*bump*

So.... we're going in January. Just shy of 3 weeks so a bit more than we originally intended and almost a year later.

I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed with choice. I've had a thumb through a guidebook and poked around online a bit.
I'm thinking that with a short time we might just stick to skiing and Tokyo, Kyoto and anything in between them. DS2 wants to see Mt Fuji and DS1 wants to see a martial arts fight.
We'll give Disneyland a miss. The boys went to EuroDisney so that's enough Disney to last me a lifetime.

Obviously we're going to ski because that's what we do. Hakuba V's Shiga Kogen V's Nozawa Onsen? Hakuba has a ski school for the boys that comes very highly recommended but I'm sure the other resorts have ski schools with English speaking instructors. Shiga Kogen is huge and closer to the snow monkeys. Nozawa Onsen is smaller and has a fire festival that could coincide with our visit. On one hand festivals are fun but on the other hand they create crowding and increase prices for the week they are on. Has anyone visited any of these resorts?

I've been looking at JRail passes. I'm not sure if it's economical if we're not traveling about a lot. How many train journeys do I need to do to make a JRail pass work for us? Can you use them on the subway?