1. Niseko lives up to the hype, and was 10x better than Hakuba.*
2. You know it’s a good slope when even falling is fun.
3. I am now a serious fan of night skiing.
4. Consumption of even half a beer severely impairs my ability to take pictures.
5. Much is made of Hokkaido food. I don’t see how it greatly surpasses anything in Tokyo…perhaps I simply have difficulty distinguishing between degrees of awesome?
The best run was at this one night run…you squidged up this one hill, through some trees, and THEN it opened up straight down (but not too straight) with no one else, tons of space, powder, ending in some nicely spaced trees to play in if you felt like it.
It was such an experience, the first time through I pulled down my goggles so I could better appreciate the pretty place I was in while I was carving through. And then pawed them back up 30 seconds later because my face was burning.
I think I shall have to find some way to get back in March.
I only ended up here because this coworker whom I didn’t even know before this trip decided to go to Hokkaido, and rounded up a bunch of people to go with him.
Oh yeah, and there was also this snow festival while I was there ;)
Definitely second fiddle to the snowboarding – especially because it was snowing while we were looking at the sculptures, so it wasn’t comfortable or that great looking. Still though, some cool stuff. It’s like the Rose Parade of cold places in that community groups do small contributions, corporations and cities do big ones, and people just kinda wonder at how much time and work it took.
*I went to Hakuba on Jan. 2, so cover wasn’t so great yet.
