This is our take of our last three years of tours to Niseko and Rusutsu. It is not the most comprehensive guide but it will give you an idea of what to expect if you're heading to Japan for the first time whether part of our tour group, or on your own.

Our trips to Niseko and Rusutsu were fantastic. The best part about traveling to Japan is the people (they are so friendly and well mannered), everything is so clean and well organized, and you just feel so safe (which is great if you’re traveling with kids). Also, because you basically travel north, you don’t cross any major time zones so you’re not jet lagged going over or coming home.

The only bad part about traveling to Japan is the length of the journey which although is very short in travel time, can be long in length as you may need to sleep a night on the way over  (which is actually not bad) and spend a day commuting, coming home (varies according to which flights and connections you take). Also, you usually only have a 20kg luggage limit per person, which is hard to maintain if you’re taking your own equipment over with you. Depending on your agent at the airport, they can charge you through the nose (about $40 per extra kg, up to $120 per person), or they can be nice and ignore that couple of kilos extra. You will have to deal with this both on the way over, and on the way home. One trick to try is to pack your boots in your carry-on luggage, which can reduce your weight significantly. There is now a company called www.personalporter.com.au who can also send your luggage over before you travel so that you don’t have to bother with the hassle. This is common practice in Japan. 

Also don’t forget, anything you bought for use overseas within 30 days of travel over $300 that you take as carry-on luggage, you can claim the GST back at the airport through the TRS desk. As we carried our boots, mitts and jackets on the plane with us, we got to claim about $150 back. 

Niseko & Grand Hirafu

 The Niseko ski area is made up of four ski resorts and townships. Annupuri, Higashiyama, Grand Hirafu and  Hanazono. Generally these resorts have their own lift passes, but you will probably have an 'All Mountain Pass', which allows you access to all four. There seems to be 2 different resort maps, we found the one, which is called the ‘Grand Hirafu Trail Map’ to be the easiest one to follow, probably because we were staying in the Grand Hirafu area.

Our favorite areas of the mountain include the area off the Hirafu Gondola, and the Annupuri bowl (far left on the map). We highly recommend skiing with a helmet if you are skiing in the trees. You need to be careful going over to Annupuri in the afternoon though as they stop running the higher lifts which allow you access back across, and you may have to catch the bus home. The bus will take about 50min to get back to Niseko (not because its far but because it makes so many stops along the way). It is free but long. The other important thing you need to be aware of in Japan is that if you ski outside the resort boundary, you are not covered for travel insurance! This means any areas through the gates. So, if you do venture out to these areas that are not patrolled and you injure yourself or are involved in an accident, you need to be aware of the risks in doing so. As a tour guide, we cannot take you through these areas.

We suggest you try different restaurants on the mountain for eating lunch every day as each one has different menus. We enjoyed Ace Hill the most for convenience and found that for around $10 you can get a decent sized meal with some food and drink options. We also enjoyed the rice ball hut at the bottom of the Gondola, although it doesn’t have a big selection of food. Also at the bottom of the Higashiyama area is a big hotel complex, and inside this complex are two fantastic places which you can eat at relatively cheaply. One was a buffet style with an all you can eat at around $15 per person (however you MUST remove all boots before you enter) and the other is bistro style. Both were great.

The lifts run from 8.30am to 9.00pm every day and the night skiing experience should not be missed. It is very different to Australian night skiing in that you can ski a large potion of the mountain under the huge lights, even amongst the trees. It is a great experience, even if just for one night, and you don’t need to purchase a separate lift pass. Preferably you should have clear lenses in your goggles for night skiing.

Speaking Japanese

I highly recommend learning to speak basic pleasantries to the Japanese people:Good morning, afternoon and evening, Thank you very much, Thanks and Good-bye. They will be appreciative and it’s a lot of fun when you get it wrong (they were always giggling at/with me), but at least they can see you are trying to be polite.

Phoning & communicating with home

 Don’t bother taking your phone over with you. Even with 3G and international roaming it is WAY too expensive and costs you to receive calls too. It is actually cheaper to buy a phone over there and use it with a phone card. The pension we are staying at in Niseko has a phone that people can contact you in case of emergency but for making phone calls, unfortunately, the best place (that we have found so far) is outside the Seico-mart using a pre-paid phone card. They are difficult to work out but it can be done. I found the best way to communicate is via email. There is a heated café in the center of town at the traffic lights (directly opposite A-Bu-Cha restaurant) that gives you free Internet use if you buy something, and you can plug your computer in there too. Our pension had free wireless Internet which we frequently used Skype to communicate with home, which we found fantastic!

