greetings, post one for me. I am living just outside of Hiroshima city, doing the english teaching thing. Now that the insane heat is gone, my mind is drifting to the snow. I am looking for any info/insight anyone might have to boarding in this part of the country and also any info on the quickest/cheapest ways to get to the serious terrain from here?

Cheers

Mizuho is by far my favourite around there. it's in shimane prefecture, less than an hour from hiroshima city. Then you have Geihoku in Hiroshima pref which is also good.　There are also a number of small resorts in Hiroshima pref like Nekoyama,etc ... I have never tried doing backcountry in that part of Japan.

If you want to go to hakuba there are overnight buses which have the ski pass included in the price. It works out really cheap. But I don't know if you can enjoy skiing after a whole night sleeping on the bus.

Forget skiing right now and focus on more important things:

I lived in Saijo for almost 5 years - youre lucky, you have the sake matsuri coming up this weekend and its in your backyard!!! Wicked sake there and crazy times to be had!

Once you give us a TR on sake matsuri including pics and sake you drunk, since I cant make it down cuz of work, then we will be happy to answer any questions you have

Oh don't you worry I am ready for Sake Matsuri - at least as ready as you can be for all you can drink sake for 8hrs for 1300 yen! I am expecting drunken debauchery on an unprecedented scale!

And when you say own backyard you are right on the mark. My apartment building does not have a backyard - but that is because there is a large wall dividing our parking lot from a sake distillery! We are 1 block off of Sake-dori so it is going to be a very convenient stumble home for me (and the half dozen other people crashing on my tatami)!

which sake factory are ya near? One of my favorite sakes in Japan is Kirei 亀齢　which is fantastic.

Would love to go to that, sounds like a very good reason to visit Hiroshima this time of year!

if you do a search over "sake matsuri" I have had threads up over it the last 3-4 years...

Anybody in West Japan who can swing down to Hiroshima this weekend I highly recommend it. One of my favorite matsuri in Japan for sure!!!

The Oktoberfest beer festival is on this weekend as well in Yokohama at the red brick warehouse in Minato Mirai