JAPAN
Japan 2023 Day 6-8 - Niseko
To get from Tokyo to Niseko we flew to Sapporo and then took a chartered cab the 2 or so hours drive. Flying domestically in Japan was pretty painless although it was a long day of taking the JR to the Skyliner to get to the airport, then actually flying, then doing the drive. You can take the Shinkansen but as I understand it it’s a pretty long train ride.
In Niseko we stayed at the Vale Niseko which is a ski in/ski out resort nestled at the bottom of the Hirafu section of the mountain. From our balcony we could see the lift for the family bunny hill!
We had a 2 bedroom suite for the two couples with a nice big living room and kitchen to hang out in and best of all a private onsen on the balcony! It felt incredibly luxurious and in fact was our most expensive hotel of the trip. That said I think we all felt it was totally worth it.
The logistics of skiing here is a cinch – the rental shop is in the lobby of the hotel and each room has designated lockers in the basement to keep your skis and boots so you’re not lugging them up to your room at the end of each day. From there it’s probably a 300 foot walk to the chair lift for the family run.
There’s also a bar and grill style restaurant attached to the lobby so that was our go to spot for breakfast and coffee before skiing, and dinner when we arrived exhausted on our first day. The entire place is staffed by Australians so it was hard to remember we were in Japan sometimes.
Our first American food in a week:
Some other amenities included a public onsen (which Justin tried out but I never got the chance or felt like it since we had a private one after all!) and the front desk concierge helped us make our dinner reservations for both nights which was great.
So: skiing. I tried snowboarding last season and just could not get over the initial learning hump of falling on your butt over and over. I had planned to keep at it this season until we decided to come to Japan. When we planned this trip I knew I had to give up on snowboarding or else I wouldn’t have any fun. So I took some ski lessons in Park City in January and again in Tahoe a few weeks ago. You’ll notice I didn’t write blog posts about them and that’s because I don’t find skiing interesting enough to write about.
We had been told that Japanese rating systems for slopes trended easier than in the US. Basically the color ratings are similar except blues are called reds in Japan. We found that to not be the case in the slightest.
The greens on the Hirafu side of the mountain that aren’t the bunny hill had pretty intense pitches and were often narrow or punctuated by trees. Even at low density of other skiers it felt more intense than the Palisades Tahoe’s blue I had done.
The nice thing was our friend bought a comms system for our helmets so we had mics to chat with each other while skiing. I thought that was helpful for sticking together and making a plan amongst four people.
We got lunch on the mountain where I got spicy miso ramen that was incredible. Hard to say if because we’re in Japan things are just good or if it was because I was cold and tired from skiing. Highly recommend!
It was also really cool when the fog cleared we had an incredible view of Mount Yotei from the slopes.
We tried out the next segment of the mountain that terminates in Niseko Village (map for reference) that appeared to have a long winding green all the way down. This turned out to be a huge mistake to go down – it’s incredibly narrow and very steep for a green. There is no other way down that isn’t a red besides this path. As a beginner it was very difficult for me and I was ready to turn in when I finally got to the bottom.
For dinner that night we had a reservation thanks to the front desk at Kumo Restaurant. It’s a restaurant in another hotel and was a short walk away (although the walk sucked quite a lot in the cold and snow!). It’s a small plate slash family style type place. The waiter suggested the yakitori which I thought the marinated pork was good but otherwise was just fine.
The tofu bowl was really excellent as well!
And for dessert they had a three ice cream flavor sampler where one of the flavors was corn!
The second day of skiing I took it much easier on myself and grinded on the bunny hill for the morning. I felt like I needed to build more confidence on the powder skis, get used to the snow texture more, and get out of my own head. I actually had a good amount of fun just doing that and felt more ready to take on something new after.
For lunch that day we walked to Tozanken Ramen in town. The wait was kind of insane but they have a gift shop upstairs to entertain yourself with in the meanwhile. I really liked the ramen here but it’s hard to compare with the ramen we had up on the mountain.
We spent the next hour or two digesting before taking a cab over to Niseko Annapuri to try out the greens over there. The cab was pretty pricey at 40 dollars and we arranged it with the concierge. It was getting a little late but the slopes are lit up by huge stadium lights so that you can ski at night here.
The conditions weren’t superb for skiing, quite windy and bad visibility, but the greens over there were MUCH friendlier, with broad pathways and maneagable pitches. It may have also helped there were a lot fewer people out at that time! We did Paradise to Junior twice until they shut the lifts down from the wind.
To get back to Harafu we took the Niseko village shuttle bus. This is free if you have an Ikon pass or Niseko Resort lift ticket, otherwise it has a normal bus fee. This was kind of miserable because it was packed with people and took forever but it did take us nearly directly back to our hotel.
We had just enough time from getting back to shower and hit the onsen one last time before needing to leave for dinner.
For dinner we went to a spot that I think is called Ren – another short walk away from our hotel. We sort of did a family style sharing of small plates strategy and orderd sushi, tempura, corn, and tofu. The fried octopus and the salmon sushi were amazing but I learned I don’t really like scallops that much.
The next morning February 3rd we packed up and checked out of the hotel. We got coffee nearby at KOKO Bakery & Coffee - supposedly it has the best croisants outside of Paris. I don’t know about that but I will say the croissant was good.
We killed time there until our lunch spot opened, then we headed over to Fuji Sushi Niseko for a sushi lunch. I got the sushi bento box which was kind of interesting. The miso and sushi themselves were great (a particular standout was the shrimp sushi which is surprising) but it also came with a strange savory pudding that I didn’t really like.
We had another chartered cab scheduled to arrive at 1 PM to take us back to Sapporo and continue our trip!