Yesterday i decided to use up the ticket I won for Minamiuonuma by going to Ishiuchi Maruyama. The weather report said it was going to be warm and sunny so I expected spring.slushy conditions as this resort is very low. From the minute the sun came up, there wasn't a cloud to be seen in the sky. The weather was glorious!! I had been praying to the road gods that the dreaded devil road that is the Kan-Etsu expressway would play nice today after so many delayed attempts at getting to and from the mountains.....thankfully my child sacrifice seemed to have worked and we got there without a hitch through fast flowing traffic. Changing in the car parkm discarding most of the usual inner clothes I wear while boarding as it was so hot.





my mate Paul camping it up.....



afternoon beer's, Alpine style





looking over towards Gala Yuzawa




The snow was as expected, soft and slushy, even higher up. As the day wore on the upper mountain was starting to develop ice bombs and the bottom was more wet cement than slush puppy but I had a great time. A beautiful day, lots of snow, playing on the kickers and generally being out enjoying the world. I also got to try out my new board for the first time, a Salomon Powder Snake......yes, there was no powder to be had but damn what a fine board it is. Very flexy, playful and easy to throw around. Carves like a dream and for such a soft board, dampens the chatter really well whilst charging thru crud.

The only downside was getting a monumental case of sunburn across my lower face.........Mrs Tubby Beaver to be was not a happy beaver when she saw my Oompa-Loompa like, 2-tone Ford Capri 1983-esque face........."what about the wedding photos??!!" Yeah, thanks for the sympathy!!


Source: Ishiuchi Maruyama March 27th 2012

On Feb 10th I had a day off, so I headed up to Sapporo with the missus to meet a mate of mines who lives up there. Initially I had planned to go snowboarding, but due to a few reasons, the main one being me hitting GALA Yuzawa up the weekend before, I decided to not ride and spend the weekend boozing with my significant other! I had a geat time, Sapporo is a really cool city to hang out in.....houses that have gardens, that aren't built 1 foot away from the wall of their neighbour, large wide roads that have a perfectly simple address system, snow in a city of 1.8 million, nomihodais everywhere, generally cheaper prices, fantastic food, the snow festival and its best attribute IMO, it being in Hokkaido and within easy reach of a number of snow heavy resorts!!! .....wait make that its equally best attribute as of course this is also the home of Sapporo Beer!!!


Spent Friday afternoon down at the Sapporo Beer Museum, enjoying their taster sets..........1 glas will only set you back 200￥ and a 3 glass set will only cost you 500￥......ok, I'll have a few of them please!!!


while Classic is undoubtedly a great beer and head n shoulders above the kuro label variety, it isn't a patch on the Kaitakushi beer (the far right as you look at the picture). This is apparently the original recipe beer, its a cloudy lager but tastes great......I wish they'd start cranking up production and sell it on tap. The museum is cool, although the displays aren't in English but the staff do hand out English pamphlets to accompany you around the exhibits. I met a bunch of really cool ex-Sapporo ladies......


although one of them was telling a bunch of tourist how to pour a beer and that you shouldn't tilt the glass as that will kill the head you have to tilt the head to get the most out of your beer, a small frothy head is required....not a 4 inch monster!!! Yes, that IS the German style, but the Germans also serve their beer in 1 litre glasses, not 350mls!!


after the beer, we had a tramp around Odori Koen, where the famous Snow Festival is held every year. Some of the sculptures are cool as......unfortunately due to the warm/rain event earlier that week, some of the smaller ones were a bit naff. here are a few big ones...

