New Years Snowboard trip

This new years eve celebration was not so crazy compared to the parties I have been to the past few years, but the first days of 2015 may have been the best start to the new year I have ever had.

My winter vacation started on the 28th. Since then I have been having a grand time. As I wrote last week, I went for kobe beef last weekend, and did some partying with some friends of a friend visiting from Ireland. We had some more good times later in the week with them as well. We went out for some more food and a night of drinking with them. We did the normal bar hopping routine, and finished up with some karaoke and ramen. It was a good time. The next day we went to an all you can eat buffet which has become the normal afternoon recuperation routine after a night out.

On Tuesday night, the 30th Koichi, Margo, and I headed to the airport to spend the night in a little lounge area some could wake up and catch our 7am flight to Hokkaido. We got a little lounge room with a L-couch, the other two slept on the couch and I took the floor.

We woke up around 6 and hopped on the plane. I have always taken low cost airlines for my travels in Japan, and this trip was no different. For anyone as tall as me these low cost carriers suck if you are planning to get any sleep. But if the flight is under 2 hours I can deal with the discomfort for a bit less money. Anyway, arrived in Hokkaido around 830 and got to our guest house in Sapporo around 10. We dropped off our stuff and went out to get some sushi.

Hokkaido is known for sushi, and snow crab. Every one of my students whom I told I was going to Hokkaido got excited as they told me about all the good food I could eat there. My students know I love to eat so they always share the good food spots when I tell them about my weekend adventures. This time they were all much more assertive with there suggestions than they usually are. They all mentioned sushi, crab, and this thing called Genghis Kan, which I didn’t really understand, but was none the less very interested in.

We had plans to spend a day (the 31st) in Sapporo eat a lot, celebrate the new year, and then head to snowboard in Niseko the next day.

So we had sushi around 11, then walked around Sapporo for a while. We saw a few sights and a lot of snow. The snow was the best part. We were really just ready to get to the mountain and ride at this point. The sights were kind of cool though. We saw the Sapporo clock tower- the first mechanical clock in Hokkaido, the former government building, the sky tower and a bunch of snow- which we enjoyed like little children.

We headed back to the guest house around 1. We left our bags there earlier, but we were not able to get into our room until 3, so we all ended up passing out on the beanbag chairs in the common room downstairs. Around 2:15 the lady who was working the front desk woke us up and told us our room was ready. Earlier she seemed very intent on the 3pm check in so I can only assume that she was annoyed with our snoring in the common room and pushed things ahead for us, either way we were happy, we headed up to our room and resumed our naps for another hour or two.

We planned to wake up at 4, get dinner and then figure out our plans for our New Years Eve celebration. I heard the alarm go off at 4 and Koichi quickly turned it off. I wasn’t going to be the one to spoil everyone’s relaxing vacation so I went right back to sleep. Eventually I did wake up around 4:45. I took a shower, and by the time I was out, everyone else was stirring. I read a few pages of my final Game of Thrones book (which it feels like has taken me forever to get to, and I cant wait to finish so I can read something else) as everyone else got ready.

For dinner we went to see what all this hype about Genghis Khan was about. I know he is the founder of the Mongol Empire and famous warrior from the 13th century. Due to this, I was expecting a very manly meal, greasy grilled meat and very few vegetables. I was basically right. In Hokkaido there is a lot of farm land. They have a lot of milk cows, and a lot of sheep. This Genghis Kahn restaurant was basically like yakkinikku but with all lamb. We had to wait for about 15 minutes before being seated, but when we sat down. It was on. The seating was like a bar. Many seats arranged around a counter that surrounded the kitchen/prep area. There was an old man, who seemed to be the owner carving up the meat to be served, and a few women, who seemed to be all part of a family, serving the food and drinks. We were seated at the end closest to the man carving the meat. Being that Margo and I were the only foreigners in the whole place, the old man seemed to pay special attention to us. He kept throwing extra meat on our grill, and rearranging things to make sure we were cooking everything correctly. We ate for about 45 minutes, lots of lamb, a few vegetables, and some rice and kim chi. It was all delicious, and we probably ended up eating a bit too much.

Walking out of the restaurant we were absolutely stuffed, but we new we needed to tough it out for a few more hours to celebrate New Years eve. We had been researching things to do all day, but there didn’t seem to be much going on outside of a few, very expensive, all you can drink club type parties. We went to one Irish bar to do some research, but all the foreigners there seemed to be older and content with sitting at a dark bar and talking to the people they came with all night long. We had seen an ad in the guest house about a party at the olympic ski jump stadium just outside of Sapporo. We had been keeping it as a last resort, but when we didn’t find much else, we decided to head out there. We had to catch a train and a bus which took about 45 minutes from downtown Sapporo.

The party was advertised as a concert, with fireworks, and a ski jump show. All things were included, but I think we all could have done with a little more ski jumping, fireworks, and music. It was a good time overall though. We weren’t really looking for a raging drunken time since we wanted to hit the mountain the following day, so this was a good fit.

