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Hi all, I hung out around here 2 seasons ago, and have dropped in quitely on and off since.

 

Got great advice and had a fantastic trip to nagano/nozawa onsen. I picked up some pocket rockets (from FT)and learned to ski mad off piste powder. We love trees and deep powder. We will have a crack at small cornices and double black steeps (but not as mad as FT and friends tho - you know who u are - and we arent big on the park). The seths and the PRs need taking for a run!

 

I missed last season (baby + new business - baby is cute, new business is heading me to heart attack). I have 2 weeks (last week jan/1st in feb) for powder fix.

 

I *need* to be able to connect by fast internet back to my business in case the wheels fall off(either net cafe, with my laptop/hotspot, or even fixed price 3Gdata card if I can buy a prepaid one -i plan on returning over and over to Japan). Internet cafe in Hakuba?

 

We (4 adults and 2 babies and maybe a babysitter/friend) are flying Tokyo and will do the shinkansen to Nagano station. We are trying for overnight flight from Aus.

 

Where should we stay thats practical (we will bring all baby needs) given we will have 2 x 7 month old babies in tow? I mean getting to the accomodation cannot be too much of a chore. Car seats I presume/hiring a car are out, taxi is ok (in hakuba??) with babies?? How long a walk would we be thinking?? These sorts of things? (we can walk the kids if necessary).

 

Im thinking we want easy access to shuttle bus to the other resorts in the valley, easy access to restaurants and village stores and

 

For the skiing, we like offpiste ++ and steeps...in fact the piste is only there to get you to the good stuff. We never had any trouble in Noz, Nisek, Rusutsu with the patrol. I think Hakuba can be an issue?? Are we looking at the wrong resort? (We would be bored with a return to Noz and internet was a problem).

 

We had a full board minshuki stay in Japanese style rooms in Noz and want to do that again (we had just enough japanese and they had enough english to give us a great time and we love local food not western cuisine).

 

I have some idea of the layout of Hakuba but you really dont know a place till you go there once.

 

Opinions greatly welcomed..

 

TIA

JD

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Taxi drivers are quite happy to take babies without car seats. If you want to rent a car it is also possible to rent car seats. Not sure if you can rent them from the rental car company though, I think a lot of people get them from the local city hall or somewhere like that. Car seat rental is expensive, if you want to drive its probably better to bring your seats from home. Airlines will put them in check in baggage for free and they don't count towards your weight limit. Just remember to bring a locking clip for the seatbelt as Japanese cars don't have the latch system attachments.

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That looks great. I was wondering what I was going to do after the c-section cos I'll be in hospital for 12 days. One of those looks like the perfect way to fill you in on the gory details as they happen! (Sorry off topic)

 

Looks like you can buy it with a credit card through the Japanese site at the link you provided or you can call 03-5767-9222 and order it Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm over the phone.

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Phool,

I've been checking into it & had the computer lady at work call up a few companies for me. It seems that if you are somewhere where there is no wireless LAN available (i.e. most places) then you need to either buy a card, similar to the one you link to above or a cable that will connect your mobile phone to your PC. There are two ways in which the data is sent & received, either by a continuous stream (called data communication) or in packets (packet communication). Packet communications are cheaper and more popular. The Bmobile card uses packet tramsmissions. If you just want to check your webmail this is no problem but you can't use it for messenger programmes or things like Skype as your conversation would get broken up/delayed at the end of each packet of data that was sent. The B-mobile guy said that their card doesn't allow you to access sites that you have to pay for or certain secure sites.

 

Most of the mobile phone comapanies offer similar types of card to the Bmobile one, but I think they are mostly contract ones, rather than a prepaid one like the Bmobile.

Another option is to connect your mobile phone to your pc via a cable. I don't know if you could do this with a rented phone but I don't see why not.

Anyway the main mobile companies are

Docomo , Vodafone (soon to be Softbank) and AU.

 

It seems that if you have a NTT Docomo FOMA mobile phone you can buy a "FOMA USB Cable" to connect your phone to your pc. You can select to either use packet or data communications. It only works with Japanese windows XP and the NTT guy was not sure whether things like messenger & skype would work, even if you select the data communications option. The cable is only 1500yen though so I'm going to just buy one & try it. I'll keep you posted.

 

Another problem with that might be that FOMA doesn't have a very good network and will be out of range in a lot of places in Hakuba. NTT Docomo Mova has the best coverage in Japan at the moment but as they are trying to phase out Mova and get all their customers to switch to FOMA, I'm not sure if you can get the cables to connect PC's to Mova phones. Docomo's eventual plan is to have everyone on FOMA, then they will switch all their Mova antennas to FOMA ones and FOMA will have the best coverage. Other networks like Softbank & AU are unlikely to surpass the Docomo coverage anytime soon as local landowners are opposed to the building of new antennas. When Docomo first installed its Mova antennas it was a government company so didn't have much trouble getting permission to build.