One Piece not in 1 piece, there was a sign saying that there was another statue but they had to pull it down as it had become unstable with the warmer weather.....still impressive though

1 of my favourites.........very large and really cool. It gets lit up at night and is well smart

another fave, the detail on it was unbelievable....

difficult to remember that this is made from snow!!

a little further down was some ice sculptures....this Blue Palace was cool


after the snow festival it was drinking time. My mate was working Saturday morning, so we were flying solo on the Friday night, we had some awesome Hokkaido ramen for lunch so we decided to head over to the Kirin Beer Garden and get some all u can eat Ghengis Khan Lamb BBQ and all u can drink in 100 minutes beer. Although I prefer Sapporo beer, the choice of beer on the nomihodai here was aprticularly pleasing. Aside from the usual Ichiban Shibori and Lager varieties, there was Kirin Brau Meister ( a very good tipple) and Kirin Stout, great on tap. After drinking and feeding ourselves into a frenzy I managed to convince Mrs TB that the night was not finished and we rode the subway into Sapporo's entertainment district of Susukino. The snow was back on and it was fun wandering about a big city with the white stuff falling all around you. we hit a couple of bars here, including a cool Ice Wine Bar in the middle of the street. There were ice sculptures along the main drag here and the mulled wine on sale really heped keep the cold out.


By this time, we were seeing blurry as well.........


This area reminded me of Ginza and how it'd look if it got a lot of snow




The next day we headed up the coast to Otaru, some nice views out at sea with snow right down onto the beach....


although I missed them with the camera, there were about 6 or 7 hardy souls out there surfing, a little bit along the coast from this shot....I couldn't believe it!!

Otaru is pretty cool little place, cold as balls though...the wind coming off the sea just cuts right through you. It has a good brewery down on 1 of the canal warehouses (where exactly did that canal transport goods to?? Its only about 300 metres long!!!! ) we ate a cool BBQ place next to the brewery, then on a walk around town we ran into these cheerful characters


We met up with mymate that night and although it was boozy, it wasn't late as we were on the 10.30am flight back to Haneda and everyone else was up early for a trip to Rusutsu....no guessing where I was wanting to go!!

I really enjoyed Sapporo and with the cheap rent, housing, food etc and proximity to top notch snow fields, I'd move there in a minute......my Mrs on the other hand doesn't like cold so much, too much of a Shonan girl at heart!!

Last Saturday I took advantage of winning the Oze White World Comp on Snow Japan and headed up to Gunma for the day. Gunma from where I live in Kanagawa, is only about 3 and a half to 4hrs MAX away, so I was confident of getting there for first lifts. The weather report was favourable after the warm and rain event that the snow zone had had earlier in the week, with a small but decent amount of snow forecast to fall. Knowing how bad Tokyo traffic could be, even at silly o'clock in the morning, we left Shonan at the pre-dawn time of 4.30am. Although I have been up to Gunma and Yuzawa many times before by car, as I'm not the driver, I don't really pay attention too much to the correct turn-offs etc, as a result we relied on my mates Navi to guide us safely..........first schoolboy error of the day!! It routed us around the eastern part of Tokyo.....firstly through the Yokohama seafront, up past Haneda and then onto the Kan-etsu.........added about 40-50 mins to the journey but "no worries" I thought, we've left in plenty time and as soon as we clear Tokyo we can make up a large chunk of that time on the expressway. What a misnomer..........EXPRESSWAY.......whoever called the Kan-Etsu and Expressway must be 1 sick individual!! I had forgotten how much I hate this road!! For some reason, when I take a road trip up to Gunma, this stretch or tarmac likes to keep me hanging around. Hit our first traffic jam not long into the KanEtsu......another 50mins waiting while they cleaned up a smash, get going again and then run right into another jam.....this time for no apparent reason!! There was no accident, nothing reasonable to stop traffic.....its was just this damn road playing silly buggers!!

As soon as we turn off the Kan-Etsu at Numata IC, the snow starts. There was already more snow than I've usually seen on the side of the road and its this point my mate tells me that he hopes its not any worse as he doesn't have snow tires or chains!!! This should be interesting! There is a lot of snow (not Yuzawa amounts but more than I've seen on this road) but the car is doing ok. Eventually arrive at the resort about 10am and we're directed to the top car park..........schoolboy error #2. The car can't make it up the slope despite plenty pushing from this Beaver and the other passenger in the car. Reverses to the bottom and parks there. FINALLY at the resort and ready to rip.



