Yeah, there are always a lot of Aussies skiing/snowboarding! I've been going to Nagano area (Hakuba, Shiga kogen and Ontake) then to Gifu also ('Dynaland' yesterday, awesome powder!)...
Getting parts and that sort of thing is good but the thing that sucks here is it's hard to get anywhere to work on your car. My car park is a gravel patch and I live in a 4th floor apartment. Unless you are pretty rich its hard to get garage space.
Consequently I've been paying someone to do work on my car that I could easily do myself back at home. You take the good with the bad I guess...