One month in Japan
Wow, has it really been one month in Japan? Really?!? We left Stockholm just before the end of the year 2017 and flew out of Tokyo on the 26th of January. Time went so fast, but this really is quite a long time in this weird and wonderful country. For any other reason to visit Japan, I would say one month is a REALLY long time!
So how was it? Skiing in Japan?
First things first
Well, taking a step back in time, we actually started with a couple of days in Tokyo. I don’t really like long travels (I can’t stand the sitting and the waiting at airports and tugging around suitcases and… puh!) and wanted a couple of days break before getting on the next flight to Hokkaido. It was so worth it! We did this clever choice of where to stay, in the neighbourhood of Asakusa (pronounced Asak’sa), on the metro line between the two airports. It was a must with our huge suitcases and packed ski bags!
Tokyo was great! And we didn’t cover much of it at all. We slept trough the afternoons when the jet lag hit us and spent most of our time in Asakusa, trying to get our head around being in Japan. The food! The language! The wierdness! It’s just so different from what I’ve ever seen before! I really think that is absolutely fine not to do too much. Tokyo is huge! There is no way we could see it all so we figured we should just enjoy what we felt like doing at the moment, and not run around too much. Just being in Tokyo is nuts! We celebrated New Years Eve in Asakusa, where one of the largest and most popular temples in Tokyo was literally just outside of our hotel. That was such a stroke of luck! The Japanese celebrate New Years by going to the temple first thing on the 1st, and the we ended up in the middle of this huge happy crowd on the temple grounds, eating strange food and just getting this real fast track to Japan.
Skiing on the side of a volcano
Our first week on Hokkaido we spent at the foot of an active volcano in a tiny onsen village. This amazing volcano has just one ski lift going up halfway to the top, two narrow groomed slopes and seemingly endless off piste terrain with more deep and fluffy powder then I have ever seen before. We’ve actually decided to keep the location a little bit secret 🙂 , we would like to keep this place to ourselves, that is how great it was! It was this magic place, only fat skis in the gondola and not many people at all to compete for fresh turns. The only downer: Trees! (!!!) I’ve never been very good at skiing in trees. On the bus to the onsen village, looking out the window, I almost felt like staying on the bus and turn back to the airport when I saw all the trees! I seriously felt like bursting into tears. Hokkaido has very little open terrain and lots and lots of trees (I am not considering skiing groomers!!! 😉 ). I was terrified! It took a number of days, when I went, bit by bit, from terrified, to getting used to trees, to actually having fun. To start our Hokkaido-experience with this gem was brilliant! With only three hotels at the road below the volcano there was never a rush, I could get used to skiing in the trees and in snow literally up to my waist, and my love and travel companion Magnus could go for another run when I was too exhausted. The best part about staying in this onsen village (an onsen, by the way, is a Japanese hot spring) is that we were served traditional home cooked Japanese food every evening after soaking in the different hot and cold mineral baths of a nearby luxurious bath house.
Furano, or: “Where is everyone?”
Our second stop on Hokkaido was Furano. The ski resort is on quite a big hill with a beautiful view across the valley towards Furano-dake. Our first day we barely got out of bed, we are absolutely no super human and seven days of deep powder skiing took it’s toll. We figured we would take a walk around town, but Furano was odd. The town seemed deserted. It seems like it had it’s glory days in the 70ties and 80ties and since then, nothing has happened. There was absolutely no night life as far as we could find and the only people we saw on the streets in the eventing were some Japanese kids getting coca cola at the 7-11 when we went there to get a bento for dinner. I like it! I have absolutely no need for bars and lots of people when I’m off skiing, but it took me by surprise. The ski hill on the other hand was crowded! Crowded with teenagers learning to ski and the Japanese military doing the same thing. It was incredibly cute! And yeah, it meant we never had to get up early to get the steep and deep to ourselves. 😀
Furano is fun skiing! If there is new snow there are bowls and tree skiing above the groomed runs that is easy to ski (very few difficult lines) and easily accessible from the chairs. I only got butterflies one day when we walked up to a small peak near one of the chairs and Magnus convinced me we should ski down the steepest side he could see. I thought he was crazy but I felt kind of safe as there were trees all the way down that could catch me if I fell. It actually fuelled my courage and I ended up skiing oddly steep snow over fallen trees. I mean, you are supposed to ski BETWEEN the trees, not ON the trees 🙂 . The environment and the quality of the snow in Furano never feels exposed or dangerous so it is the perfect place to try new things.
