19 Apr 07: Congrats to Koji Koji of the WLS team will take a break from making our new Japan Worldwide website on Sunday, so that he can marry Yumiko. He's off on a great honeymoon afterwards, so this is his last day in the office for a couple of weeks. All of us here at WeLoveSnow want to offer Koji & Yumiko our best wishes, and we we look forward to celebrating with them on the day!


Koji & Yumiko

10 Apr 07: Season end dates We are in full 'spring ski' mode now. The sprinkling of snow that we had last week has made way for blue skies. Its still a little bit too cold to ski just in a t-shirt, but definitely only lighter clothing is needed. Kandatsu finished its season last Sunday. This means that only Gala Yuzawa and Kagura are still running. Gala is scheduled to keep going until 22 April - a very early close this year - it usually runs through Golden Week in early May. Kagura however has kept its base, and expects to run though until the last weekend of May (27 May) as usual.

31 Mar 07, 7pm: Ski Challenge is on! Tonight I did the first lift of the Yuzawa 24 Ski Lift Challenge. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the record is for the number of different lifts ridden in a 24 hour period. As a bit of insurance, I decided to do some night ski at Iwappara ski resort - only 1 lift was running, but that means that we only have to ride 42 lifts before 6.49pm tomorrow! Huge thanks to Patrick of the bottle bar, and Josh of Naspa Ski Garden, who have agreed to get up far too early tomorrow morning for the 7.30am start at Naeba,to act as witnesses...

23 Mar 07: Welcome to Dave Cave Dave Cave designed our WeLoveSnow.com logo...after 3 years of threatening to come out to Yuzawa, he's finally managed it - with a week of snowboarding sandwiched between his world surfing tour. The photo below shows Dave with his handiwork...


David & Emma in the WLS office

20 Mar 07: STILL snowing Its been snowing since 12 March every day, almost non-stop. The conditions are awesome - Mike from Minakami sent a mail to say that "the powder in Kagura is bottomless". Looking good for the national holiday tomorrow!


Yuzawa - snowing again!!

16 Mar 07: Farewell to AIS-HK The Australian International School of Hong Kong have been over for a week of skiing at Gala Yuzawa and Kandatsu resort, whilst also managing to fit in a bowling trip! It was great to have them over - we'll be putting up some more photos soon, and we hope to welcome the school to Yuzawa again next year!


AIS-HK Japan ski group 2007, photo taken outside Esprit Hotel

15 Mar 07: Powder snow Jonny Richards has come over to write a piece on Yuzawa for document snowboard magazine. We have been showing him around resorts such as Gala, Kandatsu, Hakkaisan, Naeba and Kagura. This photo shows him shredding the powder at Kandatsu ski resort - after this run, he was a very happy man!


Powder run at Kandatsu, 12 March

15 Mar07: Gone with the wind Our lift challenge record breaking attempt had to be postponed yesterday, as high winds caused certain lifts not to run in Naeba and Kagura. The huge amounts of snow that we have been having has extended the season, however, and so we will be sure to make another attempt soon!

7 Mar 07: Snowing again Its been snowing for most of the day today - pretty heavily this afternoon. No signs of stopping, touch wood. The weather forecasts indicates that temperatures will be high on Saturday and Sunday which may result in the dreaded rain - but apart from this, the forecast shows snow for every day up until next Wednesday.

26 Feb 07: Skiing on clouds Amazing day at Kagura yesterday. Recent big dump of snow, blue skies, and very cold - it must have been reaching minus 10. This made for amazing conditions - particularly in the morning, when it was like skiing on clouds. It was great to see couples, pensioners and families all with skins on their skis, and making the backcountry hike away from the resort towards Kagura-no-mine.
One thing that I've learned though - when its a powder day, nothing beats being on a snowboard. It was the first time I've tried skiing on a proper powder day: for powder hounds, boarding definitely rules!

25 Nov 06: Great day on the slopes! Had a great day today. Kagura opened, and it was great to get out on the board in natural snow. It was a beautiful day, with amazing blue skies - as you can see from the photos on the homepage. I have to thank the very kind girl who found my digital camera on the slopes, and found me after I'd finished my run to return it. Only in Japan!

At the moment, only the main Kagura gelende is open, but with more snow forecast for this week, its looking good for the weekend. Now it really feels like the season has started...

24 Feb 07 Gala closed today Gala will be closed today. The weather isn't actually so bad, but resort gondola is particularly susceptible to westerly winds. Snow has been falling this morning - maybe 10cm or so has gone down overnight.

23 Feb 07: Thanks to Kenta Kenta from Kandatsu ski resort took me & Masako on a road trip to Nozawa onsen. First impressions weren't good - lower slopes were closed through lack of snow. But further up the mountain conditions were excellent - cold with blue skies showing amazing views.