We stayed there for a few hours and headed back to our place a bit after midnight.

The next morning we woke up around 630 and rolled out to the train station to catch a 7am train to the ski mountain in Niseko. We had to catch a 30 minute train and then change to take a 2 hour train the rest of the way to the ski area. I slept for a good bit of the first half hour train ride. The second train we got on was a 2 car train powered by what sounded and smelled like a massive diesel motor. It was a bit hard for me to believe after growing so accustomed to the quick electric trains that zip around by my house. The second leg of the trip was not as comfortable as the first. There were few seats and they were all arranged in a way that each chair was facing one chair and backed up to a 3rd. So basically, I had to share my leg room with the person sitting across from me. It was uncomfortable and I wasn’t really able to sleep at all.

The train ride was pretty scenic though. Everything along the way was covered in snow. In between the few winks of sleep I was able to find, I stared out the window at all the snow. Before then I had never seen so much snow. It was covering everything. There wasn’t a trace of any sort of earth underneath the white smoothness. It was all just white. All the trees and everything. It made me so excited for the next few days of snowboarding.

We finally arrived at our station, which seemed like it was in the middle of no where. There were no gates, and only a small waiting room between the parking lot and the tracks where people could keep out of the weather as they waited for the train. There was also a few gas cans a chainsaw and a bunch of firewood stacked in the waiting room. It felt more like a garage or a barn back home than any train station I had ever been to. I did a bit of research and I think there are only about 4 or 5 trains that pass that station everyday. There was only one set of tracks, so I don’t think there is anyway for one train to pass another if the need arose. Nonetheless it was a very beautiful place. A lot of snow and very quiet. In the middle of the mountains. We could see the ski mountain off in the distance. We were so giddy as we waited for our ride.

The owner of the guest house we stayed in offered to pick us up from the station and give us a lift back to the place we would be staying. He was a really nice guy. He spoke very good English too.

I was really surprised at how many foreigners there were in Niseko. It didn’t feel like Japan at all. When we picked up our rental gear from the shop all of the employees were foreigners and I dont think any of them could speak very good Japanese. On the slopes and in town I think 85% of the people there were foreign. Almost all were Australian, but there were some Europeans and North American sounding people mixed in as well. I think Niseko would be a fun place to work for a winter if I was more into snowboarding. Everyone is really nice, there seems to be a good social scene with the “locals” and it seemed like there were a lot of jobs available. I definitely want to go back some time. I really enjoyed it.

We headed out to ride around noon and stayed out until about 530. It got dark around 4 everyday and we didnt stay too late for night skiing. Most days we went out at 830 and came back to the lodge around 6. We rode for 5 days. It was amazing. The weather was cold, but that was a good thing.

 

It snowed the whole except the beginning of the first day and the last day. I think in total we got well over a meter of fresh snowfall in our 5 days. Every morning we woke up to fresh powder snow to ride. I had never ridden powder before. It was so amazing. I would go into detail but I dont know how to explain it. I had an absolute blast and I really just want to go back now.

The last day we rode in the morning then jumped on a train back to Sapporo. We stopped and had some sushi in town before heading to the airport. Everything went pretty smoothly overall. I managed to write a good deal of this along the way to the airport, but I had/have to go back and fill in some things here and there when I get home….

As we went down the runway to take off I thought of my favorite moment of the trip. It was definitely when I was snowboarding. I tried to narrow it down to a specific trail I took, or some thing that happened that was the best. Just as we were at the end of the runway I thought of it. It was one deep powder trail I took
Where I wrecked really bad and had a small panic attack, stuck in the deep stuff with snow in my mouth, having trouble breathing, doubting if I would be able to get out of the hole I had sank in. It was the same feeling I have gotten many times in surfing when I got crushed by a huge set wave, which held me under for too long then finally popped up for only enough time to take a quick breath as you see the next set wave coming to take you for round 2. Until now I always thought I hated those moments. But as I was thinking of the best moment of the trip this was definitely it. The rest of the trip I avoided this trail because my friends didn’t want to take it, and I didn’t want to end up stuck, without anyone there to help me out. It seems completely fitting that I think of this moment at this time, as the wheels of the plane leave the ground. A weird feeling. I am happy that I got to experience deep powder snowboarding, but also regret that I didnt take that trail again. I smiled at the regretful part. The whole weekend, I had been thinking how much I would love to visit this mountain again with my friends from back home. This seemed like a perfectly timed sign to me. So to the Harco bros that always kick my butt on the slopes, Luke, Steve, and all you other hooligans. We will be going to Niseko, Japan sometime before we are too old to enjoy it properly. I cant wait…..

So now I am back. I stayed in Osaka last night since the plane got back late. I woke up early today and headed home to clean myself up before work. Now I just want to finish writing this so I can go to sleep.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this. I can share lots more details when I see you next time. Just know that I loved my snowboard trip. I understand why Niseko is called the powder skiing capital of the world by many. If you like riding powder snow, go to Hirafu in Niseko.

Have a great week everyone. Thanks for reading. And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!