Merry Xmas from Niseko

Wow big day yesterday, a 16 hour tour of duty! Three times down the 120k track to the airport and back. But fortunately those days are rare and the revenue is welcome at the moment as I'll only get a half months pay on Jan 5th.
And to celebrate the new year I get Jan 1,2,3 & 4 off!! which is cool coz that's out of next month's pay.

We just had a rare chance to meet and chat about the business and the running, he and I seem to get on well. His family is in buses in Oz, he loves the internet and has been doing his research for his next push, shuttle buses for the 120 hotels in the Sapporo city area.
I'm impressed with his business savvy/push.
He seems to like my ideas and we've moded my vehicle to suit me and he likes it and the other comments/suggestions I've had for the biz in general.
This area is pumping, I think Hokkaido has Japan's highest if not only economical growth/foreign investment at the moment.

They also do cool things in Hokkaido like give no interest government loans for solar power and apparently there's a new solar cell coming out soon that's still 70% efficient under cloud cover, snowy conditions!!

Still not finding time to organise pictures, trying to meet people and find out the lay of the land from where the garbage goes to where the people like to eat and play and bathe.
I've just got my first garbage contract US$100 a month to do a the garbage from one of the pensions.

so going ok, the questions on my mind are how to maximise my earnings and how to live in two places at once, here and Oz with the project house/ land/ wannabefarm

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to y'all from a White white Niseko.

D

Youtei-zan

The local volcano, sleeping now, that we can see from Annupuri the mountain everyone here is skiing on. No lifts on Youtei so to enjoy the undisturbed freshness you need to hike for 5 hours up to the rim.

This is the view of Youtei from the J First Onsen.

Niseko or bust

OK, didn't find work to suit in Ibaraki Ken so I've ended up in Niseko Hokkaido for a stint as a bus driver between Niseko, New Chitose Airport and Sapporo.

This place is beautiful to say the least. Just got this blog goin, gotta run to work, pics soon.

Yakult

I love these little electric cars, bought from Toyota I believe for around AUD$8.000.
These Yakult ladies deliver all over Japan, aparrently there's about 85,000 yakult ladies worldwide, 35,000 in Japan, and 1700 of them are in Tokyo.

Niigata Heritage House

'm might be overstating things but this house was going to be demolished by the owner when the town elder asked he save it. They talked about a plan to save it for posterity so that many folk might see such a classic older structure. You can stay in this place now for 500 yen a night and I hope to run some sort of bus tour to this place during either the snow or summer seasons. Allowing people cheap accommodation along with visits to the numerous onsens in the area. A cheap ski trip hopefully. Just brings your meals sleeping bags and curiousity.

Niigata ken

Took a roadtrip to Niigata ken on the Northern shore of Honshu. Went walking in the forest and came across a farmer preparing his fields for planting. I came back a few days later and helped the whole family plant rice. They must have been entertained as they plied me with lots of good local food and good local sake!
I hear Niigata ken is covered in snow in the winter! Have to come back to see that!

Modoshita - March 2005

OK, so after a two year stint back in Australia to get my house/farmstay/pension http://tinyurl.com/9knpw started I've ended up back in the land of the rising sun! I've left this blog untouched for way too long and will hopefully make up for that in the near future.