HOKKAIDO, JAPAN. 064 WORDS CAROLINE ROSS & DAN JONES PHOTOS JOHNNY McCORMACK, LUKE REICHINGER & CAROLINE ROSS HOKKAIDO HONSHU TOKYO KYUSHU SHIKOKU

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1 064 WORDS CAROLINE ROSS & DAN JONES PHOTOS JOHNNY McCORMACK, LUKE REICHINGER & CAROLINE ROSS HOKKAIDO, JAPAN HOKKAIDO HONSHU KYUSHU TOKYO SHIKOKU FURANO NISEKO SAPPORO ICE-COVERED LAKES, BUBBLING HOT SPRINGS, GIANT SNOWMEN AND THE BEST SNOW YOU LL FIND ALL SUMMER. THIS IS S FROZEN ISLAND RUSUTSU LAKE TOYA LAKE SHIKOTSU CHITOSE INT L AIRPORT PHOTO BY NASA

2 066 Japan is a land full of contradictions and mysteries. A paradoxical mixture of history and hi-tech where toilets talk and ancient tradition is valued above all else. Hokkaido is Japan s northernmost island and is the icy heart of the nation s snowboarding and ski industry. Its winters are breathtakingly perfect. About 16 metres of powdery fine snow falls from mid-december to mid-march, setting the stage for the island s twinkling ice festivals, frozen lake fun parks, and attracting over 600,000 boarding enthusiasts each year. There are a series of popular and varied resorts like Niseko, a large region, made up of four main areas: An nupuri, Higashiyama, Hirafu and Hanazono. Nearby La Ponte offers steeper, deeper and untouched terrain and Rusutsu, about 45 minutes out of Niseko, is a quieter alternative during the peak season although the trails aren t so well marked as they are in other resorts. In all its bubbling craziness, Japan is a utilitarian and user-friendly culture. Interactive dance machines, tumble dryers in on-mountain restaurants, dry-cell batteries for your mobile phone (so that you never need to re-charge), AUD$10 bottles of vodka and 100 yen noodle bars: the innovation is endless. It s not just these oddities that make Hokkaido totally unique; it s the landscape that excites. Craggy mountains, tree-lined tracks and snow that literally falls right up to the ocean s edge.

3 068 SLEEP Small is beautiful. It s true of many things, not just Japanese accommodation. Hokkaido has an incredibly varied range of hotels, apartments and hostels and in each you ll be treated to famous Japanese hospitality, albeit in a tiny room. One of the world s very few 6-star hotels looks out like a fortress to the Japanese Sea, or there s a string of simple hostels that might save you a couple of Yen. There are great medium range options too or stay with friends in a traditional Japanese lodge where you ll be looked after by an O-baa-jan (old lady of the house), eat a traditional breakfast and learn a bit about local life. NISEKO LODGE, NISEKO Known locally as RuRu the lodge is perfect for large groups, sleeping up to 20 people in rather intimate comfort. Bilingual hosts help with almost everything, provide you with local knowledge and help organise day trips to other areas. From AUD$85 a night with breakfast included, you can negotiate a discount for large groups. It s a great way to experience not only the snow, but the culture as well... and there s an onsen just down the road. NISEKO FRESH TRACKS, NISEKO Luxury 1, 2 and 3 bedroom selfcontained apartments with all the trimmings including PlayStations. The 1 bedroom studio fits up to 4 people for a kind of high school-style slumber party, with foldout couches, extra beds and French braids available on request. NISEKO KOGEN HOTEL, NISEKO It s just 20 short metres from the central Kogen lifts and therefore perfect for the supremely lazy. It s the best ski-in ski-out accommodation possible, and you ll be based in the excellent Niseko Hirafu village. There s a heated indoor swimming pool, karaoke facilities and an in-house café. It s about AUD$180 a night for a twin share room with breakfast included PENSIONE LILLA HUSET, RUSUTSU Pensions are the perfect way to experience the hospitality of Japanese people. These are adjacent to the Rusutsu Resort Hotel, and are a pretty cute and affordable pension complex where you will be served a true Japanese style breakfast and then just slide right out onto the slopes. THE HOTEL WINDSOR The only hotel in the Shikotsu Toya National Park, the Windsor looks out over the Japanese Sea on one side and the beautiful Lake Toya on the other. It s one of the world s leading 6-star hotels and a little bit on the pricey side. From around AUD$800 a night for a double room, you can also enjoy the Windsor s 11 restaurants, two 18-hole golf courses and the famous Bloom Spa with its mysterious VIP Couples Rooms.

4 070 EAT & DRINK Fish sperm, crispy tripe and Green Tea Kit Kats: it s best not to hold back from Japan s seemingly inedible delights, but open your mind and your mouth good advice in any situation. Simple, elegant and refined, traditional Japanese cuisine is among the healthiest in the world, and extends far beyond sushi, rice and miso soup. Hokkaido is known for its excellent seafood, so fresh you might see the octopus you ordered being cut up in front of your eyes. It s also surprisingly cheap, dispelling the myth that Japan is expensive and inaccessible. It may be true that prices are on the rise in popular resort towns like Niseko, but you can still eat out in one of its finest restaurants for under AUD$60. Budget for about AUD$20 per meal in restaurants, and if you re running low, you can always go and see O-baa-jan in the 100 yen Noodle shop in Niseko, and be fed and watered for around AUD$5. A-BU-CHA, NISEKO Mouth-watering modern Japanese cuisine. Famous for its Na-be (Japanese hotpot), gracious service and the cutest Japanese waiters this side of Mount Fuji. With over 250 different drinks in the late night bar, you ll probably fall in love with this little restaurant just like everyone else (so remember to book well in advance). Expect to pay about AUD$25-$35, drinks included. GENTEM CAFÉ, NISEKO Asian and Vietnamese cuisine cooked using Mount Yotei s natural spring water underneath a beautifully battered, Mongolian tent. The Nashi- Goren is something special, as is the Pad Thai but you should really order the Coconut milk with Tapioca and Sweet Soy Beans for de-zaa-to (dessert). Located about 10 minutes drive from Niseko village, they ll even come and collect you in their minivan and take you home again. YO, NISEKO Personal and authentic, you need to book well in advance and tell the YO staff whether you d like the fish or meat course. Then, they ll order in the freshest produce on the market and cook whatever you like. Pay around AUD$60 a head for the seafood course and around AUD$50 for the meat (both meals have around 5 courses). A true Japanese experience to savour. SUSHI-TRAIN, KUTCHAN Go see Matsu, the region s best sushi-chef with chubby cheeks and an electric smile for some of the best sushi and sashimi dishes you ve ever tasted. If you re hungry, eat 19+ plates of sushi and you ll be the reigning sushi-eating champion. Matsu will also organise Flavours of Japan nights for large groups of up to 20 people, where you ll pay about AUD$30 each for an eat-your-ownweight buffet. They ll even drive to Niseko village to pick you up and then drop you home. Thanks, Matsu. HANK S BAR AND JAM, NISEKO As with most bars in Niseko, don t be alarmed if you poke your head in what looks like someone s own home and see half the town s population squished in. Walk into Hank s and you ll feel as though you ve been plonked straight in his lounge room, with its open fire and bottles upon bottles of sake. It s a friendly, warm experience; just remember to wipe your feet. Nearby JAM s another great bar with excellent service and notorious late-night parties. Their amazing 1000 yen all-you-can-drink nights (about AUD$13 each) are especially popular. YUMMY S AND JAVA-BAR, NISEKO This subterranean bar is another local favourite, with darts nights and DJ parties drawing big crowds. The owner, Tomo-san, is not only a local snowboarding hero, but also a photographer who always knows what s going on in the area. Just around the corner from Yummy s is a new venue, Java-bar. It serves the best coffee in Niseko, and turns into a relaxed, loungey bar at night.

