First of all, I cannot believe a slope this large and this good should be closed down. Yep, as things currently stand, you could turn up on the 1st October and be turned away - the slope officially closes on 30th September and then possibly no more???

Other people have said it before, but yes, SSAWS (pronounced "zowse") is massive. You can see it from the train about 3 or 4 miles before you actually reach the stop, and is a quick and easy 1 hour train journey from Tokyo station. Well, I say easy - I had a Japanese friend take me there which made things easier all round. The staff can manage a regular/goofy question and will point at whatever pass they want to look at/take off you, and on the slope itself they even do their best to amuse you by dressing in fishermen's outfits (yellow knee length plastic coats, wellies)! Unfortunately I couldn't get a photo, I was being accused of liking Japanese women too much from taking too many photos of them already (the very thought)!

The slope itself is split into two different slopes at the top (one 14 degree, one 20 degree) which join together to form one wide slope at the bottom. Snow quality was very good - there is a nice powdery top layer which you can push out on turns, but underneath is very hard. You wouldn't want to fall over on that too much, but with no attempts at a park there the intermediate boarder shouldn't have too much problems. It's a shame though, as there is definite potential for turning the kids toboggan hill into a table top! However, with no park it also means you get a bunch of knobs on alpine boards that look like they are trying to beat the record for most number of trips down the slope in a session, and I was constantly checking over my shoulder for them.

One thing that did surprise me was rental boards were automatically step-ins, no chance of strap-ins unless you're prepared to pay more for it!

It did give me a chance to become familiar with both sides of the straps/steps argument although it certainly didn't convert me from straps. General quality of the equipment was pretty good, and there is a special "Expert" rental section where the staff will happily change your binding angles. If you're prepared to pay a little extra, you can get yourself one of the alpine boards or even this bizarre thing they were calling a "snowblade" - essentially a snowboard but about 100cm in length!

For your 4500 yen (plus 500 for hire equipment - altogether about 28 pounds) you get 5 hours on the slopes for the special board session, although you do have to get up a bit early. We went on a Saturday which was part of the bank holiday and had 8am-1pm on the slopes, but it was more than worth it when you walk out and see the big queue of skiers that would no doubt be moaning about all the boarder tracks made before them! But that was SSAWS's biggest failing and has probably led to its closure. Maybe it's because I'm used to the Snozone prices, but for 5 hours on a slope of that quality, I'd easily be expecting to pay double that. It's a great experience simply because there is nothing in the UK that can compete with it, but I would have happily given then more money for my time there if it meant it would stay open.

Hopefully some smart investors will be thinking that as well, and will step in to keep it open. Here's hoping.

Trunners also has some DIVX encoded AVI files of the ride down the slope here.

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