Snow, Japan

Michael "Young Player" Marsh

The Young Player went too hard, too early.

Tarlo at the top of Niseko Moiwa

Nice View!

Hanazono #1 Lift Queue

Eeeek. Japan is getting busy!

No More Lack!

Lack of Snow Rusutsu - Mt Isola Good Day. Good Beer. Buried Car Rusutsu - Mt Isola Rusutsu Hokkaido BBQ mmmmmm tasty. Especially when you cook it right, and don't spend the first half eating half cooked meat, and the other eating burnt meat. Much much better this way!

Two words: Snow Mobiles. How fun is that. Tad costly, but the snow wasn't doing much for riding, so after some lunch we wacked down 4500yen for a 20-25mins go on some snow mobiles.

A quick, "This lever for go. This lever for stop. Lean like this for left, and this for right. This is the safty leash. GO!"

We headed out thinking with expectations of piss weak world, but it turned out to be most fun. My sled was pretty quick compared to the ones the other guys were on, and the "battle" was won easily.

I want one. Great way to finish the trip off.

Matt left early for the 8:30am bus to the airport, while we had breakfast, waxed the boards and looked out the window.

A super sunny, hot day (t-shirts only), and no snow. First runs were on the West Mountain closest to the hotel.

Rusutsu

We ended up dropping too far to the right through the trees, and although we saw a fox, it was a walkout through the amusement park. A few potential jumps were spotted for coming back with the camera.

Then it was over to Isola again, but it was pretty tracked, so after a little while, it was back for a couple of afternoon park runs, and beers in the cafeteria.

Eventually back to the Cricket Bar in the hotel, where we found out all about teenage bisexual Thai girls, hovercrafts, and three metre deep above ground chemical free pools. A bit unexpected for a Japanese ski resort.

Matt had come all the way down to Rusutsu for a single day of boarding, so he was hoping it would be good.

Matt was looking pretty good on the bus

No overnight snow, but it was off to Mt Isola first thing to see how the conditions in the trees were. Suprisingly untracked, and we spent pretty much the whole day doing runs of the Isola quad chairs. Probably the 2nd best day of the trip so far after the Furano day.

Matt Getting Some Action

We headed back to Kamui for a half day of boarding. With the tickets at 2500yen, it was no problem to just go with a full day ticket! Pretty decent in the trees albet a little soft due to the warmth. The top of the mountain still had a lot of wind just blowing the snow away, but I still recon Kamui would be an excellent place to board mid season. This time round we have really pushed it a bit far into spring.

Then it was time to return the van to Asahikawa train station. The van was totally filthy, but they didn't seem to care. Wooo.

Next train to Saporro was in 20mins, so a quick bite to eat then on our way, then on getting there the next bus to Rusutsu was in 10mins, so straight on our way.

The Rusutsu Powder Lodge now run by skijapan.com had closed up for the season, so the race was on to find some other cheapish accomodation. Most people going to Rusutsu stay in the resort hotel, which has many different towers buildings, however it is just a tad pricy.

We had contacted the Lilla Huset pension at Rusutsu who said they had room for us, but we forgot to print any maps or take a kanji print out of the name to ask someone. Anyway there it was right behind the Powder Lodge. The day worked out perfect, which is quite a change from our attempt at getting from Tokyo to Hakuba.

The Lilla Huset Swedish House Pensione at Rusutsu has turned out to be excellent. The price is pretty similar to that we would have been paying at the Powder Lodge, but the place seems much nicer. The room we had had two western beds, and a Japanese style room that could sleep 3. It had two bathrooms, a kitchen/lounge and its own entry, so no bashing on windows late at night to get in. (Not that that is much of an issue at Rustutsu... there is very little night time activity going on, with just a few isakaya's that shut up around midnight.)

So sitting in the car in the morning, a decison was made. No Kamui today, lets hit up Furano. All the forigners we met at Kamui Ski Links were day tripping from Furano, so we decided to do the reverse.

Armed with Phill and his Kanji map reading skills, the car gps, and a quick stop at the 7/11 for directions, we headed off in the right direction.

We had been planning to not to go to Furano, as they market themselves more as a family resort, and as such are very strick on ducking the ropes. The drive was a bit over 2 hours from Fukagawa, and every bit worth it, although a CD in the player might have helped. A late start given the long drive, but I think we were ina lift before 11am.

A pretty massive resort over two seperate areas, with a whole heap of chairs, a gondala and a cable car. We spent most the day riding runs from the chair above the cable car to the bottom, and then the cable car back up and down again.

Colin at Furano

There was some very excellent powder in the trees, and with a bit of local knowledge I'm sure you could get almost top to bottom untracked powder tree runs.

Pretty awesome stuff, not many gaijin.