First trip to ski light, fluffy powder in Japan, with Jim and Jen
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I picked up my Mom from the airport since she tended to our children while we went to Japan. I thought
it would be appropriate for her to get a bit of Japan at Kinjo since she could avoid the flying to get there.
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This is at Mushroom Kingdom, our bathroom/smoke break enroute to Niseko. They grow their own
mushrooms here along with many other things in the middle of the mountains.
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This meat on a rib bone was delicious from the Mushroom Kingdom.
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This is what we arrived to in Niseko - hammering snow. These are heated sidewalks. Seriously.
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There's a car buried in here somewhere. I think it had parked here earlier in the week.
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Night skiing is a thing in Niseko as the Japanese love it. We went for a wander to figure out the
lay of the land, and also to stave off jet lag and keep ourselves from sleeping yet.
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We thought we'd go for sushi, and wound up in this nice place (that was pretty empty). Well, once we
looked at the menus and saw prices, we figured out why. This snow crab would go for almost $1000. Yikes!
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When we popped out of our condo (Youtei Tracks 504 through Niseko Central), there was a private
shuttle waiting to take us up to King Gondola. Boom. So, we hopped in. When other people cram into
the van, it's cramped, but as a private shuttle, no worries for space!
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Natalia says a private shuttle is the cat's pyjamas.
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Jen and Natalia say 'I love fluffy snow'!
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Natalia getting her first taste of blower snow. It was also her first ski day on her new
Sheeva 10s and she had a blast.
Natalia skiing powder snow
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Natalia and I skiing trees off the King double chair, a fun area since the Japanese basically stay on the
marked out runs, leaving the margins of the runs open for powder skiing for everyone else.
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Natalia and I coming up the double chair on day 1.
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At the top of the Ace pair 3 chair is this cool little bell. Here's Jen ringing it to start our ski session.
Jim skiing blower snow in Niseko
Jen skiing the same line
Natalia showing us how her new skis work
Natalia skiing in the trees
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One of the reasons I really wanted to ski Japan was the powder of course. But also I wanted to see
what it's like to ski in areas with deciduous trees along ski zones. Check out the bamboo that is GREEN
here apparently all year long.
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Check out the snowbanks on the streets around Niseko. Just silly. It must be a full industry just to
keep the town from being totally avalanched with snow every day. They got 40cm overnight the first night
we were there, but it had snowed over a metre the day before. Not bad.
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I thought the trees here were so neat, with mostly Japanese silver birch or shirakaba trees. I *think*
this is still part of the birch family too but the bark was quite mottled rather than pure papery.
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We went down to the Niseko Village side for a look-about. While it was smashing snow, we couldn't really
see too much, but this 1984 gondola we named the 'Apollo Capsule' as it felt like we were going to the moon
in this thing.
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Natalia showing off the outside of the Apollo capsule gondola.
Video inside the Apollo Capsule gondola
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I always love bad translation signs. I actually don't know what the bottom of this means.
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The burger sign by Jim's head is also awesome.
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Getting out of the Apollo capsule. They rotate open on both sides and it actually felt more like
being birthed than getting out of a ski gondola. Oh yeah, and the bottom station is right next to
a weird Hilton building that looks like a Bond lair. Too funny.
More great powder skiing with Jim and Jen crushing powder
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One of the funny parts of traveling to Japan is their toilets. This is the toilet in our condo
with a seat heater and two different bidet functions.
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We used Google Lens a lot to try to figure out what we were trying to read. Here it tells us the
purpose of the dial on our toilet - a 'butt zoom zone' indeed!
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We finally had a clear morning to start our ski day and here's Natalia outside our condo getting ready
for our day.
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Outside our condo waiting for the shuttle bus. This also shows my new goggle cover and my eyes closed.
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A marginally clear day that allowed us to see all the way up the mountain from the double chair.
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We went up the mountain when it cleared a bit to finally get a bit of a look from the top. This is
from the top of Ace #4 pair chair where you can see the pizza box single chair to the left here.