Happy to see that the snow is in great condition, soft and squeaky. Its also falling from the sky at a steady rate and there is no wind so visibility isn't that bad. I'd actually forgotten how big this place is. After you skip the long "group" line for the gondola and use the 1 person line, you get out at the top and you can go 1 of 3 ways........Skyline course, which is nice n long and lots of fun switchbacking the berms at the side for a cruisy descent, down the ungroomed area which seems to be called the something Mens course or down the something-womens course (west mountain). You can also choose the far red run, which actually was my favourite.....there was a little untouched at the side here to get a couple of fresh face shots. The good thing about this resort is that the 2 areas eventually come out to the same spot, so if you are with different levels, you can still be riding similar places.



I actually didn't get to do as much riding here as I'd liked, as due to the weather and us not having snow tires/chains, it was decided to leave about 3-3.30pm before sundown so that if the worst did happen and we got stuck, it wouldn't be in darkness......safety first. Also my mate's young lad was with us for only his 2nd day on the snow (we had him up last season to Marunuma) and we spent the first hour or so giving him some pointers.....its great to see him not be afraid, just strap in and start going. If he fell, he just got back up and started agin, no dramatics, no moaning......great. He's at the stage now where he needs to learn to turn, but with 3 adults shouting at him to do this and do that, I reckon he should take a proper lesson!!

We had an uneventful drive back to Kanagawa, thanks to SnowJapan and their fantastic giveaways and thank you to the Snow gods for allowing us to not get stuck, and to the Kan-Etsu.....you can bite me, you piece of s##t!!


Source: Oze Iwakura White World Feb 18th

I finally made it up to Hakuba for more than a day trip and I was excited to see how this area compared to others in Japan that I'd been to. We were staying in the Wadano Mori area, a short 3 min walk to the Sakka lifts. This is a really picturesque area, the alpine style lodges nestled between the snow laden forest. I'd seen the snow report and was aware that hakuba didn't get the dump that other places around Nagano and Niigata had over the Christmas weekend and the forecast was not calling for snow until perhaps the Sunday afternoon/night so i went up there expecting my few days to be less nipple deep in powder and more cruising along the groomers. The saturday was a beautiful day to be on the mountain, brilliant sunshine, azure blue skies which contrasted nicely with the dazzling white of the snowy mountains. Although not deep, the snow was in good condition, it was still cold out there and the snow on the groomers, while packed, was still ice free and soft. The thing that impressed me most though were the views!! Hakuba is in amongst some real mountains, with the brilliant weather it was a snow photographer's dreamscape (Muika.....this was your kind of day). So on this note, it pains me to say that I got 0 pictures to back up these claims. I was left in charge of battery-charging duties and it would seem that I'm mentally deficient in this area as despite having inserted the battery in the charger for the whole of the previous day, there was not 1 volt of power in my camera's battery!!

I spent most of this day coaching Mrs TB in snowboarding, which meant spending the morning on the lower slopes before convincing her to head higher up. Actually for only her 3rd ever day on a snowboard (the other 2 days were 2 years ago at Shiga Kogen), se is actually pretty decent. She can link turns and is in control for the most part. She is at the stage where she has to consciously think through every mover her body has to make, so if she gets distracted....say by another rider coming too close, slope being slightly steeper, becoming tired......then she bails. i tried to instil confidence in her with gentle praise and encouragement but apparently my version of this is her version of "bullying"!!

Anyways, I digress. After switching battery charging duties over to her, the camera was charged up and able to snap away some pictures of NYE with Panhead Pete, Stemik, TJ OZ and of course, Smelly the Cheese


The next day was a little hazy (headwise, not weatherwise) and there had been no overnight snow, so me and mrs TB decided to forgo the slopes, have an onsen and then a stroll around the village. We walked down from Wadano, along the Olympic road the cut up into Echoland an then back towards the Happo area of the resort. A lot of snow around, just that it wasn't very deep.



It was actually quite warm, i only had a t-shirt on underneath my Jacket, in the course of the day I also literally lost my hat.

we stopped for lunch at a Hotel with a great view of the Happo slopes, I unfortunately cannot recall the name but the nama ham pizza was great.