Nozawa Onsen ski resort

22 Feb 07: Thanks to Simon Lee Simon is staying at Yuzawa Grand Hotel for Chinese New Year. He sent us a message, saying "thanks guys for helping me plan my group trip to Yuzawa. Thanks to your help in providing info and getting us from a to b the trip has been going very smoothly - we're having a great time!"

19 Feb 07: Only in Japan I've lived in Japan for 8 years, but still this country shocks and surprises me sometimes. Today I was at Maiko Korakuen ski resort - half way through the day we decided to stop for coffee at a cafe on the slopes. I have no idea why they decided to have the cafe staff dressed up as 'lolicon' girls - more akin to Akihabara than Yuzawa. Brightened up our day though!


Keiko-chan, serving coffee

17 Feb 07: Perfect conditions The weather has done us a favour. 2 days of non-stop snow, now its cold with blue skies. There are going to be a lot of happy, happy people on the slopes today...


Yuzawa, this morning


Yuzawa Town


16 Feb 07: WLS Office BB Gun Target Shooting Championships Steve takes the honours with 22 points, followed by Neil on 20 and Baba-san on 19. Koji has bathroom cleaning duties for next week, after coming last with 12 points.


Koji the Tom Baker Gangsta

16 Feb 07: Still dumpin' Usual service is resumed in Yuzawa. Got to wear my boarding strides for the walk to work, very careful to avoid walking under the power lines as they are all laden with snow.

Stop press Apart from the excitement caused by this huge dump of snow just before Chinese New Year, the WeLoveSnow office is inexplicably buzzing with anticipation at the WLS Target Shooting Championships, to be held in the office at 5pm. [Its only a BB gun firing plastic pellets, not the real thing...] The loser has to clean the office bathroom next week. We will be broadcasting live text commentary via the WLS Weblog.

15 Feb 07: White out No point in posting a photo today - might as well just put in a white square. Its white out there - snowing as thick as I've seen it all season. Cold too, so the snow quality is great. When this snow breaks, the conditions are going to be fantastic..!

12 Feb 07: WeLoveNaita 'Naita' is the Japanese word for night skiing. The best resorts in the area for naita are Joetsu Kokusai, Ishiuchi Maruyama and Naeba. After getting back from Tokyo to find it snowing in Yuzawa, I thought I'd try the Ishiuchi Maruyama ski slopes. I wasn't disappointed - had a great time. I love naita - just you, your ipod and lots of space & time to practice that tricky flip on your board or to get to the next level on your skis. The lights from the resort result in an other-worldly orange glow, and the colder temperatures mean optimum snow quality. Cant beat it!


Night-skiing at Ishiuchi Maruyama ski resort


Night-skiing at Ishiuchi Maruyama Ski resort


10 Feb 07: Yuzo Kayama Today I met Yuzo Kayama - a hugely famous singer and film star in Japan, who happens to own a ski resort in Yuzawa. I was asked to tag along to a promotional event at the resort - it was great to see Japanese customers so excited to meet Kayama-san everyone was asking him to sign their skiwear and have photographs taken. Yuzo Kayama is the all-time favourite pop star of Baba-san, the hotel relationship supremo in the WeLoveSnow.com team. This video shows the singer in action - Yuzo Kayama

5 Feb 07: Best day of the season! Amazing day today - at 8am this morning Kagura was -6 degrees, but with beautiful blue skies. As the top area of the resort was closed yesterday due to high winds, there was a lot of untracked powder to burst through. Had a belter of a day, as these photos show...


View from the top of Kagura ski resort


Skier trekking at Kagura ski resort


Snowshoeing at Kagura ski resort


4 Feb 07: Hakkaisan ski resort Hakkaisan is home to two of the things closest to my heart: sake and snow. Hakkaisan sake is renowned throughout Japan as one of the premier brands available, and Hakkaisan mountain is also home to a cracking ski resort: 3 lifts and one 81-person ropeway. The ropeway continually runs and takes you to the top of the resort. The courses are aggressive - about 35 degrees in a lot of places - and the resort is 70% moguls. Normally I'd hate this, but Hakkaisan is also powder heaven [on the right days] so you can bash through the bumps.


Erm, I think we're stuck


Hakkaisan ski resort slopes

The other cool thing about today was seeing a beautiful view of Mount Fuji from the bullet train from Tokyo. If its a clear day you can see the mountain from the left side of the train, about 40 minutes into the journey.

3 Feb 07: Perfect Day Congratulations to those lucky, lucky people out on the slopes in Yuzawa today - I wish I was out there with you! At last 30cm of fresh snow, blue skies and a cold crisp day - perfect!

