Blizzzard 0 Posted September 2, 2002 Share Posted September 2, 2002 Hi all. I'm new here, good to meet ya. This might have been covered before, sorry if it has, but I was wondering if anyone on here had ever worked at a snow resort in Japan and what it was like. cheers bd Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted September 3, 2002 Share Posted September 3, 2002 yeah, it rocks. Choice a hotel next to a ski-field which will provide free accommodation, free season lift pass and free meals. Anything else free is a bonus. Make sure where you sleep is within 1 minute from the bottom of the lift. You can work at night after 5 pm for a few hours but you may think twice if the lifts are open at night. Naturally your japanese skills will take a turn 4 the better in no time but more importantly boarding everyday will do wonders 4 your boarding skills. But don't board too much after indulging in sake. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted September 3, 2002 Share Posted September 3, 2002 I haven't worked at a Japanese resort, but I once met a Japanese bloke on a lift at Royal Hill who was working in the hotel there. Royal Hill is not a great resort, and I was bored of the place after one day. So I'd suggest that if you do want to work at a resort, that you find a big one with plenty of variety that has a range of other resorts nearby. I wonder whether riding at the resort where you work prevents you from riding off piste. Is that the case andyindy? And where did you work? Link to post Share on other sites
Blizzzard 0 Posted September 8, 2002 Author Share Posted September 8, 2002 andyindy - where did you work?? Link to post Share on other sites
dan_griffiths01 0 Posted September 8, 2002 Share Posted September 8, 2002 Andyindy Your answer about working in Japan caught my eye and i wondered if you could actually put a name of a resort to the situation you described cause it sounded like an amazing deal. At present, I'm teaching English but am interested in staying in Japan. If you have the time I'd appreciate some pointers about working at a ski resort and how to go about it. Cheers Daniel [This message has been edited by dan_griffiths01 (edited 08 September 2002).] Link to post Share on other sites
Wizz 11 Posted September 8, 2002 Share Posted September 8, 2002 For some pointers daniel, there were some features on working at resorts on the site last year. hold on a sec..here you go http://www.skijapanguide.com/2002/features/index-general.html (Resort work in Japan, near the bottom). Just ideas and pointers. I am in a helpful mood today [This message has been edited by Wizz (edited 08 September 2002).] Link to post Share on other sites
dan_griffiths01 0 Posted September 8, 2002 Share Posted September 8, 2002 Wizz, Thanks for the tips. I've picked up titbits on niseko (only made it to page 5 on forum board, 13 or so to go!) Any directions on how to find long powpow runs in niseko? Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 Got a British mate who has done maybe five seasons at Nozawa. He usually works at a restaurant. They only get so many season tickets so it's not free everyday. Sharing a room with up to four chain smokers/snorers was the biggest drag he said. You can guess what the benefits were. He had a very cooperative employer and so had no visa problems. Some jobs are food, board and a season ticket but no pay. Or low pay (600 yen an hour) with only a couple of season tickets between several workers. Many of the Hakuba workers I've met end up buying their own pass. If you want to get out when it's fresh and deep, avoid jobs where you have to remove snow, since that's exactly when you'll be called into action. Link to post Share on other sites
andy indy 0 Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 My first season was at Freeden Fort Hotel which is just below the first lift at Ski Jam Katsuyama. I can't speak highly enough of the place as everything was laid on. Lift pass, accommodation and food(was great but overindulged at times)was all taken care of. My work included waitering, yukikaki(clearing snow)and bartending but more often than not the guests partyed in their rooms so that gave cocktail making practise time. This hotel was awesome to work 4 and they offered to pay any female workers airfare from New Zealand. By the way, if anyone is prepared to offer likewise for this coming season to me I'm open 2 offers. I had a hugely kind japanese guy ring around a host of ski-fields on my behalf. You do need to perservere or have some contacts, I also prepared my C.V. in japanese. As with ski-fields on earth theres always some negative and the snow wasn't always great. But, occasionaly there was powder, a reasonable super table top and a few knarely tree runs. In answer to Ocean-as I was working at an independent hotel(I wouldn't recommend working for a ski-field)so going out of bounds wasn't a bigie. I had a couple of epic runs under the lift and the liftees would get fired 4 doing likewise. Last season I was at Furano and once had the sirens go off at me but it just makes ya go that bit quicker. Furano was great 4 free-riding. On a sick pow day a run down kuma-otoshi will seriously make you not want to work again. From some accounts the snow is the best in the world and it's as close as u can get to surfing on snow. Only problem is the snowfalls are not as often as I'd like. The decision to destroy the park was a shocker and snowboarders are second fiddle here. I was at Edel Wermer hotel 5 mins from bottom of Kita-no-Mine gondola. They were friendly enough but the conditions were less than ideal. I had to pay 60,000 my season pass, my wage was 100 yen less, I had to make a contribution to