Snow on Nanikore

First trip to Shiga Kogen in 2026

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:56:48 +0000

First Trip to Shiga Kogen in 2026

Some, many, may know that I’m kind of slow in writing posts up and actually publishing them, so I can tell you that I actually did two trips to Shiga Kogen this year. Knowing my luck I’ll do a third before the end of the year. Actually, that would be no bad thing.

Anyway, here is the first one.

The First One

This first trip was a quick two day weekend trip with my old friend SMC. We drove up from Tokyo (well, SMC drove his car, and I recommended music and talked nonsense for hours), and we stayed at Hotel Kodama near the Ichinose Diamond ski area.

It’s a good place to stay as you’re on the slopes straight away, and has easy access to a road-side carpark. This was also the first time I bought my lift pass online in advance from AsoView. I saved about 10% and it was as simple as showing a QR code to their machine next to the lift pass kiosk. That’s worth remembering as lift passes are also getting more expensive!

Saturday was fun, just getting that first day of the season under your belt is always great, and conditions were very decent - some powder if you went looking for it and though the slopes had a few people on them, there weren’t so many high school kids on trips this time, so it wasn’t so bad at all. Really, highschool kids have the right to use the mountain too, but sometimes those groups just camping out on the pistes can be irksome!

We went around the back of the Ichinose area, to some of the lesser used slopes and found some great little tree runs with some powder. We took a late lunch at one of the piste restaurants, before getting back there out for a few more hours.

The weather had been mainly sunny with the odd cloud so the mountain looked great. There was a sort of dusting of snow coming down the whole day, but not enough to add much - more for the vibes. We only stopped when they literally closed the lifts at 4.30pm. For the record, we didn’t do a nighter, which was a bit of a miss, as Saturday night is often the only nighter going on in Shiga Kogen these days.

After that it was back to the hotel and the dinner we took as part of the package. Dinner was excellent, and the hot sake just topped it off. I’d definitely recommend the hotel restaurant dinner.

However, we did learn that none of the beer vending machines in the hotel took the ’new’ 1000yen notes (which have been out for a few years now), but the front desk seemed well tooled up for my question, and produced a box of older notes for us to use before I’d even finished the question. Where there is a will, there is a supply of old 1000yen notes.

The next morning we were a little late up, or rather, we hadn’t read the very simple instructions well and by the time we got down for breakfast there wasn’t much of a selection left. Ah well, there was some food, and sometimes that’s all you need.

The weather was a little cloudier on the Sunday, but not by much and there had been some snowfall overnight. We drove a few kilometres around the mountain to the Prince Hotel and the Yakebitaiyama area. I’ve had a lot of good weekends here, and there’s something for everyone.

We did some long runs down from the gondola . It’s really nice just getting long, uninterrupted runs in great weather, and even being able to carve a little through the trees which is always a treat and there weren’t so many peeople doing it.

We stopped off for lunch again, where I had some hilarious ‘fish and chips’, proving once more there is no real British food in Japan, but I did score an okawari (bottomless) cup of coffee which meant I got quite a few cups in before we headed outdoors once more for the final push.

One thing I did remember mid-trip though was that my current board and binding setups are now 10 years old. Insane I tell you. They’ve not had the hammer of the previous setup, since much of those 10 years have been less frequent family trips, but I think they’re holding up well, though the boots do need some maintenance on the BOA system.

We spent much of the Sunday afternoon doing gondola line runs before cutting back over to the Prince Hotel later in the day, and finally getting changed in the Prince, and heading back to the car with our gear for the drive home.

Driving down off the mountain can be fun sometimes, but you don’t want it to be really - sometimes people from the cities with large SUVs try to charge down - it’s a bad idea generally, so it was nice this time everyone was taking a nice gentle pace.

The ride back to Tokyo was much music and banter, stopping off just the once to find a large sandwich for food, since we weren’t so interested in the usual service area fare of curry rice and questionable ramen, and that was pretty much it, driving through the night, watching the distances to Tokyo getting lower and lower, and then finally arriving back.

Good times!

2026 Trips to Shiga Kogen

Niseko in 2025

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 04:02:00 +0000

Ah Niseko. I first went there…er… quite a while ago shall we say. Since then Niseko’s four main areas have been bought up by various waves of investors great and small, some which have brought commendation, and some have brought condemnation. Now I’m back to Niseko in March 2025. The area is world famous for its slopes and for its abundance of Japow.

Those four Areas

An’nuppuri - from its windy top into an ever widening gelande with a gondola and various other lifts which has easy access to some tree runs on the peripheries. Some have complained about how many trees have been removed over the years (it is a lot), but this area seems to have seen less changes than others.

Hirafu (also marketed as Grand Hirafu) - has some of the steeper slopes and just seems to get an unreasonable amount of powder. It was the scene of the Great Australian Investment boom a couple of decades ago, meaning ‘better’ restaurants, a lot of new vacation apartments near the slope, and winter jobs for English teachers to teach skiing. This is probably where I’ve spent the most days in Niseko.

Niseko Village (formerly known as Higashiyama) - this aspect of the mountain has seen a lot of investment in the last few years, along with that name change. The variety of slopes isn’t as high, and you’ll be traversing one one of the other areas (especially those two above) on some days, but there are a few more hotels, apartments and shops now, which I suppose is why they rebranded. This is actually where we stayed on this trip.

Hanazono - Last but not least. I never came here as much as the other areas- often moguls, a bit flat, and previously there wasn’t much here. This has probably seen the most development in the last five years - massive new apartments, hotels, restaurants, sponsored drinks tents and all that brought in by Chinese developers - it all looks very cool, and if I was a bit younger I might have come here for apres ski for sure.

It’s been literally a few years since I was last in Niseko, and on that trip we were mainly in Grand Hirafu with a little bit of Annupuri. This time was Niseko Village and Annupuri.

Days on Mountain

Day 1

We met up at Haneda airport early on a Sunday morning and just about made the plane, as one of our number had gone for a Starbucks run only to massively underestimate:

a) the distance in the terminal to Starbucks, and

b) how long it can take a coffee shop to actually make coffee oriented beverages.

