As I got detained at the Sapporo airport for having a little mountaineering knife and a canister for my avalanche backpack in my hand luggage by a really cute eager young Japanese female police officer, who clearly did not exactly know what that kind of equipment was for and, after some thirty minutes, finally with some translation assistance from a friendly and even cuter stewardess from Japan Airlines, we were all of on board a brand new Air Japan Boeing 777-200ER with spacey high tech economy seats that look more like fancy business class seating. An hour later we were back at Tokyo Haneda.
This was to be the second leg out our journey. After spending a good two weeks on Hokkaido we were getting used to life in Japan. Gašper was still overwhelmed by all the school girl short skirts, something my ample anime consumption at home had made me somewhat immune too, and Žiga was eager to get a proper Japanese shawe. But before we would do any of that our plan was to head north to Hakuba and check out the Japanese Alps. For the night in Tokyo we found a cheap cube hotel, slept for a few hours and then we were on yet another train heading past mount Fuji towards the mountains of Honshu. Four hours later we arrived at Hakuba.
As we arrived at the train station the contrast to Hokkaido was apparent. The mountains here were kinda like home. High, vast above the treeline. The only big difference was that there were no pine trees. It was already late February so the forecast did not look all to promising for powder. We settled into a really nice but old hotel that we had found a day earlier on booking.com. At first glance it seemed that this place had seen better days. It looked like, since the winter olympics in Nagano in 1998, not much had changed here. Don`t get me wrong. The buildings and lifts might have been old but they were well maintained. The owner of our stay the Hakuba Royal hotel was really nice and upgraded us to a suite with a adjunct classic Japanese room. I loved it !
Žiga and Gašper could have the western beds while I would enjoy my beloved tatami mats. He was also very proud of the hotels renovated onsen and I must say that that was my favorite part of the place. It also had an outside part and was super chill. Around the time we were there it was full moon and I really must say that soaking in the nice warm water of the onsen staring at the full moon with a bit of a breeze that was foretelling that winter was soon going to come to an end was really revitalizing. Just writing about it makes me want to go back there… So if you happen to come to Hakuba make sure to check it out ! Another nice service at the hotel was the package delivery. On our way back we just sent our luggage and skis directly to the airport terminal for a small fee. No need to drag the stuff along on the train anymore. Japan is just that convenient. Before I get to sentimental, lets get to the resorts we checked out:
Hakuba – CORTINA
It is not to be mistaken by Cortina D`Ampezo in Italy. Cortina is the only resort in Japan where we have not seen a special rule system super enforced in place to ride powder. Sure you have a few gates but everything close to the lifts is fair game. It is the northwestern most of the Hakuba resorts and you will recognize it by the kitschy Swiss style mega-hotel. It is one of those one stop shop ski-resorts ala Whistler where you have one operator that runs everything. The tree runs are super fun here but there is one small problem. As it`s location provides most of the fresh pow that drops in the area and because of the easy access it has somewhat lost it`s secret spot status. We were there on a sunny day after one of the last dumps of the season and everything was ridden within a few hours.
Luckily all the resorts in the Hakuba area top out rather low on the mountain sides. That means that the adjunct Slack- and Backcountry is extensive and can be explored if you have the proper skill and gear. Mind here that unlike Hokkaido this area, like our Alps is very avalanche prone. But the payoffs for hiking for a good hour are immense. We were lucky to venture into the direction of the Akakurayama to find some nice north-western tree runs that were really amazing. In fact it was so good that we almost missed the bus back tu Hakuba Happo. Also all the staff was super nice and cheerful at the resort. It was almost as if they had some contest going who spreads the most cheer on a day.
In the evening we ate at a old mom/pop restaurant with a red lanternin central Hakuba. Later we learned that the palce was a so called Izakaya. A restaurant where you mainly go drink and food is more of a snack. But we had a few good beers and the “snacks” were excellent classic japonese finger foods :). The whole place had a very homey feel to it. It`s just on the left of the main road once you get out of the train station. You can`t miss the red lantern. Highly recommended.
Hakuba – Happo one
On the second day of our relatively short scoop of the northern Alps Gašper had already decided that if he were to come to Japan to work for a season, it would be to Hakuba. Hokkaido might be a powder-mekka but the complexity of the terrain there is not very high. Compared to what we ride every day in the Alps it is mostly a piece of cake. Here in the Japanese alps we were more in our element. But before we could check out anything we had topographically set our eyes on at Happo One we had to deal with a few Japanese powder formalities.
To leave the marked ski area into the “alpine” area above the ski resort, one has to formally report his “expedition” at the base cable car station. A friendly Japanese powder hunter then explains that everything you ever wanted to ride there is off limits because of avalanche danger. When he finds out you are from the Alps and not Australia.. well then he becomes a lot friendlier and unofficially tells you where “not” to go.
As we were not planing on spending the whole day just checking the really good pistes at Happo we gladly provided all the information ranging from what equipment we were carrying to insurance information and even radio frequencies. After leaving the ski boundary it quickly felt like we were back in the high alpine. Since the weather forecast was not that great we made our way up and decided on the fly to do one of the better know runs. One that, according to our friend from the Resort often entrails helivacs of stranded Aussies. We would head up to Mount Happosan and then take a northern descent from the plateau into the valley bellow. It was a fun run but the high temperatures made the snow rather hard at the bottom. For this to be excellent, we would have to have been here a few weeks earlier.