Currency

You are best to arrange the Japanese currency (Yen) for your trip in the weeks before you depart. The best way to do this is to watch the movements of the AUD and JPY and arrange with your bank for the amount that you need as they don’t always carry it onsite. On our trip last year, the currency exchange at the airport ran out of currency. You will need to carry a fair amount of cash as there is only one ATM in Hirafu and it apparently frequently runs out of cash (and we have heard that it doesn’t accept international credit cards) and not all places accept credit card. Having said that, there is not a lot that you will need to spend your money on. Breakfasts are included on our tours, and there isn’t a lot of tourist shopping to be done (really only a couple of shops in town, and the ski shops aren’t all that fantastic anyway), so its really only lunch and dinners.

Japanese Onsens

The Japanese onsens (hot baths) are hugely popular but are mostly separated into single sex bathing only. Wearing bathers is strictly not allowed so wrap your head around it now. Female onsens offer very small modesty towels. Pension Kisara has it’s own onsen in the bathroom however we also visited an outdoor one in Annupuri which was well worth the visit. It was beautiful and very relaxing. Once you come out, there are also a few free massage chairs and mats for stretching which is an added bonus and very soothing.

Electrical equipment

Bring over power adapters for any electrical equipment you might need. They use half the power wattage that we do so any recharging equipment takes twice as long. Also, we use hand warmers around our cameras and video equipment for skiing and snowboarding to ensure a longer lasting battery life.

Food

Ahh my favorite topic! The restaurants in town are getting busier each year (so we hear) and so to eat at the good ones you need to either be lucky, be patient, be early, or eat late. So it’s not too hard as long as you’re not trying to eat quickly and in a big group. The restaurants are generally small and squishy.

The Japanese generally order first and then order more as the food comes out as opposed to us who like to order our whole meal in one go. This is a good way of trying out some local cuisine (and be warned, sometimes the translations aren’t correct). Japanese food gives you much better value for money than trying to find western food. Get a hold of a Hirafu Village Walking Map and find the restaurants below: 

Some favorite places we ate:

Senchou 1(as opposed to Senchou 2)– By far my favorite. Traditional Japanese style. Try sitting at the bar and watching them prepare/cook everything. Try everything!

BBQ lamb place (The sign has a picture of a lamb on it)– Diagonally opposite, and uphill from A-bu-cha, is set back from the road and up the stairs. Is a little indoor BBQ hut, hot smoky, and oh-so good. Cook your own food on a grill and eat and eat and eat. Another big favorite especially if you’re craving veggies.

A-bu-cha – Well known and busy on the main corner of town (traffic lights). Try to book in advance or just go during an off-peak time. Worth the wait.

Sou – A tiny place with only 3 tables. Beautiful food though.

Yummys – For those of the group that has had enough Japanese food or just want something else, this is a pizza place. They do great pizzas with a thin crust, but not a lot of topping. Beware; the veggie pizza is a salad pizza, as in lettuce etc!

We also heard that Bang Bang and Kumagorou (bookings only) are excellent

Also worth visiting are:

Java bar & Café – great place for a drink après ski. Staff are friendly with a groovy atmosphere

Apres bar – As the name suggests, it’s a great Après bar. Definitely the best place either for a pit stop or just to round off your day. Ski in, ski out. Part of the Hotel Niseko Scott, the view is great people watching and the apple martinis are extra yummy! They also do bar snacks. A funky bar with what seems like a good line up of nighttime entertainment too.

Seico-Mart – Well you wouldn’t go to Niseko without visiting this place. The ‘Psycho-Mart’ as we affectionately called it is always busy. It’s basically a 7-11 with fruit & veg and alcohol. The strawberries I ate from here were the sweetest strawberries I think I have ever eaten! This is the place to get and/or use your phone card (yes, it’s a bit of a mission to work out how to use) and the only place in town with an ATM. I never used it as I was told to bring all cash with me and I heard though that it runs out of cash regularly. The bento boxes in here are a great after ski snack (eg. Pre-cooked cheesy pasta or other dishes that they throw in the microwave for you). You can also buy all kinds of crazy alcoholic drinks in here, which I highly recommend trying out (yes, the apple ones are my favorite). Alcohol is so cheap here, especially spirits, which are cheaper than beer (so I hear), so don’t bring any over duty free.

Rusutsu Resort

Last but not least, on our 2007 & 2009 trips we did a day trip over to the Rusutsu Resort. You can arrange this separately and I highly recommend at least one day to check out the resort as well as the crazy resort complex. It was by far some of the most epic days of our trip, partly because of the variation of terrain from Niseko, and partly because the snow was sooooo deep. We enjoyed the awesome tree skiing and virtually untouched snow run after run after run! It took about one hour each way on their bus, which picked us up in the morning and dropped us back in the afternoon. I cannot recommend this side trip enough. (This is ‘The Day’ we have on the Japan DVD helmet-cam footage shown in-store.

Need help over there?

Travelplan clients have the benefit of having a Guest Services Office and staff at their disposal in Niseko. Any tours or extras you are interested in, go over to their office and have a chat with them, they really know what they’re doing.

Well, that’s about it - Can you tell we loved our trip???!!!!

Can’t wait for next year already,

Bring on that powder!

Mon & Tj Balon

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