Ekiden racing, deep Japow, and daily onsens.

Ekiden

We took part in the Okumusashi Ekiden - an excellent experience and one well worth repeating. 6 legs along an out-and-back course along the Seibu-Ikebukoro line. Individually I had a mediocre run; as a team, we finished 4th to some quality teams.

Yuzawa Resorts

90mins on the bullet train from Tokyo station we arrived at Gala Yuzawa. The Shinkansen actually stops at the base station of the mountain which is cool. There’s a collection of resorts in the area, some interlinked with lifts and others a shuttle bus away.

Linked to Gala Yuzawa by a ropeway Yuzawa Kogen is a small resort that was the closest to our basic accommodation. The steepest skiing is near the top but, like most of Japan, it’s not too challenging. Note to self - they are not keen on people running up the piste.

Gala Yuzawa itself was crowded, and other than the novelty of Shinkansen->skiing the other resorts nearby resorts all seemed much better. One of those resorts, linked into the same lift system as Gala and Yuzawa Kogen, is Ishiuchi Maruyama. It wins the best Yuzawa region for me. It felt like there was more and steeper vertical on offer, there was plenty of side-country which all counted as inbounds.

Conditions were excellent. Unfortunately, so deep was the snow, that we spent an hour fruitlessly searching for a lost ski. We had given up but the incredible pisteurs searched on with the obligatory metal detector and delivered the lost ski back to us after we’d enjoyed a Katsu curry. This epitomizes Japanese culture.

The snow was falling quicker than we could ski it, so we stayed on late under the flood lights enjoying the Japanese tradition of ‘Nighta’. Photos don’t lie, I must have fallen over at least once to be bestowed with Mr Bump.

We caught a free shuttle from Yuzawa up to Kandatsu Kogen, another resort in this mini-metropolis. The skiing is all in one big bowl, the lower slopes were great for blasting some big carved turns. Higher up there were pockets of tree skiing that were fun to loop. I think it might have had the steepest skiing we found in all of Japan. Kandatsu was notable for the abundance of bumps/moguls/zip lines. The Japanese love their moguls - some kids outclassed me by hammering down one line.

Zao Onsen

More bullet trains. First back toward Tokyo then up to Sendai and across to Zao Onsen. The place stinks of sulfur. It’s ‘Atmospheric’. Both the public and private onsens were excellent. The water is said to have healed Warriors in the past so it’s good enough to soothe aching post-ski legs. The skiing here was good, it felt fairly alpine with a few distinct areas that were connected (sort of) and some quicker chairlifts. On a blue-sky day, the views down the valley were incredible. You can’t mention Zao Onsen without talking about the Snow Monsters. I’ve never seen anything like it. The picture speaks for itself.

Geto Kogen

Hands down this was the best skiing we had. The forecast predicted a few mere cm of snow. but for the 48 hours we spent there it was dumping constantly. You can stay right at the mountain in a capsule hotel half-board with the onsen included. The food was, uh, not great. Who cares when you’ve spent the day skiing ‘balls-deep’ powder tree lines?

Geto Kogen has opened tree runs over the last few years. They’ve pruned the forest so you can hit any number of different lines down the mountain under the main gondola and still end up back at home. Even with only this single gondola open, if it’s snowing enough Geto is the place to be. I could write a whole post about how great this place was. Other than the food the only other downer was the lack of a free bus down to the Shinkansen station before 5 pm. A nice employee gave us a lift.

If you go to Japan and you just want to ski powder in trees on your own / with buddies then Geto is the place to be.

Hokkaido

Hokkaido powder is legendary, so we had to make the trip up to the north island. We hired a car for this part because our hotel (read: dodgy roadside trucker motel) was not ski-in ski-out. Niseko, the largest and most well-known resort was our first destination. is expensive, it’s full of Aussies, and they’re all insufferable. Anticlimactic after Geto. By coincidence, we were in town at the time of the Sapporo Ice Festival which was well worth the trip. It came alive with the lightshow.

Two memorable aspects of Hakodate. Our nighttime walk up to get the iconic view of the bay, and the monkeys in the onsen. Though the ‘onsen’ was a surprisingly fake affair. It would be better described as Monkeys in a zoo with a bath.

Japan lived up to its reputation. I think we skied ‘deep’ powder at least half of the days we were there. It’s not as expensive as you might think (apart from Niseko), has an amazing culture, great food in general, and unbeatable onsens. I’ll certainly return

Logistics

We use the south-east Hokkaido and East Japan rail pass which allows 6 days of travel on JR trains within 14 days. It includes travel on the Shinkansen and using it for Tokyo-Hakodate return alone makes the pass economic. It also works nicely for people with their skis as there’s no extra charge for carrying them.

By flying with Air France we took skis + boot bags in place of normal luggage.