2 Feb 07: Loving snow again A timely dump of snow has been falling since yesterday evening so there is around 30cm of fresh powder down at resort level. This will will make for perfect conditions this weekend. In particular, Sunday is set to be a blue sky day. Bring on the weekend!


Yuzawa Grand hotel, 11.30am today

1 Feb 07: WeLoveSnow HQ I'm always posting photos of views around Yuzawa in this blog, so this time I thought I'd show a picture of our office.


WeLoveSnow office this morning

You can see Steve trying to get his computer to work, Baba-san manning the booking system controls, Hoshino-san arranging rental and ski passes, and Akiko furiously making sense of the paperwork...

31 Jan 07: Japan snow tour Thanks to Simon for sending in this link to his Japan snowboarding tour blog. Simon is spending a couple of weeks in Yuzawa getting his snowboarding carves in shape, before embarking on a mammoth tour of Japan. The Bottle Bar will be a lesser place when he leaves..


Simon on the first day of his Japan snowboard tour

26 Jan 07 Such a great day today! Plenty of fresh snow on the trees, beautiful blue skies, crisp and cold, Yuzawa doesn't get any better than this! However, those of you heading for Gala should change plan as the resort is closed today. [The Gala gondola is susceptible to southern winds, which is the wind direction today..]

21 Jan 07: Day of two halves Beautiful blue skies again this morning - almost disconcertingly so, the weather seemed more like end-March than end-Jan. I was skiing at Naspa Ski Garden today - after about 2pm the cloud came over, and the snow began: really thick stuff, the type of snow that the Japanese call 'botan-yuki' ('button snow')

11 Jan 06: Amazing snow conditions out there: Perfect powder snow!

24 Nov 2006: Kagura open tomorrow


Kagura ski resort, 24 Nov 06

In the last week it has been quite mild, but the temperatures came right down yesterday and its snowing today in Kagura and Naeba. This has meant that Kagura can open as planned. Looking forward to getting on those slopes!

18 Nov 2006: Gutted Naeba opens today, and I'm stuck in bed with flu. Was right up for the fancy dress boarding planned today, but my inflatable sumo suit is still packed in my cupboard. Still, there is always the opening of Kagura resort to look forward to next week...

13 Nov 2006: 40cm snowfall in Kagura


Kagura ski resort, 13 Nov 06

Kagura is recording 40cm of snow on its slopes, with 30cm in Mitsumata. Temperatures are forecast as down to zero in Naeba towards the end of the week, which should help in the run-up to Naeba's opening on Saturday 18th Nov. Bring it on!

8 November 2006: Snowfall at Hakkaisan! It was a beautiful clear day today. I spent some time in Urasa [next train stop from Yuzawa], where the mountains were showing the first snowfall of the season...as you can just about see below!


Echigo Komagatake and Hakkaisan mountain

7 November: Heater is on Its getting colder now: a cloudy day in Yuzawa today, with temperatures dropping down to 8 degrees later in the day, and 6 degrees overnight. With a bit of wind chill, its likely that the higher peaks will see some snow... Today we dusted off the office heater and got it set up - a momentous day, winter is arriving!

22 October 2006: Snow on the pistes!


Naeba ski resort main gelende


OK, so its man-made snow, but just seeing white on the slopes got me excited. Naeba are preparing to open on 18th November, and have started the snow-making already.

15 October 2006: Off-roading in Kagura


Off-roading with Luke in his jeep


Kagura in Autumn

Great day out yesterday - Luke was in town, and we went off-roading around Kagura resort in his jeep, as the above pictures show. It was strange to see Kagura with autumnal trees and trekking trails - only 1 month before the snow falls!

7 Oct 06: Tobbogan Game This is cool & strangely addictive: draw a ski run for the tobogganist, press play, and see if the pistes & jumps that you make work out. Some of the best ones have been put on YouTube.com - "LineRider Jumps the Shark" is amazing - some people really have got time on their hands.

6 Oct 06: Temperatures have definitely come down - cant believe that the season is due to start in 6 weeks! Here are the planned start dates for a few of the ski resorts in the area: Naeba (18th Nov), Kagura (25th Nov), Gala Yuzawa (8th Dec), Kandatsu, Ishiuchi & Yuzawa Kogen ski resorts (16th Dec). Iwaparra resort will open in December, though it has not yet set a planned date.

20 Sept 06: Wild monkeys in Yuzawa I'm lucky enough to live a 10minute walk away from work - though this morning's walk was a bit special. 20 or so wild monkeys were in the trees outside my apartment block - looking for food and generally messing about. It felt like I'd stumbled onto filming for a Richard Attenborough programme - couldn't believe this was happening right outside my own home!

06 August 06 Thank you Luke In Tokyo for the mail; Lovely touch with the google search engine on the front page, I can now have this as my homepage. Like hearing that the snow is only weeks away, looking forward to the WLS webcams, weather reports and having a few beers down the bottle bar.