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Pano looking around from the top of the mountain down as Jim gets his gloves back on.
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Looking down the mountain. It was reasonably steep up here, but barely a black I'd say.
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Again, with the Japanese toilets - this is a display on the top of a urinal at Nest 813, the fancy
cafeteria restaurant at the top of the Ace gondola that served crab lasagne.
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We popped back down into the village and I got a show of this weird purply blue thing.
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We had lunch at the Lookout Cafe, but had zero lookout from here since it was again smashing snow and wind.
But I thought the kimono-clad skier crushing a burger was awesome.
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Natalia had ramen and a hot coffee on this day for lunch.
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Hilarious ordering machine at the Lookout Cafe. On first glance, this thing looked ancient, but it's
actually a pretty new machine and a bit shocking that it doesn't take card - good thing I had cash!
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Walking out of the Lookout Cafe into a storm cycle.
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Jim up at the Lookout Cafe on the Village side.
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Visibility up the single pizza box chair.
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Natalia was our griller extraordinaire on this night and she made miracles happen. The centre
wooden chute was where our robotic serving tray came out with our orders. The boys would have loved this.
I should have gotten a video of it. You ordered from your iPad and it would just show up with a wooden tray.
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More accurately, they wanted Jim to get a mango beer and try it. They thought it was hilarious.
It turned out to be pretty terrible.
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Day 4 woke up to the clearest day yet so I snapped a photo from our condo as it looked out onto the ski hill.
You can see the top of the Ace gondola here.
Jim skiing down off the Swinging Monkey chair
Jen crushing powder off Swinging Monkey
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Swinging Monkey chair made us laugh. Some of the videos here have bits of the ski chair speakers
that seem to play all kinds of stuff from PSAs about not jumping off the chairs to Japanese pop music.
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Jim, Jen, and I enjoying powder snow off the Swinging Monkey chair.
Natalia skiing trees off Swinging Monkey
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Jim and I brought backpacks on this day to try out the Niseko Gate program that allows people to be out of
bounds as long as they take their own liability and bring a beacon, shovel, probe. This is out gate 5 at the top
of the Hanazono Hooded Chair 4.
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Some of the beautiful birch trees in the Hanazono area that Jim and I explored.
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Jim and I loading up our skis for a wander back into the resort. Not only do they not make you
trudge through hip deep snow, they actually run groomers back here so that we only have to walk back
with our skis on firm snow. It was glorious. 10 mins back to resort and Bob's your uncle.
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A panoramic look at all of the snow that's available in this zone. Once the light popped back on, it
was obvious that we should have been skiing in here the day before this. Although we couldn't have seen
anything, we would have had perfect snow. Above this would be G3 and G4 zone.
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This might be one of my favourite signs, at the Hanazono Hooded 6 pack at the bottom of Hanazono.
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This guy's beer holder on his board was awesome. If I would have been on it I would have gotten a
video of him pulling the beer out and whipping it to his buddy getting on the chair. It was awesome.
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Natalia getting on the pizza box chair! These things are basically the size of a 12 inch pizza box.
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How high are these snowbanks? These were the low ones.
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Our sushi rolls were also lovely. When I tried to order for just Natalia and I, the server told us
"Um, too much for you", so then we ordered a similar amount for the four of us, and she said,
"No, not enuf", so then she just figured it out for us and it was awesome.
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Some of the massive icicles hanging off one of the houses near us.
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One of Natalia's favourite things to do while traveling is to visit grocery stores. This is always
a hoot, and Japan didn't disappoint with robot floor cleaners and robot speakers keeping the place fun.
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Natalia found an ice cream and was stoked.
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This was the first day we actually saw Mt Yotei and I got a quick snap of it from the King gondola.
We skied 5 days at Niseko and on 3 of those we caught the private shuttle to the gondola. 2 days
we even got it by ourselves. The other two days, we simply walked down to the family lift below
the Ace gondola and then waited ~15 minutes for the Ace gondola as mornings are busy.