Anyway, we apologetically got on and it was a decent enough flight. Then it was on to the bus to Niseko, that required stop to buy any food and drinks, and then back on the bus for a 3 hour in total journey.

We were staying at the Niseko Village Hilton as my friend had secured a very decent value-for-money deal and it was as nice as expected when we arrived - very nice lobby waiting area, but that’s for people who wish to wait, and we did not - so I went to find my takkyuubin’d board and gear, and we got down to the serious business of snowboarding.

It was a bit icy despite blue skies, but I was on my board with my friends, having a laugh on the gondola up and listening to 90s EuroPop tunes like Pump Up The Jam.

Because that’s what people do.

Also, it began to snow a little before we came off the slopes in the dark so it was a pretty solid way to kick off the trip.

Day 2

The next morning we ate a hearty breakfast, washed down with a heroic amount of caffeine and made our way onto the slopes, traversing across to Grand Hirafu. It was overcast but snowing heavily at times, and that’s what we like, when you do a run and the snow has thoughtfully covered your tracks by the time you get back up there. It’s never a bad thing.

It was another night finish and at dinner we discovered that as a part of our package we were entitled to a free beverage, so I said hello to a gin and tonic. Thanks!

The hotel was very decent, though we were somewhat reliant on having discount vouchers for each meal, bringing the prices down to slightly overpriced or perhaps Tokyo levels. To be fair, it’s a captive audience, and it’s been the way in ski resorts the world over for a long old time. At the Niseko Village area there are some shops and other restaurants, but the price range are pretty much the same.

I should also point out the fish we had that night was potentially off. The result of which I’ll mainly leave to the reader’s speculation, but one of our party spent quite a lot of time on the great throne, and another just feeling bad. Fortunately my gin n tonics seemed to have cushioned me.

Day 3

Beautiful blue skies and a decent covering of powder overnight made this a class day! We headed over to Annupuri - the top end traverse is always a lot of fun, and sometimes confusing if there’s a whiteout, but actually this wasn’t too bad for us.

Not only does Annupuri have a wonderful, wide gelande, it also has some tremendous tree runs at the side of the piste. We found there was also a natural halfpipe that’s been curated, and was actually a lot of fun.

Tree runs are always good. Until they aren’t of course. We were lucky; one member of the team did do an unexpected back-flip off some branches, but he made it look fairly natural and no injuries were incurred.

Day 4

On the last day, we consumed a large amount of breakfast; or at least two of us did. One decided to skip breakfast unfortunately.

It was another overcast day, but the snow wasn’t bad thanks to a decent overnight dump, so to speak, though after a few hours around Niseko Village some of the ice was showing. We did manage to stop and snap a photo of the large blue polygon bear and speculated on how long it would take to 3D print it.

This was also the first day we saw some high school student classes - fortunately - they’re mostly beginners and the teachers don’t seem too concerned about where they stop on the courses, so you have to plan ahead a little bit to navigate all the groups all over the place. It didn’t really spoil anything for us as it was near the end of our day, and they seemed confined to the lower beginner slops.

So that was Niseko for another year or two. The trip back to the airport, gently bouncing around in a mostly empty coach, all the way back to Shin Chitose airport to track down omiyage, was relaxing. It’s always a good end to a trip - just listening to music, and having someone else do the driving for a change.

Always a great time up in Hokkaido, so thanks to AM and SMC for a fun few days. Have to do it again at some point.

2025 Niseko trip

Random Photos, February 2024

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 10:25:00 +0000

Winter here in and around Tokyo usually leads me to the mountain and snowboarding, but in a bit a of a change, here’s a bunch of random photos which don’t involve sliding down mountains, and with a little explanation.

An Actual Capsule Hotel

Despite my time in Japan, I hadn’t needed to use a capsule hotel. I either lived within striking distance of wherever I was, would amuse myself until first train, or on bike trips, I’d stay in cheap business hotels since there was a better chance they’d have a parking space.

Anyway, the day I chose to use a capsule hotel near Shinjuku (and a very nice one it was) it had to be the day it decided to have a decent amount of snowfall (for Tokyo), so I snapped some photos, and actually got a good night’s sleep. It seemed most of the other guests were tourists looking to get some decent sleep too, and it was quite quiet, even later on.

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On The Bike

Speaking of snow, I was out on the Tracer, just planning to go up Yabitsu Touge and have a cup of tea at the top. The weather said it would be chilly, but no one mentioned snow. As I started winding my way up Mt. Tanzawa, it started raining, which of course as you get higher could mean there’s a chance of snow. However, as I got nearer the ’top’ where there is a rotary for buses, there began to be slush on the non-tyre track parts of the road, and then a thin layer of snow…

I have faith in the Tracer’s traction control and ABS, and indeed the Michelin Road 5 tyres. I have less faith in my own skills but the road is quite difficult to turn on in those few hundred metres to the top so I decided it would be better to get to that flat, spacious (relatively) rotary, and make the turn there. (Spoiler: it was all fine).

The image here is from the bike’s drive recorder I had installed a while back, so image quality isn’t great, but it gives a fun ‘just above the wheel’ POV.

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A Tunnel Spa

Japan is somewhat blessed by with spas and hot spring due to its volcanic spine, but they are sadly not all ones you can pop to and have a soak in. This one is more to look at, being securely fenced off at the end of a tunnel. I first stopped off here in the Summer of 2023, but when its 35degrees outside, adding to that heat didn’t seem like a good idea, so I came back in the middle of Winter.

It’s a short tunnel which is as hot and humid as you’d expect, but at that time of year it was a nice contrast to the chill outside. The water did look very hot though, so understandable they don’t let people access it.

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I should also say that there’s a few ways to access this hot spring, but I did from the Beach Line, which is a toll road along the coast, but nowadays the road I used doesn’t have a gate, so you can get in and then get out without incurring a fee.

So that was a few days in February, and I would like to think a few diverse things going on.

