ssar
16-03-2009, 11:35 PM
Niseko Trip Report - 19Feb to 02Mar 2009
5 Guys, first time to Japan etc.
Itinerary:
Booked trip through: Niseko Powder Holidays (nisekopowderholidays.com), via a Sydney agent.
Paid for our Return Airfares, 11 nights Accommodation and 9 out of 10 day All Mountain Niseko ski pass several months prior to the trip when the AUD/JPY exchange rate was quite good for the AUD (THANKFULLY).
Snagged our pocket / spending cash only a few weeks prior to going, when the AUD/JPY exchange rate was very poor for the AUD (****ED).
The (JAL) flights were ok, though those seats in cattle class (economy) in those 747-400 planes sure are cramped – I would have hated it if I was a bit bigger.
And the flight attendants seemed a little too keen to restrict some of our (alcohol) drinking (none of us really hit it very hard either).
On the way home (only) our schedule found us flying domestic from Chitose to Tokyo Haneda, then having to **** out (a steep) 3000 Yen each for the bus to Narita for our international flight out of there around 5 hours later – this kinda ****ed, and all details about this weren’t made clear to us prior.
Accommodation:
Asuka Apartments in Niseko Hirafu ****.
Here’s a report on that alone, which I prepared earlier:
---
Review of Asuka:
We were booked into Asuka #7 for 11 nights during Thur 19 Feb to Mon 02 Mar 2009.
We were originally 4 guys, then a 5th was added, and advised, and the Asuka managers responded that a Futon would be provided for the 5th guy.
Upon arrival, we were all shocked at the very small size of virtually everything in it.
To the manager's credit, we were greeted and orientated into the place by a helpful english-speaking Japanese guy, who accepted our concerns and promptly phoned the manager to try and help us. This guy to greet us was a great idea, something I think should be expected, but never actually expect - credit to them for that.
He promptly got a hold of a 2nd futon to get us by, until they could transfer us to the bigger Yukon apartments nearby, which was ok, even if they couldn't offer that transfer for another 4 days unfortunately.
Asuka #7 is not even big enough for 4 single adults, let alone 5.
It had 1 double bed in 1 smallish bedroom - that double bed seemed to be very small for a double, in which we could only sleep 1 of us.
That left 2 of us in the other bedroom with a single bed each, and the last 2 of us on a portable futon + single mattress set each in the main lounge room - made for a very cramped lounge room!
The TV was very small, as was the kitchen and, in fact, all areas were small except the shower which seemed ok.
The furniture was cheap and mostly uncomfortable.
One website detailing this accom. Quotes: “Quite simply the best priced Niseko accommodation in Hirafu village.” – That’s just plain wrong.
I gauge the overall value for money for our group for Asuka to be extremely poor.
I will never stay there again, and would never recommend it.
---
Yukon #3 was better, though still not very roomy.
Both places were located just close enough to the Inski corner to make it within walking distance in full ski gear / just far enough from the ski lifts to make it an annoying walk in full ski gear (depending on how you wanna look at it).
I much preferred getting the bus up – a shuttle bus stop was handy nearby.
Our overall Accommodation experience this trip was poor value for money, for mine.
Snowriding & The Niseko Mountain:
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hirafumount2.jpg
Niseko is great.
All the staff seemed great, happy & very polite.
The Niseko Powder Holidays crew there were all quite friendly, helpful and accommodating, and to their credit made our lift passes available to us around 8:15am the first day – in time for us to catch the first lift nearby if we wished.
The ticketing system is fantastic.
The lifts system is pretty good.
Taking into account the entire All Mountain areas (Niseko Annapuri, Village, Hirafu & Hanazono), the resort is pretty darn good, a fair bit bigger than Thredbo, and offers quite a range of runs & terrain especially off-piste.
With a fairly consistent temperature range of around -4 Deg C to -10 Deg C, the snow quality remained mostly light and dry.
This makes for some weird hard-packed sections down most of the groomed runs in the latter half of the day, but of course means the quality of the off-piste powder snow is retained far longer & better than in Australia.
We spent most of the time & had the best runs off-piste - that’s pretty much what Niseko is all about anyway.
