Since living in Switzerland, we’ve planned a January ski trip to celebrate our friend Lianne’s birthday. Last year was La Clusaz and this year we decided to try Japan for their “Ja-Pow” during “Japanuary.”
Friday
We left Friday morning from the US in the middle of the first snowstorm of the season. We received about 6 inches of snow overnight with another 6 expected and most schools closing the day before in anticipation of the snow. Our taxi arrived about 10 minutes late in a Prius so our drive to the airport was longer than planned with slippery roads with many cars in ditches and a first time snow driver. I was tempted to offer to drive but we did make it to the airport with time to spare.
When leaving for the airport, there had been a ground halt in place for one hour so our hopes of arriving on time were low. The flight board at O’Hare was full of delays and cancellations but we did manage to leave the airport only 90 minutes behind and one of the first flights to lift off.
After arriving in Sapporo near 8pm on Saturday, I realized that I had confused the date/time conversion and booked a rental car for the wrong day (8p Sunday) so we called the car rental to arrange to pick up the car in the AM and stayed in a hotel for the night. This turned out to be a great move as we had been travelling for 24 hours by the time that we arrived at the airport and were exhausted. In addition, we would have a 2 hour drive to Niseko and it was very snowy.
Sunday
On Sunday, after losing a day to travel, we awoke and had fish and ramen for breakfast down the street from our hotel before picking up the rental car and driving to Niseko.
Driving on the left side of the road took a little getting used to but was not too difficult. The larger issues we had were due to slippery roads and snowbanks that were generally over 3 feet on the sides of all roads that made it very difficult when entering an intersection.
Once in Niseko, we picked up our ski gear and the group made a salmon dinner at our hotel and prepped for the following ski day.
Monday
We awoke
to about 6 inches of fresh snow and started our first ski day in Niseko Hirafu.
There was a lot of snow in the resorts especially when compared to January in
the US. The terrain was also very different as elevation of the the mountains
was much lower and the mountains were formed from volcanoes unlike the US or
European ranges that were formed from tectonic plates.
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| The tree skiing had no pines but bamboo and birch trees. |
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| Our wait for lunch was approximately 2 hours given many of the restaurants were very small! |
Tuesday
There was another 6” of fresh snow in the morning with expected flurries all day so most of the group took a day off to visit the port city Otaru.
I decided to head to Annupuri to ski by myself; however, I had a late start as I discovered that I had both sets of car keys after putting on my ski boots so had to drive back to the hotel to give the group their keys before back to the mountain.
I met a Quebecois couple to ski with for the day and this was likely the best ski day of the trip. We spent most of the day skiing the “gates,” which are the unpatrolled section of the resorts similar to US back bowls where there was 1-2’ of powder.
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| Bar Gyu - Enter through the refrigerator door |
Wednesday
There was no significant new snow today but we went to Niseko Village to ski. The resort was OK as the terrain of each resort is small and it can be difficult to transfer between all when the top of the mountain is closed, which was for the duration of our trip.
After the ski day, we found an onsen in the mountains about 40 minutes out of town to enjoy the hot springs and it was very HOT! Many of the people in the onsen were backcountry skiers that had stayed in the area and used it as a home base.
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| That's the onsen behind the snow! |
Thursday
There was no new snow this day and we decided to take a trip to a new resort to find new terrain and drove to Rusutsu. This was the group’s favorite day of skiing as the resort had many red runs, less people, and lots of terrain.
That evening we did some shopping at the local grocery stores for food and coincidentally, we ran into the Quebecois couple that I skied with and they also were fans of the cloud shoes.
Friday
Our final morning was quick as everyone left very early for noon flights. Part of the group was heading to sightsee in Tokyo and Kyoto while Kay and I headed to Bangkok to see some of Kay’s friends. Bangkok was quite the contrast from the snowy, cold conditions to sunny, hot weather.
We all enjoyed the ski trip and I did find that the off-piste was more accessible and deeper than what I’m used to elsewhere. I would definitely seek smaller resorts in the future and do more backcountry skiing than in resort. The on mountain experience was great with different scenery and great Asian food!
Saturday
We walked around the city during the morning, getting coffee and bubble teas, trying different foods and sightseeing some of the Wats (Buddhist Temple). I was very impressed and surprised with the size and extent of the Bangkok skyline as the city was very large and modern. We also got Thai massages; I do not normally get massages but it was nice although a little painful.
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| The restaurant with Kay’s friends was delicious and we went to a neighboring bar with a live band that played covers of US 80s music. |
Sunday
We went to the local market to buy a few things before joining a bike tour. The bike tour weaved through the city, by Wats, smaller pathways through the markets, and part was even in a boat through the live market. The roads and alleys were very narrow on the tour where it was difficult to avoid collisions and easy to fall off the raised pathways. Most of our tour grip was from biking locations (Dutch and German) and were the only Americans.
The following day the trip drew to a close and we flew home with no issues. This was a great trip that I would do again but adjusting to the time change was tough since everyone wakes up early and then cannot stay up late so definitely need to make this a longer trip!