March Sea to Snow

Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:05:00 +0000

I don’t remember seeing snow during March in our area, so it was odd driving back from the AutoBACs car service and accessories shop on Saturday, March 14th, to see thick flakes falling. Even more surprising given the mild Winter we’d been having. Fortunately it had been a miserable and wet morning so that at least near sea level it didn’t settle.

When Sunday morning rolled around I went out on the bike taking the coast road down to Manazuru. I don’t know how many times I’ve taken that winding road down to the harbour, but for the first time I decided to stop down by the jetty and had a cup of tea in the light rain, watching some people fishing. Hailing from a (slightly larger) fishing town, I find boats and the sea quite relaxing and familiar.

What I wasn’t expecting was that slight drizzle turning into hail stones - lucky I had a helmet I suppose. After a walk around the place, getting some confused looks, I made my way around the peninsula, and headed towards the Route 75 Tsubaki line, a nice little set of twisties up to the old standard Anest Skylounge cafe.

I planned to get to the Tsubaki line via the Orange line - a short run bypassing central Yugawara town with some nice views of the valley, but as I rounded the curving uphill at the beginning I remembered the road had been closed at the other end following last years typhoons. It still is. Cue a quick U Turn. Sure, I could have gone all the way back, and up through the main town road, but instead I decided to try a little road which according to OpenStreetMap was a nice direct shortcut. Of course a short cut into a valley means we’re looking at vertical, and it was. Very. As I made my way down narrow roads at what felt like 45degrees, navigating metal grates and cracked asphalt, on a road only just wide enough for a single car, winding my way down with drains and houses on both sides, I was just hoping no one was coming the other way. Fortunately, I got lucky and no one did. Fun road, so I put a pin in the map for it.

The Tsubaki line from there is about 15Km of uphill curves, enjoyed by those on both two wheels and four. I made my way up initially at a fairly leisurely speed limit pace, testing myself on corners, focussing on entry, exit and throttle control, making sure I wasn’t picking up any bad habits. After a few kilometers I noticed some snow on the odd leaf, and bits at the side of the road, and it was getting a misty. As I got further up, the amount of snow by the sides of the road was getting notably deeper. I was taking care into corners to make sure there wasn’t any ice, and it seemed there wasn’t, but given visibility was down to ‘smoking carriage on a bullet train’ levels, I was keeping a fairly conservative line through pretty much every corner. I saw one car coming down, at least suggesting the road stayed passable, and the last 5Km was mainly making sure to avoid clumps of snow which had fallen from overhead branches. Yes, this was fun.

As I rounded the last corner to the cafe, I only really knew I was there due to the sign as I passed it, the mist was so thick. Fortunately there were a few other bikers in the car park who told me that the roads were good for getting down on the other side.

As you can see, there was plenty of snow and mist. However, I still couldn’t see any ice. I suspect this is because some of the roads are heated by water piped in and making use of local volcanic activity, which regular snow resorts often do.

In a strange twist, after I came out of the cafe, and was drinking some tea in the carpark, someone I’d never met before in person from a motorcycle group I’m a member of on the LINE application, came over and introduced himself. He’d just arrived and seen the photo above I’d posted to the chat about 15 minutes earlier! It was good to put a face to the name for sure, and it just about summed the day up. We talked about some road conditions and when he went to get breakfast in the cafe, I headed down through the mist, watching the snow get thinner on the bushes before the more familiar green became the predominant cover.

I thought that was the latest I’d seen snow in Kanagawa at lower reaches, but just 10 days later it snowed again. Strange times indeed. Stay safe out there, socially distancing on two wheels!

Shiga Kogen 2019

Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:04:52 +0000

Ohisashiburi(long time, no see) Shiga Kogen 2019! … well except for our last snow trip there of course, but last year we stayed in the Ichinose area, whereas this time we stayed at the Prince Hotel a short ways down the road, which we haven’t stayed in for nigh on a decade - so that’s completely different!

I booked the Prince on Expedia (where I often book places at the moment it seems), and got a very decent rate on a family room. The listing said it was a smoking room which used to make us often reconsider, but because we were really limited on possible dates for this year, so we decided to take the risk and take what was on offer for those days. As it turned out that was a good choice - it was cheap for four people, and it turned out it didn’t smell of smoke at all.

If anything, we were actually quite impressed with the room as there was plenty of slide out boxes under the beds, which when you’re travelling with young children is a boon to help keep things organised, and you weren’t left trying to find some 3DS game or sock 30 seconds before check out. The only real negative to the hotel facilities is that there wasn’t really an onsen(a natural spring hot spa) in the hotel, just a washing and shower area, but there was was a rotenburo, an outdoor spa, where we could sit, watch the snow and feel our hair literally turn to ice. We really enjoyed that because for the adults it’s nice and relaxing after a day on the mountain and for the kids, they can sit in a steaming hot bath and grab snow from the surrounding piles of it. I admit, I might have done that too. Purely to illustrate scientific principles to my child.

The weather as ever it seems in the Yakebitaiyama area was pretty good, a bit overcast now and then, but not too windy, and even some snow. One day we traversed over the top lift to the Okushiga area for a day to have a go on their slopes. That day it got cold, very cold, as in ’the coldest day in years according to the local news’ cold, and to compound that, winds closed the top of the mountain so we had to take the bus back instead of traversing over as planned. Even my GoPro and the batteries seemed to struggle, but we still got some decent footage. Most of the second half of the trip it was thankfully a little milder, and began snowing that nice dry powder for which Japan is rightly famous, so it was all silky smooth.

Shiga Kogen is a great area, with a lot of variety of slopes for different skill levels, which is why we go, and with the free buses, it’s easy to get around the area even without a car. It seems to have varying fortunes from a patrons point of view, and during the week, when we were there, it was fairly sparsely attended with some Chinese tourists forming most of the skiers and snowboarders, with a few Aussies thrown in here and there but very few Japanese, even locals. The weekend saw more people arrive, many for day skiing, but it continues to concern me that the snow enjoying population is shrinking, perhaps linked to the pricing structure I’ll come to later.

