Sapporo International Snow Festival -- Niseko Skiing, Hokkaido Japan's Snow!

After spending a year as a school teacher (after graduating from college the year before), it was time for a major celebratory vacation--namely a trip, a tour, some fun, in a unique destination. I had been on the tropical island of Guam. in the Western Pacific for almost 10 years, so it was time for something really different.
I found an announcement in the teachers' lounge for a tour to Japan. A SNOW SKIING tour. Well, that was definitely different from what I had gotten accustomed to on Guam. I knew snow--after being born in Montana and having lived in and tried snow skiing in New Mexico, I wasn't going to something totally unlike anything I had experienced before. Also, I had already had taken a bunch of years of Japanese language training in high school and college, so the language barrier would not be a problem, either.

So, I signed up for the tour. Like the rest of the group, I finished up the payment for the trip and got the necessary visas from the Japan Consulate on Guam and starting getting my necessities arranged for my luggage.

I was leaving a tropical island (where the daily temperature rarely dips below 70 degrees--and that's during a typhoon)--and heading to a place that's just below the western end of Siberia--Kamchatka.

In the winter.

With LOTS of SNOW!

I didn't have the type of clothing that this might require. All I had were zories (flip-flops), T-shirts, some long-sleeved shirts, blue-jeans, and tennis shoes. I made a major shopping spree and got together some fuzzy socks, some leather shoes (at least they might provide better insulation and water protection than the tennis shoes would), and some lined jackets (about all we could find on the island--again, Guam doesn't usually require anything more than this). I knew from my experience with Montana and New Mexico that layering helps with keeping warm, so that's what I intended to do in Japan.

Finally the day arrived for this 10-day trip. I packed most of my stuff in the checked-in luggage (a single canvas suitcase), a spare set of socks, undies, and T-shirt in my carry-on, and got checked in for the Japan Airlines flight to the New Tokyo Narita International Airport.

After a relatively short flight (4 hours) leaving Guam, our Japan Airlines (JAL) flight arrived at the New Tokyo Narita International Airport and we made our way through the customs and immigration lines. We had a few hours to relax in the Narita Airport concourse before our All-Nippon-Airways (ANA) flight took us to Chitose in Hokkaido. I had a lot of fun exploring the airport and investigating some of the Kinokuniya Bookstores, the gift-shops, and some of the snack bars.

Finally, our boarding time arrived and we got on the plane heading for Hokkaido. The flight attendants served beef or chicken broth for the 1-hour flight--and also handed out hot and steamy washcloths that we could use to freshen up from the day of traveling. We got into Chitose around 7pm.

After our luggage came out on the carousels, we gathered at the front of the arrival area--and got on our tour bus that was waiting there. It took another hour drive from the airport to the city of Sapporo--the provincial capital of Hokkaido.

The bus pulled up in front of our hotel, the Hotel Washington Sapporo, which was directly across from the Sapporo Train Station. As we piled off the bus and assembled in the hotel lobby, our tour leader briefly talked with the hotel desk manager and then handed out our room keys. Before we left the lobby for our rooms, the tour leader told us that we absolutely, positively had to be ready to go the next morning at 7:00am--a little early, but hey... we're in Japan, who has time to be sleepy?

Why? Because at 7:00am we'd have to walk across the street with our luggage to the train station to catch an express train to Kutchan (the nearest rail station for the Niseko-Hirafu Ski Resort). Our tour guide recommended that we have breakfast at the hotel restaurant at 6:00am so we could have time to cleanup and be ready for the walk across the street.

I was too wired from the excitement of being in "Snow Country" to "retire to my room"... so, after dropping my bags in the room, I took the elevator down to the lobby and walked across the street to the train station to explore.

I discovered that there was an "underground mall" that was beneath and connected to the train station and which ran across the street and down the center area of the city. Sapporo's subway system also had stations that adjoined this underground mall. In this mall were restaurants, fast-food such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds, Burger-King, and so on, and bookstores, ski shops, gift shops, drug stores, and variety stores. Many were closed already because it was late, but the restaurants and bars were still bustling with activity. After satisfying my curiosity and getting some pictures of the underground mall, I wandered back across the street and back to my hotel room.

It was probably good that I didn't spend a lot of time in the hotel room anyway--not that it was bad from a functional point of view--but that it was about the size of a walk-in closet (in a humorous way). It was interesting in that the bed was barely 6 feet long--maybe even 5-1/2 feet long. The TV was literally at the foot of the bed. (I heard stories later from the rest of the group who are quite a bit taller than I who had to sleep with their feet propped up on top of the TV!) There was about 2 feet of walking room between the wall and the bed (on the access side--the bed was against the wall on the other side). The bathroom was a single modular unit--all plastic... and the shower/bathtub was only about a 2-ft square area on the opposite side of the sink from the toilet. No matter, the room was, at least for me, comfortable--and I slept well. I woke early, quickly got dressed, repacked my bags, and brought my bags down to the lobby--where the rest of the group was storing our bags. Then joined the group in the restaurant for a quick breakfast.
After an interesting Japanese interpretation of a "western-style" breakfast, we grabbed our bags and made our way across the street to the train station.