06 August 06 I received my Burton Snowboard catalogue today, showing the new boards & snow-wear for season 06/07. Whilst it seems strange to receive this whilst its swelteringly hot outside, I was sufficiently inspired to take a trip to the Jimbocho area of Tokyo [full of ski and snowboard shops] and check out the new gear. This has left me pining for a summer New Zealand ski trip, and I'm revved for the next winter season - though it doesn't start for another 3 months...

31 July 06: Fuji Rock rocked! Well, that was an amazing weekend. 120,000 people, one of the best music festivals in the world, the event set in a stunningly beautiful mountain range - and all on our doorstep in Yuzawa. WeLoveSnow were out there in force, the dancing didn't stop and there are plenty of sunburnt faces and tired legs in the office this morning! Thanks to everyone who booked through us for the FRF - hope you enjoyed the weekend as much as we did...

6 July 06: Many thanks to Jung Parnas I had the pleasure of staying at Ishiuchi Jung Parnas on Tuesday. This hotel as an amazing spa complex, and the Japanese style rooms private ensuite rotemburo baths with great views from the balcony. The food was fantastic, all prepared using local produce such as 'mochibuta' pork and 'shira-ebi' white shrimp, famous foods of Niigata. Had a great time, and looking forward to visiting again!

29 June 06: new page has just been put on the site: we've compiled a list of frequently asked questions , with info taken from our sent mail folders, giving replies to customers who have emailed in to us asking about various aspects of their Japan ski trip. Let us know if you think we should be covering any other points...!

27 June 06: thanks to Jon from San Francisco, who sent in the link to this video clip of Japan's funniest pranks This had us rolling in the aisles with laughter at welovesnow towers. [Its worth watching this for 3min30sec, to see 'Mission II']

26 June 06: great to be back! There has been a bit of radio silence from the welovesnow blog recently - not least because yours truly [neil, the wls MD] went back to the UK. I went back to get married to Masako: it was a beautiful day, and a great party! The obligatory wedding snaps can be seen here [tip: whilst there are a lot of the usual wedding snaps in this folder, the final snaps have some great pics of sumo wrestling using inflatable sumo costumes, taken at the bbq held the day after the wedding...]

25 June 06: don't just take it from us! its starting to get hot here, the temperature is just about staying under 25degrees celsius in the evening, so still able to sleep comfortably. As such, its felt quite nostalgic to come across this blog by alexandem whilst doing some random googling. Apart from describing the conditions out here in winter, I also like his 'top 5 of Japan' blog, which is great at getting across the mad & beautiful cultural experience that a trip to Japan brings.

14 May 06: This is the first weekend in months that I haven't been skiing or boarding. Seems like a terrible shame to be stuck in Tokyo on business when there are only 2 weeks left for the season at Kagura ski resort. We are now planning a party for the 28th - BBQ at the top of Kagura - to celebrate what has been a fantastic season. Everyone invited!

26 May 06: It is 20 degrees and we are finally staring at the last day of the 2005/2006 season. We still have enough snow on the top of the mountains to keep us going into June but the lifts will halt operations tomorrow. To all those who joined us this season, thank you for making it party to remember.

26 April 06: WeLoveSnow photos Finally put together a page of photo galleries that does justice to the amazing ski resorts located in the Yuzawa area of Japan. Click here to take a look! Japan ski resort pics.

23 April 06: Mail from Mike I've written a lot of blog entries this year, more often than not getting really excited about the snow conditions out here. As such, it makes a change when others tell me about their time on the slopes: Mike was at Kagura ski resort on Friday and Saturday "just got back to tokyo ... just had 2 MONSTER days...pure knee deep powder, unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!". Great to be sent the mail, amazed at the conditions for late April...

17 April 06: WeLoveSnow in the news WeLoveSnow 'shacho' Neil was seen grinning out of the pages of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun ['Nikkei'] on Friday. For those of you with Japanese reading skills, you may be interested to have a look here.

14 April 06: Gala Yuzawa Ski Resort pics Just finished a photo gallery of shots taken at Gala Yuzawa. I think they show how versatile this resort is: Gala is popular with terrain park boarders and skiers, families skiing with children, mogul lovers, as well as beginners. This cracking resort is open until 7 May. To check the pics, click here: Gala Yuzawa Photo Gallery

10 April 06: Kagura is the best ski resort in Japan and the conditions out there are amazing. On a long, full Sunday of boarding yesterday, we couldn't believe the snow levels - never seen trees so completely covered. Also, the temperatures were right down: around -1 to -5, which made for fantastic snow quality. I wouldn't have complained about such conditions in January, but this is almost mid-April. Also, we found some great new backcountry runs to have a go at. I've been to Kagura probably hundreds of times, and still amazed to be finding new runs to have a go at.