Niseko, or: “Ah! This is where everyone is!”
Arriving in Niseko was like arriving to a completely different world. The place we stayed at allowed shoes inside the house (!), the signs in the ski resort were all in english (!!) and the mountain was full of Australian kids crisscrossing the mountain on their snowboards (!!!). OK, I admit. After a couple of weeks in Japan, I love the Japanese way! The food, the mentality, all the oddities 😀 Niseko ski area is actually a cooperation between four different ski areas that share the same mountain top, together covering 3/4th of the mountain. We actually didn’t stay in Niseko village, but in Hanazono which is at the rightmost end of the ski resort, where we stayed at, possibly, the only pension in that area. It was a great place (apart from serving an australian breakfast. I really love having rise and miso for breakfast!!)! They gave us a ride to the lifts every morning, a ride to an onsen every afternoon and a ride to town every night if we wanted to go out and eat. I felt like a queen! Hanazono is where, in my opinion, there is an endless access to long runs away from the crowds.
We had a fun little adventure one day. From the Niseko mountain top we had spotted another tiny ski resort on a hill nearby. It appeared to be deserted and only used by snowcat tours. While waiting for the snow fall, we asked to be dropped of at that deserted resort one morning so we could explore by skinning up. The conditions turned very Swedish on us by lunchtime, with strong icy winds and zero visibility and I had that thought I always have when I’m out in difficult weather: It always looks worse than it is! I mean, I would never go out if I saw that weather out from my window, but when you are out there it is always much warmer, brighter and easier than you think. Despite the zero visibility we still skied down into a bowl on the backside of the resort, as we knew the snow would be nice there. Skiing down in the fog was absolutely fine, the snow was so soft, but, when skinning back up again to the ridge where the old ski lift was to head home, that proved to be a challenge. This wasn’t the first time in Japan I wished we had a GPS! We had to “feel” our way back by following the top of the ridge and guessing if we were going uphill or downhill and trying to remember how high up the ridge the lift poles actually were. I’m very glad the skiing down in abandoned slopes with knee high powder made it worth the struggle.
I can absolutely understand why Niseko is popular. On a clear day you see the Yotei volcano from the top of the Niseko-annupuri which is absolutely magnificent! It is also possible to find really fun skiing as the top is so high you get above the treeline. We did discover a very good trick though for finding the best untouched snow: When there are tracks around an area with trees, go straight through the trees and you will find untouched snow on the other side.
Tokyo again
Coming back to Tokyo we enjoyed the spring weather. Tokyo rarely gets snow, but it had been blessed a couple of days before our arrival and was beautiful! You have to know, we weren’t really used to seeing the sun, and all our three days in Tokyo had blue skies. I couldn’t be happier! Again, we didn’t feel like following any guidebook “best of” or “tour guide” of the city, we just decided what we wanted to do and found where we could do that. On my wish list was:
– Visit a Japanese garden, enjoying the spring blooms and the sun
– See the sun set over the Tokyo skyline
– Find colourful shop signs
One important point on Magnus wish list was to go to the Sumo games that happened to be on when we were there.
Without even trying, Tokyo gave us that and so much more! By chance we happened to stay at a cheap hotel in Asakusa with the most impressive view over the Tokyo Sky Tree and a hot spring bath on the roof, just by a sunny walkway next to the river. I just couldn’t believe it! The Japanese garden was more intriguing than I could ever have thought, we spent almost the entire day getting lost in an area not larger than a football field. The sunset views from the Mori Art Museum up on Roppongi Hills were just barely more impressive than the giant space invader game that was part of one of the exhibitions and the illusionist art by Leandro Erlich in another exhibition. I may not have found the most colourful shop signs, but searching for them we ended up in different neighbourhoods that fun, impressive and just plain nuts. And for the sumo game, it was the most fascinating sport I have ever seen! I didn’t expect to like it, but it was mesmerising! The wrestlers show off a lot and try to intimidate their opponent with some sort of primitive mind games before they suddenly crash into each other, throwing one of them out of the ring. It reminds me of some wild birds or animals that blow themselves up and roar at each other and stamp their feet before they go to attack.
Tokyo is definitely a city I will be coming back to if I come back to Japan to ski again.