The train for Kutchan steamed into Sapporo Station with the usual Japanese promptness--right on time. Without much time to spare, we hauled our bags onto our cabincar, heaved our bags onto the overhead racks, and settled into our seats. The atmosphere on the train was lively--one big ski party. Almost all passengers had sets of skis and boots as part of their luggage. They were also mostly dressed in colorful, color-coordinated ski-suits. Most of us from Guam looked like mismatched misfits... but we were having fun with our fellow travelers anyway.

Also, we enjoyed the attendants passing periodically through the passenger car--the attendants would be pushing carts full of goodies--mandarin "mikan" oranges, chocolates, coffee, tea, hot cocoa, beer, wine, magazines, "manga" comics, newspapers, and "bento" boxes full of teriyaki and sushi and pickled plums.

We were able to have our lunch on the train while we enjoyed the beautiful scenery passing by as we ventured further into the forests of southern Hokkaido.

The train pulled into Kutchan--and we were greeted by 6-ft (2-meter) icicles hanging off the station eaves. Then, after we crossed the overpass across the tracks and got out to the front of the station, we were further greeted by 10-ft piles of snow in the stations parking lot. We found the bus to Niseko ski resort--it was easy to find it... all we had to do was look for the passengers with skis and boots.

The bus traversed the snowy streets of Kutchan and then exited town into some fields and then started up some switchbacks on the way up the side of a mountain. Sometimes a glimpse of a huge volcano would show through the thick storm clouds across the valley behind us. About 40-some minutes later, we arrived at the parking lot for the Niseko-Hirafu Ski Resort town. We exited the bus and followed our tour guide down the icy street to our lodge--the Takagi-Sanso (Japanese for "Tall Tree Mountain Lodge").

When we entered the lodge, it was obvious that we were definitely in Japan. There were rows and rows of shoes in the entryway just inside the "airlock" double-door entry from the road. On shelves above the tiled floor were slippers you used when you were in the lodge areas--and even these you would slip off and leave in the hallway before entering your carpeted and tatami-mat floored room.

We dropped our luggage in our rooms and then hurried back down to the lobby area, where we checked out the amenities there.

Since the sun had already set and the Siberian chill outside was still a bit much for our tour-group from Guam, most of us stayed inside and enjoyed the aroma of tatami-mats, teriyaki chicken and miso soba cooking, green tea brewing, and ginger-garlic-soy sauce seasonings emanating from the kitchen area off the side of the dining hall next to the lobby.

In the dining hall was a large television in the corner and some of us settled onto the plush couches facing it. It was fascinating to watch a "Crint Eastwood" movie dubbed in Japanese on the local Hokkaido station. Soon it was time to eat--and the owner of the lodge motioned for our tour group to come to our "designated table".

We had an excellent meal of miso soup, yakitori chicken, pickled plums, steamed rice, and sushi, which we washed down with Sapporo beer, Kita no Homare sake, or Japanese green tea. Then, after we had filled ourselves, we wandered around and explored the other amenities of the lodge. Upstairs was a party room--in which there was a fooz-ball table, a ping-pong table, vending machines for everything from Sapporo Beer and canned iced coffee and soda to candied snacks and salty chips. The party-room had a Christmas tree set up in one corner, and three of the walls consisted of floor-to-cieling windows facing the ravine behind the lodge.

A jukebox opposite the vending machines played current Japanese hit songs and a rousing game of ping-pong or fooz-ball was always seemingly going.

Eventually, after a lot of visiting and getting to know some of the other residents of the lodge, we wandered off to our rooms to get some sleep for the adventure of the next day.

We had no choice but to wake up the next morning--it seems that a Japanese university ski team was staying at our lodge, and they were out on the street doing calisthenics--shouting out their "ichi, ni, san, yon; ichi, ni, san, yon; ..." (1,2,3,4;1,2,3,4; ... ) as they warmed up for their day on the slopes. It was tough to sleep with all that racket just outside the lodge.

We scrambled out from under our warm futons and quickly got dressed in the chilly morning air, and wandered down to the lodge dining hall. We had the usual interesting Japanese interpretation of a "western breakfast"--toast with peanut butter and chocolate syrup, watery coffee, almost raw bacon, and runny fried egges. After we mentioned that we wouldn't mind having the traditional Japanese breakfast that our lodge coresidents were having, we wound up getting the makeral over steamed rice, with a bowl of miso soup, and some hot green tea ("o-cha"). Much better, ne?