9 April 06: Skiing at Kandatsu resort Myself and Luke have been boarding for years; always boarding, and have never been tempted to cross over to the dark side and take on skiing instead of boarding. Well, today we did - swapped planks in favour of sticks. Kind of got the hang of it on the first couple of runs, though it was a strange feeling falling over like a beginner again. Attempting the black run on our 3rd ever ski run was a little ambitious, though I'm sure that we will do it better next time!

8 April 06: Minagawa Kentaro was a member of the Japanese Olympic ski team that competed in Torino, and achieved a 4th place finish. Minagawa-san was born in Asagai, Naeba, where his father still runs a 'minshuku' B&B. In order to celebrate the Olympic achievements of Minagawa-san, and also of Sasaki-san [a co-team member, who is also a ski instructor at Gala Yuzawa Ski resort], a big party was held at Naeba Prince Hotel today. WeLoveSnow were there, along with about 500 people from Naeba and Yuzawa: a good time was had by all...

6 April 06: Yet more snow Had a chat with Johan yesterday, who is staying at Inamoto Ryokan with us. He told me that it was snowing all day at Kagura Ski Resort yesterday. The amount of snow up there is just incredible. Last Sunday we had a full day there: a friend named Jez managed to lose his ski - he was riding up the mountain on a chairlift, and his ski caught the snow on the floor. This indicates how much snow is down there. Should be great conditions for the heli-ski tour this weekend!

31 March 06: Masshiro means 'completely white' in Japanese, and that is what Yuzawa is like today. It's been snowing for 3 days and feels like January. Absolutely no chance of spring skiing for the moment! But when this weather breaks up, the conditions are going to be fantastic..

28 Mar 06: Joetsu Kokusai Had a great day in Joetsu Kokusai yesterday. The sun was out in the afternoon, which made for great t-shirt skiing weather. Joetsu Kokusai has great night-skiing, so we stayed later at the resort. The temperatures came down pretty far, which made the slopes quicker, and we had some fantastic runs on newly-groomed pistes. Altogether another top day on the slopes!

23 Mar 06: Season still going strong The fresh powder days are fewer now, but there is still plenty of snow down on the slopes. Looking forward to another couple of months of skiing and boarding under the blue skies. Most Yuzawa resorts are extending their season - in our next newsletter we will be sending details of which resorts are open until what dates - sign up to stay in touch!

13 Mar 06: Dumping with Snow again After a stretch of blue skies, today is straight back into January mode - tons of white fluffy snow dumping down in Yuzawa, there's loads of snow on the trees from heavy snowfall overnight, and I needed full ski gear on this morning for my walk into work...got to love it..!

10 Mar 06: Happy Birthday Baba-san! Erｍ, I really should have written this yesterday, when Baba-san - our resident Japanese travel industry guru - celebrated his 50th birthday in style. For the first time ever, everyone was out of the WLS office by 6pm - we all went to Totoya sushi restaurant to celebrate Baba-san's birthday, whilst also watching an news article about WeLoveSnow broadcast on the peak "NST Super News" programme broadcast on the Niigata Sogo Telebi news station. A good night was had by all!

06 Mar 06: NASPA ski resort We stayed local this Sunday, and made a trip to Naspa Ski Resort. Another day of sun and blue skies, and that great feeling of having done exercise and caught a bit of a tan over the weekend...rumour has it that Naspa might be extending its season due to the huge amounts of snow this season - we will keep you up to date with news!

03 Mar 06: Loving Snow Again Its been a little while since we had 'haru-ichiban', the first warm wind of spring, which brought on a stretch of fine weather in Yuzawa. However, today has returned to form - it is DUMPING snow out there. The kind of snow dumps that only Niigata can provide - the sky is completely white, and there is a slightly muffled feel about the place as the snowflakes absorb the sound. Bring it on! When this snow dump clears up, conditions are going to be awesome...

28 Feb 06: Snowboard celebs in Yuzawa Spotted in the Bottle Bar last night was Antti Autti, who was in Yuzawa fresh from his appearance in the Torino Winter olympics. Antti came 5th in the Olympic halfpipe competition just a couple of weeks ago...

27 Feb 06: c.c.cold again after some spring-like mild weather over the weekend, the temperatures have dropped to around -2: and its snowing again! Temperatures are due to creep up again in the next few days, though here's to plenty of snow falling in the meantime...

25 Feb 06: Great day to be out there Wanted to say hi to Vivian and the group of 30 people traveling over to Yuzawa from Ibaraki-ken today. WeLoveSnow has organised their trip - bus charter, accommodation, ski passes and gear rental. They sure picked a great day to come over - another day of beautiful blue skies. Hope you all have a great time!

