Sunny this morning in Myoko. A nice day (but I want more snow!). Cloudy off over the ocean to the north.

Nice snowfall overnight, not a huge amount but some good, solid, build-that-base snow that we can really use.

It's overcast, the temperatures are up a bit and snow really wants to fall, but not much yet.

Today was the first real snowthrowing of the season; 15cm doesn't count, really, but when you get new snow covering the boots and nicely covering the cars, then it's the real thing.

Snow continued to fall on and off through the day yesterday, but we didn't get a massive amount of new snow.

We have some serious snowfall going on this morning.

Another day when it seems like it's snowing everywhere except where it normally does.

Still no super-heavy snowfalls, although it looks like the highways and byways heading south from Niigata City are closed due to heavy snow.

The snow is really being reluctant this year; another dusting that maybe gives us 1cm of fresh.

The weather information function of my car's navigation system kept reminding me that a heavy snow advisory is up for the 18th - that is, today - but the heavy stuff hasn't hit yet.

Well, some snow fell through the day yesterday, but we still don't have a whole lot at the base level at Akakan.

The season has officially begun, with two lifts running to access the upper part of Lotte Arai.

The big snow that could have happened really didn't. Or hasn't yet.

The national forecast is for heavy snow all over, and, while there's not that much on the ground yet, the overnight rain has turned to a steadily-falling-if-not-super-heavy snowfall.