Furano and Sapporo

[RooFlyer]

I'm thinking about a non-ski season trip to Japan, but it just seems so wasteful .

We can politely disagree on that

 

[Seat0B]

Wednesday 29 Jan 25 - A Bad Viz Day

It's snowed for the first time since we arrived - maybe 5 cm, but at least it's something. It's cloudy. And foggy. So cloudy and foggy, I can barely see to the second pylon on the Kitanomine lift. And, my legs are tired after 3 great days of skiing. I think a rest day might be in order, especially as there is more snow in the forecast.

So we called it. Tidied up our room a bit to give a bit more horizontal surface to put things on. Wrote up my trip diary that I am now using as a resource to write this TR. Caught up on emails, both business and social. Caught up with friends and family. Read my book. Planned my coffee treat at Ronin.

Blast it, its 1240 and the sun is shining and the lift lines are short. Perhaps we made the wrong call. Anyway, the call was made, so we set off to explore a bit more of the neighbourhood. Regular readers know that one of our favourite things to do anywhere in the world is head to the suburban backstreets and see how people live. So off we headed, wearing sunglasses and debating whether we needed neckwarmers and super warm gloves, or just a scarf and light gloves.

We barely got around the corner when the weather suddenly changed - heavy cloud and then light snow, which strengthened over the next 30 mins to heavy snow, wind and fog. OK, we made the right call after all!

On our walk, we found a Lawson konbini about 900m from our hotel. Bought a few snacks and some sandwiches for lunch. Then we headed back through the burbs in the falling snow on fairly slick and slippery streets despite their sprinkle of grit. In Kitanomine, the "must have" "keep up with the Joneses" accessory was a pimped up personal snow plow. Some of these were very fancy indeed with mag wheels and chrome things everywhere. I do regret not taking photos, but I was cold and under-dressed and so I didn't. It was the classic demonstration of how quickly the weather can change in the mountains. We left in sunshine. Then came this:





Which quickly turned to this:



So we dropped in on Ronin on the way back and wereglad to pay JPY750 for a coffee.

Next was a hotel pyjama clad walk to the onsen for a good long soak. Then dinner and an early night - a bit excited about the forecast for overnight snow. Finally hoping for the much promised "powder every night" to eventuate. Fingers crossed for us please.

 

[Justinf]

Saturday 25 Jan 25 Part 3

Boarding was by a strictly enforced Group system. My Boarding pass said Group 1 and as we were travelling together on the same PNR, I expected Mr Seat 0A's to aslo be Group 1. But no, as a QF LTG (OWS), he was allocated as Group 2 and they were not willing to override th computer to let him through. Not a big problem, but not what I expected. Boarding was quite orderly, and reasonably fast, with everyone on board in approximately 20 minutes.

The A350 is huge inside, and JAL ran it with First, Business and Economy. Business was 1-2-1 and Business was 2-4-2. I don;t know what econmy looked like! Business looked and felt very much like Premium Economy, but it was comfortable for us as a couple travelling together being seated in one of the 2 seat sections. The seats were quite spacious, and as a shortie, I had plenty of room, as did Mr Seat 0A, who is 180cm. He also appreciated having a window and daylight.

View attachment 432421
View attachment 432423View attachment 432424View attachment 432425


The flight map was interesting. It's a geopolitical reminder of how close Russia is to Hokkaido.

View attachment 432422

The flight was quite short, just over an hour. We were served a choice of hot/cold drinks, but no food. This also surprised me. Economy seemed not to be served anything. First looked like they got similar to QF Dom Business.

The JAL Priority Bag tags work much much better than the QF ones do and our bags were very prompt arriving at the carousel in New Chitose. We were out into the arrivals concourse very quickly and have 1hr 45 mins to wait until our bus to Furano. We passed the time exploring the absolutely massive shopping centre upstairs on the departures level, although on so little sleep and with all the Japanese noise and the effort of speaking Japanese, I felt a bit overwhelmed when confronted with a huge array of bento boxes for lunch. So I opted for my go to favourite comfort food in Japan - a konbini tamago sando and a bottle of cold green tea. Mr Seat 0A had a tonkatsu sando. We both nibbled a small block of Meiji Chocolate. Our wait again passed quickly and soon we were aboard our last leg - bus to Furano. I watched out the window for a bit, but soon the warmth and the white noise of the bus worked their magic and I drowsed off to sleep, only waking a few minutes before Furano, with a cricked neck. We were delivered to the hotel door at 1445, and yes, don't you know it, we had to wait until 1500 precisely before we could be checked in. So we did a small walk around the facilities of the hotel and checked in at precisely 1500.

