We are in New Chitose Airport in Sapporo (island of hokkaido, bei hoi do). Our snowboarding adventures were great! We first landed here on Xmas Eve, and instead of waiting for a shuttle bus, struggled with limited Japanese phrasebook to take JR train then walk a mile with our gear to first hotel. Next morning off by bus to Niseko!! The snow / powder is amazing... I highly recommend Green Leaf hotel which is slopeside in Niseko Village. There are 3 main ski areas: Annapuri, Niseko Village and grand hirafu. They are connected by "Niseko United" shuttle bus... Sounds kind of communist. Anyway we enjoyed the hills, an all u can eat crab/sushi buffet then Onsen hot spring. Literally unisex bathing is freezing cold weather in middle of snow covered forest, in rocks hot spring. I snuck a photo. Will post later! Also the hotels provide shisheido products-whoa! So nice! Grand hirafu had the best night skiing!
On day 2 we ate steak slopeside in Hirafu before heading back for a restful evening at te hotel. Day 3 we went to Rusutsu Resort; an entirely different mountain area to meet my friend tiff and her cousins from Taipei. The resort was like a mini Vegas, with carousel and amusement park... Fabulous views from the slopes and warmer weather!
We spent night of day 3 in Sapporo city, eating street food, watching musicians, businessmen going to karaoke bars and teenagers gaming out at Taito game stations dressing up for photobooths and video games... The ramen food stall was good too!
In our snowboarding adventures I rank:
1) Blackcomb - best long mountain runs, bowls and powder
2) Whistler
3) Snowbird (connected to Alta in Salt Lake city Utah)
4) Heavenly (south tahoe)
5) North star(north tahoe)
6) Grand hirafu Niseko (good powder)
7) Rusutsu (nice wide open views)
ok bye! Heading to Osaka now!
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