"A girl from Ipanema" or "Miles Davis"?

We had a very nice mild weekend here in Niseko. And today was a bit of snowy day, maybe up to 5cm at the bottom by the late afternoon.

It was quite busy up on the mountain today. Long queues at the gondola at 10 o'clock when I saw that, easily 15-20 min wait. There are lots of kids too. Wonder if it's school holiday in Australia. Also there are lots of Asians too for the Chinese New Year. Could be busy all week this week.

This photo is of a bar in "The Lower Village" where so many small accomodations are. This place is called "Gyu-Bar", and yes, that old coke fridge is the door to inside. you have to duck it when you walk in.

They play nice music such as jazz, bosanova etc with LPs. They've got huge selection of those LPs and it gives a coolness to the atomosphere.

Once inside, there are about 15-20 seats and some more space for people to remain standing, quite small place by any Western standard. Here in Niseko you'll find even smaller places. There were about 30 people inside when I visited there, the place was so full that it was even hard to walk out.

Of course 90% of the customers there at the time, Australians. It's not unusual to not see many Japanese in some restaurants and bars. This is one of those places. Beer is 500 Yen, usual, and all sorts of coctails, liqueres that I'm sure you can enjoy your favorite coctail.

They have huge windows behind the bar counter which is visible from anywhere inside. The trees are nicely lit up so it must be awsome to see the view especially when it's snowing.

You can find this place going staright into the lower village off the intersection, 500m down the street on the right hand side. There is a blackboard signage by the door when it's open too.

Kutchan-vegas

We've had at least 50 cm of new, powdery, fluffy, dry, light, soft snow for the last 2 days. It's been just the way Niseko should have been at this time of a year. Epic days. The ski area's been very busy this weekend with particularly Japanese visitors due to the wee holiday in Japan, ( they have 3 days off this weekend till today which is a national holiday. Mmmnnnnn, what was the day about to cerabrate? I can't remember. That's why I got kicked out of this country and why I have to pretend to be a Bermudan or a Paraguayan, whenever the situation arises. Just kidding. No offence for both nationals.)

Anyway, there were long queues at the chirlifts at the bottom of the mountain in the mornings with all the people hungry for the untouched powder. The truth is, you don't really have to drag yourself out of the bed too early on a day like today, because whereever you go you still have plenty of fresh powder without a track. yes, stay in bed longer especially if you have a sorehead, you deserve it.

Speaking of hangover, there are so many restaurants and bars here in Niseko. It seems like a new one is popping up somewhere in Niseko as quick as a bamboo shoot grows up. I haven't been to too many of them but one thing is clear to everyone. That is " Japanese and people from overseas hang out separately in different places. At some bars here, It's not unusual not to see any Japanese customer in there.

I don't know why. Maybe because eating and drinking culture between them are quite different. who knows? So do some reserch before you head out for the night if you think you'll be bit disappointed by the lack of presence of Japanese.

I think I will do some reserch myself and let you know sometime later. But here is an perfect solution for the people like that. Which is, " Just head down to Kutchan if you really want to experience that Lost In Translation feel". Kutchan is 15 min drive away from Hirafu, there are some free shuttle bus going around between 2 town at night. It's guaranteed that you'll have no idea what you've got yourselves into at some places.

Overdosed Dick Smith

There hasn't been much snow worth mentioning since the last post, instead, yesterday and this morning we had beautiful skies with Mt. Youtei appearing through clouds. It's such a beautiful single-cone volcanic mountain. It's getting dark and cliudy as I'm writing this in the afternoon. Some snow's been forecsted for tonight and tomorrow, possibly heavier tomorrow night.

I went to Sapporo which is approx. 2 hours drive form Niseko, for Snow Festival on Thursday night. It was mainly as work trip, but hey, just may as well enjoy it, why not? We got to Sapporo station by a car around 3:30ish in arvo, left the vehicle in the car park building( don't really know how it's called but you know what I mean), the first mission we took care of was going to "Bic Camera"! if your not familiar with the name, it's a store full of electronics (For Kiwis imagine Dick Smith's got 50 times more of the items to sell in the store), it's a boy's dream come true, spent well 2 hours and of course could stay longer if allowed, camera, i-pod, video camera whatever your obsession is telling you to look for.

As I mentioned, we were there for work ( sort of) and hadn't lost our sanity yet so acted as responsible adults and proffecionals, left there and walked to the venue. Along the way I've learned a few things about sapporo.

1, No rubbish bins on streets. Yeah makes sense because usually they are buried under the snow during the winter so why bother spending taxpayer's money?

2, Not legal smoking outside on streets but you still can have a ciggy inside buildings. Ok, is it because again it's cold and snowing a lot so that smokers can get hypothermia if they stay outside too long? Smokers are well protected here in Japan.

Different places, diferent rules, I reckon.