So as ever, the boarding was a lot of fun, and even more so when we found that kids could board for free on the Yakebitaiyama slopes. We actually found this out over breakfast on the second day via a small, water stained sign on the dining table, written only in Japanese. Certainly no one mentioned this when I bought the kids passes the previous day (!), so before we hit the slopes, we went over to the ticket office to ask what the situation was, and though they initially didn’t want to, they did refund the previous days money since they were purely for that slope (a misunderstanding, they said).

Costs, oddly would give us an uplifting tale that night. As expected, prices at the restaurants in the hotel were expensive, but since we’d driven there, we could get out to local places which whilst not cheap, were far better value for money for a family of four. The fairly unimpressive evening meals in the hotel and annex went for between 5,000yen (~35GBP) per person and up to almost double that. For a family of four, that’s an expensive night out. The Chinese restaurant was completely empty when we went to look at their menu and (high) prices, at 7.30pm.

One night, we decided to have some of the instant noodles we always travel with, and left the empties tied in bags outside the door that night for pickup when we finished. The next morning we found a note written in neat Chinese pushed under our door, and initially we were a bit concerned we’d upset some fellow hotel guests. However, following a translation via photo from a friend (thanks LH!), it turns out the note was from a fellow hotel guest politely along the lines of ‘glad someone else thought of this too!’. It seems we weren’t the only ones balking at the prices.

Please don’t think that the trip was defined by the money side of things though, since the snow was great, the views were great, and it’s a fantastic place to be as a family, even if it means just eating instant ramen and playing Monopoly the odd night, but it captures some of the concerns I have as a keen snow person about accessibility for families.

As an individual or for single people there are plenty of deals here in Japan, especially for short trips from Tokyo on the bullet trains, or flights to Hokkaido - this is purely my concern as a parent who wants his kids to get some snow experience.

Sadly that was our only trip this season - usually we try to stretch to two, but with other family things going on, that wasn’t going to happen in 2019, but we’re already looking forwards to next year.

Ichinose 2018

Sat, 10 Mar 2018 06:18:03 +0000

The annual family snow trips have been a popular event for us for a while and it’s not too much of a drive - ~4.5 hours and 320Km to Nagano Prefecture’s Shiga Kogen Ichinose area, and even better, the last 15Km requires [rubber] chains or snow tyres, and as we have the former, I do get to enjoy driving in the mountains.

We usually like to try different places to stay for a bit of variety, but this year we stayed at the same place for two weekends in the ‘village’ of Ichinose, thanks to getting a deal staying at the Hotel Japan for a few days via Expedia.

Disconcertingly, the hotel we chose had a fire a couple of years ago in the main wing apparently, though from what we saw, it all looked like business as usual aside from lots of reminders not to smoke… I don’t know why, but does the name ‘Hotel Japan’ seem a bit generic? That said, breakfast was decent, it’s above an excellent Nepalese restaurant, and the onsen is nice and clean.

Anyway, for families, Ichinose is very decent - a cluster of hotels, some bars and restaurants, and access to much of the Shiga Kogen ski resort area, and even over to Kusatsu if you drive just a little bit more. We spent time around the Diamond area nearby - it’s not awesome powder or insane double diamonds, but it’s a nice family paced warm up area, then we drove the 5Km around to Okushiga, as they have a good ski school for the kids, and a good mix of steep, S bend oriented forest runs for variety, and on a good day, some nice powder - it’s also just a bit of a slide over to the Yakebitaiyama courses.

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Kiroro Snow Trip 2014

Sat, 01 Feb 2014 03:48:55 +0000

As a country with a spine of mountains and volcanoes, Japan not only gets a lot of snow, it gets a lot of good snow, and has built some great snow resorts up around them, which is possibly another reason why the country has hosted the Winter Olympics a couple of times (1972 & 1998). It’s also the reason why one of the first things I did when I moved here was to take up snowboarding.

This year for our family snow trip, we went up to Kiroro in Hokkaido. As far as I know, Kiroro has not held an Olympic event, but represents another type of Japanese snow resort - the bubble resort. It was built during the height of Japan’s economic bubble in the 1980’s and has well appointed hotels and facilities, which are wearing a little bit, and the place has the feel of something a little over done, but still shows how Japan likes to do things. This is the first time we’ve been back in 6 years ( 2008, 2006.

There are two main hotels there with not much else around, as it was a purpose built resort. We stayed at the Mountain Hotel, which is closer to the main slopes, but a few minutes by free shuttle bus down the road is The Piano Hotel which has a large souvenir shopping area, and some more bars.

The are a good selection of courses, though there aren’t that many truly difficult runs, so it’s a relaxing venue, and it’s a resort which likes to leave a fair amount of powder around, especially on the edges of the pistes, which means you can play on the more groomed central areas, then branch off into powder and light trees.

By the time we went in early January, a small ramp of snow had formed at the edges of the pistes, meaning you could get some speed up and ramp into deep powder and between some trees. The powder was so light it was more like surfing at times, pushing down on that back leg and lifting the front up to stop from face planting or just plain stopping due to a lack of traction. Mine is an old 2000 Nitro board which doesn’t flex much, so by the end of a few powder intensive runs, that back leg was getting a little tired. Also, I will admit I had to paddle out a few times from waist deep powder when enthusiasm got the better of me. It was snowing so much that tracks were covered by your next run, and some people were struggling to keep going on the flatter areas.

The nighter course is pretty good too, well lit, and has a good covered 4 person lift up. Regarding the nighter, they have an ‘evening’ pass, and a ‘nighter’ pass - the former is about 1000 yen more and gets you an extra hour.

Thankfully, a day lift pass gets you the nighter included, which is nice, because I know some resorts which charge extra for that. I also didn’t see a ‘first run’ fee, which is another bolt-on extra some resorts started doing a while ago.

I also spent a day on my skis and really enjoyed it - likely because they have some gentler slopes for that, and skis are still not something I’m competent on, but I do enjoy them, and it means I can ski with my eldest, though she outpaces me nowadays. Wait till next year and we’re both on boards!

If you have a family, it’s good for the children’s ski school and activity centre which isn’t too expensive in comparison to some resorts, and they’ve gotten the kit rental for kids well integrated. As ever in Japan nowadays, the quality of the rental kit was excellent, the teachers were good and if you need it, a few spoke some English. There’s a large section of the area in front of the hotel dedicated to a family lift, a children’s play area and a sledging area, all of which is kept separate from the main ski areas.

The weekdays were very quiet which was great for us, and even at the weekend, it never got crowded. Also at the weekend, they had a DJ booth in the hotel snow centre, run by the local radio station, Air G FM in Hokkaido, who drive the music for the resort, take some requests and hold competitions, which actually added quite a bit of energy to the whole resort (snowboarding to old Wham songs was a bit odd).

The only downside to Kiroro is the cost, specifically of evening meals. The breakfast buffet is often included with the hotel price, and it had a decent selection. Lunch either on the mountain or in the hotel restaurant was also reasonable for a snow resort, such as ramen running from 980 - 1,300yen a bowl. However, you should be aware of the evening meal prices - they range from 4,200 - over 8,000yen per person - even a child’s meal in some restaurants cost over 2,000yen though we found one in the Piano hotel for 500yen but it was basically some soup and rice, and the adult meals were still over 4,200.

If you’re not on a package deal, be aware there aren’t any real supermarkets or restaurants outside of the hotels, so your only alternative is cup ramen and instant yakisoba from the snack shops in both hotels. We took this latter option as it was so much cheaper with 2 children, but also because it took us back to our roots on snow trips which we did things as cheaply as possible. There is a bus to Niseko which apparently takes an hour each way, but we didn’t explore that option.

The area doesn’t have the natural onsen spa baths some do, but the Mountain Hotel does have a ‘fake’ onsen, and a rotenburo, both of which were clean and well maintained. There’s something fantastic about spending the day on the mountain, washing off, then relaxing in pools of hot water for a while. Why more countries don’t have this, I have no idea. This was the first year I could take my son in too, and he loved it.

I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do another snow trip this year, but if this turns out to be the only one, I have to say I really enjoyed it. Kiroro is aging well, and whilst there are some pricing issues there, the place is a good place to spend a few days.

Rusutsu Snow Trip 2013

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:50:20 +0000

In January, we took the family up to Rusutsu in Hokkaido for a bit of snowboarding and skiing. Yes, this post is a little late.

The resort feels very much like a bubble place, but essentially is a collection of hotels and a few chalets around three main mountain ski areas. We stayed in the Resort Hotel North, which is at the base of one of the ski areas. Is it really a bubble era hotel? Well, it has an animatronic talking tree, some animatronic bears (or dogs, perhaps), and a full double decker carousel in the foyer which you could ride for free every evening, so yes, it’s very much a bubble hotel, and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you aren’t paying bubble fees.

We went for an all in package with breakfast and dinner, especially as the food at the in-house restaurants was good - believe me, we’ve stayed at places where the breakfasts were awful, and yes, I’m looking at you, Yamada Onsen in Niseko! As I’ve learned, with kids, having a buffet with a decent selection is vital to keep the complaints down.

Rentals weren’t too expensive, and the kit was very good, as is pretty much standard here nowadays, and the staff were fairly multi-lingual given the decent number of Chinese and Australian guests - also pretty much standard here nowadays. The instructors were good too, and our eldest got some lessons in when she wasn’t skiing with me. For once I wasn’t renting ski boots, having picked up a cheap pair of Head ski boots in Jimbochou for Xmas last year, and it was nice to have a consistent setup for a whole trip.

Rusutsu’s got a good selection of courses too, and on clear weather days, some great views. I’m not sure whether I prefer it to Niseko, but it’s still got a decent selection of runs, and some hilarious tree routes. There’s a snow park, where I spent a morning. I’ve never been much into jumps and such, but I did actually have a good time in there, so next season I might invest a bit more time in the snow parks and see how it goes.

I also took my GoPro out, and got some great shots of the kids skiing, and us out on our snowboards. As I’m a much better boarder than skier, it was interesting to shift from trepidation on even easier intermediate slopes on skies, to double diamond slopes through the trees on my board, and just feeling challenged, rather than concerned I was going to break something.

https://vimeo.com/62940443

I tried the camera both mounted to the board, and a headcam, and actually, I think it works as both, but obviously you get a lot of snow blowing up onto the camera on it’s board mount. One note though, unless you have the anti-fog inserts, you’ll want to regularly open the casing to lot the condensation dissipate after about 20mins.!

All in all, we had a great trip, and even the flights and travel went fairly smoothly, so no complaints there.

The Road To Shiga 2012

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:47:49 +0000

Last month, the family once more hit the road to go up to Shiga in Nagano Prefecture to get a few days skiing and snowboarding in.

Compared to last year, a few things on the technical side had changed - this time we were in a Toyota Ractis since our beloved Vitz was written off by someone who just didn’t seem to understand traffic lights. The Ractis is slightly bigger, so was a bit more comfortable for all the hours on the road, but because of that, we had to buy some new snow chains. I’m not completely sure, but I think Carmate, who make the Biathlon car chains we used last year, have changed their product mix a little, since the most easily available model in their lineup was the ’ Quick n Easy'.

One other change was that our son had outgrown his 0-12 month baby seat, so was now in a 12month - 11 year combination seat which we were a little unfamiliar with as we’d only installed it a few days prior, but it worked out very well, and he seems to love it. It’s the Aprica ’ Euro Impact Junior 01’, and no, I don’t know who comes up with the names for these things; the ‘Euro’ part though I suspect comes from the fact that it supports ECE R44.0 4, a European originating safety standard that all child seats now have to, or want to support.

Armed with all this, we set off from Kanagawa-ken, managing to be on the roads early, with ETC set up, a route in the navi, the kids well occupied (or asleep), and the usual rampaging DJs on FM Yokohama, we were away.

