Howdy! When I left you yesterday I let you know what I was getting up to today… hitting the slopes again! This time I am a lot further north so it was going to be interesting to see how different the experience is.

Anyway, as I touched on yesterday I got a good deal through the Sapporo Tourist Information Centre to head to Niseko, the king of the ski resorts in Hokkaido (and arguably the world). Now, if can offer a little advice, if you know you are keen to do something, pop in to speak with the lovely folk at the tourist info centres. I don’t normally bother, but they have helped me out quite a bit this trip, and even like today got a sweet deal (about 80 bucks for all transport, lift tickets and board hire… not too bad). So they have been a godsend.

Anyway, Niseko was a bit of a hike. About 2.5 hours each way. A bit more than I was planning on spending travelling, but to get to the best powder? Who cares. I could relax and enjoy the scenery. Like the other trips recently, there was a lot of white to look at, but I also had the sea views again, and I don’t get tired of seeing the sea and snow.

So after jumping off the train and a quick bus ride, and I was there. With typical Japanese efficiency, my tickets were exchanged for lift tickets and snowboard and boots, and away I went. I must point out that I boarded at just 1 of the 3 ski areas at Niseko. The place is so big you need to be bussed between areas. Not too shabby.

As you could expect the chair ride up was pretty spectacular. There was also a  gondola which I did as well, but enjoyed the runs from the chair a bit more, so that was today’s ride of choice.

At the top, the big thermometer mocked us all. Minus 13 you say? Um, OK. That’s brass monkey cold.

A quick self portrait and I was away. I found my feet quickly again, but not sure I ended up being quite as confident as I was on my first day ironically. Not sure why. I did enjoy the runs at Nozawa Onsen more if I had to choose. Maybe that was just the location I was at today, but there seemed to be more on offer for me back there. Not complaining though.

I mean look at this powder snow. Yep, it was that light and fluffy and completely dry. Thankfully, as late in the day I had a huge spill. But rather than count my bruises or limp back to the bottom, I just got up and dusted myself off. Don’t get me wrong… it shakes up the confidence… but when the powder is so deep that you backpack leaves a nice soft indent in the snow and does not crush the contents, you can get back on the horse pretty easily.

Unfortunately like my other day of snowboarding, the conditions got a bit too snowy at times. Today was a bit more about wind picking powder up off the mountain rather than snow falls, but visibility got a bit tricky at times. Didn’t stop me though.

So about 4pm I wound up and got sorted to head back. A bit of an epic journey home got me back for some later than normal dinner and settling in at the hostel. Tomorrow will be a lazy wander around Sapporo, soaking up my last proper day in Hokkaido before back to Tokyo for the last leg. On the countdown now! But lots of shenanigans still to come…

Konnichiwa everyone!

Well, I read through yesterdays blog post again and it didn’t read like my usual excitable self I must say. I think it was a combination of a couple of days where not too much happened, but also being a little tired in general. Oh well, best fix that then! Exclamation!

Today was my first day proper to explore Sapporo. Now I didn’t really have too much on the agenda while here. Three full days where one will certainly be snowboarding, but the others are mainly just to hang out. Oh, with one main exception of a must do. But we’ll get to that soon enough.

So I decided to walk the 30-odd minutes into the centre of town from the hostel. I must say it is still spinning me out being in a major city (about 1.5 million people) that is just completely covered in snow. With the exception of the major roads, they are all snowed and iced up. All the footpaths are. Everything… even the bikes left out for a few days.

Off I went, being careful not to go slip sliding. Crazy to see people out walking their dogs in the snow, but I guess they need exercise right? Plus it was a beautifully sunny day today, and a mild minus 5 degrees. Ah, so nice! Actually it did feel cold but the wind chill was quite low. Still, if the gloves were off for more than a minute then I started to know about it.

I decided to wander past the main park area, Odori Park. It is quite cool in that it runs down the centre of one of the main streets. At the moment though it was full of scaffolding with lots of people buzzing around getting things ready for the massive snow festival Sapporo has each February. It would be amazing to see, maybe some other time.

I also wandered by the Botanical Gardens, but assumed they might be a bit like Kanazawa in that they would not be to standard. Well, they weren’t even open… looking through the fence everything was pretty much dead and under feet of snow! It must be amazing to see the snow start to melt each year and things spring back to life.

