Kiroro

Kiroro's Mascot (Hokkaido fox)

Today was Sunday so we went skiing! We went to Kiroro ski resort today, about 90 minutes away from Sapporo by bus. It was Ryan's first time and my second time. I had gone with my school last year sometime in March and I wasn't that impressed. The snow wasn't so great. I think it was only the first or second week of March but it was much warmer and there was much less snow last year. But this year is much nicer!

We were lucky. This last week was pretty warm but the weekend cooled down quite a bit and we even got some fresh snow accumulation in Sapporo. So, it was a snowy, cold day at Kiroro. And I was really surprised by the snow accumulation at the resort!Look at all that snow!

Snow reaching past the windows up the stairs

Ryan is amused as always.
The snow is almost as tall as me!
And wow, I'm short!

Relative to other resorts we've been to, Kiroro's snow wasn't as dry and powdery. Actually, it was reminiscent to skiing in NY/NJ (but still better than NY/NJ!). Of course, I've become accustomed to powder conditions so I was not happy about this at first. But Kiroro grew on me a bit through the day. It's a little flat in some places but its intermediate runs were pretty nice and offered some steepness.

Over all, we both agreed it was nothing much to write home about (though I AM writing home about it now...just to be thorough!). It is much bigger than the resorts closer/in the city (Bankei, Moiwayama) and probably has better snow too. We think that it's probably better than Sapporo Kokusai too...so that puts it in the middle somewhere.

Two non-skiing highlights of the resort for me were the fresh melon bread and the super cute two-seater covered lifts! Seriously, people would wait on line for the fresh melon bread. They disappear faster than it takes to for them to bake! Truly worth the wait to eat them still warm though. And the covered double chairs were so cute...too bad I don't have a picture of them. So romantic! Haha.

おいしい！(Yummy!)

No album this time- I forgot my camera (a blessing for Ryan!). Actually I think Kiroro is supposed to have some spectacular views but today was not the day to see any of them. We had maybe 20 minutes of blue sky...and even then, it was just a patch! Oh well, I shouldn't complain- I want more snow!