We are staying at Hotel Naturwald Furano and it is quirky, and cutesy, and kitsch in that (good) Japanese way. I'll do a separate post later about the hotel. The longer I stayed, the more I liked it! We have half board here (breakfast and dinner included each day), and selected the early sitting 1730-1900. So to fill in the time until could legitimately go to bed, I contented myself with unpacking my things, putting my skis in the ski locker, having a long soak in the onsen, eating dinner and was in bed asleep by 2000. Unusual for me as I'm usually a night owl.

Tomorrow we ski. It has been a very long journey to get here, so I really hope the snow is as good as everyone has raved to us.


Edit: Correct typos

It has caught many a traveller out, including this one.
Economy - drink, normal seat
Business - drink, bigger seat
First - meal, slightly bigger seat than J

Given the short flight times on domestic, J is rarely worth it.
Enjoying the TR.

 

[Seat0B]

Thursday 30 Jan - Another Weather Day

Today looks like a re-run of yesterday, only with more snow and even less visibility. Tomorrow's forecast looks great.

So we took another weather day today.

This decision was vindicated as strong winds came in, putting the Kitanomine Gondola at least (the only one we could see from the hotel) onto wind hold. This in turn made the lines for the Kitanomine Quad very long by Japanese standards. By 1140 there was a steady stream of cars out of the car park, and guests returning to the hotel.

It has snowed lightly but steadily all day and it's forecast to continue overnight. Come on everyone, cross your fingers and do a snow dance for us please.

 

[Seat0B]

Friday 31 Jan 25 - Finally, Some Powder

Up bright and early today to enjoy nature's bounty overnight. Between 15-20 cm of powder fell overnight - yay. Many others had the same idea and it was busier than usual at breakfast and also buying lift tickets, but none the less, we were on the mountain by 0840. First lift is at 0830, so not too bad at all.

The snow was fabulous. Super light, dry, fluffy powder boot deep. You can't tell it in these photos, but I promise you we were both smiling our faces off! This is what we came to Furano for!


The snow offered no resistance to skis, which just cut through it like a hot knife cuts butter. We ended each run with snow piled on the top of each ski. I was really happy with how I skied the powder too. My new technique of sliding the new uphill ski forward in contact with the snow at all times, setting some edges and staying calm and waiting for the turn to happen made for the best I have ever skied powder conditions. It continued to snow lightly all morning, without any wind, and it was just beautiful. I love, love, loved it.



As you can see from these photos, the visibility was varied during the morning, but unfortunately it got progressively worse as the day progressed. Even with pink lens goggles, it was pretty hard to see what was what, so inside for a hot chocolate with a view. I have just about given up on coffee up the mountain.



Flush with success from a great day's skiing, I even mastered the dreaded H1 run home, so decided to do a couple of finisher runs on Kitanomine side before heading inside for an onsen and dinner. Those runs were just weird though. The morning's powder was by then quite heavily tracked, and the increasingly cold temperatures during the day has sort of frozen it all into quite solid ruts that chattered and bounced the skis around. It was quite unpleasant to ski on tired legs.

All up, one of my best skiing days ever.

In bed and asleep before 2130. The days are taking on a pattern!

 

[Seat0B]

Saturday 1 Feb 25 - A Tale of Two Mountains?

Up early and hoping for a cut and paste of yesterday, but alas no new powder.

Instead, we had miles and miles of untracked corduroy and beautiful clear blue skies, which was not a bad alternative.



Today followed the usual pattern of some warm up runs at Kitanomine, then a transfer via Link Lift to Furano zone. Despite the broad sunlight at Kitanomine, it was quite cloudy at Furano, with a low lying fog bank right over the middle part of the mountain. We stuck it out for a few runs, but I was not loving the lack of vis, and so we headed in to warm up (it was -10 degrees) and have a hot chocolate. Yes, we have now entirely given up on drinking coffee on mountain.

A couple more runs in the gloop and we decided to head back to Kitanomine, which was still in beautiful sunlight. I had to work really hard today on the dreaded H1 link run back home and the visibility was atrocious. But today I got the head game right and I totally beasted that slope (even if I say it myself ). We did a couple of extra runs back in the sunshine, and I left the slopes on a high.

