Skiing in Hokkaido, Japan

It has been a dream of mine to visit Japan. The intrigue of its culture and the magic of its powder snow. Conjure those thoughts of traditional dress, tea ceremonies and old guest houses partially buried in snow.

My daughter was returning from her university graduation break traipsing round Europe and Asia before the serious idea of knuckling down to work. We had a mutual dream for Japan so the finale was sealed. Given that I was more the skier, I had 10 days in Hokkaido prior to our travels together.

It was a real shame that the world reaction to Covid-19 was rapidly playing its cards (and of course its spread). So much unfolding in our month away and difficult to grasp. The Japanese were well trained with SARS not so long ago and in my books are handling far better than what Australia is. I'll not dwell any further as we all are quite aware of the politics and outcomes within our respective countries.

Japan is a modern civilisation with nearly 130 million people. The reality of quaint tea houses with rice paper walls, timid ladies serving green tea and men walking round bravely in samurai outfits is a myth inasmuch as men walking round in stubby shorts and blue singlets with slouch hats in Australia. A good proportion of the people speak English well and most signage is bilingual with English.

In keeping with the conjured vision though is a strong adherence to tradition. The population as a whole is polite, respectful, helpful, friendly and very clean in personal habit. I had to learn, and was willing to learn the house etiquette of things like wearing slippers in the house and using chopsticks.

Of course I also had to try the onsen (hot mineral bath), and the rules there are strict. I stayed in town of Annapuri, Niseko for the first half of my ski adventure. There was a great onsen at Iroha (price not too bad either). The first thing you do is change your shoes to slippers. Then there a set of shelves outside the onsen proper (men and women are separate) where you put the slippers and proceed to the changing area. If you wish to go to the toilet, there are special toilet slippers. Once changed and your clothes etc place in a locker you are now naked and its time to shower. Sitting down you wash, soap all provided.

After a good rinse it's time to enjoy a soak. At Iroha there is an outside pool, inside one a sauna (very hot) and cold water plunge bath (very cold). I enjoyed the snow coming down on me as I was sitting outside and didn't mind the other offerings either. After a hard day of skiing the onsen is a great experience, once you get over the idea of being starkers with other blokes in the same bath that is.

There is an eclectic feel about Japan. You have an adherence to traditions such as the onsens, temples, drink such as sake and tea, then you upscale it to food vending machines, ultra fast trains and so on. On thing without doubt is the extreme lengths they go to to keep clean. Take toilets for instance; all over, public or private they have bidets and all sorts of electronic gadgetry to keep that posterior pristine clean.

What about the skiing ? The skiing was fun.

It is rare that I ski on a resort, preferring the back country freedom. I do not particularly like the damage that ski lifts and runs do to the environment. That said, it is done and roads and infrastructure are as bad if not worse. I am in Japan on my own and have no knowledge of what the skiing scene is, back country was not an option for me on this trip. It is, however an emboldened note in my bucket list for a future visit; as telemark skiers are few I will need to take some buddies with me.

It was late in the season and I was informed that it was a bad one and that I'd be lucky to get any powder and at that the snow wasn't that good. Somehow the weather gods provided. I was lucky to get a taste of the powder in Moira, a resort adjacent to Annupuri and sort of enjoyed it. It is a quite surreal experience not seeing your skis and technique needs to be spot on especially telemark skiing. Falling over is problematic as there is nothing firm to lever off to get back up.

The Annupuri resort is the least popular resort of the four resorts at Niseko, as it does not have the infrastructure of the others. It is small so a day or two is adequate, but you can ski to the other resorts on the mountain and that would quite easily chew up a couple of weeks of fun. Moira is a great day visit and has some good back-country skiing opportunities: the weather was not conducive to much in that area for me though with visibility deteriorating at lunch time.

I had a quick visit to Hirafu on a white-out day and was glad of my decision to be located in Annupuri. Multi-story accommodation, pubs etc are just not my thing. They don't groom the slopes much, but when they do it's a lot of fun. The grades are great for beginners and intermediates, and it suited me as I was able to spend some time correcting my telemark technique (hopefully !).

As I hinted earlier, the Japanese are fastidious with hygiene. The accommodation (Tomten Lodge) was spotless, even though the attendants were Australian they adhered to the standards. Our hosts offered a sushi cooking course and I was happy to participate, I joined in with a Thai family who own a retreat resort in Phuket. Somehow I managed to produce a presentable and tasty sushi roll and the saki tasted good too. The après-ski activities have been fun I must say.

The other resort I visited was Furano, here I spent the other half of my 10 days, where 3 were skiing, two wasted in transit. It is difficult not to lose time in transit even with the superb transport facilities in Japan. I think it better to stop at one region or increase the time to 14 days. Seven solid days of telemark skiing though is plenty for me anyway.

Is Furano better than Annupuri-Niseko ? No. I selected Annupuri for the township, and was lucky in my choice as I got and preferred a quiet place. This mountain is in an essentially busy one with another 3 sections on the mountain. The skiing was much the same. However, I think the back-country offerings at Furano are more extensive and would love to bring a posse of friends, hire a car (or shuttle) and explore it further.

At various resorts and wintry places, icy paths are an issue. I came across these shoe covers with studs. They were about a 1000 yen and well worth it. Get some - they work a treat !

Japan is vending machine crazy. You can get hot coffee in a can (not that good but hey its a 1/3 the price of barista served expresso) and popcorn in can. It is just as well they are vigilant on recycling as the waste is immense.

At the two ski resorts, ordering is fully push button. No confusion over what was ordered here - the McDonalds franchises are mere apprentices when it comes to fast automated food.

Ski lifts are a real mixed bag of one person - no safety bar to fully sealed ultra modern gondolas. They generally run slower (the lifts) than the Aussie equivalent. The air is very chill, I found I needed my ski mask to keep my face warm.