24 Feb 06: Fresh Traxx Getting very excited about the weekend of 18/19 March, when Mike Newell and a host of top Tokyo DJs will be hosting a Fresh Traxx weekend at the Bottle Bar in Yuzawa and Snodeck in Naeba. Apart from traveling the world and DJing with the likes of Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy, Mike also runs the disco science website. WeLoveSnow will be handling the travel packages for this event - more details to follow..

20 Feb 06 Once again its been recovery mode for Monday. The weekend was another corker - Saturday saw 30cm of fresh powder from the previous evening combined with blue skies in Kagura, and Luke & I managed to find some interesting new tracks... Sunday was blue skies again, decided on keeping it local and tried out the terrain park in Gala Yuzawa. The nice thing about Gala is that you can take the ropeway back to Yuzawa Kogen, and then eventually board all the way back down to the Yuzawa 'onsengai' high street. The view from Yuzawa Kogen really was spectacular, and I took plenty of pics that will be finding their way to our website resort map page soon.

18 Feb 06 - View from Calgary Quick hello to Dean, who we met the other day in the Bottle Bar. Dean is working as a teacher in Muikamachi, a neigbouring town of Yuzawa. He lived and grew up in Calgary, and so we thought he would be used to a lot of snow: a such his comments blew us away when he said "I have seen more snow in Yuzawa this season than all the snow added together in my life growing up in Calgary. These are the best ski conditions in the world!" We couldn't have put it better ourselves...

13 Feb 06: Let me on the slopes! There are some lucky, lucky welovesnow customers out on the mountains today. After a great blue skies day on Saturday, about 50cm of fresh snow dumped down yesterday. Today is a beautiful clear day with a lot of fresh powder waiting to be ripped through...!

9 Feb 06: Thank you Sometimes you just have to say thank you, yet again we have the fresh snow driving through Yuzawa 2 days before the weekend. The weekend forecast looking great with a dump of new powder and clearing skies. A lot of people making the sprint up here for the weekend, so Saturday night at the bottle bar should be rocking...

6 Feb 06: Naeba Resort We tried out Naeba again this week. The Naeba Prince resort is an institution in itself - the largest resort hotel in the world, with facilities to match. Ski conditions were fantastic over the weekend - helped by the temperatures dropping to a very chilly minus 15degrees overnight. Had a cracking couple of days, and cant wait to get back...

5 Feb 06: There Goes The Weekend The coldest weekend of the season so far -14 which made the new snow unbelievable. More fresh tracks than ever, with still a lot of untouched terrain waiting. If anyone can squeeze in a mid week day return or a 1 night stop over you will have some truly pure powder moments.

3 Feb 06: Here Comes The Weekend New snow dumping down, fresh tracks for Saturday what more can we ask for. This weekend is looking like it's going deliver big time. You still have chance to get out here, just book the day return for Sunday and swap the Tokyo streets for powder snow, hot spas and a few cold beers in the Bottle bar.

2 Feb 06: Chinese New Year break seems a blur now It all went far too fast. Perfect weather and unbelievable conditions followed by some great apres ski moments. In the words of Sean " I have been skiing since I was 12 (don't ask how old he is now) and have skied all over the world and this (Naeba) is the best powder I have ever experienced" Roll on the Easter holidays I say!!!!!!!

2 Feb 06: Still snowing! After a couple of snow-free days earlier in the week, its been snowing continually since yesterday - the weather forecasts predicts that this will continue right into the weekend. The past few weekends have had amazing conditions, but this one might just raise the bar...

31 Jan 06: What a weekend! This weekend we enjoyed the company of Chris, Shaun, Darren and Dagma, who came to Yuzawa to ski for the Chinese new year break. Their timing was perfect - Sunday was an amazing day; plenty of powder on the slopes and clear, clear blue skies. We have to say many thanks to the NASPA rental shop staff, who were very understanding when Chris managed to lose a ski on the slopes...!

26 Jan 06: Homage to Hakkaisan Hakkaisan is a relatively small resort, maybe 45minutes by car from Yuzawa. On days like today, when there are huge amounts of fresh powder, I'd rather be there than anywhere else in the world! Set high up Hakkaisan mountain, the resort essentially consists of one 50 person capacity ropeway which runs non-stop. Hakkaisan's slopes are steep and aggressive, which means that on days like today you can keep your speed up whilst bursting through the banks of snow. And if that wasn't enough, the resort shop has a great selection of locally brewed Hakkaisan sake - one of the most famous sake brands in Japan!

23 Jan 06: Best run of my life. Kagura was simply awe-inspiring yesterday. About 30cm of new snow overnight, clear blue skies, with cold ground temperature eased by the sun on my face. On at least 4 occasions I ripped out involuntary yelps of excitement - just because the conditions were so good. Yesterday was the kind of day that makes life worth living - I owe a lot to Alex for calling to get us out of bed in the morning!

