"Blessed with Snow": Skiing around Sapporo and Niseko!

So, it's already February?! Gomenasai (ごめんなさい), dear readers...Sorry for the long break between posts! This year really hit the ground running for us. Hope 2010 has been as good to you as it's been to us so far. There's so much to update about.

Right now, we are in the midst of the 61st Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろゆきまつり- Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) and boy, is the weather really celebrating it. At first it seemed to be warming up in Sapporo but by the time the festival started, the temperatures dropped and so did the powder! The festival is really a wonder...I hope I can put it into words- in another post!

So "Blessed with Snow" seems to be the slogan for Sapporo (click on Sapporo to see it on the website), but I think it applies to pretty much all of Hokkaido and to us because we live here. We've been skiing a lot and still have the rest of the season. Lately we've stuck close to home- Bankei ski resort is only a short subway ride and an even shorter shuttle bus away! It's in Chuo-ku which means it's in Central Sapporo. It's close, it's cheap, and it's a pretty nice little mountain! (Bankei from the bus stop)

But I know you all want to know about Niseko!! (Those of you who know we went...)

I guess a quick geography and background lesson is in order here so we're all up to date on the what and where: (though most of this can actually be read at Niseko's Wikipedia)


So Niseko is about 2.5-3 hours west of Sapporo through a beautiful mountain landscape all dressed up in snow. Niseko is actually the name of a town, the municipal area but is commonly used to refer to the ski resorts that encompass Mt. Yotei and the Annupuri range. There are 6 of them: Grand Hirafu, Higashiyama aka Niseko Village, Annupuri, Hanazono, Mt. Moiwa and Mt. Weiss. The first four are called Niseko United- can be skied in between at the top and has free shuttle service at the base with your Niseko United lift pass. In 2007, Niseko was number 2 in Top 20 Snowiest Ski Resorts in the World in Forbes' Traveler with an average of 595 inches.


Ohkay...so WHY so much snow? Niseko is fed by the weather fronts coming from Siberia and the Sea of Japan which creates a very consistent and powdery snowfall. Apparently though Niseko powder is not as dry as other parts of Hokkaido! Does this mean it gets better than Niseko?!

We left for Niseko on January 3rd after celebrating the new year very quietly with lots of soba noodles, of course! We took the Niseko Bus from Sapporo Station- our bus fare came with complimentary lift tickets.The ride there was pretty awesome- just took in the snow-laden landscape. There were really great views of Mt. Yotei from the bus. Mt. Yotei is also known as Ezo-Fuji (which means Fuji of Hokkaido) because it is supposed to look like Mt. Fuji. What do you think?
Our lodge was in the Grand Hirafu area of Niseko, which is where most hotels and restaurants are. Our particular accomodation would be called a "pension," which is taken from the French word for boarding house. Basically it's the westernized version of a Japanese ryokan. It's a very economical alternative to a resort hotel or business hotel, which are very expensive.

Alpine Central: Our home in Niseko

Alpine Central has a great traditional hinoki bath (Japanese cypress) available to all guests. This was the second best part of a good day of skiing- the best part being the skiing. It wasn't ski-in/ski-out but the free shuttle bus was right outside and only took at most 5 minutes. If we really wanted to, we could have walked up to the lifts- but hey, this is still a vacation, right?

Our first meal in Niseko was pizza, of course! It didn't really live up to our expectations. I guess coming from New York, we have a very discerning palate. Hehe. We thought that since Niseko was known to be more "international" that maybe the pizza would taste less...Japanese. But I guess ingredients are the same everywhere. The search for good pizza continues!

I would like to coin the term "Little Oz" as a new name for Niseko because this whole resort was basically made up of Australian owned businesses and full of Australian people- working or vacationing there. It didn't feel like we were in Japan anymore. It was pretty surreal.

So I guess I should get to the skiing part right?!

Our first day was pretty nice- we tackled Hanazono, a little bit of Grand Hirafu and Higashiyama. The snow was awesome! One of the employees at the lodge warned me that it was a bit of a shock to see your skis disappear in the powder but that I would get used to it quickly- or at least I'd have to. IT WAS CRAZY and exciting! The trails were awesome and wide but every now and then I would get brave enough to go into the trees where the best snow can be found!

We ended the night as we would for the rest of the trip- a nice long soak in the hinoki bath and dinner at a place we carefully chose from the guidebook. Our first night we ate soup curry at Tsubara Tsubara- which was just down the street from our lodge. For our second night (first day skiing), we got take-out from a sandwich shop called Graubunden. Ryan got a mushroom omelette sandwich and I got an avocado, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. And for dessert we got some crazy fruity roll cake slice that cost as much as a sandwich! Worth it though.

The second day was much more intense. We got up early, partook in our lodge's breakfast buffet, and got to the mountain early. We took the lifts straight to the top of Grand Hirafu, crossed Higashiyama, and took one last lift up to the peak to ski down into Annupuri. This last lift was called Wonderland Chair lift. It was a single person chair lift and that morning it felt as if the chair was transporting me directly into a blizzard. This was a white-out the likes of which I have never seen! (OK, I'm a new skier but still this was extreme...) I could barely see Ryan in the chair in front of me. I was holding onto the chair for dear life!