When we arrived in the valley it was also quite late already and since the walk back to a cab pickup was long we also encountered the local monkeys doing there daily and taking baths in the river. In short we made a few new friends. It was funny. The snow and the cold did not seem to bother them at all. And if it did they quickly found an onsen to soak in the warmth.
We were really lucky not to have to walk all the way back as a group had left moments before and we were able to order another cab before theirs took off. In the evening after the onsen we went to a awesome local restaurant, where every portion was two for one and they even had the first edition of the original Dragonball comics to read in the restaurant. I was surprised how many homey places there were here in Hakuba. It was not at all overly commercialized like the towns in Austria seem these days.
Nagano
As the temperatures were increasing and there was no more powder to be had for at least a week we decided to spend the last three days of our Japan adventure exploring the some culture. As we would be meeting up with Urša and Luka in Tokyo soon we still had one days time in Hakuba. We quickly decided to take a little day trip to the Olympic city of Nagano.
Unlike Tokyo Nagano is a really sleepy and cozy place. Like Hakuba it partly seems to have been stuck in the time of the Olympics with tons of monuments and venues still open as tourist attractions. Everything is still well maintained. A stark contrast to other Olympic centers of newer times.
But one thing that Nagano also has in abundance is it`s heritage. If you walk on the main avenue past the Kabuku theaters and an old hotel that dates to the time of the first world war it feels like you are going back in time. You see slices of Japans past you never knew existed. At the end of this long road you come across one of the most important Buddhist temples in Japan, the Zenkō-ji.
Build in the 7th century it has seen a lot of change. It even served as a military base for a while. The temple is huge and as one of the last pilgrim sites in Japan it is always packed with a lot of visitors. Surprisingly most of them seemed to come from China. While you are at the Temple do not forget to give a offering to the locals spirits for good luck :). You can make a wish to 😛
Another thing that you need to do while you are in Nagano is try the local Soba-Noodles. As Asahikawa is famous for their perfect Ramen so is Nagano for its Soba. Also if you are a forigner and go into one of the many traditional little restaurants… first try to learn how to properly eat Soba. Also you might have to converse more with your hands because English is not spoken here as much as in Tokyo or Hakuba. All in all Nagano is a relly nice place. If we had the time I would have loved to stay for another day and go to one of the kabuki theaters that usually open in the evening.
Tokyo
As our journey was coming to an end we had one more destination to experience. The sprawling city of the future were cybercops like Motoko Kusanagu and pokemon keep Godzilla from destroying the Tokyo Tower. Speaking of that. As I had seen Tokyo Tower displaced, destroyed and rebuild in so many of my favorite anime shows we had to go check it out. The tower itself is not that much of a communications station as it used to be. Because of it`s iconic status it has become one of the most visited landmarks on this side of the world. Interestingly right next to it was the CANON factory where my main DSLr body had been build just a few months earlier.
Of course we could not leave Tokyo without checking at least some of the nightlife. We got a tip from a friend to check out the bar scene near Shibuya. It took a while to find one that allowed foreigners but thanks to Uršas keen exploratory skills we landed in one where shots were abundant. It even had drinking game toys :P. Then we had to run to get the last Underground because in Tokyo they close early. It was kind of a little party blitz.
On the next and final day of our journey I also used the time to meet up with my coworker friend Nazumi from our Tokyo office of the Austrian embassy. For all of you readers wondering, yes I do have a 40 hour full time job next to hunting for powder… I knew Nazumi from the Interalpin expo on ski resort infrastructure and we meet here and our local office for lunch. Nazumi took us to a local “grill it yourself” place for some really awesome barbecue.
Before we took our final train ride to the International terminal at Haneda airport there was one thing that the geek side of me had to do. A small dream that needed to come true. Akihabara. Akihabara is the heaven of all electronics ever. If you want something you can be sure that one of the giant electronics stores there has it. So I did not of course, leave empty handed and got another little camera that I now use for taking good pictures while hunting for powder. Carrying my big DSLr on long tracks is usually quite a pain and competently unpractical except if you are doing a shoot. This little toy on the other hand, a Canon G7x, is a perfect companion for just such cases as it offers full manual control, really good low light and even RAW image support.
Of course Akihabara is also known as a geek and Anime mecca so we did not leave out the opportune visit to one of the local multi story gaming arcades, a so called Taito Station and we even went into a SEGA Arcade. We played a few fun games and I could see myself spending hours and thousands of yen in these. We also visited multiple stores on memorabilia from Anima and Manga. Running among these holly shrines of plastic collectibles next to all the tech gear really made one of my geekier dreams come true.
After taking all of these impressions in sadly it was time to go back home. So on a late Sunday at the beginning of March rain was starting to fall at Haneda Airport and it was time to return back to our home and dream of all the fluffy powder and cool adventures we had in the land of the rising sun.
A special thanks for the support we got from Ferrino from Italy and Atomic for the travel bag. It would have been quite cold without the great outerwear and I could never ever have packed everything plus gear to 30 kg :P. So check out the blog over the next season to read the long term reviews after we put the gear trough more real world testing.