dinners which were not as tasty as Freeden Fort and accommodation was a hassle. A positive was I largely only worked after 5.00pm so my days were freed up. Theres bound to be other hotels out there like Freeden Fort but it would be hard to beat. I do have a ni-kyuu qualification but I don't see the language as a major barrier. After all, a lot of the work isn't rocket science such as washing dishes and serving food. You just learn faster in this kind of environment but obviously a basic understanding of japanese would be better. If your japanese was in the early stages going with a friend would be more suitable. If you get stressed out there is no better thearpy than being able to go boarding every day. The ironical thing about snowboarding in Japan is I hardly ever had to wait in queue. While the queues in New Zealand can get ridiculous-this season I once waited over 40 mins at Cardrona. Link to post Share on other sites
talisker 0 Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 The best thing to do is go to the resort you like and just hang out make your face known and tell everyone you want to work there - A friend of mine worked at a resort in Chugoku region - he had a great deal but he needed a Japanese CV and an intro from a Japanese contact - its not what you know its who you know right? He had an awesome deal though......free accom, pass meals and about 15o,ooo a month in pay......worked pretty hard though. Link to post Share on other sites
andy indy 0 Posted September 10, 2002 Share Posted September 10, 2002 In answer to Ocean. If you worked 4 a ski-field and are caught going out of bounds you would most likely instantly lose your job. I don't recommend working for a ski-field as usually days-off are very limited and generally the better the snow the fewer you get. Working for a nearby hotel or something is more practical. If you have a season pass and are working somewhere else you just need to be weary. If caught you should get a warning before anything major happens such as losing your pass. I did write some further details about where I worked but it has since disappeared and I can't be stuffed writing it up again. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted September 10, 2002 Share Posted September 10, 2002 Thanks for all the info! Link to post Share on other sites
MikeD 0 Posted September 10, 2002 Share Posted September 10, 2002 Is there any other way to make cash in or near a resort (snowfield? sorry I'm from Seattle.) Are there any places like Whistler/Blackcomb where the town is big enough to warrant a NOVA branch? I assume most of us are teaching English. Maybe we should all get together and create our own English school (simply all of us under one name to look official, but no more than taking on private students while pooling resources). I am a designer so I could make a sick web site and identity. I just have to find a way to ride at least four days out of the week here. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted September 10, 2002 Share Posted September 10, 2002 How about a teachers', designers' and translators' cooperative, maybe with snowboarding lessons thrown in? Link to post Share on other sites
Bren 0 Posted September 10, 2002 Share Posted September 10, 2002 GREAT idea MikeD. I'm interested in getting over there as soon as possible. I know the basics in Japanese language but I don't really mind what I do there. Ideally I'd be teaching English or instructing snowboarding. Sounds like if you get in with a good manager you can have your visa issues taken care of. I've only really started looking into this just now but can anyone tell me how hard/easy it is to get a visa? Link to post Share on other sites
MikeD 0 Posted September 11, 2002 Share Posted September 11, 2002 Hope I don't steer you away but it's hell. I finally got legal for everything two days ago. I can stay here for 3 years and work legally. Wooo hooo!!! It took about three months and a lot of time in immigration. It depends on how your trying to get your visa but if you ask me the only way to go is to get someone to sponsor you and then they do all the work for you. You just sit back and wait to get your visa. Nova is a good school to get you here because they set you up to live here with little effort on your part. Once you get here you may want to look for a different school to teach for, though. Japanese have super strict immigration policies. hope that helps! Link to post Share on other sites
sachiko 0 Posted September 11, 2002 Share Posted September 11, 2002 One of my friend used to work at Hunter Mauntain, but didn't enjoy it. He thought maybe it would be great time, but was bored and didnot get paid much for work. They had really tough schedule i think. Link to post Share on other sites
brit-gob 9 Posted September 12, 2002 Share Posted September 12, 2002 Know any more about that Sachiko? Like, what kind of work were they doing then at hte resort ? Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted September 14, 2002 Share Posted September 14, 2002 Hey all, I am from the USA, living in Seattle. I am chompin at the bit to get out of here and see the world. I really wanna go to Japan for this winter and I can't think of anything cooler than workin and livin where I can snowboard. Anyone got any tips for actually finding the job from home? Any sites you have found useful? How is working as an english teacher? I have heard bad things. My Japanese is intermediate level and I am not too worried about a visa, just a place to stay and something to do. Fell free to email me directly enderzero@yahoo.com. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites
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