20 Jan 06: Well the weekend is looking awesome; temperatures are back down, new snow arrived during the week and most of the resorts have worked hard to get courses in perfect condition. Forecast is for a cloudy start breaking into some new snow later on. Check out Ishiuchi Sunday for the big air competition, here is to Yea San bringing back the trophy.

16 Jan 06: Heard from some of the resorts that the last few clear days has given them a chance to deal with the mountains of powder snow. There is a really great 300cm base on most courses now. With new snow on the way this weekend will be looking like one of the best so far.

1 Jan 06: Happy New Year! And best wishes for 2006! We're having a great time here at WeLoveSnow - had a huge day of snowboarding at Kagura resort yesterday; sooooo much snow, and today has been a day of beautiful clear blue skies. Special congratulations to the couple that got married today, and were spotted in Ishiuchi, cracking down the slopes in their wedding dress and morning suit!

30 Dec 05: Congratulations to Cheek! 'Cheek' is a WeLoveSnow customer making his way to Yuzawa right now, having booked our day return offer. Its been snowing solidly and heavily for 4 days solid - and now there are beautiful blue skies! The conditions are absolutely perfect - lots of powder snow around, and the temperatures are low enough to keep it that way. So, we say congratulations to Cheek, on his perfect timing... [For more details on our day return offer, please take a look here]

22 Dec 05: Just want to say thanks [message sent to us from Sam & Tim from Singapore] Just wanted to say thank you to all at welovesnow.com. We all had a really great time cruising down the slopes at Ishiuchi, if those Dec snow levels are anything to go by this is going to be a big long season. See you again on the slopes early January!

16 Dec 05: WeLoveSnow in the global top 100,000 Our website is currently ranked 76,276 in the world! This is a great achievement; many thanks to everyone who has logged on to WeLoveSnow to help us get here! For details on the ranking, take a look at alexa.com

14 Dec 05: Crazy amounts of snow Its snowed for 2 days solid. On my way back home from work, the mountain road up to my flat was completely useless - I was wading through fresh, light snow up to my thighs. There were some mad sights to be seen this morning - I took a few pictures to show you all what Snow Country is really like!

13 Dec 05: WeLoveSnow in the news #2 More Japanese media coverage, this time from Mainichi Shimun. Again, the article is all in Japanese - but can be found here here.

13 Dec 05: Happy birthday Paul! Paul Slater is an intrinsic part of the WeLoveSnow team (he's the only one who likes making spreadsheets). It's entirely fitting that it should snow so much on his 32nd birthday - just a bit of a shame that he wont be out here for a few weeks to enjoy it all....

13 Dec 05: Crazy walk to work There is so much snow falling here it is unbelievable. Though I've lived in Yuzawa for a while now, I still get surprised with the amount of snow that falls here. There is about 60cm of snow on the roof-tops, and my 10 minute walk to work took half an hour. I had to wear ski pants - the usual jeans would have been soaked in 5minutes......when the skies clear, the conditions for boarding will be perfect. Where to Go: If I weren't in the office today I'd be in GALA, or perhaps Naeba. As an early-season weekday, you will have a LOT of fresh snow almost to yourself!

5 Dec 05: what a weekend! It felt like full season last weekend, rather than just the start. There was a lot of powder in Mitsumata and Kagura. It seems that Tashiro will be fully open soon, and the glorious dumps of snow that we've had recently mean that most resorts should open at least on Dec 17th. Next to open is GALA on the 10th....

2 Dec 05: WeLoveSnow in the news WeLoveSnow 'shacho' Neil was seen grinning out of the pages of the Niigata Nippo Shinbun newspaper today. For those of you with Japanese reading skills, you may be interested to have a look here.

30 Nov 05: Snowing like crazy Yuzawa is certainly living up to its Snow Country moniker at the moment. The sky has been white all day, and its been snowing in a way that only Niigata knows how. When the skies clear there is going to be a lot of snow to have a go at on the slopes...

25 Nov 05: Bring on Kagura! Due to being so busy with WeLoveSnow I haven't yet been able to get on the slopes, but that will all change this weekend. Last night I lovingly set up my brand-new (ludicrously expensive) bindings onto my snowboard, and spent an hour or so giving the board a wax. Its only 6 months since I was last on the slopes, but it feels like 6 years. Looking forward to the weekend immensely...

19 Nov 05: Season starts! Naeba opened its slopes today - well, two of them. The runs were covered with man-made snow, with about 20cm of fresh snow on top. More of a taster for things to come really, but great to get on board again...