Having said that, I also hit the best groomed runs I ever have there, during the first 2 hours of a certain day when we got up there for 1st lifts – absolutely perfect groomed runs - never seen that before.
During the day or 2 prior to our arrival & 1st day or 2 there, much of the All Mountain area was closed due to wind & blizzards – our 1st day snowriding (Fri 20 Feb) found us restricted to the Hirafu mid & lower areas only.
Mountain access to Annapuri, the Village & Hanazono was closed, and I believe most of these areas were closed fully anyway, as were all the upper peak lifts (Jumbo Pair Lift #4, Wonderland Chair, Ace Pair Lift #4 & King Lift #4).
We had a good day anyway, were excited about it all being new to it all etc., had a good time and hit the Irish pub for several extremely expensive but great-tasting draught guinesses mightily thereafter.
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hanazono1.jpg
The morning of Mon 23 Feb was a wonderful “bluebird” clear, cold & sunny morning, where I skied some of the best stuff I ever have, around the Hanazono Hooded Quad Lift #3, down the Yotei Sunset run & off-piste adjacent, out the G5 gate and through the bowl/ridge near there, and down though Blueberries & around the Legend of Shinya run area.
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hanazono2.jpg
Hit some pockets of waist-deep extremely light & dry powder, flowing all about us wonderfully as we floated through it in some sections.
This was my 3rd day skiing at Niseko – and what a blast!
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Yotei4.jpg
(I actually messed up the dates on the few of my edited photos – switched Sat 21 Feb with Mon 23 Feb a few times, shrug)
Over our remaining stay it snowed on and off at some stage during most days & nights, intermixed with a few sunny breaks as well – made for some pretty scenic and sweet conditions!
It also remained fairly cold, averaging around -5 to -8 degrees C. Only once did it warm up and approach 0 degrees, but that didn’t last long and we hit a few nice periods of around -10 too.
We found the Annapuri back bowls and glades out the G1 gate to offer some kickass snow and runs as well – doing several different lines and routes down through there repeatedly over a few great days.
We hit a few real nice light dry pockets of knee and thigh-deep powder, and some days the wind kept topping it up nicely as well.
Even managed to avoid most of the trees in there.
Only once did the walk up the ridge out through the Annapuri G2 gate, where we traversed real wide and then rode down along the next ridge – that was very nice, very scenic, but the snow wasn’t quite as good as it had been elsewhere prior.
Never did the long hikes further up out that gate or up out the Hirafu G3 one either – looked like a pretty long & tiring walks.
The Hirafu G5 gate looked interesting, tho I never noticed it open until late on our last day – wish I had taken more notice as a traverse out through that looked like it opened up a nice big bowl into the sweet runs back to the Hanazono Hooded Quad Lift #3 etc.
Also found some interesting stuff down skiier’s left from the top of Swinging Monkey lift – through some trees and into a big ravine, then through more trees/gully onto the Holiday run.
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hirafuvillage20.jpg
Similarly, around the Hirafu Gondola area, we had some real sweet runs around the Miharashi run, through the trees either side of it, as well as down around the Konayuki run.
In the Village area we caught the ropetow with the sign: “Niseko Best Powder” at it quite a few times, accessing Superstition, down through Misohiru and Yard Sale areas – whilst it was very good during the first couple of days we did it, much of that area’s snow quality dropped markedly later in our trip.
In general we rode the Gondolas where possible, as they clearly offered the best methods to get up high quicker.
Those single parrot chairs were pretty wild (Wonderland Chair, King Lift #4) – no safety chain and a small backrest – pretty intense when the wind picked up!
Overall, we struck excellent timing with our trip – around 1 week prior they had quite warm temps and heavy rain then boilerplate ice all over the mountain, which I hear was real nasty. And since we have left Niseko has also experienced some warmer conditions, so we are really glad we were lucky during most of our stay.
Sure, it wasn’t great snow conditions the whole time, in fact we did find some quite dodgy quality snow here and there.
But overall we struck pretty good snow & weather conditions, including some absolutely fantastic times.
I only did a few hours night skiing in total myself, and found it quite interesting with my dark (and somewhat scratched) goggles.
They have very well set up facilities and it was fun though!
