Skiing in Japan

On the slopes - about to fall off a cliff - with the volcano in the background

Dave and I had our first ever skiing holiday this winter.  And yes, we went to Japan to do it. Perhaps a little crazy, given that we are next to the French Alps, and there is even some skiing available on the same island as us. But would I make the same choice again?  You're damn straight I would!!  We were staying in Niseko, which is a ski resort on Sapporo, the island up the north of Japan.  And it was like this winter wonderland.  This must be what skiing is meant to be like, coming from Australia it was always kind of hard to understand the fascination. I think I'm a total convert now.

On the slopes

This resort town is completely Anglicised, all the ski instructors speak English, as do all the restaurants, and yet the food is all Japanese, yummo!  There was 15 m of snow in the town, yet people were still driving around, the roads had just been carved into the snow.  Walking along you have these massive walls of snow next to you, far higher than you can see over, it's incredible.  They are meant to get something like 30cm of powder every day, a local we met was whinging because we had only been getting 15cm. As you are skiing you have a view across to an active volcano, which looks almost exactly like Mt Fuji. Thinking back on it, it's incredible that a place like this exists, you would not change a thing about it.  The skiing is so good, they actually have to put signs up saying that you aren't allowed to ski through the town, just because there is so much snow that you could easily ski from the slopes to your room.  Unbelievable.

Lovely, lovely slopes

Couldn't ask for better weather

There are 3 resorts on this one mountain, and if you are really experienced you can actually catch a chair lift all the way to the top and then ski down to another resort. We are a long way from that standard, but luckily we are catered for as well. In that there is a free shuttle bus that drives between all the resorts. So if you are finding it too difficult where you are, you can just jump on the bus and go somewhere else.  Or if you go bored with the same runs, you can just try a different part of the mountain. They even have a mobile app showing you all the runs, their level of difficulty, their length, and the maximum and minimum steepness.  The last two numbers were really the most important for a beginner.

We did make the mistake that I think all beginners make at some point, of thinking we could tackle a particular run. Our instructor had warned us against it, but we were growing confident, and it was still marked as an easy run. Oh boy, were we in for a massive confidence crusher. This thing was like a cliff, you come up to the edge, and you can't see where the run goes, it's that steep. It was way too steep for the snow plow, it came down to the old side step, though to be honest I actually took the skis off and walked part way down. It took a long time to get down that run. Then we decided to go back up to the super easy part, and I had the worst stack ever. Smashed the back of my head on rock hard ice getting off the ski lift. Not a good end to that day. Lucky I was wearing a helmet, I don't think I would ski without one, after that experience.

Our last resort of the holiday

We had two days of lessons, and man that was such a good idea.  Next time skiing I would go for a few days longer, and intersperse the lessons with skiing by myself and rest days.  The fact that we were there for only 4 days meant that we really wanted to get in as much skiing as we could, so we were out on the slopes all day, every day.  Our first lesson was so good, it was just 3 of us with the instructor.  We started off on tiny little slopes, and there was even a magic carpet, so you didn't have to battle with the ski lifts straight up.  I think the ski lifts were definitely the worst part of the whole ski trip. Though to be honest, I even managed a terrible fall on the magic carpet, the assistant had to stop the whole ride and help me up.

But once we had mastered the little slopes and the good old snow plows, it was up the mountain. There was this great little stretch which was almost perfectly flat, with a whole heap of powder, that we could just go down and up on.  Over and over again, it was the perfect start to skiing, since even if you fell over it was into a massive snow drift.  Though I don't think I managed to get off the ski lift properly at all that day.  I think the trick is to wait until the absolute last minute before standing up, but even then it's a bit touch and go.

Looking down from almost the top of the mountain

We did another full day lesson the next day, that was a much harder day, the weather was a lot better, the day before we had been skiing whilst the powder was falling.  But this day was clear blue skies.  There was a whole pack of school kids learning snowboarding too, they were really scary to share the slopes with. They were total beginners.  Perhaps I sound like a ski snob, but snowboarders were by far the most scary people on the slopes. I got hit twice, when I was just standing waiting for the lift.  Both times were by snowboarders. One of them actually grabbed hold of me and started to pull me along. I had to shake him off, holy cow, get some lessons before you go round smashing into people!  The sound they make when they come up behind you is really scary too, as is the fact that they have a massive blind spot.  I just tried to give them all a really wide berth.

I will definitely be back to this spot.  I might try a bit of skiing in Europe first, to see if it's as good. I have my doubts. If you like skiing, get yourself to Niseko, you won't be disappointed.