snow...so probably niseko ...

 

so,,, to Honshuman aka Macca,

 

are you for real on this: "If you want a resort job you usually have to submit a japanese CV and apply now. "

 

cool about the japanese CV, but apply now???

 

CHEERS

 

....if anyone else knows....

 

THANK YOU

 

Ben

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the cheapest place to stay, i found, was wazzas world "close" to hirafu, niseko hokkaido. it's a kind of a backpackers and there used to live also some kiwis for cheap money for a long time!

mail me, i will send you wazzas number!

ivob@gmx.net

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Ben my man...japanese people use a yellow book thats provides limitless part time jobs for the growing population of frita or part time workers. The biggest problem is that theres still discrimination and most resorts are reluctant to hire gaijin as its just a hassle...certainly if you have no language ability its even harder. ITs not so much applying now as starting the ball rolling. If youre looking to instruct then youd really need JApanese ability....most resorts wouldnt hire you just because there arent enough gaijin who need lessons. If you have connections then start knocking on their doors now. Most resorts hire people year round too. Landing your job usually means making your face known then getting it lined up next season. Lots of e mails and so on....

Anyway good luck and if you have any questions then just let me know!

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yea, thanksamillion macca,

i do have the nihongo language thing,,,

but no contacts...... ..... ... .. .

lol

guess i'll start on the japanese CV soon and start distributing it..

THANK YOU

Ben

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I am not a big fan of the hakuba valley apart from 2 places - Cortina and Tsugaike. Awesome. Go midweek and there is hardly anyone there. wicked

 

Out of Nagano I always hit tenjindaira for the vibes and Zao for a bit of culture

 

fred

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sorry i havn't been back in touch.

Thanks to everyone that has respounded. all this info helps so much. Ben where in NZ are you From? Goog luck on finding a job on the moutains, I hope you are able to teach!! That would be primo! Have you saughted out all your accomadation? When are you planning to go?

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