“Enough of gardens!” I thought. I had two things to do today. First was to work out what I was doing about snowboarding tomorrow. I decided to quiz the lovely Tourist Information folk and was very glad I did. Rather than just head to the more local small mountain, which I had done the recon on and worked out was fairly easy to get to, I got shown a deal to get me to Niseko, the pride and joy of Hokkaido. And not only get me there, but a good deal for lift ticket and board hire. All of that for about 80 bucks. Crazy good value.

Oh, and you see the strangest things on TV’s in train stations…

Anyway, with that all sorted, it was off to the main event…

Sapporo Beer Museum!

I am sure many of you who read I was going to Sapporo was expecting this. I mean when you say Sapporo, most people will instantly think beer right? Can’t disappoint!

While you can visit the brewery, which is a bit out of Sapporo, virtually everyone just goes to the museum. It is housed in the old brewery building, only 15 minutes walk from the train station. So in I went.

First of all, it was free! How good is that? Most things were in Japanese, but I had a small brochure in English that explained most things. I mean, there wasn’t heaps to it. Ran through the history of the company, showed the process, had lots of older bottles and advertising posters. It was really quite cool though. For many it is just a path to the main room… tasting 🙂

At the end is a nice hall with a bar where for 200 yen you can grab yourself a glass of Sapporo Brewery’s finest. Really they only had 3 different types, so of course you have to have one of each! Plus there is a 100 yen discount if you get all 3, so in the need to be conscientious of expenditure, I thought it was best to get the set.

And they went down a treat! One is called Classic and is a beer that the brewery keeps just in Hokkaido. Ah ha! So I have drank a Sapporo beer that most people in the world will never have. Mmmmm… it was good 🙂

So I just sat back and relaxed and had my beers. Oh, and went back for seconds on a couple… all in the name of research of course. I had to get the sample size up.

Feeling very toasty warm inside, I felt like it was time to venture back out into the cold. It was definitely the ideal place to visit on a cold afternoon (maybe they will get a repeat visit before I leave?). Since it was approaching 4pm, the sun was starting to disappear already. So I just wandered the main shopping street, getting some warmth along the way.

I also wandered by the famous clock tower. Well, turns out it is a building with a clock on top. Now if I could read Japanese I am sure there is some big significance. But for an ignorant foreigner, it was really just a clock on top of a a building. Oh well, checked that one off the list.

The way back to the hostel took me by Susukino, Sapporo’s entertainment district. Just lots of neon and the like. I am sure when it gets later things rev up, but it just seemed like lots more places to eat and more shops.

That brings me back home for the night. Going to have an early one, as tomorrow more snowboarding awaits. Best be fresh!

Apologies for the delay in this post… crappy wi-fi finally got me at somewhere I was staying…

So, you know how the other day I was going on about the snow in Nagano and at Nozawa Onsen. Well I retract any comments to the effect of  “oh wow! it is so much snow and so cold!”. I misunderestimated what Hokkaido was going to be like.

Anyway, this adventure begins in Nagano a couple of days ago, bidding farewell to my hosts at the ryokan there. It was odd… on a couple of nights I seemed to be the only one there. Regardless (or maybe as a result) the old couple who ran it were absolutely lovely… always coming out when they heard me near the front door, and on most mornings offering me a heat pack to keep me warm. So I said sayonara and away I went to the train station to begin the fairly epic journey to Hakodate on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Now in most other countries you would not even contemplate going that far by train (maybe 1000 km?). But when you have the shinkansen for a good proportion of it, it can be done. It was still about 7 hours in total, but I was happy to enjoy a travel day and see some more countryside.

So what did I see? First of all… Kit Kats! At my first stop in Omiya I came across the Kuromitsu flavour which is like a dark maple syrup flavour. I am pretty sure I had had then before, but why not buy them anyway?

From Omiya it was time to take another shinkansen to the top of the main island. What did I see during that time? Well, the picture at the top was my view for a bit of it. Yep… snow, and a lot of it. It ws going to be getting cold alright.

That got me to Shin-Amori where it was off a bullet train and back on to a fairly regular slow train. This time the view was going to be quite different. Why? Well, because I had to get from one island to the next, and to do that I had 50km of under sea tunnel to travel in. The pic above shows the journey and you may even notice that there is indeed a station in the tunnel. We actually stopped at the station believe it or not, and apparently a few years ago you could hop out and do a tour of the underground tunnels. Alas not to be due to the works they are doing to get a shinkansen all the way to Sapporo.

