Snowboarding in Niseko Hokkaido 北海道ニセコのスノーボーディング

Had a really fun trip to Niseko in Hokkaido with Todd and Jessica for a little snowboarding. I was little worried how the trip was going to work out because of a small mishap at Haneda airport on the way to our flights gate. While walking down one of the flat people movers my ticket fell out of my hand directly into the little crack between the moving floor and the frame holding the whole thing together.

I was in complete disbelief that my ticket was able to slide in there so perfectly. We immediately wen to a Japan Airlines info counter but they didn’t speak any English so I had no choice but to use my Japanese. I really just had no idea where to begin in a situation like that. But some how I managed to explain what happened or at least they figured it out and they provided me with a new boarding pass. Actually I go the impression that this kind of problem happens frequently.

My New Boarding Pass

Luckily the rest of the way to Niseko was incident free. After landing at New Chitose Airport we still had a 3 hour bus ride ahead of us so it was  a good opportunity to try some new beer. Even though it says Sapporo Classic and it is brewed in Hokkaido I thought it tasted like any other Sapporo beer I have had.

Half way through our 3 hour bus ride we made a pit stop for a bathroom brake which was most welcome after a couple of big cans of beer. The rest stop was very log cabin in style with snacks and souvenirs for sale on the first floor  and bathrooms downstairs. The downstairs was strangely totally different in style from the upstairs with polished marble and chrome and this piano sitting outside with a sign listing the hours when somebody would actually be playing. I found that to be especially odd.

Finally when we arrived we were quite happy to see that there was a very healthy snow covering and our hotel (the J-First) was conveniently located just 2 minutes by foot from at least 4 lifts.

And since it was late we figured we should take a walk and get more beer giving me yet another opportunity to add a new one to my list. This was a local brew and turned out to be pretty good.

Ok, on to the snowboarding… This was my first time snowboarding so things started off pretty rough. Skiing since I am 7 years old didn’t help me one bit with snowboarding. I would say the only thing the too sports actually share is snow. I spent most of my first day falling down and my body really paid the price. After spending my morning being demoralized on the bunny hill it was time for a Ramen break which definitely lifted my spirits a bit. We went to 旭川ラーメン登山軒 (Asahikawa-Ramen Tozanken) and I had the 醤油ラーメン (soy sauce ramen) which I found do be quite good.

After a few more hours I was feeling a bit beat down and decided to call it a day. Here is a shot of the slopes just before I headed in.

The hotel turned out to be really nice, nothing fancy in the rooms but we had really good dinners which were included in our package and they had a super nice Onsen 温泉 (Hot spring). The Onsen was outside in the snow and was really relaxing after falling down all day. My second day was way better than the first and I actually remained upright for most of it. I even managed to keep going past 7pm for a little night time snowboarding which was really fun.

The food at the J-First hotel was easily one of the highlights of this trip. We really didn’t know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised that we had such nice dinners instead of a mediocre buffet.

And finally here is a little clip of what I sadly call snowboarding