5 072 PLAY BAD WEATHER DAYS Check out the local Pachinko parlours, identifiable by their loud fluorescent flags at the entrance. They re packed with rows and rows of gambling machines and blaring J-Pop. Gambling is illegal in Japan so you don t gamble with cash money, but tiny metallic balls (which you purchase there), and then cash in to get all sorts of saucy surprises. SNOWBOARD SURFING Take a day trip from Niseko to Otaru, a cool fishing town on the coast of Japan and Siberian waters. It s just an hour s drive/train ride from Niseko and you ll see the true meaning of yin and yang, where the snow literally settles right up to the ocean s tide. You can actually snowboard into the ocean. Stroll through the streets of Otaru and see quaint fishing sheds transformed in to glass-making galleries and souvenir shops. It s a simple fact: Hokkaido is beautiful. You ll probably feel the pressure to do and see as much as possible, but you don t have to be a winter sports obsessive to enjoy Japan s northernmost island. It s true that most people are lured to Hokkaido for its consistent promise of powder snow, and from mid-december to mid-march each year the region is the proud recipient of the bulk of the sub-arctic storms blowing in from Siberia. But it s the infamous individuality of Japanese culture that s the really tasty part. Pachinko Parlours, nudist hot spring baths, creepy seafood markets, red light delights and AUD$5 noodle bars are all part of Hokkaido s hidden treasures. PRICE CHECK Where even the banal is interesting, visit almost any supermarket for a visual-sensory experience. Full of oddities, repetitive jingles telling you you re very hungry hungry, very hungry hungry in Japanese, and the crazy candy aisle will have you amused for hours. There are 4 major supermarkets in Kutchan, one aptly named JOY and in Niseko-Hirafu itself there is a well-stocked 7-11 type shop called Seico-mart, which is a daily ritual for many in Niseko, usually for a stock-up of either rice triangles or niku-man.

6 074 PLAY THE NIGHT RIDER On a clear full-moon night you can board or ski through the trees in Niseko and see the nightlights of surrounding towns like Kutchan winking away. On a fine day, hike up to the peak for sensational 360 degree views and untouched lines down as far as the Golf course in Kutchan. If it s super clear, you can ride down to An nupuri through the bowls. Strawberry Fields and Jackson s are other areas popular with the locals. KING STEAM Onsen are natural, mineral rich hot springs where the Japanese go to soak away their aches and pains or just to get away and relax. Bathing at onsen is a centuries old tradition and in Hokkaido you can sit back in an open-air onsen and have snow falling on your head in the winter months. Follow onsen etiquette and scrub yourself down before slipping into the pool. Remember to keep your voice low and maybe take a little towel for modesty as all onsen prohibit bathing suits and you ll be bearing your bits and bobs for all to see.

7 076 DIARY LOCAL HERO Sayuri Yoneya hosts the boisterous international snowboarding teams that visit Hokkaido s world-class snow resorts. When she s not visiting them in hospital, bailing them out of jail or watching out for them on boozy nights out, she somehow finds time to explore the natural treasures of Japan s northernmost island. TOYOTA BIG AIR early January A massive, world-famous snowboarding big-air event in Sapporo in early January. In true Japanese style, you ll be amazed by the way competitors are elevated in to PlayStation-like heroes, with masses of screaming Japanese fans, an electric atmosphere and more crazy J-Pop. SHIKARIBETSUKO KOTAN January to March Igloo village in Lake Shikaribetsu (Shikaoi Town). A small igloo village with an ice museum and an open-air hot spring suddenly pops up on the iced-over lake. Try hot air ballooning, snow trekking and other back to nature activities. YUKI MATSURIS January to March Snow and Ice Festivals Almost everywhere in Hokkaido, even in small villages, art and sculptures are made of snow or ice and lit with colourful lights. Japanese matsuris are complete with various stalls, music, authentic food, thousands of people and other odd attractions. This is one of the most unique events in Hokkaido and shouldn t be missed. The most popular festivals are held in the following places: Chitose, Lake Shikotsu, Obihiro, Kushiro, Sounkyo Gorge, Anahikawa, Kitami, Abashiri, Monbetsu and a massive Matsuri in Sapporo in early February. SHOWA SHINZAN late February International snowball fight (Sobetsu Town). About 190 teams of Snowball Fighters from around the world, brimming with confidence, get together to have matches and decide who will be the world champion with the hardest icy balls. DAISETUZAN NATIONAL PARK Daisetuzan National Park is located at the heart of Hokkaido. It s the largest mountain park in Japan and includes over 30 mountains. Asahidake is the highest mountain in the Daisetsu Mountain Range. It s a hot spring resort located in a nature preserve and you can take a trip along the ropeway in summer or ride along it in the winter. There s special charm being so close to nature during all four seasons. FRURANO Nestled between the Tokachi mountain range to the east and the Asahibetsudake of the Yuubari mountain range to the west, Furano City is spread through this area and more than 70% of the city s area consists of forests and mountains. It s totally surrounded by nature. Furano s climate peaks and troughs with winter temperatures dipping below 30 and summer highs exceeding 30. The temperature change within a single day is often very high, creating ideal growing conditions for local delicacies such as melon and asparagus. SHIRETOKO NATIONAL PARK The Shiretoko peninsula is located in the northeast end in Hokkaido. It s only about 70km so it s quite small but beautiful all the same. At the peninsula s is tip Mt. Rausu and the Shiretoko cape which runs all the way to Mt. Shiretoko. The west side faces the Sea of Okhotsk, and in winter you can watch the drift ice float south as it breaks from the peninsula s coast in winter.

