We had a great time in Japan – thank you for your organisation – everything went well.
Snow depth 260cm which is great, no tow queues, fantastically good; except a couple at the weekends.
Skiing conditions: Shiga Kogen, could not ask for better snow or better grooming. Suited us fine as we could ski from one area to the next.
Accommodation: The Prince Hotel East branch was for us an up market hotel. The views from our room were great. We had taken the dinner meal package in the hope of being introduced to various Japanese meals. This part was disappointing as the Japanese meal was shabu shabu each night. However, there was a Japanese influence in the western food they served.
Hakuba: snow conditions not as good as Shiga Kogen as the skiing area is quite a bit lower, hence the snow was not so good for several days but then improved. A steeper area, and the westerners preferred to ski at Happo One, or those that like powder skied at Cortina. We skied other areas and you could count on one hand the number of non Japanese. There is a very good snow boarders park at Happo 47, and also this area was mainly skied by snow boarders. A down side to Hakuba from our point of view was that the resorts are not interlinked, and you need a different ticket for each area.
Now you know lots about skiing in Japan you can go.
A couple of general thoughts: Competence with chopsticks is essential, luckily not a problem for us, so we did not starve.
Warmed toilet seats are a great plus in ski areas. The whole toilet set up is a plumbers delight!
It was great to have some English translations, but surprisingly quite a number were so poor, you could not understand the message. Surprising because the Japanese are so precise and meticulous in all areas. I do not mean this as a criticism, because there is no reason why they should put up signs for foreigners.
Thank you once again Clem, we are sure we will visit Japan again.
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Mar. 2012
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