After dropping Mrs TB off at the hotel, I decided to head up the slopes and get a few turns in for the remainder of the afternoon. The snow was as expected, hardpack and the upper slopes were uber Mogul-tastic.......wasn't exactly the best fun I've ever had on a board. i snapped a few photos from the very top but they were nothing like the potential ones I could've had the day before, but still the view down the valley was pretty spectacular




and my old time favourite......arm-outstreched-self-photo....


That night we spent drinking at The Pub, a British style Pub in Wadano. Had a few nice beers, good atmosphere and it actually felt as if I was in a pub back home.....other than the mutlitude of Aussie accents of course.

I was leaving the next day and as I was a little disappointed at my on-snow time here, i decided that if the forecasted snowfall came, then I would buy a half day ticket and ride before getting the bus. I woke up to find that it had started snowing but it wasn't that much and coupled with a bout of man-flu I'd picked up I decided that it wasn't worth riding........I made the wrong choice. Just as I was packing everything away and checking out, the snow just seemed to get stronger and stronger. It didn't stop all day. From wandering around Wadano, I'd say that about 15-20cms of fresh fell which would've been nice on the already packed snow on the slopes. The lifts didn't seem busy either.......I was kicking myself TBH. Me and the missus spent most of our time wandering around trying to find places that were open for lunch....other than the on-slope cafes, there isn't much choice.


Thanks to info in the free Hakuba Connect magazine that I'd picked up, I found Gakuto Lodge & Cafe in Wadano. Its managed by a young English couple over for the season and they cheerfully said that the cafe is newly opened and they are in the middle of tweaking it as they get up and running. Nevertheless, the bagel burger was damned good and the coffee was ace.



as you can see from the last 2 pics, the snow finally did come down in Hakuba but for me it was just a day too late (well I suppose I should've manned up and stole a cheeky half day)

In summation, I liked Hakuba a lot for the village......its a real nice part of the country, the village looks a hell of a lot better than most resorts in Japan, and alongside Niseko, it has a somewhat similar vibe to apres that's found in Europe and Nth America. It was great to meet some SJers in the flesh and share a couple of cold ones with them. I was a bit disappointed that i didn't get to experience the true Hakuba powder but that is at the whims of Mother Nature and had I been staying a day or 2 extra, no doubt my opinion of the riding aspect would have been a lot different.


Source: Hakuba New Year 2011-2012

Today and yesterday I had rare week days off, so I decided to head back to Yuzawa and try and get some uncrowded turns in at GALA. So imagine my surprise when I get there and the place is heaving!!! Whatever, the snow was coming down a fair whack and the ride up in the gondola really got the juices flowing seeing all that snow. I didn't take my camera this time as the forecast was for snow, snow and more snow so I thought I'd just concentrate on the riding. I'd been to Gala before and wasn't so impressed.....it was fine, I had an awesome day, but I just felt the place was small. i didn't however get to ride the Southern area that last time, so I was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer. First couple of warm up runs down the main Central area runs, nice snow on piste and beautiful stashes just to the side, in and out of the pow over and over....great. Now to find this Southern area....what a carry on!! Its easier to find the North western passage, Atlantis and Brigadoon!! The top connection was closed (again...boooooo Gala) but apparently the cat track from the Edelweiss run was open....could I find it?? bloody hell!! I stopped for an early lunch about 11am, then decided to give it one more try before going over to the Northern area. Top connection was still closed but finally the cat track was open...........wow!! No one was over here, the snow was untouched and the stashes at the side were soft and deep!! Unfortunately, for some reason they didn't open the top runs....which was a crying shame because those runs were immaculate powder with no trails down em and I was gagging to give em a go. I had to stick to the bottom half but actually it did me just fine. Like I said no one was there so I was able to do laps of the Bronco run......the first bend, veering skiers right and into a huge pow field with some trees dotted around, face shots aplenty, back onto the official run, then dart left down the cat track, stay high and take out the other pow field that isn't REALLY roped off (although Patrol did ask me to stop riding there). That area was the sweetest, when I first went in, there were only 2 tracks....I was the 3rd. After a few laps and being asked to stop, I headed back to the central area for a drink etc, when i got back there were loads of tracks and each getting further into the field....ok then, I was back in again. I spotted someone stuck there, so I headed over and made sure he was ok before ripping through again but when I got to the lift I clocked the liftie signalling to someone inside the hut about me and then pointing at the other guy digging his way out. I was suspicious but I just couldn't tear myself away from that snow. So I nipped over the brow of the slope and into the field when out of nowhere the patrol guy has cornered someone else and is giving him a talking to......he had his back to me so I was able to Ninja my way out before he saw he....phew!!