(continued..)
5 Guys, first time to Japan etc.
Itinerary:
Booked trip through: Niseko Powder Holidays (nisekopowderholidays.com), via a Sydney agent.
Paid for our Return Airfares, 11 nights Accommodation and 9 out of 10 day All Mountain Niseko ski pass several months prior to the trip when the AUD/JPY exchange rate was quite good for the AUD (THANKFULLY).
Snagged our pocket / spending cash only a few weeks prior to going, when the AUD/JPY exchange rate was very poor for the AUD (****ED).
The (JAL) flights were ok, though those seats in cattle class (economy) in those 747-400 planes sure are cramped – I would have hated it if I was a bit bigger.
And the flight attendants seemed a little too keen to restrict some of our (alcohol) drinking (none of us really hit it very hard either).
On the way home (only) our schedule found us flying domestic from Chitose to Tokyo Haneda, then having to **** out (a steep) 3000 Yen each for the bus to Narita for our international flight out of there around 5 hours later – this kinda ****ed, and all details about this weren’t made clear to us prior.
Accommodation:
Asuka Apartments in Niseko Hirafu ****.
Here’s a report on that alone, which I prepared earlier:
---
Review of Asuka:
We were booked into Asuka #7 for 11 nights during Thur 19 Feb to Mon 02 Mar 2009.
We were originally 4 guys, then a 5th was added, and advised, and the Asuka managers responded that a Futon would be provided for the 5th guy.
Upon arrival, we were all shocked at the very small size of virtually everything in it.
To the manager's credit, we were greeted and orientated into the place by a helpful english-speaking Japanese guy, who accepted our concerns and promptly phoned the manager to try and help us. This guy to greet us was a great idea, something I think should be expected, but never actually expect - credit to them for that.
He promptly got a hold of a 2nd futon to get us by, until they could transfer us to the bigger Yukon apartments nearby, which was ok, even if they couldn't offer that transfer for another 4 days unfortunately.
Asuka #7 is not even big enough for 4 single adults, let alone 5.
It had 1 double bed in 1 smallish bedroom - that double bed seemed to be very small for a double, in which we could only sleep 1 of us.
That left 2 of us in the other bedroom with a single bed each, and the last 2 of us on a portable futon + single mattress set each in the main lounge room - made for a very cramped lounge room!
The TV was very small, as was the kitchen and, in fact, all areas were small except the shower which seemed ok.
The furniture was cheap and mostly uncomfortable.
One website detailing this accom. Quotes: “Quite simply the best priced Niseko accommodation in Hirafu village.” – That’s just plain wrong.
I gauge the overall value for money for our group for Asuka to be extremely poor.
I will never stay there again, and would never recommend it.
---
Yukon #3 was better, though still not very roomy.
Both places were located just close enough to the Inski corner to make it within walking distance in full ski gear / just far enough from the ski lifts to make it an annoying walk in full ski gear (depending on how you wanna look at it).
I much preferred getting the bus up – a shuttle bus stop was handy nearby.
Our overall Accommodation experience this trip was poor value for money, for mine.
Snowriding & The Niseko Mountain:
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hirafumount2.jpg
Niseko is great.
All the staff seemed great, happy & very polite.
The Niseko Powder Holidays crew there were all quite friendly, helpful and accommodating, and to their credit made our lift passes available to us around 8:15am the first day – in time for us to catch the first lift nearby if we wished.
The ticketing system is fantastic.
The lifts system is pretty good.
Taking into account the entire All Mountain areas (Niseko Annapuri, Village, Hirafu & Hanazono), the resort is pretty darn good, a fair bit bigger than Thredbo, and offers quite a range of runs & terrain especially off-piste.
With a fairly consistent temperature range of around -4 Deg C to -10 Deg C, the snow quality remained mostly light and dry.
This makes for some weird hard-packed sections down most of the groomed runs in the latter half of the day, but of course means the quality of the off-piste powder snow is retained far longer & better than in Australia.
We spent most of the time & had the best runs off-piste - that’s pretty much what Niseko is all about anyway.
Having said that, I also hit the best groomed runs I ever have there, during the first 2 hours of a certain day when we got up there for 1st lifts – absolutely perfect groomed runs - never seen that before.
