As usual, I arrived back in Hokkaido a few days before Christmas. I took the train from New Chiitose airport to Otaruchikko station where Fujii-san met me to drive me up to Asari village. The train ride alongside the ocean never gets old...
This year we were not staying in the old Winkel House owned by our old boss Yonehana-san, but instead staying in the staff flats belonging to the Asarigawaonsen Hotel. These were three bedroom flats, but as there were only four of us, we had 2 flats. The boys, Parker and Campbell, in one, and Maya and I in the other. Julian, Ella and Hazel were staying elsewhere.
The staff quarters were closer to the ski field, and also afforded us free entry to the onsen at the hotel. It didn't take long for Maya (from Austria) and Parker (from Australia) to become onsen converts, but Campbell (from NZ) never went the whole time he was there.
The staff quarters were fairly old, and we had a pretty intense infestation of stink bugs. These are extremely common in older Japanese homes (apparently the Kiroro staff quarters were really bad this year) but they also indicate a good snow year. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the piles of bugs along the windowsills, but we continued to catch at least 10 a day. The boy's flat had none!
The flats had outside balconies, and with the snow building up there were some fun shenanigans jumping off the balcony into the snow. Our flat was on the top floor...
Maya, Parker and Campbell were all 18-19 year olds, but completely different in their attitude to being in a different country compared to the previous year's group. Maya and Parker were quick to make friends with young people their age, in particular the young men who worked in the rental shop at Asari. They had some quite hilarious nights out with the boys. Fujiisan put on some cultural evenings where we learnt Japanese phrases and talked about Japanese culture and they were keen and interested to learn more. Last year's mob had rejected any attempt by Fujiisan to include them in Japanese cultural events, these kids welcomed them, and felt privileged to be getting an authentic Japanese experience. They commented that working at Niseko would have been an essentially Western experience and appreciated living in a real Japanese village instead.
Campbell, our sole Kiwi, was somewhat different, and it soon became apparent to all of us that he was on the autism spectrum. This made some of his behaviour very trying, especially for Parker who was sharing a flat with him, but it didn't affect his ability to teach lessons. In fact skiing was one of his obsessions so that was pretty well all he could talk about, and he had a very inflated sense of his own capabilities. He was frequently heard saying he was the best instructor of all of us, despite the obvious fact that Maya's years of ski racing made her technically superior, and that Parker and I had a lot more teaching experience. If we hadn't all twigged pretty early on that Campbell had a problem, it's likely someone would have decked him for some of his antisocial behaviour. Instead, we all worked around it, and we all were shocked to discover Campbell didn't seem to know he was on the spectrum. It wasn't like his behaviour was mild....
Unlike last year, the work was pretty constant. After the busy Xmas/New Year period we had a small dip in workload in the second week of January and then it remained pretty constant right through to mid February. Most of our work was at Asari, which paid considerably better than working at Kiroro, and required no driving along an icy mountain pass to get there. I really enjoy skiing and teaching at Kiroro, but it's much better money working at Asari, and there's no stressful drive involved.
We even went snowshoeing, one of the outings offered for tourists who might not wish to go skiing. Both Parker and I said we would be interested in taking tours if needed, so we went for an hour or so up into the forest behind one of the hotels to be shown the route. There was a fun creek crossing over dodgy snow bridges and a little bit of sliding downhill, but it was very tame, but probably quite a decent outing for those with poor fitness, a common occurrence with international visitors from Asian countries...
I got quite a few days of free skiing at nearby resorts. One day Parker and I headed to Kokusai, and another day Maya also joined us at Kiroro. I showed them a number of tree runs they didn't know about, and Maya, who had rarely skied off piste before, was soon hooting through the trees like a new convert! I left them to it at 2 pm, surprised that I'd managed to keep up with a couple of teenagers that long!
We managed one group outing with the whole team, to Mt Racey, where Fujiisan got us a discount on lift tickets and we went exploring. The snow cover was a lot better than my previous trip there in 2020, but I had an unfortunate incident with my ski bindings being too loose, which meant I didn't feel confident not to lose a ski in the deeper snow. I have no idea how they became loose, but I now know to check them before using them again.
We visited the Sapporo Snow and Ice Festival as usual. I swear it's not as spectacular as it used to be pre COVID.
We also went to the Otaru Lantern Festival, which is a very poor cousin of what it used to be. It's still pretty enough, and sadly, there is no longer a lantern festival in Asarigawaonsen now that Yonehana-san is no longer involved. I managed to catch up with him a few times up at the ski resort and say hello, but he is fully retired these days.
Chinese New Year was predictably busy, and then in my last week I got booked to teach the granddaughter of one of the ski resort owners. The ski resort and golf course, a few hotels, and our ski school is now owned by a Taiwanese family consisting of 2 twin brothers: Bernard and Michael. Bernard has lived in Japan for many years and is the keen skier of the two, and he wanted me to get his granddaughter up to speed so he could ski with her.
She was a delightful 20 year old, with not an ounce of entitlement given her privilege. She turned up in her mother's borrowed ski gear and we sorted out rentals before beginning on the baby slope. She had skied once before so was still a rank beginner. By the end of the first day it was clear that it would take her a little longer to get up to speed for Bernard to ski with her, so day after day she rebooked me, and day after day Bernard would turn up, once on his private skidoo, to check her progress and take some video footage. It became patently clear early on that she didn't really like her grandfather that much, and had no intention of skiing with him at all. She'd make polite conversation with him for a few minutes and then it would be "Bye Bye" as she shooed him off. On days I was already booked she'd just go shopping with her grandmother instead. By the end of her week trip she was skiing down from the top of the Purple lift, and I'd introduced her to skiing powder, so she was having a lot of fun and had improved enough for Bernard to be very pleased with her progress. She still didn't want to ski with him though!! LOL!!
