Powder rules on the mountains of Japan
SKIING in Japan has been on the radar of dedicated powder seekers for a number of years. The snow that falls upon Japan’s resorts has to be some of the best in the world; it is light, dry and very often chest deep.
Now that word has leaked out about Japan’s fantastic skiing opportunities – a season that lasts from December to May – snow addicts are going the extra distance to try out the near perfect conditions.
I land at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, to which British Airways has launched a route. It’s far closer to the centre of Tokyo than the bigger airport, Narita.
I pass swiftly through the city’s concrete towers and head north-east through small industrial towns, low lying agricultural areas and onto Nagano prefecture and the mountains of Hakuba.
The drive north-east from Tokyo to Hakuba takes approximately four hours. If you travel by bullet train it takes under two hours to get from Tokyo to Nagano City, then a taxi or bus ride to Hakuba.
Unlike the jagged Alps, the mountains in this region are round in shape, as most are the remains of extinct or dormant volcanoes.
The brightness of the morning sun reflects on the white snow and illuminates Hakuba town. The sky is a piercing blue and there’s not a cloud in sight.
Despite the vast amount of snow received in Hakuba, the temperature is not too cold. The top of the mountains are usually between -7C and -14C and the bottom between -7C and -2C.
March is a great time to visit and brings something special to skiing in Hakuba (and the rest of Japan) with sunny blue days, great snow and quiet resort conditions. It’s when heli-skiing kicks off and the backcountry opens up, making easy access to some amazing terrain. April is good for snow touring and although there is usually a lot of snow on the mountains, most of Japan’s resorts close in May.
Chalet style houses and hotels line the streets. It’s a quiet place, almost suburban looking, quaint even, not commercial or modern. Hakuba is a peaceful place with lots of small Aussie-owned B&Bs, such as Black Pine Lodge (www.blackpinelodge.com) located close to the main gondola and available for group rental or individual rooms.
I check into the Hakuba High Mount Hotel (www.highmount.com), owned by the local Anyo family. The hotel is just outside the town centre along a narrow twisting lane with snow piled high either side. The hotel’s owner, Joe Anyo, knows the local mountains like the back of his hand. Fortunately for me he also speaks fluent English and has offered to guide me around Hakuba.
Hakuba town is surrounded by ski resorts, with Happo One (pronounced Happo Oh-nay) being its flagship ski area. It is the largest, highest (1,831m highest point) and most versatile. Happo One has an average annual snowfall of 12 metres and does not open until they have a two metre base from top to bottom.
All pistes are well marked in Japanese and in English and occasionally a voice comes over a loudspeaker with resort updates and welcoming foreign visitors in English.
Some of the chair lifts are dated and delightfully retro, but they do the job and get you to where you need to go.
Advanced skiers will enjoy the challenge of skiing Happo One’s 1998 Winter Olympic men and women’s downhill course. The Olympians finished in less than two minutes – I took slightly longer.
Joe and I hopped onto the Alpen lift that took us up to the Virgin Café and skied Usagidaira, and then headed to Skyline for some of the best powder Hakuba has to offer.
Richard Branson has built a small café at the top of the mountain. It’s fairly unassuming, but the “V” logo stands out on the side of the lift building and you can’t help but miss it, making it a handy meeting point.
Next door to Happo One are the linked resorts of Hakuba 47 (1,614m) and Hakuba Goryu. Because of their north westerly facing direction, the two resorts receive an abundant amount of high quality dry powder snow – the upper Alps Daira is wide and ungroomed and a lot of fun for good intermediate and expert skiers. They also offer night skiing until 10pm.
There’s a big and popular snow park at Hakuba 47 with a half pipe and it’s always full of kids practicing jumps and tricks.
Iwatake resort is about 10 minutes from Hakuba and is a popular resort with locals. The terrain is good, with lots of bumps and plenty of long groomed runs for beginner and intermediate skiers. The views back down the Hakuba Valley are amazing.
Cortina and Norikura are at the north end of the Hakuba valley. They are small ski areas but Cortina receives the highest snowfall in the valley. Other nearby resorts include Tsugaike Kogen – with its gentle slopes – and the small family resort of Sanosaka, all easily accessed by a free shuttle bus service.
Generally speaking, the resorts are fairly quiet, but during the Japanese school holidays, packs of snow boarding teenagers hit the slopes, all decked out in the latest and brightest available skiing gear.
Saturday and Sunday are busy days too, when weekend warriors from Tokyo descend on the mountain towns, as they are close enough to make a one-day round trip journey.
Japan’s competition level free ride snow boarders and mogul skiers are some of the best in the world. Snow parks are a huge attraction in Japan and you can find one in just about every resort. The jumps and pipes are perfectly maintained by specialised crews and it’s well worth stopping by to watch the adrenaline filled riders perform impressive daredevil tricks.
On the mountain, stopping for sustenance involves hearty dishes like ramen noodles, pork cutlet curry and other traditional style food.
Dinner in the mountains starts around 6.30pm and ends early around 9pm. There is little public nightlife in Hakuba, but Taco Taco is worth checking out for its live music.
At night I dined at the fabulously cosy local sashimi/sushi restaurant called Kikyo-Ya, where a decent sized set menu sashimi dinner will cost around Y1,800. The restaurant doesn’t just serve superb food; the atmosphere is fun too. You can also try Kikyo-ya, where they serve delicious sushi shi, Hot Pot, Tempura and a speciality blowfish dish.