We kept to a stop every 90 mins or so, mainly for toilet breaks and such, to let the kids get out, and for additional tea breaks for the drivers - I’m apparently lucky that my wife doesn’t mind driving, so she took on the first third of the journey. Of course, as you get further up to the mountains, you eventually get to the snow line, and all the ice and fun which comes with it. We actually had to stop a few kilometres earlier than we did last year to put the chains on, and true to form and the couple of practice goes I’d had, the chains went on no problems at all - in fact, I think they were easier than the Biathlons we had last year. If you’ve never driven with chains, especially on real mountain roads with a decent amount of snow, it is a very fun experience, providing you keep the speed down. I should say that going up a mountain always feels safer than coming down.

The hotel we chose was right at the end of the road we were on so at least we knew we couldn’t miss it. We got the booking sorted out through Snow Japan, a bit like we did last year, but for reasons I’ll explain later, I don’t actually think that route is really worth it. The hotel was the Okushiga-Kougen hotel, and we got a decent price on a family sized room, with breakfast included, and I’d read the breakfast was pretty good. So, to do the hotel review first: it *is* a good hotel - the staff were relatively efficient, the wi-fi (only in the lobby area) worked as advertised and got a decent throughput, and the carpark is right in front and fairly well sheltered and maintained, so I had less snow digging to do each morning. The breakfast was very good for a Japanese ski hotel, a decent western and Japanese buffet, with good sausages, bacon and scrambled eggs which weren’t swimming for a change. The down side is that all other meals are horrifically expensive - the dinners start at 2,500 for a child’s set meal, go to a basic adult meal for 4,500en, and top out at 12,500en for a deluxe course. These prices are out of our range. What we learned are that for lunches and dinner it’s much better for quality and cost to either pop around to the Prince Hotel Shiga West, or over the road to the Hotel Grand Phenix, which oddly is an expensive place to stay, but reasonable to eat. The Italian restaurant there does a fantastic rabbit dish.

All of the Okushiga hotels are at the bottom of the slope, but let’s get something out of the way - the area is skier only - no snowboards are allowed. We chose the place though because our eldest is learning to ski, and the ski school there is excellent, reasonably priced, and even will sell you digital copies of some on piste photos of the kids for a small amount. When we were there, there were no other students. The ’no boarder’ attitude, combined with some of the pricing means it’s pretty quiet, and the average age of people there is over 60 as far as I could tell. We simply put the eldest in ski schools in the mornings, which she loved, and then drove to Yakibitaiyama around the corner, where our youngest could play in the creche, and we could get some boarding done. I should also point out Okushiga does have a creche, but only on Saturday and Sunday, which was a minor fact they didn’t mention when we called in advance to confirm facilities.

The Okushiga Kougen hotel then worked out very well once we sorted the food sourcing out, and the onsen was clean, and the TV, though an aging CRT with a digital converter literally bolted to it, did allow us to use the audio/visual cable for the iPod so my daughter could watch her shows, which is invaluable when you’re a little bit confined for space. The in-room bath was also a little bigger than many other hotels, though still technically a unit bath/toilet room.

A notable experience for me on the snow side of things that was the first time I got to ski with my daughter, going up on the chair lift together and coming down and I have to say I was very impressed, though I think she was irritated with the grip I had on her on the chair lift, given she was quite relaxed.

When not on the slopes, we could play with the kids safely at Okushiga, though the snow is so powdery, it was difficult to make a snowman.

Coming back was as simple as going, but again, going downhill always makes me think a little bit, and we passed one person coming up who was sliding all over who apparently thought that normal road tyres on an SUV would be enough - it’s not.

As usually, we sent all of our boards and skis via Takkyubin, which is always the simplest way to do it. Perhaps next year we’ll try a roof gear holder for them.

Booking via SnowJapan used to get some decent discounts, but now I really don’t know since the prices we were quoted on the phone with hotels was the same as via their site, so aside from driving some traffic I’m not sure where the value is any more (and the SnowJapan make-over with Silverlight hotel finder was perhaps ill advised).

In all then, a massively successful trip for the whole family, and we managed to make use of all the lessons we learned last year, and learned a few for next year, as we wont be able to make another this year due to a stream of other commitments. I also got a nice ‘yuki 雪’ sticker for my old Macbook.

Family road trip to Shiga Kogen

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:47:52 +0000

We just got back last week from our first snow trip of 2011. It also marked some other landmarks: at 644Km in 3 days, our longest trip as a family in a car, our first multi-day trip with offspring #2, our first long run with the ETC, and of course, our first with the the (non metal) snowchains! Yup, all part of a family road trip to Shiga Kogen!

For background, we have an old Toyota Vitz (that’s a Yaris in a few other places), which is fine, but we knew we couldn’t get all the snowboards in the car, so we takkyubin’d them a few days before departure. Takkyubin is a wonderful thing - for 2 snowboards and our boots etc. as two bags, it cost 2,500yen all together, and even though I carried them a few hundred yards to the local Family Mart, they would have picked them up for not much more.

A rental car any bigger than the Vitz, for the time would’ve cost ~~¥30,000, and then would cost more in fuel, so we decided to stick with the Vitz as a trial and spend that rental money on an ETC unit for it (~~¥14,500 fitted at Autobacs) and some CarMate Biathlon Athlete ’non-metal’ snowchains (~¥16,500 from 8&7 Wholesale @ Amazon).

The ETC unit would be a bit of a universal benefit - it’s the electronic toll road payment system unit so you don’t have to fiddle with change at toll booths, and gives you some discounts, so this was a nice to have anyway.

We got most of the car ready the night before, and followed some of the tips from flying - made sure the elder offspring had plenty of entertainment on the iPhone, a couple of books, toys, and drawing utensils for the stops. It’s also trips like this where buying that cheap car stereo which takes iPod/USB input pays off - we could have our whole music collection plus podcasts and audio books to listen to en route.

Some other things I like to have in the car anyway, and especially for this trip: jump cables (booster cables here), a tow cable, some bungee cords, a couple of flasks of hot water and a hand crank torch/flashlight and radio. Also, I had the tip of never letting your tank get below half full, which might sound overly paranoid had a lot of people not got stuck in their cars for over 24hours last month in Japan on a major road, and with a 3 month old offspring in the vehicle, I didn’t want to take any chances.

