Snowboarding Japan

[zakk]

older, but great, article on Niseko:

Niseko, Japan: Downhill Skiing in the Land of the Rising Sun - New York Times

Also, any place that has A) Beer and B) Aussies will have C) a night life.

[zakk]

Originally Posted by slice

Japan sounds excellent., i think i shall be heading there this season. Shiga kogen is the biggest resort with the most runs and lifts but does it have good powder runs like the others advertise? Also, back to the night life.. The punters want to know if the local ladies are friendly... like do they put out?

I'm sure a suave, debonair gentleman with such eloquently stated questions will have little problem with the fairer sex.

Originally Posted by zakk

I'm sure a suave, debonair gentleman with such eloquently stated questions will have little problem with the fairer sex.

Yes, this is true. The fact that im drop dead sexy also helps.

Quality article.

Hi All,

Here is some firsthand info for you on Japan- Shiga Kogen & Furano

We went for the first time in Febuary 08.

It is a great place to visit and given it is only 8/9 hr flight from the Australian East Coast many Aussies make it an annual visit.

As someone mentioned earlier Niseko is probably the most popular tourist destination on the north Island of Hokkaido.

We decided that we see enough Aussies at home and in New Zealand so we went off the beaten track a little and checked out some of the other resorts with more Japanese flavour.

A quick 3 hr ride from Tokyo by Shinkansen (Bullet train) is Nagano which is on the doorstep of 2 fantastic locations - Shiga Kogen & Hakuba.

Shiga Kogen is more of a collection of smaller resorts/hotels across a wide area that are all accessible using one lift pass. It is possible to ski/board from one side to the other using some of the 71 lifts and a cable car link. One of the great features of this area was that if the wind was up from one direction you could ski over the other side to an area that was sheltered and still have plently of terrain.

Depending on where you are stationed at Shiga Kogen, Après varies from reasonably slow to non existent and it is very difficult to get from area to area after dark as the buses/shuttles finshed at around 7 & 9pm respectively. We stayed at the Prince Hotel East and the facilities were excellent, dinner was included and was also excellent.

We got lucky at Shiga Kogen and had some of the best boarding I have had anywhere. The place was like living in a snow globe - it snowed pretty much the entire time we were there and we had some epic powder runs with uncrowded lift lines.

With such a big area comes alot of people and we did find that the main runs had quite a few school groups ect which did tend to chop up some of the main runs off the big gondala's - on the flip side there was plently of runs to explore on the older lifts that had barely any people. As far as off piste goes, it could be done allthough the ski patrols generally frown on it.

After Shiga Kogen we headed north to Furano in the centre of Hokkaido, by this stage we had pretty high expectations as we had had it pretty good for the first 10 days and Hokkaido is more renowned for its powder than Nagano.

Furano is alot easier to explain as it is basically a town at the base of 2 interconnecting areas. Taxis are easily accesable and the town centre is close when you get sick of the hotel food. Once again Apres is kind of slow although there are heaps of places to eat & drink cheaply. When checking out some bars we bumped into a few groups of tourists which was plently of fun.

The Furano tourist association does a great job. They provide an english guidebook which helps you make your way around and a bus that runs into town sponsored by them which is very handy. In addition to this they have a free ski guide program where you turn up and the local ski guides give you a tour of the mountian. After having a few sakes the night before the bar owner told us that he is a guide and we organised to meet him up on the mountain the next day it was a great experience.

Unfortunately we didn't get the powder we had enjoyed at Shiga Kogen (the locals told us we missed it by a week and showed us some amazing photos of chest deep turns). Midweek there was also some School & Army groups snaking thier way down the hills to negoitiate which by then we were starting to think was standard fare wherever you go in Japan.

All in all we had a blast there wasn't much we could fault except maybe the nightlife was a little slow in Shiga Kogen and there was no english TV- Take a laptop & some english dvd's and you will be fine. The people are great, so is the food and drink (which is cheap outside Toyko). You do not need too much Japanese allthough a couple of the basics always go down well (like anywhere you go) but if you get stuck you can usually find somebody that can speak some English that is willing to lend a hand.

[Mojo]

Nice work Magool, any photos?

ahhh i would love to snowboard in japan.

Thanks Mojo,

I have dug out a couple of photos - unfortunately I didnt take too many on the mountain as we were too busy sliding


The hotel in Shiga Kogen


Lots of snow on the roof - walking allong the hallway was like standing inside a breaking wave as it froze and curled around


Calf deep by Lunchtime.
Standing on a (groomed) link run between hills - one of the few areas we had to unclip - at least we could stop and get a photo.

The trick was to watch the groomers start the night before work out which runs they did first so we could start on those in the morning- They had the most pow after it snowed all night. We found a number of these during the stay and had thigh/ass deep powder without leaving the runs.


From the top of Yakabitiyama (sp?) Shiga Kogen looking back over where we had come from - look closely and you can see the runs linking across into the hills in the distance.



Looking down at Furano town from the hill.

I was stationed in Japan while in the Navy and let me tell you it soooooo fun...as you can see and read it is what everyone says. I was on the main land and spent a fair amount of time in the Gumma prefecture. As that was 10 yrs ago the names of the resorts escape me but I have been to Niseko, Hakuba, Fujiwara? but if you have the chance to go don't miss out! Also if in Tokyo area check out Coolval? its an indoor snowpark, sooo fun. I also got to shred MT. Fuji!!! No joke if the pics weren't so old and on paper you bet I would share! I bruised a rib that day, but it was sick!

i cant wait to get to niseko in 12 days. im gonna be there for 1.5 months then down to hakuba for a month or so. glad to hear i made a good choice

[Mojo]

ticket to Niseko booked last week, ive got goosebumps...