EXTRA: Beyond Sapporo
Niseko
The
main purpose of our journey to Japan was to visit yet another Olympic resort. We knew that Teine was only large
enough to hold our attention for a day or two so plans were made to spend 3
days skiing at Niseko, the largest resort in Hokkaido.
Getting
to our resort was a bit challenging I thought we would go to Niseko station and
take a taxi but of course there were no taxis so someone kindly came from the
hotel came to collect us. Niseko
Northern Resort was modern, pleasant hotel. We went for half board which had a mix of Western and
Eastern cuisine. I gorged on pastries at breakfast including
danishes filled with that Japanese staple: red beans.
A single chair lift!
The
first day of skiing was great, fresh powder and we got quite a few runs in
Anpnupurin and Hanazoo. While we
were eating our overpriced udon at the base of Hanazoo there was a guitarist
playing ambient guitar tunes which was a nice change from Teine’s muzak. On the second day Mike was bed
ridden with a cold/flu. When I
arrived at the gondola and there were no crowds; I soon discovered why. The top of the mountain was covered in
clouds with almost 0 vis. I was
stuck at my side of the hill with mostly red and green runs. I spent about half the day doing the
groomers and venturing into the “back country”. Niseko is made up of 4 interconnected resorts but they are
connected at the top of the mountain.
I thought I would have plenty of time to explore the other two resorts
on our last day. Wrong again! It
was pretty windy and all the lifts were not operating for the entire day. The hotel was full of guests not quite
sure what to do with themselves while Mike was still busy being ill and
worrying if he should go to the hospital for a cold/flu.
Our
part of the resort was quiet with mostly Japanese and Chinese visitors, there
were things to do at the hotel, like have drinks at the modern bar with a
modern fireplace but it was pretty subdued. If you want a livelier après ski, Little Brisbane, I mean
Hirafu is the place to be. We went
to check it out and found what we thought was a lively pub, but it turned out
to be also quite subdued with many Australians watching cricket on a pirated
TSN feed no less! After one beer
we left.
I
can say that Niseko does live up to its reputation of having superb snow
conditions and lots of Australian visitors. To me the backcountry was more like birch forest glade
skiing rather than true backcountry.
Nonetheless be prepared for loads of Westerners walking around the
resort and hills with avi beacons, shovels and back packs in search of prestine
powder (they don’t have to go far).
We thought of a new product: fake avi beacons so when you are in the
chalet you can look hardcore at a fraction of the price. Niseko is a resort that can keep
you busy for a week and Rusutsu resort is a short bus ride away if it can’t.
Kyoto
A historic street in Kyoto and a bamboo grove
After hanging around a windswept Niseko for the day we got
on the sort of wrong bus to New Chitose Airport. (It was a bus to New Chitose Airport but not the bus we paid
for in advance which was 5 minutes later). Kyoto is the historic capital of Japan. We flew 2 hours south to Osaka (Itami)
and took a suburban railway to Kyoto and made it to the Ryokan. A Ryokan is a traditional Japanese
guest house. The walls are paper
thing (literally) and you sleep on the floor.
Kyoto ryokan room
Kyoto
is full of shrines and temples with varying degrees of grandeur. I think we saw 5 in one day. One of the more impressive temples was
a functioning temple in quiet surroundings that was not swarming with tourists.
The Golden Temple is very impressive.
We also were fortunate to stumble upon the bean throwing festival and
saw 3 geisha perform a traditional fan dance before throwing beans into the
crowd. Our good fortune continued in Kyoto when looking for a place
to eat we just happened across the #6 restaurant on trip advisor for shabu shabu
pork (a sort of do it your self stew with flying fish broth). Unfortunately for Mike, his ongoing
search for melon buns turned up empty.
Tokyo
Tokyo as always is quite intense. There is constantly something going on and people
everywhere. We took the Shinkassen
from Kyoto to Tokyo and checked in to our wonderful hotel overlooking Tokyo Bay
by Tokyo Teleport. We didn’t
really visit any sites at Tokyo except just walked around and took in the
frenetic ambience. We also spent a
good portion of our time looking for coffee siphons and green melon buns; which
was a great success!.
It was a shame the skiing was essentially cut short by two
days, however it was nice to return to Japan with its excellent customer
service, friendly people, wonderful food and fascinating peculiarities.
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