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Published: December 31st 2008
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We couldn't make it home for Christmas, so we did the next best thing; we headed north to Hokkaido. Hokkaido is an island that trains don't run to, so we had to take a flight. While the flight was uneventful, we still had a 2.5 hour bus ride to get to Niseko. Mo and I arranged a bus ride a couple of months in advance. What we didn't arrange was a private bus, but that's exactly what we had; a full tour bus all to our own. It must have cost the company that provided it $300 to drive us individually up the mountain for 2.5 hours, but the Japanese like to keep a schedule, so two of us or a hundred, they were driving that bus up the mountain.
While we didn't need a pit stop on the way up, again we had a schedule, so we stopped for bathroom and ice cream. They don't have vanilla here; they have Milk...it's vanilla without the vanilla extract, and it's actually quite good. We arrived (ahead of schedule) and we're greeted at the welcome center with a "Konichiwa" and a taxi to our condo.
The condo was awesome. It
is about the size of our place in Tokyo, but much, much nicer. It was very modern, and even had internet access...most of you know this from our countless skyping.
Niseko is a different world. The people are laid back, and most (surprisingly) speak English thanks to the huge influx of Australians, which must comprise 50% of the Niseko population. That made everything so much easier. It was like a holiday from our idiotic inability to speak the Japanese language.
Niskeko is the major ski resort in Japan. It's like a small Breckenridge, but it isn't that small. It's three different mountains that are somewhat connected, although you'd never know it by Mo and I. Because of the weather (I'll explain later), we found ourselves skiing the same 10 slopes over and over again. The mountain probably had 100 slopes.
The nicest weather we had was the first day, but we didn't realize it until after the fact. The slopes are open from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. There are lights throughout the entire mountain. That normally would help, except that we weren't struggling with darkness, we had clouds, wind, and snow to put up with.
There
Kitchen in our hotel room
It is nicer then the one at our apartment was powder on the ground when we arrived. We brought the snow with us apparently, and it stayed as long as we did. We were obviously pumped about that, but with the snow came wind and cold. 72 hours of snow later, we were sick of it. We were not, however, sick of skiing in powder up to our arm pits.
Around noon on the 2nd day, they finally opened up the top of the mountain (a lull in the wind). We got up there, and there was 4 feet of powder. No one knew what to do in that much snow. I wish we had a photo of the 50 or so people that fell as soon as they got off the lift or started down the mountain. Mo and I got to the actual slope, looked down the hill, and there were 30-40 people yard-saled all over the run. It was high comedy until we turned our skis downhill, and promptly fell.
On the third day, the snow was piled up 8 to 9 feet in some spots. The winds were pushing 45-50 kilometers per hour, and it was -15 degrees celsius...with the wind, -25. We
The bathroom
Traditional Japanese where the shower and bathtub are together with windows lasted only 4 hours on the hill this day. It was pretty much a white-out, and if the cold didn't get you, the blindness did.
The nightlife in Niseko is laid back as well. The meals were great and incredibly fresh. We met an extremely nice young Japanese guy who ran a local bar...Kaz. Kaz had lived in Tokyo, and we spent two nights at the bar hanging out with him. We also went to the Ice Bar, essentially an igloo in the heart of the town that serves $10 drinks with limited amounts of alcohol. Our Christmas steak dinner would've been great but for a 12 year old Italian girl who knew 4 lines from "Silent Night", and sang them, for two straight hours. Her father and I just about lost it.
All and all we had a great vacation in Niseko and plan on going back, sans the young Italian.
Happy Holidays
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