In the afternoon it cleared up and the sun came out and I wish I had my camera......what a view!! Some great looking terrain there as well, pity they can't expand the resort a bit. I did go across the Northern area to see whats what but across there the wind was howling, it was cloudy and snowing, so it was back to the sheltered pow faces of the Southern area.......I was like a pig in shit!!!

Yep i resumed my love affar with Pow after a rocky couple of days at Maiko and kagura.......the difference here (well in respect to Maiko) is that Gala has good gradient to get you through....Maiko is pretty tame. Kagura I'm blamig on my board set-up, I hadn't moved the bindings back etc and like I said in another post I tweaked the angle of my front foot and that gave me back the control I felt I was lacking. My new board really came through today as well and performed well in the powder, still squirrelly on flats but thats just soemthing I'm gonna have to live with.

Apologies again for lack of photos and cheese, but I was having too good a time


Source: Gala Yuzawa 2nd February

After some quiet contemplation, and seeing a few other SJ members starting a blog, I decided to take the plunge......... most will be about my various snow trips but some will be deep and philosophical about those really troubling issues that cloud a Beaver's life...........1st up Maiko......are you sitting comfortably, now we'll begin





I was going to wait and hit up here next Wednesday for some uncrowded weekday action but I couldn't stand looking at all the snowfilled webcams for another weekend, so off I went. Its an early start for me, get the 5.04am train from Fujisawa station to Tokyo, jump on the 6.08am Shinkansen to Echigo Yuzawa and powder heaven. When we were spit out of the HUGE tunnel between Gunma and Niigata, we weren't disappointed to see that the Pow tap was left on and there was loads of snow around and the sky was full of it. Maiko puts on a free shuttle bus from Echigo Yuzawa station to the resort so thats great. They also time it to coincide with the Shink arrivals so there SHOULD be one waiting for you when you get off. When we got there, happily there were 2 buses.....1 a large coach that took all the bags in the hold and another more of a hotel like shuttle bus. We were greeted very happily by the driver with a cheery "Good-o Mo-ningu" which put an unexpected smile on our faces. Shuttle was busy, both buses were packed, with people sitting in those dodgy jump seats that all Japanese buses seem to have on them. There are a couple of stops at the resort itself......think the first one was called "Ski-jo Mae No Iriguchi", 2nd one was the "Hotel Stop" and lastly was the Gondola.........get off at the Gondola, the ski centre is there and you can change and rent gear if need be and also the Gondola accesses the better side of the mountain, the powder bowl area on the left of the Gerende map above.

I didn't take any photos, except for some dodgy stuff they passed off as soup (more of that later), as this place has been photographed on much nicer days by a slightly better photographer than myself (Muika take a bow) and it was gray and puking snow all day so not much to see. We got off the Gondola and headed to the top lifts marked C and B on the map. Took B up and rode down the ungroomed area to the Gondola top again. The ungroomed area was pretty much tracked out in the centre but the sides were chock full of large banks of untouched DEEEEEEEEP powder. This resort isn't very high, just below the 1000 metre mark, so although the new snowfall was light, the powder underneath was a little heavy. This meant that there were a lot of people getting stuck and having to dig themselves out........we made 2 or 3 runs down this slope and there was 1 guy who was still digging himself out to the piste. After our first runs, we were kind of left feeling with a little "is this it" kind of feeling. Not that the snow wasn't good, just that the runs were a bit short. We then took the C lift up, there was so much snow that our boards were not that far away from the snow while riding the lift!! There were tons of the white stuff!! near to the top we spied 2 girls who ventured off the side with the intention to ride under the lift, come a cropper and start to make the long arduous task of digging themselves back to solid base-land........they took ages doing this! We decided to ride down to the bottom again to see what the rest of the runs were like. The Guigui course was fun, we cut through the bushes and trees for some short untouched powder runs and then followed the course back down to the Mountain Restaurant. We actually took an early lunch.....I plumped for my standard katsu curry and was surprised to be given a cup full of what looked liked dishwater, to be told it was the "Soup Set"........if Peppered water passes as soup, I think they should fire the chef!!