So on the other end of the tunnel I emerged into a whiteout. I was in Hokkaido alright! the journey was slow until we arrived at Hakodate, my destination for the night. I decided to break the journey to Sapporo up a little on the way, to let me see somewhere different. Hakodate was apparently a pleasant fishing town at the base of a cool mountain to let you see over the town and across the water. So it seemed alright.

After checking in to my somewhat dodgy accomodation (dodgy in the sense it seemed to be just an old business hotel that no one really uses anymore… odd place to find on a hostel booking site) I decided to wander. Now a couple of things were conspiring against me. First of all being further north it got dark pretty quickly. By about 4:30pm it was well on the way to being dark. Next it was minus 7 degrees and snowing. Brrrrrrr. But coming to Hokkaido I asked for it, so it didn’t stop me.

There is nothing really in the way of historical things here in Hakodate so I wandered down to the water. Quite weird to be at sea level and standing in a foot of snow.

From there I did the meander to the base of Mt Hakodate and decided to ride the gondola to the top. Given the town seemed quite quiet, it was quite busy on the way up to the top. This must be the main thing to do when in town. I was a little reluctant given the amount it was snowing, but I thought why not.

Up the top it was alright. There were moments where the view was quite nice, with the town all lit up below. But the cold and snow made it a bit difficult to appreciate and take the time to soak in the views.

So really, it was just some quick snaps outside and more time inside, checking it out from behind the warmth of the glass. In the gift shop two things caught my eye…

Kit Kats! Melon flavour this time. Seems to be an Hokkaido thing. Taste OK, certainly melony, but not too sure.

And I also found this cool little bottle of Hakodate Beer, made locally. I couldn’t read the label except to gather it was 10% strength. Interesting! And interesting was indeed the word… not something I could drink too easily to be honest. I will be enjoying the beer in Sapporo a lot more I think.

So with that I headed back down, grabbed some food, and headed back to camp for a quiet night. Given the lack of internet, I spent some time typing this up to be ready to post.

Now, to this morning! I had a lazy start to the morning, checking out of my digs, and wandering Hakodate for a couple of hours again. Seemed the place to be was the fish market. This was like most I had been to… though not too huge this one. The one thing that seemed a bit different was there was way more crab, and for the most part were all alive waiting to be bought. At first I thought they weren’t, all sitting there tie up on the ice. But then I looke dmore closely at some and yep, they seemed alive alright. Hhhmmm.

With that killing some time it was on to the final train leg to Sapporo. This was a 3.5 hour fairly slow and winding trip up the coast. My mind still had trouble reconciling seeing the sea with feet of snow piled up on the shore. Too awesome.

So with this leisurely journey I arrived into Sapporo about 3:30pm. Given I was all backpacked up, I decided to head straight to the hostel and check in rather than explore. The hostel was easy to find (a 5 minute subway ride) and must say it is pretty nice. Nice and new with a double sized room to myself. Win. And wi-fi (obviously).

I did a little wander around the neighbourhood, but decided to just grab some food and head back to do my washing (which was a touch overdue). One reason was that it was just that bit far to wander back into the centre of the city. It was also getting dark, but also because it was minus 10 degrees. Yep, double figures in minuses. Better get used to it.

Tomorrow has a definite plan, one that should  get me nice and toasty warm. More tomorrow…

Oh, sorry for the lack of photos in this post, especially in the latter half. Not much to take photos of for the most part (and a bit difficult when I am all backpacked up).

What a difference a night can make. I checked in last night with it snowing like crazy and wake up to glorious blue skies. Still freakin’ cold, but nothing like the snowy winterland it was last night.

In my approximate plans before I left I always kind of knew I would have a day in Nagano where I would wing it. Would I snowboard some more? Hang out more with snow monkeys? Just chill and do nothing? Well, as it turns out I found another thing to do.

I had no idea one of the key castles in Japan was only 45 minutes away. Matsumoto Castle (in Matsumoto of course) is considered one of the main 4 castles in Japan (with Himeji being another), so given it was so close I had to go visit, and today was the day. So on to a train I jumped again (this JR Pass is easily worth the money) and hustled along to Matsumoto.