17 Nov 05: Its been snowing! Yes, there is a beautiful sheet of white on the tops of the mountains today. It was snowing yesterday morning at Iwappara, and Yuzawa Kogen had 3cm of snowfall overnight. Whilst on a tour of various ski resorts yesterday, I also spotted snow covered ski runs at Joetsu Kokusai, Maiko Korakuen, and Ishiuchi.

15 Nov 05: Getting colder... Temperatures down to 3-6 degrees during the day, and it is due to hit zero this evening. Weather forecast is expecting hail this afternoon - up on Kagura it is forecast snow for today and the rest of the week!

8 Nov 05: Blue Skies After a few days of cold rain, its blue skies and sunshine in Yuzawa today. The autumn season came to Yuzawa quite late this year, but now the leaves have turned colour the mountains are particularly beautiful. Not long now before they will be covered in white...

24 Oct 05: Welcome to Baba-san The recruitment drive at welovesnow continues with the welcome introduction of Baba-san to our team. Baba-san has traveled all the way from Hokkaido to join us, and brings with him a wealth of experience in the Hokkaido travel industry. Never ones to shirk a chance to work hard as well as play hard, the welovesnow team have arranged 10 meetings for him to meet local hotels for tomorrow, on his 2nd day of work...

21 Oct 05: Resort openings announced Joy of joys! Its been five months since the resorts closed, but it feels like 5 years. Naeba will open on 19th November - yes its just a couple of short runs with man-made snow, but it will be good to get back on the slopes & get those leg muscles working again. Kagura will open on 26th November...cant wait...

12 Oct 05: First snow on Mt Fuji! Yes, the first snowfall of the year fell on Japan's most famous mountain yesterday. This happened 10 days later than average, but a full 20 days earlier than last year. Not long now until those ski lifts open...

3 Oct 05: There's a chill in the air Temperatures are definitely falling in Yuzawa now. It feels strange to be wearing a sweatshirt or jacket - last time I did this was in May, when there was still snow on the slopes...

2 Oct 05: Velvet Underground Yesterday we went out hunting for a suitable location for the forthcoming bar to be opened by welovesnow. We have found a stunning place in the cellar underneath a souvenir store on the main high street of the village. This bar has been untouched since 1981. With no expense spared, the walls have been draped in luxurious red velvet, and accentuated by beautiful gold broaches encrusted with the finest emeralds. Not only this, but the place has a spinning glitter ball and chandeliers. Needless to say, we were sold immediately. Negotiations are fully underway with the landlord, so that we can offer this place of such exquisite beauty for use by the general public…

31 Sept 05 Welcome to Koji Hoshino another new recruit to our team, who starts on Monday. This means the board/ski divide between welovesnow staff has improved to 3 vs 3. Before getting into winter sports, Koji did a music degree and is apparently a mean crooner on the karaoke. In his job interview Koji scored 25points from 5 shots in the all-important BB-pistol shooting practice test. At this point, we knew we'd found the right man for the job...

29 Sept 05 We have been getting a fair few extra hits on the site after sticking an advert in at milliondollarhomepage.com. If you are visiting this site for the first time, please let us know what you think! And if you have made a copy site and are trawling for advertising income, dont bother wasting your time...!

04 Sept 05 Welovesnow is still searching for staff! If you have bundles of initiative, are fully bilingual, have Japan travel industry experience and love winter sports, then welovesnow could be the place for you...For further details, please get in touch via our 'contact us' page.

04 Sept 05 Welovesnow is still searching for staff! If you have bundles of initiative, are fully bilingual, have Japan travel industry experience and love winter sports, then welovesnow could be the place for you...For further details, please get in touch via our 'contact us' page.

30 Aug 05 Today we can warmly welcome Akiko, our latest new recruit to the team. Akiko brings a wealth of creative design experience to our company, though her skiing skills means results in boarders now becoming a minority at welovesnow..

2 Sept 05 Welovesnow are still looking for staff! If you have bundles of enthusiasm and travel industry experience, are fully bilingual and love winter sports, then this could be the company for you. If you are interested, please get in touch via our `contact us` page...

27 July 05 Well, the nearby typhoon seems to have passed us by...here's hoping that the weather settles in time for the Fuji Rock music festival at Naeba this weekend. WeLoveSnow will be there in force, with our UK and Hong Kong directors flying in for the festival, and to start our AGM the following day...

8 July 05 After elation in the morning hearing that London will host the 2012 Olympics, things turned sour on hearing of yesterday's terrorism attacks. Our thoughts go out to those with friends & family in London...

7 July 05 Welcome to our new website... We've had just over a month since the snow melted in Yuzawa, which has given us the chance to do some work. There are still some blank pages, but content will be added to the site every day from now.

30 May 05 Well, the season finally came to an end yesterday…this means we can finally spend more time with loved ones, go out and meet friends, and generally get our lives back after 6 months of non-stop action on the slopes!