abc
Well-known member
- Resort or Ski Area
- Furano ski resort in Hokkaido, Japan
- Date
- Jan 5, 2025
- Snow Conditions
-
- Powder
- Packed Powder
(part I is here: https://forums.alpinezone.com/threads/hokkaido-japan-jan-4-10-2017.138823/ )
So it’s been 8 years since I last skied Japan. Why so long, if the skiing was as good as it was 8 years ago? It’s got nothing to do with the cost of the flight and the long hours stuffed inside that metal tube...
Back story. (which you can skip if you don’t care to read it, fast forward to 2024).
A few of you know my family was from Hong Kong. My dad was the last one left there. When he retired 12 years back, I suggested he come to stay for 6 months and made an informed decision himself. Well, he only lasted 3 months!
And it had nothing to do with language either as he reads English well enough and can understand a fair bit of conversational English. So when I send him off at JFK, I said to him “You do know you’ll be all alone back in Hong Kong”. He’s answer: “That’s the reason I go back, I have lots of friends there, close by. I see them every week. In New York, everyone lives so far away. I only see you guys once a month at best”
(Fast forward 12 years later, most of his friends passed away. He practically outlived all of his contemporaries and is now all alone. But that’s not relevant to this story)
So I promise I’ll visit every year, at worst every 2 years. But we all knew what happened 2019. But, before that, I was going to go visit in December of 2018. But some “student democratic movement” decided the way to force the government to listen to their voices was to occupied the airport, THE one and most important gateway of Hong Kong, a city whose only function is (or was) an international hub connecting the east with the west. It took less than a month to bring the city‘s economy to its knees. But not the government. So my old man said “don’t come back. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to leave again”.
With the airport half shut down, I reluctantly postponed my trip to “next year”. But the world fell to isolationist pieces in March of 2019. And it lasted 3 years. The next 3 years, Hong Kong was effectively a prison, locking its citizens in and their relatives out with its draconian quarantine rules.
Towards the end of that 3 years, my Dad called and cried. “You‘d better come as soon as you can. So we get to see each other before it’s too late”. Well, I was shocked at the implication of it. Mentally, he was totally broken. I asked ”Can you hang in there for another couple months? I’ll come at Christmas time and we’ll spend time traveling in Southeast Asia as we always do”. That cheered him up enormously. But my cheerleading result only lasted about a week or 2. He called again and again “When are you coming?” So, instead of going during Christmas time, I left JFK on Turkey Day.
Dec 2023:
Though in a hurry to go see my Dad, I had my eyes on Japan again. But November is early even for Japan. So I dutifully packed my boots but not my skis. As it turned out, they had a lousy season. Even by Christmas, there weren’t a lot of bases. So my boots, all 8 lbs of dead weight, came back without coming out of the bottom of my luggage. (Plus goggles, helmets etc)
Dec. 2024
With the experience of the previous year, I was very unmotivated to bring the whole sets of ski equipments with me again. Instead, I just packed my foot bed! No helmet, no goggle. I can rent them. Or I can ski in sunglasses and an old fashion ski hat!
But half way through my month long stay in Hong Kong, I noticed Japan was getting a fair amount of snow. Niseko was getting 5 feet of base by Christmas time. So were almost all the Hokkaido resorts. So the decision was made I’ll go to Japan!
1/5, Sunday — travel day
Last time I was there, I skied Niseko, Kiroro, Furano. Of the three, I had the best day at Kiroro. But sadly only ONE single day. So my first priority was to hit Kiroro again and spend a few days there. Nearby, Rusutsu and Niseko are both on Vail‘s Epic Local pass, which I just brought. All of them had a decent base and the forecast was for more snow to come.
Further research was a bit depressing. Probably as the result of penned up demand, lodging at Rusutsu, pretty hard to come by and expensive to begin with, was out of this world: $300/night with shared bathroom! (Though in practice it isn’t as bad as it sounds. Because in Japan, most people go soak in hot springs after skiing. Typically a quick shower there eliminates the need for private shower anyway. Still, having to walk down the hall to pee in the middle of the night isn’t for many, and definitely hard for me to swallow at $300/night)
To make matters worse, the daily ski bus to my top favorite Kiroro from the nearby town of Otaru was fully booked for the entire month of January since mid-December!
