Hokkaido

Wow, Chris looks so happy. He must be taking 6 days off from work to go snowboarding in Hokkaido. For the geographically-challenged, Hokkaido is Japan's northern most island...it's considered the Yellowstone of Japan because of it's rugged terrain.

As if 6 days in some of the best snow conditions anywhere in the world wasn't going to be enough, we were headed there in a Pokemon airplane. Chris turned into a six year old as soon as he caught a glimpse of the giant toy airplane.

The 1 hour 20 minute flight to Sapporo felt like a commercial break compared to the 14 hour haul to the US. We then hopped onto a bus for a 3 hour ride to the Niseko Hirafu ski area. Personally, we think the trip could have been made in 2 hours but the driver seemed hesitant to go over 20 miles an hour. We didn't really care though...it was Friday afternoon and we were officially on vacation. And there were beware of kuma (bear) signs along the highway. Don't get out of your car here if nature calls, you know what I mean.

We were staying at a Hokkaido Tracks property (The Freshwater) so one of the Australians who works there (more on that later) picked us up at the visitor center to drive us over to our accommodations. We don't normally gush but we loved this place. It would be an injustice to call it a hotel. It was a quality apartment with a full kitchen and a little pantry room with a washer and dryer.

We took it relatively easy our first night. We went to a tiny little izakaya (only 3 tables) for dinner and had sukiyaki which is beef, mushrooms and scallions in a slightly sweet miso broth.

We got up bright and early the next day and walked up to the closest ski lift. It snowed pretty much all day and the conditions were amazing. We were so excited the first day that we didn't bother to take any pictures on the mountain.

We had made reservations (or at least we thought) for dinner that night at a yakitori restaurant called Bang Bang. When we arrived promptly on time they said they had no seats and they seemed to have no idea who we were. Fortunately, we've had a string of good luck when the restaurant we want to eat at is full and our luck continued. We wound up finding a small little izakaya called Raku and it rocked.

We got up early again the next day and it was a beautiful sunny day. We loved the part of the mountain we were on the previous day but we agreed to stick to our game plan and try another section. This side of the mountain was considerably less crowded and it had a few nice long runs. Again, the conditions were awesome and this side of the mountain had a great view of the nearby volcano.

That night we were in the mood for Tex Mex so we headed over to Wild Bill's. Despite being one of the largest restaurants we've ever seen in Japan they had no seats. You see, since Niseko has become such a popular tourist destination among the Aussies it's becoming more difficult to go out for a leisurely dinner on a Friday or Saturday night without making a reservation. Once again, we're glad they didn't have any seats. We wandered over to a Spanish restaurant called Zhivago's which had a nice little bonfire going outside. We entered and we were greeted with the smell of garlic and other delicious aromas. Great meal. Our waitress was a nice woman from Colorado and her boyfriend (the bartender) was from Newton, MA. For the record, not only did he declare the Patriots would win the Super Bowl the next day, he predicted they might also go undefeated in 2009. We'll just let that last sentence linger for a little while.

Super Bowl Monday! Remember, we're 14 hours ahead of you guys so we were eating oatmeal and drinking coffee at kickoff time. We watched the first half and fortunately or unfortunately, we had the Japanese simulcast so we didn't get much of the color commentary. But we were in Hokkaido and the snow conditions were too good so we headed to the mountain at half-time.

We had another great day of riding and finished it off with a trip to the onsen followed by full body massages and then hot chocolate and banana cake. And if the day couldn't get any better...when we got home the game was being replayed. It was still the first half so we ran out and grabbed a quick meal and got back just in time for the start of the 2nd half. Amazingly, we had managed to avoid all contact with CNN and because Australians could care less about American football, we still had no idea who had won. And to top it off, The Chronicles of Riddick came on next...quality cinema.


We were done messing around the next day. We got up extra early and we were at the mountain before the lifts started running. It had snowed a decent amount the night before and we made fresh tracks through some nice powder. It was pretty cold out at the beginning of the day so the trees were whitewashed with frost.

We finished the day back at the onsen and then went out to dinner at an awesome izakaya. It was a local joint and we may never know the name of it because they didn't have any cards. They did give us a set of chopsticks with the restaurant's name on it but we lost them. The name was in Kanji (the tough Japanese alphabet) so we were never able to read it anyway.

The last day on the mountain was an all out blizzard. We're talking snow coming down in buckets, complete white out, don't stand still or you'll get buried blizzard. We made fresh tracks in the morning and when we went back out after a short hot chocolate break the tracks had already been completely covered. We were having so much...you couldn't have asked for better snow conditions, especially on our last day.

We packed up our things the next morning and took advantage of the Takkyubin service. This is the greatest service in the world (unfortunately it's only in Japan). Think affordable FedEx for the crap you don't want to lug around when your on vacation. Golf clubs, surfboards, snowboards...you name it, they'll ship to your hotel and then back home. And it's cheap too.

We hopped on a train back to Sapporo (much quicker than the bus) for our flight back to Tokyo. As if to symbolize our vacation was truly at an end, we got a regular non-Pokemon plane :(