Back to the runs, I enjoyed these cruisy meandering runs, nothing challenging, just great fun on the powdery slopes with some surf-style switchbacks on the berms at the side of the piste, dropping in and out of the untouched as I went. We headed across to the Maiko area after lunch to check it out. At first glance, this is family and beginner central. The lower runs are all very cruisy greens, not much of a gradient at all and it was here that I had to wade out of my first waist deep powder hole of the day. On the lift up I spied a powder pocket with not a track, decided that to ride it all the way through I should stay high and cut down at the last minute and at all costs avoid charging down into the hole in the middle.........got a little excited and forgot my previous plan and got stuck. That was a wade out so not too bad. We headed over to the strangely named "Dolphin Course", the track from the lift is above a semi open bowl that is left ungroomed and strangely has skull and cross bone signs saying that it is not Patrolled. Most people headed over to the open face to drop in, we hung back a little and dropped a little into the treed area (it hardly warrants the use of the word "trees") but still it was nice to get untouched snow, lapped this a few times and each time we were dropping in earlier into the bowl. Finally a place here that is steep enough to allow you to ride the deep all the way through. Its pretty short though which is a shame because its one of the few places where the gradient helps you through the deep snow. I also got stuck here, at the bottom of the run where many people had tracked, leaves kinda big holes that when you get spit out into can halt your progress and get you stuck.....another wade, this time mid-stomach and had to use my board as a raft.

Last run of the day, decided to take the Gondola back up and enjoy that Guigui run again............instead of using the track, I cut through the pockets between the trails (actually it may be the Ranran course at this point) riding the snow when disaster strikes and my progress is halted......AGAIN!! This time though, I'm stuck good!! I'm not far from piste which fills me with confidence....I can just wade over there again. Not this time!! This snow was uber deep and every movement I made meant i sank further down. I had buried my board, found it, tried to use it as a shovel....failed....sank further......tried to use it as a life raft and was reasonably successful but it mean that snow build up at the front was getting into my face.........man I was tired!! thankfully this guy was passing and asked if I needed help, which I gladly accepted and he pulled, I kicked until I was finally free! That stuff was like concrete around my feet, almost sucking my boots right off them!! I really felt that this year I would be able to start doing proper out of bounds stuff but this has brought it back to me that actually perhaps I can't.

Ok, so this has turned into an Ippy style edition and I'm droning on....so a re-cap.....Maiko, nice little place for a day trip. Families and beginners will enjoy the mellow Maiko slopes and a weekday trip with no crowds will mean a lot of untouched for the Powder Hounds. Not really that much challenging runs in terms of gradient....this is a pretty mellow place and those runs that do have a bit of steepness are actually really short and its over before it began. Obviously I got stuck a few times and it got me thinking.......last season at Kagura I was riding the pow and trees there no probs, so why was I having so much problems with the Maiko stuff?? I figure that the snow, while great, isn't as light due to the altitude and also the gradient doesn't help when there are crazy amounts of snow, keeping momentum can be a challenge.........though I am loathe to suggest it but can a place have too MUCH snow?? Anyway, I had a great time, I didn't get to see the nice views that are meant to be here, but it was very picturesque.....I also missed out on the beer towers but if they were filling them up with the 600 yen cans of 350ml Asahi then I'm glad I passed.....couldn't have afforded it!!

Peppery Water



Source: Centleisure Maiko Jan 27th 2012