Now, had I have the present of mind to get an International Driving Permit, I could have rented a car to drive from Ataru to Kiroro everyday. It’s “only“ less than an hour drive each way. But, it’d be driving on the other side of the road, mostly on twisty mountain lanes, with snow and darkness (post skiing). Well, that’s my consolation rationalization anyway. In any case, that option is not open for me given I didn’t get the IDP.
Getting desperate, with Kiroro and Rusutsu out of reach, I checked back to my old favorite of Furano. It’s away from the coast and away from the Aussies invading army on skis. (don’t get me wrong, there’re a lot of them, but there’re also a lot of Japanese too. Unlike Niseko, where the dominant language you hear in the lift line was English!) Surprisingly, I could easily get for $200/night a room with private bath, ski-in/ski-out, an in-house hot spring bath, breakfast included. While not cheap, it’s a far cry from $300 with share bath ”300 yard (uphill) walk to lift”! So it’s $300 share bath with “free“ skiing on my Vail pass, or $200 (room) + $45 (lift ticket). Well, Vail will have to kiss my money good-bye! (I might try another year with more advance reservation, perhaps lodging aren’t always so outrageous)
But I almost didn’t make it. I nailed the last spot on the last transport bus of the day, and barely made it with only 15 minutes to spare after getting off my flight. My “decision” of not renting a car (a “decision“ that was made for me, not by me, for forgetting my International Driving Permit) was ”validated” by the flying
snow reflecting off the bus’s headlight.
1/6, Sunday — Day 1, ski on snow
The snow didn’t stop even in the morning. Waking up to this view: (or a “non-view”? As there’s not too far we could see)
Snow isn’t as deep as what they normally get this time of year, but it’s sooooft! Like skiing through cotton. The sun pop in and out occasionally. Everyone tried their best to remember where the soft snow is during those brief moment of visibility and then grope in the cloud trying to get to them. Sometimes one lucks out with even a photo or two.
Hoping there’s better visibility tomorrow to hike up the ridge. Rumor (overheard at restaurant) has it the snow on the ridge is deep!
So it’s been 8 years since I last skied Japan. Why so long, if the skiing was as good as it was 8 years ago? It’s got nothing to do with the cost of the flight and the long hours stuffed inside that metal tube...
Back story. (which you can skip if you don’t care to read it, fast forward to 2024).
A few of you know my family was from Hong Kong. My dad was the last one left there. When he retired 12 years back, I suggested he come to stay for 6 months and made an informed decision himself. Well, he only lasted 3 months!
And it had nothing to do with language either as he reads English well enough and can understand a fair bit of conversational English. So when I send him off at JFK, I said to him “You do know you’ll be all alone back in Hong Kong”. He’s answer: “That’s the reason I go back, I have lots of friends there, close by. I see them every week. In New York, everyone lives so far away. I only see you guys once a month at best”(Fast forward 12 years later, most of his friends passed away. He practically outlived all of his contemporaries and is now all alone. But that’s not relevant to this story)
So I promise I’ll visit every year, at worst every 2 years. But we all knew what happened 2019. But, before that, I was going to go visit in December of 2018. But some “student democratic movement” decided the way to force the government to listen to their voices was to occupied the airport, THE one and most important gateway of Hong Kong, a city whose only function is (or was) an international hub connecting the east with the west. It took less than a month to bring the city‘s economy to its knees. But not the government. So my old man said “don’t come back. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to leave again”.
With the airport half shut down, I reluctantly postponed my trip to “next year”. But the world fell to isolationist pieces in March of 2019. And it lasted 3 years. The next 3 years, Hong Kong was effectively a prison, locking its citizens in and their relatives out with its draconian quarantine rules.
Towards the end of that 3 years, my Dad called and cried. “You‘d better come as soon as you can. So we get to see each other before it’s too late”. Well, I was shocked at the implication of it. Mentally, he was totally broken. I asked ”Can you hang in there for another couple months? I’ll come at Christmas time and we’ll spend time traveling in Southeast Asia as we always do”. That cheered him up enormously. But my cheerleading result only lasted about a week or 2. He called again and again “When are you coming?” So, instead of going during Christmas time, I left JFK on Turkey Day.