It was still ridiculously early, but we wanted to get out in the snow. Some of our group were well-prepared for winter fun--and had the appropriate parkas, gloves, hats, fuzzy socks, and boots--so they went out to find the ski gear rental shops and the ski lifts.

For some of us who had only the "tropical wear" commonly found on Guam, we decided to venture down the hill to the town of Kutchan to shop for some winter gear. We caught a taxi down to the town, where we enjoyed exploring the open-air (AMAZING!) shops.

After blowing some cash to get some decent gloves, parka, an insulated cap, some insulated fuzzy socks, and a pair of insulated snow boots, we found a bakery and a gift shop in which to buy some goodies to take back to the lodge for our fellow lodge inhabitants. We caught a taxi back to Niseko, where we deposited the goodies in our rooms.

Now it was time to find the snow!

We headed up the hill to the Niseko-St. Moritz Hokkaido Mountain Lodge... where we found a place from which we could rent boots and skis. I was lucky and found some in my size. But some of our tour group had problems trying to find size 14 boots and the skis to go with them. Ah well...

Nevertheless, I managed to get out there on the slopes. What a RUSH!

I got a lift ticket and wandered over to the lift line... and headed up the mountain.

Unfortunately, skiing isn't (and never had been) one of my strong points. So, I spent a lot of time falling on my butt (the "Banzai Sitzmark!") going down the mountain. I finally gave up and took off my skis, and walked the rest of the way down the mountain.

No problemo, though. Because two cute Japanese gals shussed up beside me and asked if I was okay. After a bit of a discussion (and they were surprised that I could speak Japanese), we decided to have lunch together at the Niseko-St. Moritz Hokkaido Mountain Lodge. It was a great meal (with great company)! Although I could speak reasonable Japanese, their English was more proficient--Yoko was an ANA flight-attendant and Shizuko was a news anchor for a Sapporo TV station. We had a great time talking about our interests. Yoko enjoyed photography and Shizuko liked SCUBA diving and had been to Guam and Palau on dive trips. We all used the cozy lunch in front of the lodge's fireplace as a way to learn more about the English and Japanese languages (learned the word for "does not translate/untranslateable"--(iwakkan), "avalanche" (nadare), and "raven" (karasu).

Although we were somewhat committed to having dinner at our respective lodges, we arranged to head to a disco in Kutchan later that evening.

After dinner and after getting freshened up a bit at the communal wash area, I strolled out to the front of the lodge with a buddy from our tour group--Shizuko and Yoko were there at the entry lobby already. We called a taxi for the ride down the mountain to Kutchan. Since Shizuko and Yoko were regulars at Niseko, they knew of a good disco/club in downtown Kutchan.

What a blast... we danced until after midnight--but the early day on the slopes and the altitude had really worn those of us from Guam down, so we headed back to the lodges in another taxi. Wow! What a long day. When we got back, it was pretty easy to crawl into the warm futon and drop off to sleep.

The next morning, our university ski team was at it again outside with their calisthenics and shouting. Things were fine until I tried to get out from under the futons. The pain was unbelievable. I hadn't tried skiing before (Guam didn't present many opportunities!). So my legs, thighs, shoulders, and arms all ached. It took a while to get dressed in the cold air of the lodge (heating didn't seem to be a high priority for the place).

It was amusing, however, because when I joined the rest of our group at the dining hall table, they were all moaning and groaning about their aches and pains as well. It seems that going skiing without some preliminary training will do this to you. Perhaps the dancing the night before after the day on the slopes also contributed to the pain. And the sake we drank probably contributed to our headaches (or, was that just the lack of oxygen at Niseko's altitude?).

No matter, we all decided to head back out to the slopes again anyway. More fun in the snow!

We were amazed that as the day progressed and the sun finally set that skiing continued in the dark. The slopes were well lit with high-intensity lights, so it was almost like daytime in the brilliant white snow. So, many of our group continued with their skiing.

I, on the other hand, had heard about the o-furo on the ground floor of the lodge. I knew that an o-furo was a Japanese bath. These baths are used differently according to Japanese tradition: Outside the tub, you rinse off and soap down, and then rinse the soap off FIRST before getting into the tub. This keeps the water clean for everyone. When I got there, there was one other fellow sitting in the tub. The tatoos on his back were impressive (at the time, I didn't realize what I was seeing). I soaped down, rinsed off, and gently lowered myself into the darn-near boiling (at least it seemed that way!) water. OUCH! The guy opened his eyes and nodded at me as I nodded at him, then he closed his eyes again. I sat across from him--admiring how he managed to sit there for such a long time in that steaming pool. I was in the water only a few minutes before the heat made me think I was very "well-done" and red as a lobster. So, I gingerly eased myself out of the water and went to the side to dry off with the plush towels that were stored on shelves in the dressing area. I wrapped myself in one of the yukata robes they also had there, then trudged up the stairs to my room.