Matsumoto is another city of roughly the same size as Nagano (about 200,000) people, but is not a hub for the snow folk. So in some ways it feels similar, but also has a different vibe. Certainly wasn’t as snowy, being just that bit more away from the mountains, but still in the thick of it. So what is the city known for? Well, the castle mainly.

So off I wandered, and there it greeted me at the end of the street. Not nearly as imposing as say Himeji, it still looked quite cool perched up there on its stone base.

Entry allowed me to wander through the entire castle keep and I do love exploring these Japanese castles. You find these nooks and crannies where you know some fightin’ had gone on in past centuries. You look out the little windows and imagine you are shooting arrows at those folks (yeah, I have a bloodthirsty streak in me).

Again, while not huge, I spent a good couple of hours wandering through the castle and around the grounds. Oh, and trying to take more extravagant self portraits.

From there I wandered around town for a bit, through the old district which each place I go seems to have. There didn’t seem to be any other specialties of Matsumoto (too close to Nagano for other types of Kit Kats), but it was nice to have a day of just wandering. It was definitely worth the trip just for the castle. And from there it was back to Nagano. Although I wish I had a Portal gun as it seems they can be used here.

So this is my last night in Nagano. Has been great to do some very different stuff to last time. In some ways I see why people most arrive and head straight to the ski fields. But really? There’s monkeys to see! And castles! Tomorrow is a long haul (about 7 hours of train travel) to get to Hakodate in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. Why am I going that far? Because I have a rail pass and I can, that’s why.

I assume I will post, but may not depending on internet and if I have anything to talk about except train travel. Speak next from the north!

Howdy everyone. Lots of people love the monkeys it seems. Of course who doesn’t?

Today was all about another reason to come to Nagano… hitting the slopes. While I used to do a little snowboarding back in the day I hadn’t been on a board in about 6 years. But when you are in a locale that has some of the best snow in the world, why wouldn’t you get back on the horse.

There were decisions to be made about where to go. Shiga Kogen seems to be the biggest and baddest in the area, but I had read a bit about Nozawa Onsen. It is more of a ski village proudly boasting a dozen public onsen along with many many runs, lifts, and gondolas. I bumped into a couple of Aussies yesterday who talked it up, so I thought that sounds like the place for me.

When I left the ryokan this morning, it was cold, colder than I had experienced all trip. And snowing, big massive snowflakes. It was pretty sweet (for the moment anyway). So off I went to jump on a train to get me close to Nozawa Onsen, with just a quick connecting bus.

It is worth pointing out the train I caught. I am used to even the older Japanese trains being comfy, but this was old school. Not even heated seats! Anyway it got me to the train station at the other end and with a quick bus shuttle I was in the town.

By this time it was approaching 10am, so no time to dilly dally… best get on the slopes! A quick board and boot hire and a lift ticket and I was done. Must also point out how nice it is to pay about 60 bucks for a lift ticket as opposed to 100+ back home. Nuts.

Now given I hadn’t been on a board in years so I stuck to the green runs. The best way to go seemed to catch the gondola straight to the top of the mountain. And it was a loooong way up. Before me I had about 9km of trail to get back to the bottom. Yep, 9km.

The path changed from open play area, to windy paths through the trees and it was amazing. I must say I got my confidence up pretty quick. I found turning much easier than I remember from back in the day. The snow was still falling and while it was OK, it was being a bit of a pain (and keeping things cold… minus 6 degrees on the mountain).

By the time I got to the bottom of my first run I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. So did I rest? Nope, straight back up. In the end I did that a number of times, doing slight variations on the way down each time.

Unfortunately has the day progressed the snow got worse to the point I had to call it at about 3pm. No harm though, as I did about 5 hours of virtually non-stop boarding.

Given it was an onsen town though, I had to have a dip, so picked a public bathhouse at random. Turned out I had it all to myself. With a true onsen like this the water comes straight from the ground. To me it felt like it came straight from the centre of the earth… oh man it was like lava. I like a hot bath but this was a little much.

So after that dip it was back on the bus then train to Nagano. Snow was relentless and didn’t let up the whole way back. So a soak in the tub here at the ryokan and I was done. The body is still feeling good, so looks like I will strapping the board back on when I reach Hokkaido. Bring it on.