It’s spring, and the snow is starting to get slushy in Niseko. Stephen and I both have the entire weekend off so I really wanted to make the most of it and go to another mountain. Stephen went to Rusutsu earlier in the season but I’m still yet to have gone, so off to Rusutsu we go. We hired a car and Sam and Zane, a kiwi couple we’ve made friends with, came along with us, as did Marie.

It was such a fun day. Rusutsu is a huge resort! During the summer there is a theme park with ferris wheel, rollercoaster and huge water park area. But during the winter there are 2 main mountains, so the options for skiing and snowboarding are endless. We spent most of the day on one mountain and at about 2pm we moved over to the other. Stephen and Zane enjoyed spending time in the park, practicing jumps, while Sam, Marie and myself liked searching for powder in amongst the trees and taking advantage of the wide runs. One thing I have to mention is the spring vibe was so fun on the first mountain! They had a DJ playing outside, there were Red Bull give away girls handing out a new Red Bull product (which I didn’t try because I’m not a fan of energy drinks, but everyone else had one and said it was good). The highlight for me though was this BBQ area they had created. Lots of small crates had been placed out on the snow, with tiny little coal grills in the middle, you could buy a selection of raw meat and vegetables and then cook it yourself. It was so much fun, and tasty!

By 4pm we were all absolutely knackered and ready to go home so we walked through the main resort plaza area, got some more food, and headed back to the car. The plaza was an entirely different and quirky experience in itself, with lots of shops, a few cafes, a full-size carousel, a small arcade section, and a few random singing sculptures! Take a look at the photos to see what I mean, haha.

All in all, it was a great day, it was fun to have our own wheels and freedom and get out of Niseko, and the snow was better than that on Niseko mountain at the moment too. Thanks, Rusutsu!

BBQ times

cook your own

We wanted to get out of Niseko for a day and Stephen and I both managed to have the same day off, so we got a group of people together, hired a big van, and made our way to another mountain for the day – Sapporo Kokusai.

Although no new snow fell the night before it was still such a great day! The mountain isn’t overly large, but it has big open runs that all intertwine together, so the options for runs were endless. There were still some soft powder pockets around the place, so everyone had fun searching for them.

We managed to ride the whole day until 4pm and then started to make our way home. By the time we got back to Kutchan we were all exhausted and ready for bed.

Great day had by all.

On our last day off Stephen and I decided to make our way to Sapporo for the 2017 Sapporo Snow Festival. Our day started with a 2-hour train ride from Kutchan to Saporro, via Otaru. We layered up for the cold weather, however for the first hour or so of the train ride it was standing room only and we were both extremely hot! It was such a relief when we had to switch trains and we managed to get a seat in a less crowded carriage.

We arrived at Sapporo station around 11am, our first time to Sapporo. It is a cool big city. Lots of high rise buildings, shopping malls, big intersections. It was nice to get out of Hirafu and Kutchan and the snow town vibe for a day.

We wandered around the shops for a while, had some lunch, and then went to an arcade. One entire floor in this mall was dedicated to arcade games, it was awesome, I even bet Stephen in a car simulation game of Mario Cart!! After that we needed some fresh air so we made our way to Odori Park. This is where the week-long snow festival was being held. It’s a free event that involves the whole community and people from all over Hokkaido flock to take a look. The park is filled with huge ice and snow sculptures. These things are truly amazing. They look fantastic, with some of them being 2-3 stories high! I’ll let the photos do the talking. It was truly breath taking (and freezing! Haha).

M & S.

This year was Stephen and my first ever white Christmas, and Niseko turned on the snow and everything looked beautiful. Blue skies during the day and then snow falling from about 5pm.

I worked during the day while Stephen lay in bed recovering from a big Christmas eve night out. Then come 6pm we were all home in our apartment (Stephen, Marie, and her boyfriend Yoshimi, and me), and I started cooking Christmas dinner. It was a little bit of a challenge. 1: Ingredients are different over here and some things we take for granted in Australia are a little hard to come by here. And 2: we don’t have an oven or a bbq, so I had to rethink the menu a little. So our Christmas dinner went a little something like this…
A small platter to begin with, with cheese and crackers and nuts and fruit.
Followed by delicious tender steak, honey glazed carrots, baby peas, corn on the cob, and some ‘roast’ potato wedges (which I cooked in the microwave and then fried in butter in the pan). Everything actually turned out really well, and although this would be an extremely simple meal back home, it was nice to have just that: a simple meal with meat and veg.
Finally, we had some chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. I did some experimenting and made the cake in the rice cooker (!!) and it turned out so well!

All in all it was a great Christmas evening and it was lovely to share this day with some new friends here in Japan.

Merry Christmas everyone!

M & S.

PS. A big thank you to my parents, and to Sharon (Stephen’s mum), who sent us Christmas packages in the mail!! They were full of goodies and it’s been so lovely having a few little comfort things from home. Thanks family xx