2023-11-30 12:17:00
On skis or a snowboard you float down through the feathery white snow. With a kind of whisper, your boards and boots disappear under white crystals, you sink deep into the finest powder snow in the world, but you don’t get stuck anywhere or lose your balance. The flakes are so dry that you can’t make snowballs out of them.
The slopes are well groomed, but there are also plenty of deep snow runs through bamboo and birch forests. To strengthen yourself, you sip delicious ramen noodle soups in rustic huts, and in the evening you relax your tired muscles in the onsen bath with water from hot natural springs.
Anyone who knows the Alps and is on a winter holiday in Hokkaido for the first time cannot help but be amazed. Nowhere else on the globe does nature produce such powder snow in winter as on Japan’s northern main island. Over the deep, cold waters of the Sea of Japan, which separates Hokkaido from Siberia, icy winds and ocean moisture create the island’s weather – with long, cold winters and the famous powder snow.
Source: Infographic WELT
The world has known this at least since 1972, when the first Winter Olympics in an Asian city took place in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. But it’s only since the 1990s that Hokkaido has cemented its place on the winter world map. Australians and New Zealanders were the first international guests, and now we see more and more Europeans.
They call the powder snow on Hokkaido “Japow”
While snow reliability in the Alps is not necessarily good, Japan’s North Island can boast superlatives – in the 2018/19 season it snowed on 110 days, a total of 10.4 meters of fresh snow fell, and in some winters even more. They even invented their own marketing term for the powder: “Japow”, a cross between “Japan” and “powder”. There has been less snow so far this year compared to the previous season, but the snow depth is still generous at 210 to 260 centimeters, and the season is far from over.
It not only snows a lot in Hokkaido – the snow is also of excellent quality
Quelle: Getty Images/Andre Schoenherr
One name circulates like a mantra in the powder snow-loving ski scene – Niseko. The ultimate Japanese winter promise lies two and a half hours drive west of Sapporo at the highest point of the Annupuri Mountains. It climbs leisurely from the sea, just 20 kilometers away, to the high point, the 1308 meter high summit of Mount Annupuri. In Hokkaido the ski mountains are a lot lower than in the Alps. This does not affect the quality of the snow.
Much more eye-catching than the Annupuri is its impressive counterpart: the even cone of Mount Yotei, which reaches 1,898 meters. “We also call it Ezo Fuji because it looks almost like Fuji and is just as perfectly shaped,” says Scott Mountford.
Like many of his compatriots, the Australian started out here as a ski instructor. That was ten years ago, today he is head of marketing. Niseko is not a town in the strict sense, but a network of four ski resorts around the Annupuri, which are connected to each other by slopes and lifts.
More and more luxury hotels are being built in Niseko
Incidentally, an Alpine native brought skiing to Niseko in 1912: the Austro-Hungarian lieutenant Theodor von Lerch. He first trained the Japanese soldiers stationed here to slide down the slopes on boards.
The Japanese army still does this today – on clunky wooden skis that look like they did 100 years ago. The local population only slowly discovered the pastime. It was only 50 years later, in 1961, that the first ski lift was built, in what is now the Grand Hirafu Resort, the largest in Niseko.
In Niseko, the winter season lasts 166 days, and twelve to 16 meters of powder snow usually falls here. In the worst winter so far, 7.47 meters of white snow fell – more than in many European ski resorts in good winters. Niseko celebrates itself as the “Gateway to Japanese Powder”, attracting investors from as far away as Singapore and Hong Kong.
Niseko has become a lifestyle destination and rents are similar to those in Tokyo
Quelle: Getty Images for Tokyu Land Corporation/Tomohiro Ohsumi
More and more luxury hotels are opening here – most recently the “Park Hyatt Niseko” and the “Ritz-Carlton Reserve Hotel”, and an “Aman Resort” is also in the starting blocks. Niseko has grown by half in the last five years thanks to new construction projects, and rents are now similar to those in Tokyo.
Niseko has become a lifestyle destination for many Asians. Not all guests want or can ski, but a growing number come to shop in the high-end boutiques – and to make an impression on Instagram. “Often people will rent ski equipment for just an hour with their new clothes to pose for photos,” says Mountford.
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Given the affluent public, the state of the infrastructure is surprising: many lifts in Niseko show clear signs of age with rusty masts; they are only replaced every 30 years. The signage for the 50 kilometer long slopes is also sparse compared to the Alps. But something is happening: next winter, a new lift with heated leather bucket seats and WiFi will go into operation – for the beginner slopes.
