ARAI and 'Blanderson'

[Ocean11]

OK, this is mean, I know, but it needs to be said. It's a little too mean to be said on SJ as it will make some people cry, so I'm going to say it here.

ARAI has it's head stuck right up it's own arse and Blair Anderson is a fucking uncle-tom honky!! He is so much not a part of the solution it isn't even funny.

Most of his articles are so unreadable that when he produces something with content, I can't help congratulating him. I howled out loud when he kept on plugging away at that awful 'airliner' metaphor, and if I had a Stinger missile handy, the ARAI airliner would be so much mangled wreckage with the stench of Blair's fried butt hanging over it. And boy is he ever Mother Nature's son. Every fucking piece he does...

The really sad thing (well, one of them) about Blair is that he doesn't get out much. Get a load of this, and have a helping of some of Blair's ponderous rhetorical style while you're at it; "What exactly was the mission that day? To visit the Half pipe at ARAI. ... I’m a little bit embarrassed to admit that until I actually saw the skier, I did not know that skiers could also use the half-pipe. Oh well, you learn something every day, don’t you?" The guy works at a resort, but has to make a date to 'visit' the half-pipe. Then he finds out what a lot of fun for everybody the pipe is.

Have a look at ARAI's website http://www.araimntspa.com/ (bad choice of domain name...). Check out Blair's email address; blanderson@ari.moritagrp.com. That cuts straight to the bone, but does Uncle Blair mind? Not a bit of it. Dumb twat probably hasn't even noticed.

Blair doesn't really like snowboarders. You can tell by the way he completely refused to use any other word than 'ski' in the old website that he wrote. But that's ARAI for you. The whole place reeks of old-school skiing, and it's no accident that Blair fits right in.

Well, I feel a little better for that. Maybe one of their low-rolling customers will actually asphyxiate in the carpark one day, and then ARAI might wake up.

[Goemon]

I applaud the effort fo SJ to get those questions answered, but when the answers come out that stale and dull...I guess it's not their fault. I don't feel right to flame them 'cause I've never even been to ARAI (all CAPS!!!). I'm especially sad that I missed the chance to meet Miffy:
http://www.araimntspa.com/news/detnews. ... mon=August

[enderzero]

Bwahaha!! I couldn't agree more. I couldn't believe you actually congratulated him on that crap article. The only good thing about it was that less than half of it was written by him. But not like the other dude was any better. And that COO?? Man I had no idea it was possible to be more of a typing commercial than Blair! Did he say one thing that wasn't taken directly from their business plan. The whole point of the Ask Arai was that they would tackle the tough questions...BULLSHIT!! They spouted off the same marketting drivel that Blair farts out every time breath leaves the his windbag of a body...and that is pretty damn often.

I hate the BS that this guys spits and I have always seen right through it. I have tried to point this out on numerous occasions. You notice how he addresses everyone personally? I don't think he has ever addressed me that way. He commented on one of the issues I brought up one time and it was more full of shit than Damian's backyard.

Speaking of Damian, he has actually met him. This little turd tried to impress Damian by going to see him when he stayed at the hotel and if I remember correctly Damian told him straight up what a putz he was. (He may be able to expand on this more).

Did you know that when Jaime talked to Blair on the phone after he won a free pass thru SJ that Blair was straight up rude to him. He said that if we got caught going out of bounds we wouldn't be welcomed back. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? We hadn't even gotten to the mountain yet. What kind of attitude is that?

The thing that sucks about all of this is that I like Arai. It has about the best terrain in Japan and it could be so cool if they just handled it better. It is kind of far away and all (until the Joetsu shink extension is finished at least) but if it was a cool little village with nice cheap places to stay and maybe a single decent place to eat it would be worth making the trip. As it is now, you have gotta have money or live nearby for it to be cool.

[enderzero]

You notice the new Arai site is by .... Iponics Japan!

[mistasparkle*]

I have a little bit of blanderson first hand experience, and I'll say the guy is a total douchebag...

Won a free pass up to arai, and was with a nice crew who were contemplating whether we should go to arai... Rumor had it that Arai's unconditioned zone (which makes up about 30% of the mountain's skiiable area) is often closed, and those interested in going wanted to make sure we could ride that area. So I, being the free pass holder and main motivator to go to Arai, gave Blanderson a buzz... When I called him he sounded nervous, and babbled a bit. The guy is more or less a PR person for Arai yet he has horrible people skills. I introduced myself, and then asked him about the unconditioned zones. He told me the zones are open, and then I thanked him again for the free pass. He then proceeded to tell me, that If I or anyone in my crew ducked ropes, he'd take our passes and we wouldn't be welcome back at arai. What an asshole! I gave him no reason at all to think that i'd be ducking ropes whatsoever, but for some reason he felt he needed to threaten me. asshat. Worst PR person i've ever come across.