 

[Seat0B]

Saturday 1 Feb 25 - Bonchi Powder Festival

Tonight, instead of going to bed early, we wadded up our clothes and ventured out into the -14 degree chill to visit the very poorly advertised Bonchi Powder Festival that's running over the weekend. We found out about it when our waitstaff asked if we were going as it was so nearby - just in the next carpark over from our hotel. It was about a 3 minute walk - or should I say waddle, as I felt like the Michelin Man with all my layers on . Still I was glad of all my layers as it turned out to be quite fun and we stayed for about half an hour. We had unfortunately missed the headline act of taiko drumming, mainly because we didn't know it was on! So we made do with watching a weird dance around a massive bonfire by shirtless men wearing big hats and chanting something indecipherable. I hope it was a snow dance!

The festival had a nice family atmosphere, and lots of food stalls selling traditional Japanese foods and hot sake. There were some performances by local "talent" and it was all very folksy and down home. It was quite a lot of fun, but we were rather miffed with the lack of advertising which meant we didn't really know what was on offer, and it seemed like the kind of thing we would have enjoyed if we had made it to the main part of it.

The funniest part of the the festival for us was the seriousness with which they undertook the recycling of crowd generated waste. There was a person in full safety gear - hard hat and fluoro clothing - to direct people how to dispose of their rubbish responsibly. Rubbish rules in Japan are very strict, and there are big fines for people who pollute the waste stream, but I did find this earnest diligence quite hilarious. I managed to winkle a small smile from the recycling man in the 2nd last photo by saying in Japanese that I had burnable waste (moeru no gomi).



Anyway, despite all our layers and the lure of fireworks at 2000, we were too cold to wait around and headed back to our room where we watched the fireworks in warmth and comfort, along with a mass night ski with several hundred skiers holding multi coloured LED light batons. It was all very lovely. On the way home, we found a Japanese poster advertising the festival and worked out that there might be some fun in watching the Furano Milk Drinking Championships tomorrow. We also saw a poster advertising what I thought was a longer taiko drum performance by the famous taiko group Kodoo at the Furano Theatre Factory later this week. More info from the Furano Tourist Association. I think I'd like to follow this up.

 

[Seat0B]

Sunday 2 Feb 25 - Bad Weather Strikes Again

Well I suppose you need to expect bad weather when you're engaged in an outdoor, wintertime pursuit. Terrible visibility today, and windy.

So instead of skiing , we headed over to the Furano Milk Drinking Championships. Furano, and indeed the whole of Hokkaido, is a huge dairy area.

There were 2 divisions, kids and adults, and it was a hoot. Kids had to drink an 80 ml bottle and a 180 ml bottle. Adults drank 80ml, 180ml and 800ml. Milk was served at room temperature - which was -10 degrees so damn cold. The brain freeze looks on the kids were something to behold. This whole event was a hoot. Simple rules. Start with hands on head. Rip off the lids (harder than it looks in freezing temperatures, for both kids and adults). Chug the milk. First to finish wins. No spillage or spitting out allowed.

Lots of community cheering and laughing as the hardy competitors chugged freezing cold milk, many slopping it onto their ski wear as they went. Big rounds of cheering and applause as the gulped down their last mouthfuls. These photos of the Kids' Division:


Winner of this division was the boy in the brown coat.

Adult winner was the defending champion - who apparently had travelled for over 5 hours to defend his title!



We decided to head into Furano township in gently falling snow to follow up about the Kodo taiko drum performance, but dang it, we missed the shuttle bus. These only run every 2 hrs or so (annoying). Anyway, it was 2.7 km to Furano and we were heavily dressed, so we decided to walk in to town, stepping carefully on the icy parts where the footpath crossed roads. We crossed over the beautiful, partially frozen river Sorachi and my fingers nearly froze off trying to take a photo. I somehow never seem to be able to get the technology fingertips on gloves to work on my phone.



Continued on our way, which I was now experiencing as a frozen extremities trudge through the snow . About half way there, we were so cold we sought refuge in a McDonalds, where I tried to buy a hot chocolate. Sorry, no hot chocolate, only coffee. The coffee is uniformly so bad, I opted for nothing .

I personally found Furano Township very underwhelming. Maybe my mood was low because I was cold, but it was not a welcoming atmosphere. Many shops were shuttered (maybe they close for Sundays in this part of Japan), and there were quite a few shops and houses that were obviously derelict. Japan has a problem with so called akiya (abandoned houses) when owners do not want to pay the costs of repairs or city taxes, so they just abandon the house. Sometimes, people who inherit houses refuse the inheritance because they don't want the costs, and it's become quite an issue. I wonder if that was what was happening here? Or maybe, they were holiday houses for the summer, which is reportedly beautiful here? Anyway, it was all a bit gulag. I recall feeling this way in 2010 on my last trip to Hokkaido when we ventured into Kutchan from Niseko one day.



