2024 - Japan

To celebrate our 60th turn around the sun, planned a two week trip to Japan to ski niseko and Lotte Arai.   Lots of travel logistics, including our first mid skitrip flight (between islands) and some non-ski tourism.  Pre-trip by mark to San Diego/Los Angeles and Jon to BC to minimize time spent in December in Boston.  And fink got a pretrip in Toronto due to a missed connection (of his bag!). And then an earthquake and serious plane crash at haneda delayed him and jon (who was given 2000 yen in cash!) further.  A message from up high? Climate change definitely ramping up where Sunday river was closed for an entire week, no snow in north van mountains and the only skiing in northeast is on man-made ribbons of white death.  

Top 10 things to remember:

Earthquake/plane crash

First runs w/takeo

Sapporo airport

Roger

Reverence at 1st temple

Presentatiion in restaurants and shops

Train infrastructure 

Spotless streets, bathrooms

Inexpensive and excellent food

Bike parking device

BC conditions mediocre- panorama was fully open but no powder.  And slow lifts.  Revy had softer snow with the inversion and then some dust on crust.  Got 4.5 days (and had to pay for 4 of them with ikon blackout), good jump start to the season.  And got to see Amanda, Matt and Wendy! 

I spent a day in Tokyo (cancelled flight), walking everywhere from imperial palace to outdoor fish market, while mark and fink got a sunny day in at niseko. We all met up Friday, meaning it took a collective 7 days (+3 lost due to intl date line), with several wasted hotel rooms, to all get together. An odyssey of trains (worked well) and planes (not so much).

Snowed most of the day on day 2, had some nice runs in the trees.  Great to see winter!  Staying at niseko park hotel - very genuine with tatami mats and Ensen, an easy walk to the mountain.  The mountain itself is actually 4 interconnected resorts on one huge hill.  Good vertical, lots of birch trees and lots of lifts-old, new and obsolete.  

Day 3 woke up to more snow (maybe 5", kinda heavy), and got out there by around 9 (rebooting delays due to fink not putting on his snowpants, and then forgetting his phone).  Tried to ski to anapuri but top rope was closed off and after 2 tries on the pizza box chairlift, we just took the bus.  Some good powder runs, Ramen for lunch with a very inefficient ordering system, and got a little lost in the woods before crowded  bus ride back.  Lowenstein goggle issue a tbd for tomorrow's guided tour of backcountry.  Ensen, early curry-soup dinner and packing with early start tomorrow.  Walked by fun food truck area. 

This the first and only day of the trip where we all actually woke up and slept where originally planned. 

Last day in niseko started early, with minimal breakfast from store as hotel breakfast wasn't open.  Takeo picked us up 7am and we drove to hanazono area where we got on the lift by 7.30 for 5 runs with 8" of fresh tracks in totally untracked fields before lifts opened to public. Heaven.  Good pace, great snow,  totally worth the $130 (half price as we couldn't ski outside the ropes).  Stayed with guide until 10.30 and he showed us more great untracked stashes, then we got an early lunch and skied till 3 in howling wind and snow. Quick ensan, then another travel nightmare as snow canceled train (after 3 hours of sitting a couple miles down the tracks) to airport for our flight tomorrow. Back to kutchan where we found nice hotel and greasy ramen. Spent 2 hours on the phone until 1am with "roger" trying to change our flight, before realizing he didn't work for airline and really couldn't help us.  Niseko evaluation - great snow, lots of variety and trees, not very steep.  Worth the trip (but I'm saying I've got ptsd and never returning) .

Woke up in kutchan, no way to leave after 68cm, which "Since we started doing daily snow reports this is easily the deepest day we have EVER seen." And still snowing VERY hard for most of the day. So we went back to niseko BUT most lifts were closed.  Nothing to do but hike.  Got 3 runs of not quite touring.  Back to kutchan for another night,  and hopefully leaving tomorrow as mountain unlikely to open according to locals.  

Tuesday Jan 9 is travel day.  Still snowing hard - got about 5 feet in five days and mountain did open. Ugh.  Got in a taxi to a random bus stop, where a bus actually came to take us to otaru and trains are running.  Called an audible and rode bus all the way to sapporo through steady snow through the mountains, and sapporo traffic.  Then train to airport and "free" (from yesterday's cancelation, despite Roger's assurances that it wouldn't happen) flight to kyoto.  Slippers at airport security in the most fun airport we've ever seen. All kyoto and Lotte Arai hotels supposedly canceled with no fee. A miracle. Stayed at airport hotel in kansai - kyoto here we come.  Most amazing food mall (stores, restaurants, dessert- maybe 100 places) INSIDE sapporo airport with free samples (wine too) and great sushi dinner. Unbelievable. 

Is it really a ski trip if we're not skiing?  Got the requisite 4 ski days in, now we're touring kyoto/kobe/nara for 4 days.  Great walking city!  After easy train ride, walked to the Higashi Hongan-ji Temple, the nishiki market, then a guruwalks tour through east gion, chion-in temple and up to Kiyomizu-dera temple area.  Dinner on street at toke ebisu festival, then some drinks along pontocho Sakaba.  A good full day, no incidents. 