[Goemon]

Yeah, I saw that Iponics tag. A bit incestuous, isn't it? I guess some business relationships are like that though, perhaps especially so in Japan.

Regardless, I don't think I'll head out to Arai when there are so many other choices.

[Goemon]

I'll say the guy is a total douchebag

But tell us what you really think about him.

I have to admit though, Mr. S, you sound SO like a rope-ducker on the phone. It's like, you say something over the phone and I'm picturing you on the other end of the line jumping over boulders onto little children below. I guess it's something in your voice...

[enderzero]

In case I didn't make myself clear (or to offend any of you hyper-sensitive types). The point that that I think is being made loud and clear is that Arai has a set economic plan and not only are they not willing to do anything outside of that scope...they aren't even willing to consider any suggestions made by anyone that isn't a paid expert.

I don't know why some people on here get so bent out of shape any time someone presents a non conformist attitude. Don't take it personally please, I just am not as quick to jump on the bandwagon it would seem.

What I wanted to say was: Don't take it personally please, I just am not as quick to jump on the "Blair is a forum member, Arai must be a cool place that couldn't do anything wrong" bandwagon.

I also refrained from saying something about Blair just being the one awkward English speaker at Arai.

[Ocean11]

SJ is walking a fine line with their advertising relationships, especially where Arai is concerned. I mentioned on one thread that I was tired of Blair's 'corporate sponsored guff' posing as information, and SJ came back with some hufflepuff about it being no such thing. But it is, all the same. I can understand them wanting to make a buck out of Arai if one is to be made (that's how they pay for things after all), and I can understand them trying to get hard info out of Arai to pass along. Trouble is, the info that comes out of Bland is not hard. He needs some stricter guidelines. (I've said this to them, but they don't always listen.)

I haven't actually been to the place because it's too far, the ski thing puts me off, and because Nozawa which was closer did it for me. But as a company that are making a big thing of PR, and the international bit, they really are making a bad job of it.

Bland actually claims to get vicarious pleasure from Arai's punters having fun. That's the pie-in-the-sky stuff that uppity Negroes like Malcolm X railed against. Maybe Bland ought to read Malcolm X on Uncle Toms.

[mistasparkle*]

Bland actually claims to get vicarious pleasure from Arai's punters having fun. That's the pie-in-the-sky stuff that uppity Negroes like Malcolm X railed against. Maybe Bland ought to read Malcolm X on Uncle Toms.

I fell out of my chair after I read that.

But tell us what you really think about him.

Eh.... I guess he's not that bad of a guy... Just not the right type of person to be doing his job.

[enderzero]

I kinda ripped in to blanderson directly there...but did you see his response? TEXTBOOK!!

So what do you think of my end of the arguement goin on there?

[Ocean11]

I'm hampered by not having been there, but on the face of it, their product placement is 'there are no oiks here, so the monied classes can enjoy themselves', or something pretty close to it. But Bland isn't going to be that frank about it. The fact that he warned Mr * and the crew not to do oikish things like ducking ropes seems to support that view - while they won't ban cheapskates, there won't be a warm welcome for them either.

I read Bland's response to my carpark point as being effectively a case of "Rich people also run their engines in the carpark when they first arrive early, so we can't ban the practice even though some oiks who have been there all night may be found dead in their battered vehicles in the morning." The kindly president of Arai saying "Fuck off to the cheap digs 5 miles away and don't die in our carpark" was a nice touch. Clearly it's not only Japanese employees who show a slave-like loyalty, eh Bland.

Bland is never going to admit the reality of the product placement of ARAI (let's all do the name by the manual please), so you're probably wasting your time trying to get him do it. Far better just to define it as you see it and watch him squirm.

[enderzero]

how about a link to this on SJ?

...maybe not.

[Goemon]

ARAI is spelt in capital letters because that is how our corporate brand manual specifies that it must be done.

Yeah, that one killed me too. Can I have a copy of that manual please? Then I can follow everything it says religiously and not think for myself.

The decision to close during the Autumn was made during the peak of the SARS crisis

Anyone else pick up on this comment? I think the correct way to state this according to the manual is, "We will be setting up a special parking lot for foreigners to park in all night. Foreigners are encouraged to run a hose from their exhaust pipe into the front passenger window. We also have paragliding with Miffy during the shoulder periods."

(I really don't know what he meant by "shoulder periods"; is that the term for when girls bleed from their armpits once a month?)

[....]

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[enderzero]

Ol' burnable slug blanderson we like to call him.

The time-out setting was set to an hour...so it must have really took you a long time (if it was less than an hour maybe something else was messing with it). Anyway it is now 3 hours.