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Published: February 20th 2014
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This place is so weird...but so amazing...so weird...
We took the short of two hours flight on Peach, a Japanese low cost....with very very small space between seats, reaching Sapporo airport just on time for dinner before taking the 3 hours shuttle bus all the way to Niseko. The New Chitose airport, 50km from Sapporo is actually a funny adventure...as there is a huge shopping center in the middle of it.
The bus ride give us a good idea of what was lying ahead. Few Japanese, some Honkies and Chinese....and a lot of Aussies with few Europeans.
We arrived at the Black Diamond Lodge just before 11pm. This place is suppose to be the "cheap" option....trust me, there is no cheap options for lodging around Niseko....there are just cheaper ones...and I had no intention to stay at the Hilton. We settle in our cute little Japanese room. Fun to see how the kids do go that easily from a Presidential suite to a hostal...and be equally happy to be in both places.
Not many Japanese into Black Diamond Lodge, not actually sure we have even seen one single Japanese
guest. It's mainly Australians, than next North Americans....the food at the lodge is nice, but it's clearly not Japanese...weird....
Next morning, early wake up, breakfast and we are on our way to Hirafu to rent our skis. Most of the staffs in the shop are westerners... mainly Aussies...weird...same thing for the clients. Rental is actually pretty reasonable, something like 50% cheaper of what I had two months ago in Vail...not a bad thing, with pretty nice equipment.
We are going to ski three days. Niseko Mount is divided into 4 skiing areas...but it's basically on Mount that you ski on half the cone. Over the next three days, we would ski 6 hours per day, in Hirafu, Niseko and Annupuri. The logic would be, a three days ticket to the Mountain would be the deal...wrong...by doing one area per day, ski passes cost me 215usd for three days...that's for three of us. Compare it to a three days pass to ski exactly the same thing, which would have been 330usd for three of us. Do not ask me...I was just happy I took some time to look at the board with all the prices...yes,
you can call it homework...but 70usd per person for 3 days of great skiing, that does qualify as cheap!
So first day would be Hirafu, next day Niseko and finally Annupuri. We loved all of them, Annupuri is a little more relax with long cruising slopes...so perfect for either a first day...or a 3rd or 4th when you need to be careful with your legs.
As of now, Leslie knows exactly what he is doing...cruising off track in the trees...I was happy he didn't hit one! Tiffany is working on her parallel with the help of her brother...you know, kids do not have the intention to listen to their parents...that's even more true for teenagers!
The slopes were packed with at least 50% of Aussies and Kiwis...and I have to admit, you nearly heard more French on the slopes than Japanese...and for sure, more Cantonese than Japanese...weird!
The snow in Niseko is simply sublime! They do not have snow cannons...because they don't need them. If you read the figures ahead as a European, you have all the reasons to be worry...skiing is done on one Mount, in between
altitudes of 300 meters and 1300 meters. Do they ski on that...yes they do, and yes it's pretty fun! So far this season, they have had already something like 10 meters of snow...expecting a good 17 meters of snow for the season lasting from mid December to end of March....this is simply insane!
There is always the question for the expat community in Asia to know if Japan is better or cheaper than flying for example all the way to Europe for a week of skiing. Well, Niseko has for sure more snow and better powder...and everything beside accommodation is way cheaper...not that accommodation is cheap on the good slopes of Europe! Guess we wouldn't mind to come here again for a little trip of 3 to 5 days of skiing. More could be a little too much.
Fun to see also that this is one of the first travelblog about Niseko...I would have thought way more people would have come here before.
Just a little warning....to have more than 10 meters of snow in 10 weeks....it simply means that it does snow all the time. It was pretty fun the
last day at Annupuri to get down a slope just short of 3km run...followed by a gondola of 10-15 miutes...to find a fresh track on the next run due to the snow fall and windy conditions...I had never experienced this before. The snow is also pretty dry, which means skiing while the snow is falling, doesn't make you wet, which is a pretty good thing.
Here it is, it was Thursday night, we spent the night in Sapporo before going back home, on a 7 hours direct flight to Bangkok with Thai. And I'm writing this on Tuesday morning, in Addis (Ethiopia) airport...isn't it weird...it's a small world...and in some places, still a pretty snowy one...
Next entry, not for a while, I have to work...and party a little more before that...
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Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy
Hokkaido!
Hokkaido is the reason I became a snowboarder - great to see you having as much fun there :-)