We are back on the bus now leaving Niseko, after a fun 3-day snowy visit. Alex says he snowboarded about 45 miles and 53,000 vertical feet and, once again, we are all exhausted but still having so much fun.
When we were planning this trip, Alex knew he wanted to get some snowboarding in since we were coming in the wintertime. His ski pass has one resort included here which is Niseko, a resort well known for its powder. They weren’t wrong on that, some weeks they get a foot of snow every day. We had two great days of snow and Alex’s last day of snowboarding was full of powder. What we didn’t know is that this town is full of Australians. So much so that we felt like we weren’t even in Japan anymore sometimes. I tried to ask someone who worked at Burton about why there are so many Australians here because he sounded like he had an Australian accent, but he was mostly just offended that I asked him because he was from New Zealand…
The first evening that we arrived, Tyler and I explored the little town and went shopping while Alex got some snowboarding in and night skiing. Our first full day in here we all went out on the mountain together and I survived with only some bruised knees! We went on a few runs together and then I told the boys to leave me and have fun so I could go on some greens without the pressure of them constantly waiting for me. They did some backcountry riding and went all over the resort and had a great time! We enjoyed the little different quirks of the resort like the single rider chair lift and hot corn soup from the vending machines.
On our second full day here, Alex went out snowboarding for the day and Tyler and I did some much-needed relaxing. This included a nap and a great massage at one of the local hotels. We also went out to a local dairy farm for lunch, they had cheese, fresh milk and yogurt, and ice cream. We had pizza for lunch and it was actually pretty good. I wish we could’ve seen the cows!
One of the things I was most looking forward to for this part of the trip were the Onsen’s, the Japanese hot springs. The thing about the Onsen’s, though, is you cannot wear swimsuits… It’s separated by gender and you go in your full birthday suit. This experience is not new to me, I went to many of these in South Korea and knew it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it seems. Tyler, though, was not interested at all but Alex and I went every evening and it was the best. I had the pool all to myself except for the last day, so that was even better. And finally, on the last day after much convincing, we got Tyler to go with us. He said it was nothing special, just a “hot tub with naked men.” I guess he’s not wrong.
We are now on our way to Osaka where we will go to Universal Studios and check out Nintendo World!
mckennabird 