Sleep that night was almost instantaneous--I was exhausted--and the o-furo really relaxed all those sore muscles.

Don't those ski-team folks ever let up? They were out there crowing again at sunrise before hitting the slopes. As the rest of us crawled out from under our futons for another exciting day.

Another fun breakfast at the dining hall... and then we had to prepare to head back to Sapporo. My bags were already packed, so I rushed out to get some more pictures before we had to assemble for the bus. I thought it would be great to get a picture of the o-furo, so I made sure no-one was in there, then went in with my camera to get a shot.

I was shocked. I thought the walls for the o-furo were polished black marble tile or laminate... however, they weren't. They were floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows. (And to think that I had been soaping down, rinsing off, and drying off the night before while standing in front of those windows... aaargh!) Oh well... I got a good picture of the place anyway.

Now I had to get back to the front of the lodge for the bus to the Kutchan train station. We managed to get a few group shots of us in front of the lodge before our bus came to take us down the mountain.

The train ride back to Sapporo was festive--we were all telling stories of our experiences on the snows of Niseko-Hirafu. We were again staying at the Hotel Washington Sapporo--right across the street from Sapporo Station.

We carted our baggage across the street, got checked in and our room assignments, then deposited our bags in our rooms before heading out to see Sapporo nightlife. We heard from our hotel concierge that the Susukino area of Sapporo had many restaurants, nightclubs, discos, and karaoke bards.

So we ventured out and down the huge central Sapporo City Plaza. At a Matsuzakaya Department Store ("depato"), after exploring all the shopping on all of the floors, we finally made it to the top floor, where there was a wide variety of restaurants--from those serving continental European cuisine, Chinese food, Japanese traditional "fugu" (blowfish...more on this later), Sushi, and Yakitori. Our group (of about 5 of our tour--and 5 of our new-found Japanese friends) decided to eat at the Chinese restaurant. (Sort of strange--considering that we were in Japan--you would have thought that we'd want to eat at the Japanese restuarants.)

After a truly delicious meal, we left and headed back down to the street level in search of other entertainment. Our Japanese friends took us down the street to a nightclub/disco club called the "Karachi Rattan"--no idea what it was originally meant to mean, but it seemed like a fun place.

We got up there, worked our way through the crowd and found some tables... and ordered some drinks and snacks. The music was good... and many of us got up to dance in the lively crowd. What a party!

It was late when we finally returned to the hotel.

The next morning--after an early breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we walked to the bus station next to the hotel and took a bus going to Teine Olympia--the Ski Resort at which the 1972 Winter Olympics were held.

We had our faces glued to the windows of the bus as we passed by the ski-jump on the way to the lodge. After we rented some boots and skis, we were again out on the slopes having fun and messing around on the snow. Again, after some major "Banzai Sitzmarks", I decided to spend the rest of our time there in the lodge with a nice cup of hot cocoa. Visiting with some of the gals there in the lodge next to the fireplace was a more fun proposition for me anyway--and gave me a chance to practice more Japanese.

At about 5pm, we headed back down the hill to our hotel to clean up a little bit, and we then got into a bunch of taxis and were carted to the Sapporo Beer Factory--Mongolian Barbeque for our evening's dinner and entertainment.

The Sapporo Beer "Biergarten" is arranged like a German beer hall... long, heavy, wooden tables and chairs with a gas-fired grill-plate ("Genghis Khan-Style") situated every few feet in the middle of the tables.

As we sat at the tables, waitresses came with pitchers of beer (Sapporo Beer, of course!), and mugs, and trays of raw meat and vegetables. The meat included beef, lamb, pork, and chicken, and the vegetables included cabbage, green peppers, carrots, egg plant, mushrooms, and squash. Another set of trays contained bowls of various sauces, honey-mustard, ginger, hot-pepper, and soy-sauce comprised the selection.

We'd select some meat, some vegetables, and lay them out on the grill-plate... and then pour some sauce on top of the combination... then play with it a little with the chopsticks until it had been fully cooked. Then we'd scrape it off the grill plate onto our own plate so we could eat it. Every once in a while, an attendant would come by and refill our beer mugs or bring a new pitcher of beer. Also, an attendant would also come by to replenish the trays of meat, vegetables, and sauces.

Our group was getting pretty sauced up... and when another group--perhaps a company outing--started singing and then standing up and singing, our group decided to join in (we had no clue what they were singing!). We started singing about the "itsy-bitsy spider, went up the rain spout..." Strange, I know.

We really ate a lot, and drank a lot... so by the time we returned to the hotel, we were pretty well "out of it".

Again, another night of great sleep!