With Chinese New Year done and dusted, I had planned to stop work mid February and had invited Kathy to join me for some skiing. With accommodation and lift prices being so expensive we elected to avoid Niseko and Rusutsu, so the first few days we skied locally: a day each at Kiroro, Asari, Teine and Kokusai. Kathy had brought both her piste skis and powder skis with her, but on the second day the brake binding broke on her piste skis. We managed to borrow some skis I had used in previous years from the store of skis in the Winkel equipment room, so after exploring locally we picked up a hire car and headed north.
Our trip north coincided with a significant snow event, which closed roads and resorts for a day or two, but the snow didn't go that far inland, so it didn't affect us at all. We didn't get the massive dumps, but we did get to ski every day.
First stop was Kamoidake. This was on our way to Asahikawa, where we would be staying for 4 nights. It's a funky little local field that has runs on both sides of one big hill, but the chairlift is only running on one side. This year they introduced a shuttle service, allowing you to ski the other side then take a bus back around. On the day we visited there wasn't enough new snow for them to have that option available, but we still enjoyed carving up the piste for a few hours, consumed a tasty lunch in the cafeteria, and then visited the onsen in the hotel next door. We shared the onsen with a haggle of old chicks who dialled the sauna humidity up to the extreme end and cackled at our lack of resilience. They were such a fun bunch of ladies!
Our hotel in Asahikawa was an ex love hotel. Japanese houses are small, so love hotels give young people the opportunity for intimacy with a lot more privacy. This hotel was now a regular hotel, but the rooms were much bigger than the usual boxy hotel room, and the bathroom was enormous. Since we went for onsen every day after skiing, we never actually used the hotel shower facilities!
For dinner we headed out to find an isakaya. We ordered a few dishes and washed them down with a beer or two, then headed back to our hotel.
The next day we headed to Pippu. There are always options at Pippu to find some freshies just off the main trails, but the piste is also lovely skiing. Off course we bought the day ticket that includes a visit to the nearby onsen!
That evening we ate out at Ren, an izakaya I had found last year and was keen to return to. The old fellow remembered my face.
Our next skifield was Kamui Links. Off piste was a little scratchy, and Kathy wasn't really enjoying the tree skiing. We almost had to walk out after heading down a run after the lift had officially closed, but the staff kindly let us load and get back up the hill. On the way back to town we found another onsen to visit, and afterwards went for a wander through the adjoining amusement arcade that seemed to be a throwback to the 1970s and 80s.
The next day we took it easy, doing a bit of shopping before driving out to Sounkyo Gorge to visit their Ice Festival. We also went to see the frozen waterfalls. You can take a cablecar up to ski further up the mountain, but it's fairly tough terrain, and the lift was currently closed for maintenance. The Ice Festival was worth the visit, as was visiting one of the local onsens, of which there are many.
We decided to head back to Pippu for our final day of skiing near Asahikawa, before driving to Furano where we would stay for 3 nights. I hadn't realised that our stay would coincide with the busiest weekend of the season, The Emperors Birthday weekend. Silly me!
We purchased a 5 hour ski ticket for Furano, and then around lunchtime found ourselves standing in a very long queue to take the ropeway back up to the top. Needless to say we didn't bother taking a lunch break and decided we would go elsewhere for the following day.
My friend Alex was working at Furano, and had the Monday off, so we drove to Minamifurano and had a really wonderful morning skiing at the tiny local resort. After lunch we did a few more runs then drove into the town to visit the very large Mont Bell shop. It's the largest Mont Bell shop in Hokkaido, weirdly situated in a fairly remote location in the middle of the island.
The ladies at the skifield cafeteria had told us how to get to a nearby onsen. The road to the onsen followed alongside a large lake, which was frozen over. Imagine our surprise to see numerous ice fishing camps set up out on the ice! They must smoke the fish, because the signage at the hotel onsen we visited told them they weren't welcome!!
From Furano we headed south, with the plan to ski Sahoro. When we arrived most of the lifts were on wind hold, so we drove over to Tomamu to ski there instead. Once we worked out where to park without having to schlep our ski gear through hotel lobbies we were away, and had a lovely day exploring the entire mountain.
We tried to visit an onsen nearby to our accommodation, but it was all closed up. The host at our B&B suggested we head back to Sahoro to visit their onsen, but I really couldn't stomach driving more that day. Instead we showered at our lodging, then went to the local town where we had a wonderful meal at a small sushi restaurant.
Our final day we drove back to Asari, stopping at Hidaka on the way. There had been a fresh dump and the tiny skifield was empty aside from a few hardy locals and the army. We booted up and then bought our 2 hour tickets for the grand price of 1500 Yen each. The tickets actually gave us a full 2 hours 40 minutes before they expired and we used every minute of that time taking the 3 lifts up to the top and skiing fresh lines of snow that just kept being blown into the bowl each time. The lifties joined in on our grinning faces as we lapped and lapped and lapped. I reckon they probably would have let us keep skiing past our ticket expiry time, but we still had a long drive back. So after a delicious lunch in Hidaka town, we drove back to Asari.
Kathy flew out the next day, my flight was the following day. My time in Japan was over.
Next it's back to Australia to finish off the final section on the AAWT....
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