Skiing in Niseko, Japan: the powder dilemma

We wanted to begin the Lunar New Year in style and speed, so Niseko seemed to be the obvious destination for one reason: powder! It advertises itself as having some of the best powder ski in the world and it’s just next door – what else could we look for?

We packed heavy – fleeces and socks galore, balaclavas, masks – but didn't get to wear half of it. Siberia tricked us big time, and instead of having a big mass of cold air, we got sunshine and rising temperatures instead. First time I cursed against a clear sky!

Annupuri Ski Resort

Niseko is made of 5 different ski resorts: Annupuri, Higashiyama (aka Niseko Village), Hirafu, Hanazono and Moiwa. All of them are linked but only the first four are included in the All Mountain Lift Pass. We stayed in a lodge right off the slopes of Moiwa, but spent only one day skiing there. The rest of the time, we skied in Annupuri and Niseko Village.

Moiwa Ski Resort

Some who had skied there before were praising the weather and the mountain top being open. Others, like the powder-hungry skiers in our lodge, were disappointed with the icy snow and simply stopped skiing. We embraced the dilemma, and enjoyed some powder-less skiing with a powerful sunshine. The downside of it all was the dangerously icy sidewalks – our legs flew in mid-air a couple of times.

Annupuri Mountain top

There’s little Japanese in Niseko in general. The place is so popular among Australians, Singaporeans and European expats, that it becomes a real challenge to hear any Japanese on the slopes, except for the staff managing the chairlifts and gondolas. This could be the toughest level of the “Marco Polo” game, ski slope version. Hirafu is the most international area, where the most restaurants and bars are also located. If not staying there, be sure to arrange transportation back to your hotel. Taxis are limited and normally take at least 20 minutes to arrive after calling.

Mount Yōtei

We were kind of suspicious when we heard some people saying that they had booked restaurants already in November! We took a Portuguese approach and never booked anything. The only time we had a table booked was in Hirafu and we had called the restaurant one hour before – pure luck, ok, but we proved wrong the pessimism of our front desk staff... at least once, yeah!

There is a restaurant though for which you REALLY (but really!) need to book in advance: Sobatei Rakuichi, in Annupuri. The place is tiny, only with seats at the counter, but it serves the best soba in the area, which by the way is kneaded and cut in front of you. They only accept reservations for dinner which means that you can still try your luck and queue up at lunch time – expect a 30 to 45 minutes wait, unless you have some kind of lucky charm. They open at 11:30 for lunch.

Sobatei Rakuichi

In the future, if someone asks us what’s better, powder or sunshine, we say: hot soba!

Since we were staying in Moiwa, we took the opportunity to try the mixed onsen of the Niseko Grand Hotel. It’s the only mixed onsen in the area. You pay 800 yen per person at the hotel reception and then head toward the locker room. Small and bath towels are also available for a small price at the reception and women can also rent a yuami – a special garment to wear in the mixed onsen. Besides the mixed open-air onsen, there are also women-only / men-only hot bath areas. It was one of the few places in Niseko where we could remind ourselves that we were still in Japan! The majority of the people there were Japanese men, accompanied by their longtime friend, the Asahi beer can.

We spent the last two days of our holidays in Sapporo, which might not seem so captivating at first glance, but as soon as you discover that beer is sold at 200 yen in the Sapporo Beer Museum, well... it just gets a tad more interesting! Sapporo may not be the nicest Japanese town, but the river Toyohira cutting it in half and the surrounding mountains create an exceptional natural environment, and spectacular views! It's still possible to spot foreigners, but not as easy as in Niseko.

Sapporo

Japan never ceases to surprise us: albeit its fast-pace, innovative society, traditions are still paramount, at the table or at the onsen. This was quite obvious during this trip. And, who could expect to find the most international place of all Japan on the farthest-north island of the archipelago? Were we disappointed? No way! Despite some thorns, Japan still makes our curiosity bloom.

What lies at the end of the rainbow?

The Palauan islands are described by their nationals as “the end of the rainbow” and they are not very far from the truth, although pretty far for almost everyone else on the globe. Luckily, for us it was a mere four and half hour flight.

Palau is not so much a beach destination as it is a divers’ paradise. Most hotels and resorts are gathered on and around the island of Koror, which is itself and like most of the Palauan islands: rocky! The islands in the Southern Lagoon on the other hand, have nice white sand stretches, but imply a boat ride of at least 45 minutes from Koror.

One of the beaches in the Southern Lagoon

Our trip to Palau lasted 9 days and it started off rather badly. Not only we had to rush out of the house to get the airport after waking up simply too late (damn you jet lag!), but we were also stood up by our guesthouse staff, who forgot to pick us up at the airport in Koror. The interesting thing about Koror is that there is a curfew and at 4 am in the airport (or anywhere else on the island) there is absolutely no taxi that could take us to the guesthouse. Fortunately a Palauan couple who had come to drop off some relatives offered to help and take us to town – we must have looked hopeless. Palauan friendliness: check!

The guesthouse had mixed up the dates and our room was not even ready. We finally hit the sack at 5:30 am and slept a few hours until breakfast. We spent the rest of the day scouting Koror, sipping the national beer Red Rooster (to put it politely, not the best one we have had) and tasting the local food, which revolves around taro, fish and crab. Though the best discovery was kangkung (water spinach) sautéed with garlic (I asked them to skip the bacon).

Red Roster Amber

Japanese food is widely available and with high quality too. The American influence is also quite visible, be it on the supermarket shelves or even more obviously, in the contents of your wallet – the national currency is the USD.

Palau is making huge efforts to preserve its marine life and it appears among the top dive sites in the world. Most of the dive shops have Japanese staff, since Japanese represent the majority of tourists coming to the islands. The other nationality integrating the labour force, especially in the tourism sector is the Philippines. This makes it hard to meet Palauans – but anyway, they are only 20,000 in total and many are studying or working abroad, mainly in the US, we were told, so they should be in some endangered species list.

We started diving the next day, with some pretty awesome sights. We swam with sharks for the first time – white-tip and grey reef sharks, and saw some “fishy” garden eels pretending they were plants, as well as snappers, trevallies, gobies and barracudas.

Diving sites

The next day we went on a “super rock island tour”, which gave us an overview of the southern islands, and scrapped some stuff off the bucket list, like swimming in a lake full of jellyfish! Scuba diving is not allowed since the bubbles can harm the jellyfish. To snorkel in the lake a permit of $100 is required, which is valid for 10 days. This is currently the only marine lake open to the public.

Milky Way

The Milky Way was also included in the itinerary. The white clay at the bottom of this cove gives the water a flashy turquoise blue and visitors scrub their bodies with it. However we saw once a documentary where it was said that it was not really clay one can find at the bottom… so enjoy the spa at your own risk.

From Koror we traveled onward to Carp Island, where we could for the first time lie on the beach, and it was gorgeous! The dives kept on coming and bringing amazing experiences: seeing the mantas in the German Channel made our day and the variety of fish in the Blue Corner, rated by some expert magazines as the best diving spot in the world, was simply unbelievable. The currents are strong and change rapidly, so they are not for the faint of heart.

Carp Island at low tide

Back in Koror, we said goodbye to the water spinach and almost went nuts with the Internet connection. It’s slow all over Palau (well, not really all over, but in a small fraction of Palau!) and it feels like going back to the 56k modem times.

We took the red-eye back to Seoul and put on the winter coats again, which were tragically waiting for us at the airport. Show’s over!