8 078 WATCH / READ / LISTEN THE FACTS THANKS TO STA TRAVEL WATCH Seven Samurai, the 1950 s epic cited by Quentin Tarantino as a key influence. Tampopo, the hilarious and touching parody often dubbed a spaghetti eastern. New anime such as Howl s Moving Castle. READ Japanese magazines are renowned for their quality and are among the best in the world. Pick up a copy of: The fashion, design and photography monthly Relax. Independent music and art magazine Beikoku. Cinemanga such as Spirited Away the comic produced from the 2001 film. LOCATION Hokkaido is the most northern Japanese island. It is also the coldest and arguably gets the best snow. CURRENCY Yen. Y100 = approx AUD$0.84. LANGUAGE Japanese. COST OF ITEMS Cup of coffee Y300, Skiing in Japan is not as expensive as you might imagine. Day tickets are usually in the range of 3600 yen 4600 yen, or AUD$45 - $ TRANSPORTATION Once in Japan, you can travel to Hokkaido by air, train, or a combination of car and ferry. Flying is the quickest and easiest way to go. Around Hokkaido, travel by bus and train is convenient and inexpensive. USEFUL WEBSITES OTHER INFORMATION Australians must have a valid passport to enter Japan. Also accepted is a blue-covered Emergency Passport issued after 1 December No visa is required for a stay of up to 90 days. If you plan on doing any driving in Japan you ll need to get an international driver s license before you arrive. Banking hours are 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday. Occasionally banks in business areas are open from 9am - 12pm on Saturday. When entering a Japanese home or restaurant it is customary to remove shoes. Tips and bargaining are not expected in Japan. Water is considered drinkable everywhere in Japan unless otherwise stated. LISTEN Retro garage girl band The 5,6,7,8 s Avant-pop trio Buffalo Daughter Roots Reggae duo Dry and Heavy CAROLINE ROSS IS A FREE-RIDE SKIER SPONSORED BY K2 SKIS AND HELLY HANSEN. SHE SPENT THE WINTER SEASON IN NISEKO- HIRAFU AND IS HEADING BACK FOR LEARN A LANGUAGE IN JAPAN WITH STA Japan is bursting with culture, and you can experience more of what Japan has to offer with a language course in Fukuoka from just $95 per day. Programs start weekly. WE KNOW BECAUSE WE GO APPROXIMATE AIRFARES Australian Airlines flies directly into Sapporo. Ex MEL/SYD/BNE from $1099 plus approx $230-$260 in taxes. Ex ADL/CBR from $1199 plus approx $230-$260 in taxes. Ex PER from $1319 plus approx $230-$260 in taxes. CLIMATE/BEST TIME TO GO Winter season (December to March) is the best time to travel to Hokkaido as much of the country is covered in snow. New Year, from December 27th to January 5th, can be busy and tickets and accommodation can be very difficult to find and very expensive. The peak of the season is from mid-january until the end of February.