Coming off the lift and turning onto the run, I worked hard to ski down and keep the terror from taking over. The peak was windblown and hard-packed and I was shaking from cold and fear. Another skier joined Ryan and I in trying to find our way to Annupuri but we both lost Ryan and then I lost the other skier. It seemed like the wind was coming in all directions and snow was swirling all around me. Whenever I stopped (which was always a bad idea!), I would get dizzy- the snow was moving in such a way that I couldn't tell which was up, down, left or right. The worst part was when I got knocked down by the wind. This set off a chain of events that went something like this: 1. Wrench your knee. 2. Punch yourself in the face with your pole. 3. Face plant and eat snow. 4. Continue sliding towards the backcountry boundary with no clue as to how you're going to stop. Luckily, I had enough sense left in me to dig my poles in, get my skis situated (guessing at which way was actually down), and stand up. From there I finally found Ryan, who was probably turning into an icicle waiting for me. We skied on into Annupuri, which turned into a peaceful winter wonderland once we got lower down the mountain. It really felt like such a treat after the ordeal at the top. The courses were wide and gentle and quiet. Once we got all the way down and got back on the lift, I nearly cried from sheer joy.

From Niseko

(Not a picture of my after Annupuri but still a good picture of me being happy.)

I can't remember if we took the shuttle bus back to Grand Hirafu that day. We must have because later that day (probably right after I got off that death chair!) all of the lifts to the top were shut down.

In my opinion, Annupuri was the most Japanese of all the resorts. I don't really know how to explain this...I guess the most obvious explanation is that there are more Japanese/less foreigners skiing in Annupuri as compared to Grand Hirafu or Niseko Village. Also it's the least developed (not counting Hanazono which to me was more like an extension of Grand Hirafu than a resort in and of itself)- Annupuri only has a handful of pensions and youth hostels and very little apres-ski. The rest house had the cheapest food of all the resorts and the fare was much less western as well. Also I feel like Annupuri is just much more peaceful and zen-like than the other resorts. But maybe my opinion is just distorted because I was just so happy to have survived the conditions at the peak.

That night we ate at a Nepalese curry place that I can't remember the name of- Bhozan, maybe? I actually can't remember what we ate. Nothing really to write home about...

The third day and our last day of skiing was spent mostly in Grand Hirafu and Hanazono. I haven't asked Ryan but I'm pretty sure that we both agree on the best run: Stairway to Heaven in Hanazono. At first I was a little intimidated by it because I considered it steep but by the end of the day I couldn't get enough of it! When Hanazono closed, we moved on to Grand Hirafu for night skiing. I conquered my fear of skiing off the lip of a trail! It wasn't a big deal at all...children were zooming past me while I whimpered and whined about how scary it was. Haha. Well, I DID IT! So, hooray for me!

Our last dinner in Niseko was at Taj Mahal for Indian buffet. When we first entered we didn't realize it was only buffet. We had to ask the waiter if there were any vegetarian dishes and if it was worth it for us to pay so much for buffet. The waiter was so excited that we were vegetarian that he urged us to stay and that there were two vegetarian dishes at the buffet but the kitchen would make two more all vegetarian dishes just for us. The entire staff seemed to be beaming at us. I didn't have the heart to explain that I was only asking because Ryan is a pescetarian and that I would actually eat meat if I thought it looked good/there weren't that many vegetarian choices. So while we were at Taj Mahal, we "pure vegetarian" as the waiter kept calling us. Apparently in all his years in the restaurant business in Japan, he had hardly ever met "pure vegetarians" and he was so happy to have met us. Ryan considered telling him the story of why he became a vegetarian but I think that would have brought everyone to tears. They served us okra curry and samosas- fresh out of the kitchen just for us. Actually the waiter nearly begged me to eat. He had dropped the samosas off at our table and was coming back with the okra curry when he noticed I hadn't touched my samosa yet. (I still had a whole plate of other food!) "Please, m'am, eat the samosa! It is very good!" And then as if he didn't think I would eat the okra curry, he shoveled it onto my plate for me and seemed to stand there waiting for me to eat. So I indulged him and ate a little bit of both while he stood there. おいしい!! (oishii = delicious) It wasn't as uncomfortable as it sounds. It was pretty awesome and fun. And the food was really good- best Indian food we've eaten in Japan.

So the next day we went back to Sapporo. And the day after I left for the Philippines. And tomorrow morning we are heading to Furano!! So...I have to cut this short here and publish this now so you guys have something to read while we're away!

Also here's the album but I don't think I'm done adding pictures...

Niseko

(I just realized while writing this post that there wasn't even a blip on the radar about New Year...Not much to report. I made New Year postcards as is tradition here. Wish I could have scanned one in for the blog...next time! OH, Ryan recontracted and my job is pretty secure so we'll be here another year! Also please excuse any weird grammar errors, formatting or anything like that...I did this post as quickly as possible!)