Skiing in Japan

After almost two months in the gigantic city of Tokyo I’m finally changing place for a good Nature Break. I’m going to spend the end of the year in Hokkaido , the most northern island of Japan. Hokkaido is well known for having high quantity of snow falls during winter , fantastic milk & cheesecakes , many vegetables and has the best seafood in the country. Hokkaido have the smallest demography in Japan but has the biggest island density ! Which means that you will find many untouched nature there. How exciting to make this transition !

Airport waiting. Goodbye Tokyo. It was nice spending some time with you. Japanese Airport are the best , everything works well , is fast and staffs are smily.

Above the clouds for less than 2 hours.
Changement of Landscapes , say hello to the Snow !! Around Sapporo the temperature was 3°c at noon. It felt much colder than Tokyo and also quite pleasant. I’m meeting my good old friend Nomi for a two weeks adventure. We are going to try the famous ski slopes in Niseko. Nomi never skied and I skied for the last time more than 6 year ago.

We rented a car for the upcoming adventure. Having a car in Hokkaido is extremely helpful has there is little buses , especially during winter. Also there are many “off the beaten path” places to discover.

Discovering a Soba restaurant on our way , with a nice view of a frozen lake.

Hello Snow and Sun !

Hokkaido is also well famous for having many many hot springs all over (Onsens). On our way to Niseko we had to stop to a Onsen . Theses places are magical and make even more sense in winter and in Hokkaido !

Lake side views. So nice to drive here , also it feels quite dangerous with all the snow on the road. We made a nice stop at an Onsen overtaking the Lake. Such a beautiful area.

For our stay in Niseko we choosed the Airbnb option. In fact most hotels where fully booked as it is a very popular time to ski here. Niseko is one of the most famous ski resort in the world  (great powdered snow )! We met many Australians and Chinese tourists. We are staying in a beautiful Japanese house , this really added up to our experience in Hokkaido. We got to live with the family and to share many unforgatable moments (more on that on another article).

Views from our new home.

The little Gang. In the middle is Teppei , the 18 year old son living in the room next door.

Time to ski now. Let’s find our gears and go !

Hirafu town. The busiest ski resort in Niseko. Still not so big compared to our French Alps resorts.

We used Good Sport rental for our gears. Actually we booked eveythings from ski , trousers , jackets , gloves , googles… And this place was cheap as well.

Of course we were so excited to start this ski , and I got a bit overconfident with the driving on the snow / ice…. Life played with us and we ended up crashing the car the second day .. xD It was just a slight bump but we were stucked in the snow so we had to organised a rescue. This was a experience , quite stressfull as well as it was our rental car ! (Glad we took the insurance).

Rescue time !

No more battery as well …
It was interesting to see the rescue process from this perspective. We were impressed by the efficiency and speed of these Japanese people. In a few minutes we were ready to drive again ! Many people were offering us they help when we were by the road. A dude told us it happens more than 10 times a day here. Beautiful to observe so much kindness around us. Even though some situations sucks , it always not as bad as it seems. At least I learn a good lesson that day , drive very slowly in Niseko !
Niseko roads. This one was actually pretty good compared to the small road around.

Mount Yotei. This one can be hiked up in about 4 5 hours for the fittest one’s (in hiking season).

Winter sceneries in Niseko.

There is three main ski resort just next to each other in Niseko. More ski resorts can be found if you drive around. We were very happy to have the car as it allowed us to explore different slopes , onsens and restaurants. This adventure without the car would have been less fun I think.

Ski time !!

Vending machine are truely everywhere in Japan !

How nice to find hot green tea in the vending machines. Little break in the Gondala between the slopes.

The delicious breakfast of Aumi san. This was one the highlight of our trip , so lucky to eat this food every morning ! Good calorie intake for a long day of ski. Arigatou Gosaimasu !

Hirafu ski resort

Coffee break ?

Matcha latte and cakes , a break , Japanese style !

Orangina in the vending machines! Glimpses of France.

The wild and wide Rusutsu slopes.

Japaneses survival kit for ski : crips , matcha and enormous apple.

And finishing every day with …

Onsen !!
Bathing naking in theses hot springs , having the snow falling on us was magical. Also theses rituals kept us healthy and help to deal with muscle tensions.

Skiing in Japan was a cool experience. The slopes in Niseko are very nice and offers good quality snow. The mountains aren’t that high compared to French Alps. And the landscapes aren’t rocky , it was different. Enjoying Onsens after ski was a big highlight for us. This is quite unique to Japan I think. The downside was the closing time of restaurants in the area. Japanese tend to eat dinner around 18 19h , so we were often late or simply missed eating time as we enjoyed to much Onsens ! Luckily there is always a Konbini around to find decent food.
Our favorite Ski resort in Niseko was Rusutsu which offers the largest number of slopes and has fewer people and wider slopes. The pass for 5 hours of ski in Niseko area was around 40 euro.

This was our first taste of Hokkaido , more articles to come soon 🙂
Happy new year to all !