During the day or 2 prior to our arrival & 1st day or 2 there, much of the All Mountain area was closed due to wind & blizzards – our 1st day snowriding (Fri 20 Feb) found us restricted to the Hirafu mid & lower areas only.
Mountain access to Annapuri, the Village & Hanazono was closed, and I believe most of these areas were closed fully anyway, as were all the upper peak lifts (Jumbo Pair Lift #4, Wonderland Chair, Ace Pair Lift #4 & King Lift #4).
We had a good day anyway, were excited about it all being new to it all etc., had a good time and hit the Irish pub for several extremely expensive but great-tasting draught guinesses mightily thereafter.
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hanazono1.jpg
The morning of Mon 23 Feb was a wonderful “bluebird” clear, cold & sunny morning, where I skied some of the best stuff I ever have, around the Hanazono Hooded Quad Lift #3, down the Yotei Sunset run & off-piste adjacent, out the G5 gate and through the bowl/ridge near there, and down though Blueberries & around the Legend of Shinya run area.
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hanazono2.jpg
Hit some pockets of waist-deep extremely light & dry powder, flowing all about us wonderfully as we floated through it in some sections.
This was my 3rd day skiing at Niseko – and what a blast!
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Yotei4.jpg
(I actually messed up the dates on the few of my edited photos – switched Sat 21 Feb with Mon 23 Feb a few times, shrug)
Over our remaining stay it snowed on and off at some stage during most days & nights, intermixed with a few sunny breaks as well – made for some pretty scenic and sweet conditions!
It also remained fairly cold, averaging around -5 to -8 degrees C. Only once did it warm up and approach 0 degrees, but that didn’t last long and we hit a few nice periods of around -10 too.
We found the Annapuri back bowls and glades out the G1 gate to offer some kickass snow and runs as well – doing several different lines and routes down through there repeatedly over a few great days.
We hit a few real nice light dry pockets of knee and thigh-deep powder, and some days the wind kept topping it up nicely as well.
Even managed to avoid most of the trees in there.
Only once did the walk up the ridge out through the Annapuri G2 gate, where we traversed real wide and then rode down along the next ridge – that was very nice, very scenic, but the snow wasn’t quite as good as it had been elsewhere prior.
Never did the long hikes further up out that gate or up out the Hirafu G3 one either – looked like a pretty long & tiring walks.
The Hirafu G5 gate looked interesting, tho I never noticed it open until late on our last day – wish I had taken more notice as a traverse out through that looked like it opened up a nice big bowl into the sweet runs back to the Hanazono Hooded Quad Lift #3 etc.
Also found some interesting stuff down skiier’s left from the top of Swinging Monkey lift – through some trees and into a big ravine, then through more trees/gully onto the Holiday run.
http://www.whaledive.net/assets/other/niseko09/Hirafuvillage20.jpg
Similarly, around the Hirafu Gondola area, we had some real sweet runs around the Miharashi run, through the trees either side of it, as well as down around the Konayuki run.
In the Village area we caught the ropetow with the sign: “Niseko Best Powder” at it quite a few times, accessing Superstition, down through Misohiru and Yard Sale areas – whilst it was very good during the first couple of days we did it, much of that area’s snow quality dropped markedly later in our trip.
In general we rode the Gondolas where possible, as they clearly offered the best methods to get up high quicker.
Those single parrot chairs were pretty wild (Wonderland Chair, King Lift #4) – no safety chain and a small backrest – pretty intense when the wind picked up!
Overall, we struck excellent timing with our trip – around 1 week prior they had quite warm temps and heavy rain then boilerplate ice all over the mountain, which I hear was real nasty. And since we have left Niseko has also experienced some warmer conditions, so we are really glad we were lucky during most of our stay.
Sure, it wasn’t great snow conditions the whole time, in fact we did find some quite dodgy quality snow here and there.
But overall we struck pretty good snow & weather conditions, including some absolutely fantastic times.
I only did a few hours night skiing in total myself, and found it quite interesting with my dark (and somewhat scratched) goggles.
They have very well set up facilities and it was fun though!
(continued..)