So I ended up taking the Terrapin, Archetype and Simple Pleasures.
The conditions this year were nothing like previous years, very little base and frequent warm weather. The night we arrived it was dumping though and the first day was like many I've had over there before, about knee deep light fluffy pow.
I took the SP out in the morning for first chairs but the resort was relatively empty so there was fresh tracks to be had all day. That was the deepest snow I had been on with the SP to date, more on that board later.
We were staying on snow so board swaps were super easy and after lunch I took the Terrapin out. There was still plenty of un-tracked powder and I had never ridden this board before as it had been hanging on my wall for over 10 months waiting for this trip.
I've never owned a rocker board before, this thing is super stiff and wide, possibly the worst combination ever for firm snow. Once I got it into the powder I could see its true potential, still a very loose feeling board, unique you might say. I'd imagine if you went heli-boarding or a week at Baldface this would certainly be a great board. For me the way it rode on the groomed snow and even just getting on and off the lift was a deal breaker, I did 3 -4 pow laps and didn't touch it again for the rest of the trip, it's currently for sale.
We didn't get any more fresh snow for another 10 days or so, I was mostly riding the SP, doing lots of carving and on the days it was hot and slushy I learnt to back 3 on this board off of some side hits. I can't say enough about this board, it's just so good and extremely versatile for what it is, I rode it about 80% of the trip.
After a week we moved from Hakuba to Madarao for a couple of days, the weather was so bad we didn't go out, ice, wind and rain. Then we had a week in Myoko and we got lucky with a two day storm dumping about a meter of snow. First day of the storm I took the Archetype out, I left a long review on how it did in the Archetype thread on here. To summarize though it didn't float well enough in the fresh deep Japow but was excellent later in the day for dipping in and out of stashes.
The second day of the storm we went to Lotte Arai for the first time, what a place! its basically this huge bowl of freeride terrain and they don't groom anything. I took the Simple Pleasures and it handled the deep snow with ease. I'm riding the 151 at 85kg or 187lbs. This was the best day of the trip for me, after lunch most people had gone home and then they pulled down the ropes on this zone that had been closed all day, I almost had the place to myself and just did lap after lap in thigh deep pow with the most amazing tree riding, pretty steep for Japan.
I'm already planning next years Japan adventure. I've decided 3 boards is too much so I'm going to take a directional powder board, probably my Burton Skipjack Surf which I have taken before on two previous trips. The second board will be my all mountain twin I just picked up on sale this week, its a Capita Outerspace Living.