The drive up took a long time - we weren’t pushing hard, but stopped for a couple of lengthy breaks to allow offspring #2 to be fed and changed and relax, though to be fair he, like his elder sibling - is a great traveller it seems. It’s fairly picturesque ride too, at least once you’re out of Tokyo and on the Kanetsu and then Joetsu expressways.

About 20Km before the hotel we got to the tyre/chains changing point. We chose this one because it has a large roofed area where a lot of the buses put their huge metal chains on - it’s impressive to watch. It only took us about 5 minutes per wheel, barely needing the tutorial video (which I’d ripped to my phone), and the only difficulty really being yanking the rubber around the wet wheels, which is to be expected. I’d actually practiced this a couple of times in front of the house a week before we set off, and it was pretty much the same. Just colder. And wetter. And colder, meaning your fingers need some better gloves than the free ones to pull effectively.

This was the first time for me driving on snow in the mountains in an automatic car and with chains, and to be frank it was fine. The rubber chains make the car shake a little bit more, but we made good, safe time using the ‘2’ and ‘L’ settings on the ‘gearbox’ and getting the benefits of their effective engine breaking (which is what was my main concern). After I while I was actually enjoying it, stereo up, no one on the road and hitting crazy the speeds of 35Kmh. Not quite rally speeds, but given the noise in the 998cc car it felt like it at times.

First things, the Prince Hotels were almost empty. Ours had almost empty car parks and as we were to find the place was about a quarter full, and three quarters of those were Australians - a main fixture of most Japanese resorts now - and the rest mainly being Japanese retirees. I wonder how long it is until the operators wake up to this demographic. More things are in English, things are more flexible and food quality has increased, but prices are moving away from what most Japanese families could afford (we only managed to get a deal by booking early). Anyway, that’s a much longer post going back years. I am glad I brought my spade though; I usually do in case there’s ramp building opportunities on the mountain, but on the Friday morning I had to dig the car our from under almost 30cm of powder snow. It was so light it wasn’t an issue, but moving the snow in front of the car the hotel snow plough had moved took a little more time.

The room was fairly large by Prince standards - they claim to be a premium hotel chain but are basically the room stay equivalent of Denny’s. It’s not bad then, and really is ideal for a boarding trip - you’re not in the room most of the time, aside to sleep or relax and read anyway.

The restaurant however did have a more premium approach to it’s pricing which would make some Tokyo places think again. A child’s meal (the only child’s meal) was 2,000yen. The cheapest adult meal was 1,800 yen. My tip: everyone order the children’s meal, you get much more and it tasted better. One odd situation, a waiter wouldn’t bring me my okawari bread, as I hadn’t received my first one. After some pleading the more senior waiter brought me one. [ okawari means you get unlimited replenishment, such as on coffee refills]. There was a single person shabushabu set for 6,800yen. That’s a huge amount of money for what you got. I wonder if it’s to fleece wealthy Aussies.

One bonus - free wifi in the lobby area, and power if you just plug in to hidden wall sockets. Finally the internet comes to the mountains. How long did that take?

Finally getting down to business, the snow was excellent - great powder runs and a good selection of slopes - everything I’ve always liked about Shiga Kogen. We managed to get offspring #1 into a ski school both mornings for about 4,000yen for 2 hours and since she got 1-1 tuition and could work with English and Japanese instructors, I think she got a lot out of it. We hadn’t planned the second session but she was raving about it after the first. The only disappointment with the snow was that there was no nighter in our area except on Saturday nights - just after we left. I only mention this as I asked during booking if there was a nighter and was told there was.

That aside, the slopes were empty pretty much, meaning fast direct runs down some pretty decent slopes, waist deep powder on the fringes of the courses, and no moguls outside of the snow park.

We put offspring #2 into a creche for one morning, and he seemed to like it enough apparently to not wake up, which is usually a good thing. That was the first time in a couple of years to board together, which prior to the children was something we were doing a lot every winter. Still, a worthwhile trade-off.

All in all then the whole trip went much better than we hoped. One situation we weren’t expecting: we put the eco tag out saying we didn’t need towels every day, which should qualify us for a few thousand yen in vouchers. Great. So, we didn’t receive towels or bed making, and when we asked if we could have our vouchers the front desk claimed the was no eco tag, so no, we wouldn’t get vouchers.

After a few exchanges with my wife, they reluctantly gave us them, but it left us wondering what the training was like if they were encouraged to argue with guests in the lobby in front of other guests over a thousand yen. To anyone who’s spent time in ski hotels in Japan, chances are that doesn’t shock you.

On Saturday evening we started heading back, taking it slowly, stopping at some fairly unimpressive rest stops, and just plodding along, with me listening to podcasts whilst the tribe slept away, which is relaxing in itself. The size of the car didn’t seem to be a problem at all, just a question of travelling light, which we generally do, and sparing the space for things the kids ‘might’ need.

We’re thinking of doing another trip next month if we can get a deal on a room, so we’ll be looking to repeat most of the things that worked, and fix some things that didn’t.

On the latter list was the mistake of not having drinks in the car on the way back (they were in the suitcase), which meant some people being thirsty for an hour as we hunted for somewhere to stop. The second was the familiar issue of packing too many nappies, but then, always better to be 10 over than 1 under for those.

Chilly waxing

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:14:44 +0000

You can tell we’re about to go on a family snowboard trip, because it’s almost midnight the day before we have to takkyubin the boards, and I’m here on the balcony waxing the aforementioned boards, using the meager light from the living room, and a small torch to see what I’m doing. Fortunately they’re in good repair and only need a minor tune and clean. Chilly waxing indeed.

I’m definitely looking forward to Kiroro this weekend, partly because it’s the first trip we’ve managed this season, but mainly as it’s our daughter’s first view of real snow. Hopefully it’ll be safe, yet entertaining!

