Niseko is a magnet for Aussies, writes Craig Tansley.
Some call it Perisher Blue ... with sushi. Regulars joke that they pay locals to be the "token Japanese" at bars dominated by Australians. There are very few bars and restaurants without English signage and you're more likely to hear a "g'day" in a ski shop than an "ohayo gozaimasu".
It's Niseko, and today this little piece of Australia is a long way removed from the ski resort I visited in the spring of 2001. Back then, I was one of a handful of inquisitive Aussies who'd heard stories of deep, deep powder in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. At the time people asked why I'd go to Japan to snowboard but a ski photographer had told me he'd boarded in the best powder of his entire career here, only to have management apologise for the lack of snow. I became obsessed with the place.
The Niseko I experienced in 2001 completely shattered my perceptions of how good snow could be. I rode waist-deep powder snow for 10 days straight with hardly anyone to share it with. At night I had little to do but watch fist-sized snowflakes fall outside my bedroom window knowing tomorrow would bring more of the same.
So it was with a fair amount of trepidation that I came back. I think, as Australians, we all suffer in varying degrees from tall poppy syndrome and Niseko has become the tallest of them all. More Australians are visiting Niseko than even stock favourites, Aspen and Whistler. More than 25,000 Australian skiers a year now visit Japan, with the majority heading to Niseko.
The main point to be made about the "new" Niseko is that it's not for everyone. A destination can't experience the kind of popularity explosion that's occurred here without massive changes to the culture. The purists will be put off by the high numbers of their countrymen on the slopes and in the bars.
The main benefit of the Aussie influx is that Niseko is now the only bona-fide apres ski destination in Japan. Sure, Hakuba is well on its way but, if you're looking for a party destination in the Japanese ski fields, nothing compares to Niseko. On my trip in 2001 it was hard to find drinks after 10pm, a typical night revolved around a soak in an onsen (volcanic hot springs), dinner and home to a good book. These days you can choose from any number of Western-style bars, some of them (like Aussie favourite Blo Blo) even have $5 sausage sizzles. Heaven forbid, there's even VB on tap and meat pies for the late night walk home.
Niseko seems the perfect place for a novice traveller to get a feel for Japanese culture before embarking on a tour through the "real" Japan. There are ski resorts around the Nagano area (west of Tokyo), such as Myoko Kogen, which have as much powder snow as Hokkaido but have no English signage. This might be daunting for many tourists.
"Coming to Niseko is like Japan for beginners," one ski instructor tells me.
"You can get by here with no Japanese at all, but if you want, you can also try to speak Japanese, avoid Australians and have a cultural experience. It's up to the tourist here - in other places you're thrown in at the deep end."
But let's not forget what brought people here in the first place - the quality and quantity of powder snow. No other destination receives such consistently perfect snow, because Niseko is a geographical magnet for weather systems delivering snow clouds from the Siberian peninsula. When these storms collide, after passing the Sea of Japan, Niseko is the first place in their path. I've snowboarded the globe for eight years but haven't experienced anything close to the dry powder of Hokkaido.
"I've been to places where a freak storm delivers a lot of snow in a short time," says one of the men behind Niseko's popularity surge, SkiJapan Snowave's owner Peter Murphy. "But here it just keeps snowing. You have to be really, really unlucky to miss out on a powder dump if you come in peak season."
The popularity of Niseko stemmed from a couple of main factors. A poor North American season in 2001, combined with the after-effects of September 11, made Australians look elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. "Our big numbers started happening around then," Murphy says. "We were doubling and tripling numbers. I remember 2002-03 seemed to be the turning point year when more skiers than snowboarders started to flock here. Niseko became mainstream."
On a gorgeous blue-sky day I hike for 20 minutes to the very top of Niseko. From here, you can see all the way to Hokkaido's western coastline and across the Sea Of Japan. What Niseko lacks in steepness, it makes up for in snow depth.
As I take three consecutive runs on perfect powder, I fall in love all over again. Niseko's popularity will inevitably make some of the diehard long-time visitors upset (even Murphy speaks of a "cultural cringe" factor) but the onsens are still as soothing on the muscles as they always were, the crab ramen (noodles) for lunch is still as cheap and tasty, and nothing compares with Hokkaido powder. If you really want to escape the hordes, you don't have to go far off the beaten path to find restaurants with few, if no, Australian patrons.
For those Australians looking beyond Niseko, the Hakuba region, with its combination of powder snow, Western facilities and steeper runs (particularly at Happo One) is on its way to becoming the next hotspot. But there are 650 ski resorts in Japan to choose from - you decide how adventurous you want to be.
TRIP NOTES
* Getting there Fly to Sapporo via Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific, see http://www.cathaypacific.com.au. Or fly Qantas (www.qantas.com.au) or Japan Airlines (www.jal.com.au) to Tokyo, transfer to Tokyo's domestic airport to fly to Sapporo. The Ski Japan bus transfer to Niseko takes two hours.
* More information Book package deals to Niseko, including all accommodation, lift and air tickets, through http://www.snowave.com. High season in Niseko is from December 19 to early February. Book early as availability is limited. Also see www.skijapan.com.
