Hokkaido (March 2020)

Hokkaido is a prefecture in Japan and is the second biggest island there. We almost didn’t go to Hokkaido at all due to COVID 19 (and from what it looks like, Hokkaido will be our last trip in Asia). As our trip drew near, we were watching the cases, and there was an outbreak in Hokkaido. However, since there were no cases in Niseko, the city we were going to, we decided to go but under maximum caution. The main thing people go to Niseko for is the skiing. Another thing Niseko is famous for is its food. In this post we are going to talk about skiing and eating.

The hotel we booked had a nice view of the ski mountain and a private onsen on our balcony.

The ski mountain has history behind it, believe it or not. In 1961, the first lifts on the mountain started functioning, and Niseko Grand Hirafu was opened. In 1984, a gondola was set up in Grand Hirafu. Finally, in 1994, snowboarders were allowed, and Hanazono opened. Hanazono is one of four sections of the mountain. There is Annupuri, Niseko Village, Grand Hirafu and Hanazono. We stayed in Grand Hirafu, though we skied in both Grand Hirafu and Hanazono. Interestingly, the four sections of the mountain are divided by stark wilderness, and this makes it hard to go between the areas. The reason that they are divided is that the hotels just started building their own chairlifts without any coordination. Slowly, more and more chairlifts and runs appeared, and runs started to connect the different areas. Now, the mountain is known as Niseko United, but you still have to basically go to the top to get to Niseko Village and Annupuri.

There are three different types of runs in Niseko, green, red, and black. Compared to the American system, greens in Japan are a mixture of easy blues and greens. I didn’t know that at first and thought that the greens felt abnormally hard for greens. Reds in Japan feel like advanced blues in America, but blacks in Japan are pretty much the same as blacks in America.

Elise spent all four days in ski school. She started out on the bunny hill.

Mom spent the first two days skiing with a group and the next two days skiing by herself or with Dad.

For the first three days, I was in ski school. My teacher’s name is Coach Ashley, and she was very funny. She took us to hidden places such as a half-pipe. She also took us to ring bells that were hidden all over the mountain. One of my favorite places she took us was a terrain park. It was lots of fun. My favorite run she took us on is Jumbo, a red that connects to my second favorite run, Parallel, which is a red. Coach Ashley and I had an ongoing snowball fight all over the mountain, as you can see in the video below.

On her third day, Elise graduated from the bunny hill and went on the chair lift for the first time in her life. In the video below, her class is skiing down the mountain, and one boy keeps falling down. The rest of the class keeps shouting “wipeout!” It’s very funny.

My favorite part of the mountain was Hanazono. The last day of ski school we went to Hanazono and skied down Strawberry Fields, which is uncharted and is my favorite run at Niseko. On the last day, I skied with Dad, and we went to Hanazono again and went down Stairway to Heaven, a red, which was one of my favorite runs.

While in Hokkaido, we enjoyed a delicious range of foods, both savory and sweet. We went to a different restaurant every night. On the first night, we went to a small restaurant close to our hotel that had sushi and dumplings. On our second night, we ate at the famous crab restaurant, Kanon. It had a set menu and so much crab, it could rival the crab restaurant in Shanghai (see Shanghai post)!

On our third night, we went to an extremely famous restaurant that is called Bang Bang, which is known for its yakitori (skewers) and sashimi. Sometimes you have to book months in advance, but we didn’t have to do that because the coronavirus had significantly reduced the number of tourists in Niseko.

In the picture below, you can see some people in the background that we kept running into. We ended up seeing them in four different restaurants!

One night we discovered the ultimate, the legendary dessert! The cheese tart! Hokkaido is famous for its milk so the cheese tarts taste amazing!

There was even good food on the mountain! The best restaurant on the mountain is called Boyo-so. It may have good food, but you have to work for it. Beware beginner skiers, to get to this restaurant is no mean feat! Every run that leads to it is a black. If you want to eat here, you better train hard! Or you can climb up the mountain from the chairlift below, like Mom had to do.

I never went to this restaurant. Even though I didn’t go there, I can still provide an entertaining animation of Mom climbing up the hill from the chairlift!

What’s really funny is that Dad had time to go down, carry Mom’s skis up the hill and then take the pictures that I used to make this animation.

The next night, we enjoyed a delicious grilled beef dinner at Kobe Tei. The featured menu item was Wagyu beef.

The kids meal was kind of like a small version of the adult meal but with already cooked meat.

On our last night in town, we ate at Ezo Seafood. We enjoyed many different styles of fish.

The owner was standing behind a counter, and you would tell him what type of seafood you want and how you want it cooked. You could have it steamed, fried, sliced up raw and made into sushi.

On our last day, and for our last meal, we had the famous Hokkaido potato ramen! Potato ramen is miso ramen with a layer of potato foam on top. We got there early, went to a cafe to wait and saw the people we saw at Bang Bang and Ezo seafood. I said it would be funny if they were waiting for exactly the same restaurant that we were waiting for and they were! They were from Hawaii and were also leaving Niseko the same day.

After that scrumptious meal, we rounded off our trip by saying a tearful goodbye to Mr. Teddy The Bear whom we probably will never see again 😭 (haha just kidding).