Second Snow in Tokyo

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:12:06 +0000

Well, I awoke this morning to see that Tokyo is getting it’s second bout of snow weekends.

Upon further thought, it also means I wont be able to take our daughter to the park in all likelihood, so maybe we’ll go to the Akachan Tengoku instead.

Niseko Update

Sun, 30 Jan 2005 23:27:50 +0000

There’s been a lack of updates here, so sorry for that. it’s been a busy week all told, but let’s just recap those four days in Niseko last weekend: fantastic.

The weather was pretty good the whole time, except for when fog settled in on the Monday morning, yet it was still probably the best Niseko trip so far. Really, the powder was deep and plentiful, if a little heavy, and the great thing about Niseko is that there’s something for everyone, of all styles. I spent hours on unprepped courses at Hirafu, before going over the top to Annupuri and doing some speed runs, and a few tree runs down that side of the mountain. Excellent. It snowed for pretty much the whole time we were there, and despite Niseko’s famous rapid change weather, it was fantastic to spend whole days on the slopes.

Off the slope, we stayed at the Yamada Onsen hotel again, and went to the Mongolian Yurt in the evenings for some great food. It’s moved location, but now offers a free minibus to pick you up from your hotel and drop you back again. We also spent a bit of time in GengisKhan yakiniku, which is just amazing.

We also met quite a few Australians, and it seems that an Oz company has bought a lot of real-estate in the area, bought into the chair lift company, and Australia Airlines now run Cairns to Sapporo direct flights. Apparently Niseko is being heavily pushed down there as the ‘Summer’ ski resort of choice.

Anyhow, pictures and a movie are here.

Niseko a go-go!

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:41:09 +0000

We’re here in Niseko where the weather today is ‘character building’. This photo was taken when we got halfway down and could actually see further than our gloves. グラハム :)

ニセコは？

Sun, 23 Jan 2005 14:39:26 +0000

Errant Posts

Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:26:41 +0000

Actually, just as I was reading this blog, I realised all the things I don’t put on it. Of course, that’s mainly because they’re mundane and dull morsels of info that no-one is interested in.

For example, just before Xmas, we got our new dining table from Harumi Design in ‘Toriton Square’, and it’s great. It feels great to have a dining table back after 5 years of food off a low table in front of the TV. I think in part this is because when I was growing up, our kitchen dinner table was a community focus point for long conversations before, during and after the meal, so it feels good to have that back, and I’m very happy with the solid oak one we chose. It easily makes my ‘Best of 2004’ purchase list, which will be another post, maybe later this week.

Example 2; I went back to work today to have an Amazon package waiting for me! This is great, I now have the last series of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, but more importantly, Series 1 and 3 of ‘Black Books’ a hilarious comedy from the UK’s Channel 4. (If you’re wondering, I got series 2 as a gift, which is what got us into it).

Oh yes, and it snowed very heavily in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve, and I got caught out on my scooter going through 4 inches of snow - not fun on a 50cc! Still, the Zoomer’s chunky tyres were great - I definitely had sympathy for the Udon delivery chap on his old scooter with bald tyres.

OK, pointless post has finished. Please move along. Nothing to read here … for a while.

Kachidoki Snow

Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:46:07 +0000

I just looked outside, and it’s snowing! Not just a bit either - looks like a blizzard over the bay! I’ve took some pics and will upload them later. Maybe. Looks great, and my board is coming back today … hmmm. Snowboarding in Kachidoki? Maybe not.

Hakuba

Thu, 25 Dec 2003 22:00:11 +0000

I’ll be disappearing for 3 days this weekend, to go snowboarding in Hakuba. Resort reports claim it’s drowning in powder which sounds great! Definitely looking forward to getting out there again! We’ve also got a room at a great little hotel we know which has great food. We’ve also got the Playstation 2 and a few DVDs packed to relax in front of after a hard 8 hours on the snow! Game on…

Original Comments

Comments from the original WordPress blog post.

jsb — 2003-12-29

Hey - how was Hakuba? I’m pretty green to the snowboarding areas in Central Japan - eager to hear your feedback. Tips on places to stay??

Regs!

graham — 2004-01-03

Hi, Just a quick response, as I’m on the road with my faithful old laptop visiting people through oshogatsu. Needless to say, Hakuba (Happo) was a great place as ever - the powder was great, and there’s a decent variety of courses. It’s maybe not up to Niseko levels, but it really is worth going to. I can recommend a great place to stay - the Hotel Taigakukan - which is a small family owned place which is cheap but has great food, nice rooms, a nice little bar and some great rotenburo. If you go to this page and book over the internet, you can get a 10% discount: http://www.snowjapan.com/e/hotel/viewhotel.php?hotid=25

Hope this helps, let me know if there’s anything else you need, and thanks for putting a comment on Nanikore!

Graham (aka nanikore/brightblack)

Snow is here

Tue, 09 Dec 2003 02:59:51 +0000

Just days before my first snow board trip next Monday, and it finally looks like the winter is here. The snow has been later than normal, but finally a lot of the areas can open. A good place for info is Snow Japan (formerly known as Ski Japan Guide). I suppose this saves me abandoning hope and resorting to Shinto chanting. If anyone knows which is the correct god, let me know!

On the subject of snowboards, I got the last of the things I need for the season - some new goggles , as my ‘old faithful’ ones I bought at a roadside stop three years ago have finally been retired as the foam over the cheek had disintegrated, meaning it would cut into my face if it got knocked (like in one of my famous high speed wipeouts!). I went to a great shop in Jimbocho called ‘Himaraya’ which has a small front onto the main street, but a much bigger shop behind the main one. On the fourth floor they have a pretty good selection of goggles - maybe over a hundred different types, and after trying on pretty much all of them, I settled on the Dragon DX pair - a bit more expensive than I wanted to spend, but like most snowboard stuff, it’s a case of finding something that fits well. I must have a wide head (smirk) because some of goggles seemed to limit my horizontal and peripheral view, especially the Oakley ones. I quite like the Axe range, but the Dragon pair seemed to give a better field of vision - always useful on a high speed run!