Skiing below the King gondola - did I mention no fresh snow overnight? Winds keep the light snow fresh
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Not a bad zone with a bit of visibility. It hadn't snowed overnight, but we still got fresh turns
just from the wind sift, which was crazy to me.
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Jen having a dragon coffee in a can on the gondola back up. Coffee from a vendo is pretty rad.
Some of them are even hot.
Jim skiing off the Swinging Monkey chair
Me skiing off the Swinging Monkey chair
We took a slight turn and missed the Swinging Monkey chair, but went through nice snow to the bottom
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My lunch at Nest 813, corn chowder, a chocolate croissant, potato mochi (I wouldn't order it again but it
was an experience), and a beer.
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Great translation in the elevator back down from Nest 813.
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I would ski a short pitch, then put my poles up to give the team a target. On this day it didn't matter
since we had visibility, but most days we measured visibility in number of chairs ahead of us at 1-2.
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Jim and the evil villain lair Hilton at the bottom of the Niseko Village. He's looking evil here.
Natalia thinks the centre of this building is where they incinerate the bodies.
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The hilarious font used on the 1985 Niseko Annupuri gondola.
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Apparently snow skates aren't permitted on these chairs.
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Full snow-covered trees in the gated area of Annupuri. Their gate system seems a bit silly honestly
as so much of this is blue terrain, but I think it mostly keeps the beginners from getting in over
their heads and likely allows their ski patrol a bit of a break from rescuing people.
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Jen skiing into a cool ravine exit along the G7 zone. See the Niseko Ski map HERE .
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I find it hilarious that they consider 'ungroomed' runs the most difficult, but that's how they list them.
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These were the 'toilets' outside the food trucks by our condo. Yup, hidden snow walls and that's it.
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A corn dog covered in sugar. I should have tried it but didn't.
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Meat juices spread all over your mouth indeed.
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Day 6 dawned bright and sunny for our tour to Rusutsu, and here's Natalia having a brownie in a
skinny package with Mt Youtei behind her.
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Weird light inside the gondola at Rusutsu. We had to pre-buy our lift tickets and our 45 minute bus
trip, which together was a bit over $200 CDN, but we did get a sweet intro and lecture from an older
Japanese man to start the bus trip telling us he had faith in us to keep the bus clean.
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I liked their 'lack of snow' signs since their snow base was almost 2m.
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Cool zone through the trees here. Rusutsu had slightly better tree spacing, and fewer people, but it
had also been skied out by the time we got here. See the ski map for Rusutsu HERE
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Rusutsu looked like they had LOTS of touring that's accessible from the top of the resort area.
If they're still doing single lift tickets, that would be a sweet side country jam for sure.
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I have no idea what this says at the top of Mt Isola.
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Jen, JB, and Natalia at Rusutsu lunch spot.
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Natalia with the roller coaster on the west side of Rusutsu. I had been told that you can ski with
roller coasters and that's a bit over sold here. They are there for sure, but not for skiing through.
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Natalia and Mt Yotei below us at Rusutsu.
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This is the closest we got to the roller coasters at Rusutsu. It turns out 'skiing among rollercoasters'
was a little over-sold here.
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A better look at the roller coaster here. This side must have been the original one as it's pretty puny.
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Water park and roller coasters would be fun here in the summer.
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A look at where we skied on day 6. Totals for the week were 28000 vertical metres and 158km total coverage.
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On the way back we took a private shuttle which BARELY made it to the New Chitose airport in time
since they had some baggage machine issues. BUT we did get to stop at the Mushroom Kingdom again.
I told Jim to hold up the mushrooms like the Stanley Cup and he happily obliged.
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Crazy packaged animal meat is always funny to me.
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Back at Narita after barely making our connector from New Chitose. The short answer is that we likely
needed more time for the private transfer, and Jetstar Japan needs to ensure their bag tagging machine
actually works. Natalia thought the Mario pipe was funny at the airport.