Day 2 in featured a walk up Mt inari going through 10,000 gates to a variety of Buddhist shrines.  Crowded at bottom but thinned out the higher we went. Walked back via small residential streets to do some shopping, with a stop at local udon shop.  Dinner at Taroya Kyoto Home Cuisine up near nishiki.  25,000 steps again.  Coolest part of the day - automated underground bike garage!  https://youtu.be/uM0i12wdmHU

Day 3 of touring - kobe.  Took 140 kmh train to kobe (9 trains every hour, 40 miles away) and walked a certified 'great runs' route along port, by the earthquake memorial and to very chi-chi Vague "art" gallery (a fink choice).  This is definitely no longer a ski trip.  Kobe very different than kyoto - taller, glassier and a European influence.  After gyoza lunch (only one thing on menu) rode the gondola up kobe nunobiki (mountain overlooking ocean) to beautiful gardens, but sadly without skis so we hiked down.  Like I said.  Another great and inexpensive dinner at Nappa after sake happy hour, and another 25,000 steps.

Last full day, in nara-another very different town with many sacred Buddhist sites, including biggest bronze Buddha in the world at todaji.  Also saw temples of goryo and kofukoji, and cool lattice houses (including inside a couple, one with beautiful interior garden) in naramachi neighborhood.  Great shopping in small stores, with nice presentation and grateful shopkeeers. Deer infestation in the town-maybe cause they sell deer crackers for tourists to feed them???  Easy train ride again - 3 different speed options (35, 45 or 60 min) at different class/price tiers.  Fink on his way home so found a restaurant on our own - amazing. 

Departure day for me, couple last stops in kyoto at bamboo forest and kinkakuji golden temple.  Easy transport as always, well since kuchan.  Bullet train to Tokyo felt like the future.  Continuous acceleration to 170+ mph.  Bonus second Sunday tomorrow at Waikiki Beach.  Fink home with minor delay, Mark headed off to japanese alps near Lotte to check them out - see below for bonus post.  Overall great trip!

 

Sunday, January 14.

Said goodbye to Frankel first thing in the morning for the final leg of my adventure -- the second part of the 'ski' portion of the trip. Decided to forego the westernized & fancy Lotte Arai, headed instead to the more local MyokoKogen area. The train trip was spectacular -- fantastic views, with Lake Biwa (Japan's largest lake) on one side and mountains on the other. The bullet train was a treat, and a bucket list item. The final 1/2 hr. leg of the journey was on a local mountainside train, a classic with a little whistle and great views of the snowy forest and mountains. Accomms at Kufukan, a very traditional Ryokan (nicer rooms than the one in Niseko) with a great vibe and a nice onsen. $210 for three nights, including breakfast! Got there too late to ski, but went on a nice run exploring the town & snowy side roads. Only 3-4 restaurants in the area. Dinner was at a local noodle shop.

Monday, January 15.

Awoke to snow and fresh powder! Kufukan supplies a free, convenient shuttle to the four local ski areas. Went with the manager's recommendation and skied at Mt. Suginohara. It's the highest and steepest of the bunch. Some nice turns in fresh snow all day, although there aren't too many steeps or woods. Also, only a few ungroomed trails, though Sugi does a better job than Kanko at leaving some room on the side, so was happy. Runs are quite long -- there's a cruiser that goes for 8.5 km. Overall a really nice day. Very low key place.

Had an interesting experience at dinner. As I was on my way to another solo meal at the the noodle place, I happened upon a car stuck in the snow. These two guys had been having trouble with their car all day. Tried to help push them, we weren't getting anywhere, then two local residents appeared out of nowhere with a shovel and helped out. Befriended the guys with the car, and joined them for dinner at the noodle place. They're two friends who live in Hong Kong and have been taking Japan ski trips for ten years. They both worked for U.S. banks at some point and speak excellent English. Enjoyable dinner with them, evening ended with an exchange of WhatsApp and they've already pinged me on LinkedIn.

Tuesday, January 16.

Still snowing. At least 8-10 inches overnight. Skied at Akakura Kanko, one of the others recommended in the area. This place has been around since 1937. There's a hotel mid-mountain that looks like a mini Mt. Washington Hotel. Didn't like the skiing here as much -- nearly everything groomed (a pity with all the fresh snow!), and not very challenging. Still, had some lovely runs in broken powder. It snowed hard all day, and the winds were fierce, closing the Gondola in the afternoon. There is a ton of snow in the MyokoKogen area -- 5+ feet of settled snow on the ground in town, and giant snow banks. Dinner was another adventure -- all the local restaurants were closed that night, save the local sushi place which has two tables -- and was full. But the kind folks at Kufukan made me a nice little noodle dish.

Wednesday, January 17.

A bluebird day! Nice to be able to see the surrounding mountains after two full days of snow. Skied at Sugi again, as I had to return my rental skis. Some lovely, soft turns first thing, plus a little untracked off the top mountain lift which had been closed yesterday. Snow was great until about 11 am, then the warm sun and temps in the 40s turned things springlike. So, groomed went from foe to friend, as things got heavy. Some wonderful, sunny runs with great views of the surrounding mountains. Shuttle picked me up at 2pm, and I was Onsened and on the 15:09 from Myokokogen Station bound for Osaka.

A couple of side notes: Loved the local feel of the skiing here, and there was lots of snow. Exactly the experience I was hoping for. The terrain isn't up to the major places in N. America -- not very challenging, and they tend to over groom. I did hear that Lotte Arai can be great -- lots of steeps off the top, and great above tree line skiing. There is a shuttle bus to get there, buy it's far and expensive. Or you have to stay at the posh resort. I had wanted to try a day there, but didn't go because I was told it's not good on snowy days due to visibility issues.

I also wanted to note the incredibly low cost of this portion of the trip: Accommodations, three days' lift tickets & ski rentals, three ski lunches, and three dinners. All for less than $500.