Probably way more information than you need but got time at work today.... wave.gif

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most hotels are putting in wireless net. Most have done it mominoki and tokyu have done it as have most of the backpackers.

 

Ski happo and youll hae no issues with patrol. stay away from the wide open slide areas and youl be in good shape.

 

Why not tell us your budget and we can then direct you better. What do you want to spend per night?

 

Id also like to meet the man that bought my wifes favourite skis.

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I don't think the b-mobile plan is good value - there are few places in Hakuba (if any) that would have a compatible WAN service, there are also many places in Hakuba that have free wireless access.

 

The fine print says that each time you use the PHS connection, 5(!) hours of time is deducted. With spotty PHS connections in Hakuba (it works in some places and not in others - I was able to connect half way up Happo last year but could not get a connection at Saka or at the hotel in the back part of Echoland) you would use that 150 hours up pretty fast just trying to get a good connection.

 

As Fattwins says, there are a lot more places with free wireless and you could also sign up for Willcom's Air-H service for about 4,000 yen/month for unlimited service and most places will provide the hardware for free. I have used Air-H for years in Japan and was pleased that it did work in Hakuba when I needed it. The closer you are to the station, the better it works.

 

Me Jane - Willcom's Air-H service is PHS (the same service that b-mobile is tapping into) and Skype works just fine - even while in a moving car. I have yet not to be able to get into any web sites but b-Mobile may have some limitations as its using the same network but is a different service...

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One of the things that attracted us to Hakuba was the fibre optic lines in many areas. We are surrounded on 3 sides by forest but have 100mb internet.

I wouldn't bother getting wired up as you can find a place to stay with a high speed connection easily.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Wow I havent checked this thread for a while and just want to thank everyone for their efforts, particularly Me Jane!

 

As I look more into Hakuba the more I realise wireless/wired for guests internet is taking off there. We are looking at this where we stay as a prerequisite (I do the IT for my business and it can be "down", and while there may be some support, the buck stops with me -Im running a 2k3 server, backup linux server, asterisk phone/VOIP server, 2 websites, and I program a little. Just now Ive set up a 54G wireless link between 2 sites using wireless bridge).

 

Air-H may be a great emergency backup. Bmobile still sounds like it might do the job, VNC is able to work over dialup.

 

I still havent written Bmobile off either, and the speeds theorectically seemed enough to do skype and remote desktop/vnc as suggested

 

I've set up an instant messaging server on my network in anticipation of the trip (so I can "MSN" myself on my own private "MSN" service and more importantly my secretary - that word is so outdated thesedays - she is really my right hand person/man)

 

Ive also learned a bit about wireless networking. Many of the wireless networks are unsecured and open (mostly not on purpose I guess, but some are genuinely open).

 

In either case, for a couple of hundred dollars you can get an antenna for a wireless network card and a range booster which will well and truly pick up a wireless signal 12klms+ away (in line of site). www.freenet-antennas.com "roadwarrior" http://host219.ipowerweb.com/~freenet-/o...fb07ccba5bfeef1

 

FT, I think I spread my skibudget different to others, Id rather stay cheap and spend it all on lessons and skiing and skidays and go ghetto in accomodation than have 2 weeks 5*.

 

Thanks everyone for your help. Im happy to help if I can with any IT issues you need (though I am not "qualified" - I know my stuff from need/hobby/experience).

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Don`t want to put a damper on things and sorry If I misunderstand, I am pretty sure you can`t get prepaid cards, and I am also quite sure you won`t get a contract if you can`t prove residency(assuming that is Australia)in Japan.With out a Gaijin card most companies if not all won`t give you a contract. as I think you can`t break the contract for 3 months.

 

This is just based on having to buy the phs cardbus type. I am also not sure you can hook up to the net with a prepaid phone, as packet use is usually calculated and billed next month. I have a feeling you can`t connect them with usb.

 

I had the same issue last year when I needed access to a test network being configured for a client. And I couldn`t get reliable net access. This year I try to make sure that my accomodation has net access.

 

I am pretty sure hakuba has ADSL and it won`t be too uncommon.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Fattwins:
phool again dont worry about it at all. If you fail to find net access and are stressed about it then come to my house and you can link direct by cable. I am confident that you wont have to do that.
I imagine 300 people traipsing though FT's lodge carrying laptops :p
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 Quote:
Originally posted by holo:
 Quote:
Originally posted by Fattwins:
phool again dont worry about it at all. If you fail to find net access and are stressed about it then come to my house and you can link direct by cable. I am confident that you wont have to do that.
I imagine 300 people traipsing though FT's lodge carrying laptops :p
think a few cans of happoshu or 500 yen bottle of wine wouldnt be such a bad deal for FF :p ;\)
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