Getting around the resort day or night is simple. I walked or took the Genki-go busses, which collect passengers at various shuttle bus points along three different routes. Most hotels, restaurants, ski lifts and shops are within the red, green or blue routes and a bus ride costs Y200 (£1.50) Taxis charge a flat Y600 fee to go anywhere in the Hakuba town area. If you plan to hire a car in Japan, be aware there is a zero tolerance alcohol law, even the passengers get fined if your vehicle is stopped.
Just a two-hour drive from Hakuba (less than three hours from Tokyo) and still in Nagano Prefecture, are the snowfields of Myoko, a culmination of ski resorts situated around the base of the impressive 2,454m high Mount Myoko. It was one of the first ski resorts established in Japan, dating back to 1937.
Snow started to fall heavily the moment I arrived and didn’t give up until the following morning. I woke early to the sound of snowploughs outside my bedroom window, and gleefully looked out of the window onto three foot or more of fresh powder snow.
Myoko offers great conditions for beginner to expert skiers, with plenty of groomed runs, back-country skiing and some extreme powder conditions.
My hotel, the Akakura Kanko Hotel is a large building that looms over Myoko from the top of the mountain; the only ski-in, ski-out hotel in town. I didn’t have to wait for the lifts to open. I just clipped on my skis, went straight onto the soft deep powder and cut fresh tracks. Once you’ve skied on fresh white fluffy champagne powder, there’s no going back to skiing groomed pistes.
I meet with Tom Langtry, Australian owner of Snow Sport Ski School and we spend the day skiing through perfectly spaced trees, sending snow flying in all directions and going to places I would not have discovered alone.
Tom and his Japanese wife, Nozomi Haba, have been operating their successful ski school for a couple of years. They offer wonderful facilities for children wishing to learn to ski and all of the staff speak English and/or Japanese. Aussie Mark Darstrall is a seasoned ski instructor for Myoko Snow Sports (myokosnowsports.com).
“I’ve skied at a lot of places around the world and in my opinion Myoko has the best powder snow. There’s a run named after me now because I reshaped the bumps over there – or they reshaped me”, he says.
Tired from what the mountain had thrown at me all day, I headed into town for a hearty meal and some sake. The KEI restaurant in the heart of the village is a small, funky izakaya with an eclectic menu. An izakaya is traditionally a place to drink sake and perhaps have a few snacks; this informal style of dining has now become popular. The garlic butter prawns and the “salmon tower” were particularly good.
My last few days are spent in the resort of Shiga Kogen, a 1.5-hour drive from Myoko, where a beautiful sunny day greets me. Shiga Kogen is larger and more spread out than Hakuba or Myoko and not as cosy. However, they receive a lot of snow and have plenty of wide pistes, lots of flat areas for beginners and some challenging runs too. I stayed at the Sun Route hotel, a five minute walk in ski boots to the lift, which connects to the rest of the mountains and ski areas of Shiga Kogen. There are lots of two and four-seater chair lifts and an old cream-coloured, cool looking, retro-gondola from the 70s, which is still completely efficient.
Lifts in Shiga Kogen are not busy; I didn’t have to wait at all. Lift attendants take your skis and put them on the side of the gondola for you and always clean the seat before you sit down.
Some older chair lifts are not fitted with security bars, but for your piece of mind, the lifts are nowhere near as high as in the Alps.
A short drive from Shiga Kogen is an unusual place called Jigokudani Yaenkoen (www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp), a hot-spring known locally as an onsen. This particular onsen is known globally for its 200+ resident Japanese Macaque monkeys or “snow monkeys”. If you don’t mind a few furry companions, you can relax in the hot water with some of them.
If the Japanese powder snow isn’t enough to win you over, then the food surely will. Skiers and boarders will have the chance to sample some beautifully prepared mountainside food in Japan, including fresh fish dishes, hearty noodle soups and of course the best sushi.
Skiing in Japan took me on some of the best runs in my life, in conditions great for everyone from beginners to advanced skiiers. There are plenty of groomed runs, backcountry skiing and some amazing extreme powder conditions.
The only people to whom the Japanese slopes might not appeal are those who like ice. I can’t say I’ve met many.
Lisa Young was a guest of Emerald Tours. For more info on booking and prices, see box below.
BOOK IT | NEED TO KNOW
GETTING THERE: NEED TO KNOW
To book your ski trip, contact
Emerald Tours:
www.etours-japan.co.uk.
japan@emerald.co.uk;
tel: +44 020 7725 6760.
Prices for a personalised Discover Japan holiday including economy round-trip flights start from £2,280 per person in twin sharing with a £130 per person in-twin sharing supplement to stay at Conrad Hotel in Tokyo.
THE PRICE INCLUDES
Transfer from Tokyo to Hakuba
4 nights + breakfast at the High Mount Hotel, Hakuba (www.highmount.com)
Bus transfer from Hakuba to Myoko
1 night + breakfast at the Oyado Furuya Hotel, Myoko (www.oyado-furuya.jp)
Transfer from Myoko to Shiga Kogen 2 nights + breakfast at the Sunroute Hotel in Shiga Kogen
Train from Yudanaka to Tokyo
1 night + breakfast at the Conrad Hotel,Tokyo
(conradhotels1.hilton.com)
Not included: Meals, unless specified.
HELPFUL WEBSITES:
www.lonelyplanet.com/japan
Nagano district: www.nagano-tabi.net/english
Hakuba resorts: www.hakubatourism.com
Shiga Kogen resorts: www.shigakogen.gr.jp
Myoko: www.myoko.tv
Hakuba High Mount Hotel: www.highmount.com
Myoko Snow Sports Ski School: www.myokosnowsports.com
Spicy Ski Rentals, Hakuba: www.spicy.co.jp
Sun Route Hotel, Shiga Kogen www.sunroute.jp
Snow Monkeys:
www.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp