Very good skiing today at Naeba / Kagura. Plenty of snow and virtually no icy spots at all. I am probably spoiled from only skiing at huge resorts in the Austrian alps for the last five or six years, so the runs seemed pretty short, but there's definitely a good couple of days' worth of skiing here. It did get pretty cold in the afternoon, with high winds and fairly heavy blowing snow, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the absence of any lift lines. I think the longest I waited was for the Mitsumata Ropeway (the first lift from the 'Kagura Powder Station' where the bus stops up to the actual skiing), about 5 minutes. Otherwise I didn't wait more than a minute or two all day, and most lifts had no lines at all.
One more hurdle to go – changing my shinkansen ticket to an earlier train. I'm at the front of the bus so with luck I can get one sooner than 8pm (the train for which I have a ticket obtained from Mr. NoCash Surly-san yesterday.)