Finishing up our second trip to Niseko. Once again, it was great, though not quite the same as last season.
The good:
1. Snow. Again, it snowed nearly every day (so much for bluebird days), and the powder consistency/moisture content is second to none.
Explanation here.
2. Food. Our hotel improved its restaurant fare, such that we chose to eat in a couple nights. Also tried the food trucks, probably a mistake while it was snowing, but good stuff nonetheless. And cheap, under $20 a meal. Missed out on upscale dining, as we were too lazy to make early reservations, but never a problem finding ramen and other Japanese comfort food. You need to go directly apres-ski to avoid lines though.
3. Free hot chocolate, at the upscale hotel near the base of the resort. And not powdered instant garbage; rich, creamy chocolate, churned in a special dispenser. As good as the “Italian hot chocolate“ served in tiny cups at Alta, for like $4/oz.
4. Private onsen with wife
There were a couple blemishes on this trip, however:
1. Crowds. The secret of Japow is out, and without a pandemic, there were ~2-3x as many people on the mountain, many Australians and Chinese. Unlike the Japanese, they embrace the crowd concept of waiting in groups, where it’s every man for himself getting to the lifts. This was a stark contrast the deferential, ordered queues we encountered last year, when there were lines at all.
2. Wind was really strong several days, which shut down the upper lifts. Sometimes they’d open up later, but our last day only the base lifts were running. Given the layout of the mountain, with four different “base” areas (a vestige of smaller resorts combining to form Niseko United), we were effectively trapped doing laps on the gondola. This compounded #1, leading up to 40 minute waits for a single run.
Overall, still my favorite ski destination. As I told my wife, wind or no wind, we’ll be going every year moving forward.