Dec 2023:
Though in a hurry to go see my Dad, I had my eyes on Japan again. But November is early even for Japan. So I dutifully packed my boots but not my skis. As it turned out, they had a lousy season. Even by Christmas, there weren’t a lot of bases. So my boots, all 8 lbs of dead weight, came back without coming out of the bottom of my luggage. (Plus goggles, helmets etc)
Dec. 2024
With the experience of the previous year, I was very unmotivated to bring the whole sets of ski equipments with me again. Instead, I just packed my foot bed! No helmet, no goggle. I can rent them. Or I can ski in sunglasses and an old fashion ski hat!
But half way through my month long stay in Hong Kong, I noticed Japan was getting a fair amount of snow. Niseko was getting 5 feet of base by Christmas time. So were almost all the Hokkaido resorts. So the decision was made I’ll go to Japan!
1/5, Sunday — travel day
Last time I was there, I skied Niseko, Kiroro, Furano. Of the three, I had the best day at Kiroro. But sadly only ONE single day. So my first priority was to hit Kiroro again and spend a few days there. Nearby, Rusutsu and Niseko are both on Vail‘s Epic Local pass, which I just brought. All of them had a decent base and the forecast was for more snow to come.
Further research was a bit depressing. Probably as the result of penned up demand, lodging at Rusutsu, pretty hard to come by and expensive to begin with, was out of this world: $300/night with shared bathroom! (Though in practice it isn’t as bad as it sounds. Because in Japan, most people go soak in hot springs after skiing. Typically a quick shower there eliminates the need for private shower anyway. Still, having to walk down the hall to pee in the middle of the night isn’t for many, and definitely hard for me to swallow at $300/night)
To make matters worse, the daily ski bus to my top favorite Kiroro from the nearby town of Otaru was fully booked for the entire month of January since mid-December!
Now, had I have the present of mind to get an International Driving Permit, I could have rented a car to drive from Ataru to Kiroro everyday. It’s “only“ less than an hour drive each way. But, it’d be driving on the other side of the road, mostly on twisty mountain lanes, with snow and darkness (post skiing). Well, that’s my consolation rationalization anyway. In any case, that option is not open for me given I didn’t get the IDP.
Getting desperate, with Kiroro and Rusutsu out of reach, I checked back to my old favorite of Furano. It’s away from the coast and away from the Aussies invading army on skis. (don’t get me wrong, there’re a lot of them, but there’re also a lot of Japanese too. Unlike Niseko, where the dominant language you hear in the lift line was English!) Surprisingly, I could easily get for $200/night a room with private bath, ski-in/ski-out, an in-house hot spring bath, breakfast included. While not cheap, it’s a far cry from $300 with share bath ”300 yard (uphill) walk to lift”! So it’s $300 share bath with “free“ skiing on my Vail pass, or $200 (room) + $45 (lift ticket). Well, Vail will have to kiss my money good-bye! (I might try another year with more advance reservation, perhaps lodging aren’t always so outrageous)
But I almost didn’t make it. I nailed the last spot on the last transport bus of the day, and barely made it with only 15 minutes to spare after getting off my flight. My “decision” of not renting a car (a “decision“ that was made for me, not by me, for forgetting my International Driving Permit) was ”validated” by the flying
snow reflecting off the bus’s headlight.
1/6, Sunday — Day 1, ski on snow
The snow didn’t stop even in the morning. Waking up to this view: (or a “non-view”?
As there’s not too far we could see)Snow isn’t as deep as what they normally get this time of year, but it’s sooooft! Like skiing through cotton. The sun pop in and out occasionally. Everyone tried their best to remember where the soft snow is during those brief moment of visibility and then grope in the cloud trying to get to them. Sometimes one lucks out with even a photo or two.
Hoping there’s better visibility tomorrow to hike up the ridge. Rumor (overheard at restaurant) has it the snow on the ridge is deep!
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