Holy Shiatsu
After listening to Al & Brett’s rants about how good Japan is for almost a decade, I took a golden opportunity to zip over there on a frequent flyer ticket and some cheap accommodation sorted out for me by Nic who owns Blowhard Lodge in Hirafu.
Despite a 48 hour door to door trip from Termeil, within an hour of arriving I was up and out on the hill for some night boarding warm-up runs, scavenging for a few scraps of knee deep powder in the trees. I managed to find Mick Mackie later that night and spent the next morning with him hiking the peak and dropping the Annapuri back bowls in super-dry waist deep pow… Good doesn’t start to describe it. Mick was staying for a month with Japanese legend Taro Tamai who runs a great little custom snowboard design company called Gentemstick a bit down the road from Hirafu.
Mackie-San
Following the first of many an afternoon siesta I found Johnny Harper and his mad Ecuadorean mate Raul after they’d finished teaching at the snowboard school (NISS) for the day and headed out on our first crazy nightboarding session, scrounging for pow between the trees. It was brilliant to head out for some hard riding with guys who knew where all the cool lines and hits were.
Johnny on the night flight.
The rest of the week was a steady routine of consistent 20-30cms of snow most nights, mornings riding the trees, afternoon naps and night sessions with the NISS lads before an onsen and bit of dinner.
Obligatory Mount Yotei pic.
The snow reports got a bit too much for Al by late in the first week, so he jumped on a plane and made it to Hirafu by Sunday. The first few days were a combo of sun and wind blown powder, with some epic lines had down the north face of the peak to Hanazono and through the back bowls to Annapuri.
Panorama from the peak - click for full size image
The Peak.
Hanazono Fall Line
About to drop in.
We also hooked up with Al’s mate Geoff for various runs and company on our nocturnal adventures - the most memorable starting at a little Mom & Pop eating house in Kuchan (where we were the only customers being treated to the best food of the trip) and ended up slightly sideways at the Gyu bar.
Kuchan eating house.
The week almost ended looking like no freshies for Al, but on Wednesday night it started dumping and Thursday was back to waist deep action in the trees and an epic 10 hour riding day for Al & I. My bus back to Sapporo was at 9:15am on Friday morning and given it had been snowing all Thursday night I couldn’t pass up a couple of early bird runs. Hooley dooley! Flawless waist deep pow in dappled sun through one of our favourite gullies, where every turn set off a huge slough, so that by the time you reached the bottom the whole bowl had pretty much collapsed in on itself.
Last day’s freshies.
I could have gladly stayed a whole lot longer in Niseko - especially given the great crew to ride with there, the consistency of snow, the amount of varied terrain, reasonable prices for everything and the Aussie factor being much more under control than I’d expected.
Al & I met up in Haneda airport after parallel flights to Tokyo, and had a classic night wandering around Shibuya after buying Al a new board to replace the one he snapped in Niseko and left in a traditional ceremony by the side of the road in Sapporo. Tokyo’s main pain is the early closing subway, but we probably would have done a load more damage if we’d been able to stay out much later anyway.
Last rites.
Lego men.
The ride home.
As luck would have it, we were able to share a Shinkansen (Bullet train) up towards Niigata, where I was meeting up with Keith Pinney and Al and his mate Glenn were off to Yuzawa for a couple more weeks. It’s an amazing experience to travel at 200kmh+ for an hour without leaving greater Tokyo, then heading through a tunnel and arriving in the heart of the mountains.
View from the train.
Keith and his wife Louise have found an awesome little house in an expat enclave near Minakami, deep in the forest, but only 10 mins to the train and 30 minutes to half a dozen good hills.
Casa de Pinney.
Pinney on the morning de-frost.
Minakami back streets.
We spent the first morning at a smaller hill in marginal conditions before heading up to the famous Takaragawa bear onsen. This place was just gob smackingly beautiful, and we managed to be there in perfect mid winter conditions - sitting in the hot spring while huge snow flakes fell on your face.
Hot springs by the river.
The final day turned it on weather-wise and we cruised up to one of the higher resorts called Tenjin. We had a blue bird day and as it had been clouded in the day before everything was still fresh. The main gondola meant you could access loads of back country with relative ease, and I just sessioned a few of the best fresh lines I’ve ever had, sharing it with no more than 20 people on the entire mountain.
Tenjin big mountain high.
This last day was a nice little summary for the entire trip - unexpected, easy, cheap and so much better than I could have ever imagined.
Domo arigato gozaimashita!
