Day 5: I'm not dreaming of a White Xmas

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25th December 2008 ~ Hirafu Village, Hokkaido

Christmas last year was special for us as we spent our time at the slopes of the Hirafu Village where the Niseko Ski Resort was located. For a while, we thought we were in some ski resorts in Europe as the staffs managing Niseko were mainly non-Japanese speaking. Even our lodge owner, Mr Mori spoke excellent English due to his many years of working experience in MNCs.


After his retirement, he and his wife decided to move to Niseko and operate a lodge out of his home to welcome visitors from the world. Mr Mori had a wonderful dog, Muku. In no time, Muku became our new found friend, who would wag his tail everytime we passed by the entrance. Spending time with Muku certainly helped to alleviate some of the voids of not having a dog in Singapore.


All of us first timers had mixed feelings of skiing on the ice. J and R were very enthusiastic while the two of us had a tough time trying to acclimatize with this brand new sport. At the end of the day, I was happy to have come all the way to Niseko and done that. It was an experience of my lifetime and we had to agree that this was an expensive lesson too, parting about 8,000 yen (SGD 133) for the ski equipment and outfits.


Certainly, the experience were memorable having witnessed a White Christmas in Japan. This was not a dream but a true testimony of our picture perfect memories of Niseko. With heavy snow raining on us during our 2 days in Niseko, it was an experience none of us would forget. This was not the usual places we would visit for our overseas vacations.


I would certainly remember the many beautiful pictures taken, our bunk beds, the helpful owner of the lodge, Mr Mori and the time spent with his wonderful dog, Muku. And of course, the unrelentless snow from the sky that created our version of White Christmas 2008! =)

Time to move on to Sapporo, dear folks.

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