View of the Sea of Japan while skiing
Hokkaido offers snow fans good alternatives to Niseko. In total, the island has twelve major winter sports areas. The skiing fun begins on Sapporo’s doorstep, also ideal for day tours. It’s only 40 minutes to Teine – many Olympic alpine competitions took place here in 1972. From the summit of Mount Teine at 1023 meters, on a clear day, you can see the city center on one side and the waters of Ishikari Bay on the other.
And just an hour’s drive from Sapporo, the next ski resort is already tempting: Kokusai. The summit station is at just 1,100 meters – but you can still see the Sea of Japan from above, and the longest descent is 3.6 kilometers.
Ideal for beginners: a good two thirds of the slopes in Hokkaido are easy or very easy
Quelle: Getty Images/Benoist SEBIRE
The downside, however, is the rental equipment: Although it is also available for large-footed Europeans, the boots feel spongy and the skis run slowly. Ski instructor Satoru at least has an explanation ready: “For us, alpine skiing is primarily for beginners” – and they obviously don’t need top equipment.
It’s a shame, because even the most beautiful mogul slope is only half as enjoyable with this kind of material. Overall, a good two thirds of the slopes in Hokkaido are easy or very easy, i.e. aimed primarily at inexperienced visitors. There aren’t as many challenging runs and steep slopes here as in the Alps.
Après-Ski in Sapporo is different than in the Alps
The après-ski options in Sapporo, on the other hand, are at the highest level and completely different than in the Alps. The Susukino entertainment district with countless bars and bright neon signs is the largest north of Tokyo.
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To Japan by train and ferry
First excellent sushi in a fish restaurant or Japanese tapas in an izakaya restaurant, plus local craft beer and sake, then a singing session in a karaoke salon and finally a nightcap in a well-stocked whiskey bar – better than any Alpine hut magic !
The fact that you can eat well in Hokkaido is also because the island is Japan’s pantry. By the way, not because of the Hokkaido pumpkins, which everyone here thinks of, but which don’t actually come from here – the Portuguese only brought pumpkins to Japan around 500 years ago.
Hokkaido is known throughout the country for its freshly caught seafood from the cool, fish-rich waters of the region, as well as for Hokkaido potatoes and dairy products – cheese in particular is produced here. The sugary honeydew melons are also famous. And last but not least, Hokkaido, as the country’s breadbasket, is a cradle of Japanese whiskey culture.
Application for the Winter Olympics
Sapporo, the fifth largest metropolis in Japan with almost two million inhabitants, will once again receive Olympic honors this year after 1972. “The IOC quickly withdrew the marathon from Tokyo as the organizer of the Summer Games and moved the event to us,” says travel guide Yoshimi Saito. Officials realized just in time that hot, humid Tokyo at the end of July is not a good place for marathons.
Olympic Precinct: Sapporo hosted the Winter Games in 1972 and plans to bid again in 2030
Quelle: Getty Images
On top of that, Sapporo plans to apply for the Winter Games again; Japan’s National Olympic Committee has just approved the candidacy for 2030. By then the city should be connected to the Shinkansen network, and the journey on the super-fast train from Tokyo to Sapporo will then take less than five hours.
The 1972 Games were already a success – visitors can get an impression of this in the Olympic Museum at the foot of the Okurayama ski jump. And then take the chair lift to the ski jump on Mount Okura. The view of the wide city carpet with the rectangular streets and the snow-capped mountains with the Olympic slopes is magnificent.
If you want, you can even follow in the footsteps of Rosi Mittermaier just a few kilometers away in Eniwa. Although Germany’s ski star missed out on a medal in 1972 and came sixth in the downhill race, she still found the slope “really great – difficult, but fair.”
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Tips and information
Getting there: Finnair flies non-stop from Europe to Sapporo, every Thursday and Sunday via Helsinki with good connections from seven German airports. Alternatively, you can travel with us Lufthansa or All Nippon Airways to Tokyo, continuing by domestic flight or train.
Ski vacation: For German customers, package tours are about less worthwhile, simply because of the language barrier stumboeck.com/de/freeride-kanada-japan/d/japan.html, reiseservice-schindler.de/skireise-nach-japan-niseko-buchen/ or luex.de/snow/trips/japan-skiurlaub.html
Further information: General information in German from the Japanese Tourist Office: jnto.de and under japan.travel/de/destinations/hokkaido/hokkaido/.
Information about winter sports in Hokkaido can be found here skiing-hokkaido.com (in English).
Participation in the trip was supported by Finnair and the Japanese Tourist Board. Our standards of transparency and journalistic independence can be found at axelspringer.de/unabhaengigkeit.
This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG. We will be happy to deliver them to your home regularly.
Source: WELT AM SONNTAG
This article was originally published online in February 2020.
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