Anyway, after a dreary trudge in -10 degree, windy snowy weather (pictured above) we made it to the Furano Tourist Association next to JR Furano station and booked ourselves into the drum performance for Friday for JPY5,000 per person. I am pretty excited about that.

So by then it was 1310 and by Japanese standards of punctuality, we should have just missed the 1308 shuttle bus back to the hotel. I was gently remonstrating with Mt Seat0A about this and firmly refusing to walk home, when the tourist association lady called over to me, in Japanese "are you going back to ski area? I think the bus is late - look so many people still at the bus stop!" So we hightailed it over to the bus stop, and it was indeed a Red Letter Day because the bus was 7 minutes late and we were able to very gratefully ride it back home for JPY170 each. Bargain!!!

We enjoyed a coffee at Ronin, and tried out the tricky to pronounce Japanese verb atatamemasu (to heat up) when I ordered a pain au chocolate to go with it. The Barista, a 40ish Japanese man then engaged me in quite a long conversation in Japanese, about where I was from, why I could speak such good Japanese (he was being very polite!), and exclaimed in surprise when I said I had learnt more than 40 years ago at university "honto ni!!!!" (wow really????" Then he said in English "thank you for trying to speak Japanese here." Oh that warmed my heart. When I got back to our table, I told Mr Seat0A about this and said how grateful I was to my young uni lecturer from 1981-82 at Newcastle Uni for giving me such solid foundations and grounding in the language that I could subsequently self teach/refresh with an app and the internet all these years later. That led to a conversation about where he might be now, and whether I should contact him to say he'd made an impact on my life. So we googled him and found that he had unfortunately passed away in 2012 aged in his early 60s. Vale James Fennessey. He was the first non-Japanese person to reach the 7th Dan of Kendo. I felt a bit melancholy after this, so soaked and reflected in the onsen for a while.

It has snowed steadily and at times heavily today, so I'm hoping for powder again tomorrow.

 

[drron]

Missed you by a year I was at Newcastle University learning Japanese in1982/3. We had a young Japanese woman as a lecturer. She also was very good. I was the father figure of my class. Enjoyed it immensely.

 

[Seat0B]

Missed you by a year I was at Newcastle University learning Japanese in1982/3. We had a young Japanese woman as a lecturer. She also was very good. I was the father figure of my class. Enjoyed it immensely.

My Mum (then in her early 50s) joined our class for the 2 years I was there 1981-82 - she was an empty nester at that point and looking for a challenge. She was the "class mum" for us. Small world.

 

[Seat0B]

Monday 3 Feb 25 - No Powder But a Great Day

So once again, the overnight snow (about 15 cm) had stopped early enough for the groomers to turn it into miles and miles of beautiful, untracked corduroy, but I was hoping for powder .

Once again, it was very cold at -15 degrees.



Still, all the runs were lovely today with a nice fresh topping of snow and spectacular scenery and beautiful sunshine. We skied our legs off, in very small crowds, no waiting for lifts, just ski off/ski on. Phew!



But as you can see in the photos above, the bright blue skies soon gave way to clouds, and then to low level fog, and for the rest of the day from mid morning, we endured rapidly changing visibility from the gorgeous clear blue through to just one or two notches above total gloop. I swapped out my goggles to my pink ones and still by mid afternoon could not really see much in the flat light. I hate skiing blind.

This is the beginning of the promised major weather event that we are hanging out for. Tomorrow is supposed to be heavy snow but high winds, so let's see what the new day brings.

 

[Seat0B]

Tuesday 4 Feb 25 - Be Careful What you Wish For

So it did snow quite a lot overnight - about 20cm. But I confess to being totally bummed that Hakuba got 100 cm (yes that's 1 metre of snow overnight), and Nozawa Onsen a paltry 80 cm. I think I'm the snow jinx.

And we had blizzard winds. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the following:

• Heavy Snow Warning
• Snow Accumulation Advisory
• Snow Squall Advisory
• Avalanche Advisory
• Wind gusts to 63 km/hr.

And then the resort chimed in with lift closures and wind holds. I love their Perisher-esque optimism with "all other lifts open" yep - that was 3 lifts open for the day :



So today was definitely NOT a ski day for us, although, despite all the alerts and closures, there were still a few hardy (or crazy, or desperate) souls out there giving it a crack.

I contented myself with a big Japanese breakfast, doing some washing, lazing about, reading a book, coffee at Ronin, long soak in the onsen, dinner and crossing my fingers for a better day tomorrow.