Anyway, the festival was great. All the icey sculptures and castles and everything with colourful illumination. They are awesome art works. Then bands are playing, so many food stalls where you can buy all sorts of yammy foods ( you definitely have to try crab or scallop! Hokkaido is famous for seafoods. Not fond of seafoods? well then go for venison burger or fried chiken, oh, why don't you just head down to a Macdonald's around the corner?)

It's absolutely worth going there if you are around at this time of a year. My advise; DRESS WARMLY OR YOUR DOOMED! ( Toe warmers rock!)

The Best Day In a Long Time

The snow today was great. We had about 10cm of new snow in the village this morning and looked good. This was a bit out of the blue, wasn7t really forcasted so nor couldn't really see that coming myself. Then I went out about 11o'clock or so, still untouched no tracked knee to thigh deep soft fluffy powder. It honestly feels like you're floating on the water or in the air, whatever, just unreal. Not many people around, noque for any chairlifts. It's kept snowing all day, plenty more powder. Tomorrow will be a good day too unless it gets too windy.

It just changes every single day as you know, the day before was just like a day you have in spring. hard crusty icy snow all the way to the top of the chairlifts after a warm night the night before, freeze-thaw thing which you don't really want at this time of a year.

The world famous ( can't be world-famous -in-Hokkaido!) Sapporo Yuki-Matsuri or Snow Festival is on now. And I'm going there tomorrow night. Never been there, can't wait. If you don't know anything about it, just go www.snowfes.com. It's an awesome festival and worth a visit to Sapporo if you are in the area.

Certified Rubbish Thrower

We had about 30-40cm in the town of Hirafu over the weekend, easily over half a metre at the top. What makes it better for everyone in this town is the fact that it was so windy/stormy all day here yesterday so that most of the chairlifts at the top were NOT running. what does it mean? Yes, lots of untouched, untracked fresh powder all over the mountain.

People sussed it out by this morning and patiently waited in the long que to get up the mountain quicker than anyone else around you by kicking, shoving, punching and elbowing. This is when your karate, Kang-Fu, Martial Arts skills count. That's why it's good to have Jackie-Chan, Jet Li or Bruce Lee as cousins too to learn everything off their movies. The movies I'm not talking about here is not the same as the DVDs you can rent but they are secretly distributed only to their immiediate relatives. No, I don't think Playstation skill or having Chack Norris as your cousin would have helped you at all.

It's been warm, though. But not surprised at all anymore. Hey we're in the middle of the global warming, guys. This is the weather pattern we normally get in Mid-March, they say. Everyone ( I hope so) wants to do something about it but doesn't have clear idea of what we can do. Not surprising when some goverments are even denying this global phenomena.

Looking aroud for some consience, I've realised the fact that recycling is so strict here in Japan that you need to be certified to chuck out rubbish. You are given this thick manual on arrival to any of the ports, airports in Japan and you have 2 weeks to study and if you fail, bang, you're deported or for worse offenders like losing the book, or not turning up for the exam, you are thrown in jail.

Na, just made it up. But anyway, it's got nearly 50 pages with such a small letters! Who would read this stuff when beurocrats made it this difficult to read. Isn't it Ironic? We just want to do something for this Mother Earth and someone make it virtually impossible.

Wonka in Hokkaido

Yesterday I went to Ishiya Chocolate Factory in Sapporo to shoot the story about them. Boy! it was wierd, I mean good wierdness which just blows you away. My coleague described the place the best as " Disneyland meets Wonka the Chocolate Factory". You can go through the factory and learn the history of Chocolate ( naturally about theEeurope's history, Columbus etc) to start out with, then the history of Choco-Japan relation and so on. Then you can see how the inside of the factory actually is, of course you can have all sorts of desserts, and you can buy those chocolates for your souvenirs. the smell of the chocolate is overwhelming, for some it must be very tempting, otherwise it may be too much so that it puts you off chocolate for a while? ( It didn't work on me, I'm still loving it!) . Anyway it's an experience and highly recommended if you have a spare time and looking for something different form ordinary touristy stuff in or around Niseko off the slopes. Just make sure to be outside of the building every once in a while. Something's going on hourly there!

http://www.shiroikoibito.ishiya.co.jp/

Big Brother is watching you.....

It's been funny weather for the last couple of days. It's been quite warm, all the snow fell on the roads melting very quickly which makes a lot of mess. Actually we woke up to the rain this morning which apparently had been on through the night which turned to snow around 8 o'clock onward then around luchtime now as we speak, the sky is getting clear with patchy blue skies. We've pretty much had all sorts of rolercoaster weather in the last 2 days.

The snow this morning was fresh but quite wet with ok visiblity halfway up the mountain. Yesterday was better snow with almost non-visiblity. I didn't really stay too long uo on the slope. There'll be a better day.

Niseko is getting smaller and smaller day after day for me, not gegraphically or anything, but I keep coming across familiar faces from NZ. This morning I bumped into 3 Aussie guys who worked at CP 3 years ago, although in a different department, out of the blue. Honestly, everyone is now following the same path with everybody else. or simply put, Niseko is just getting more and more popular by the word of the mouth?