Japan
General note: I have no one to blame but myself — I didn’t exactly keep a diary on the trip so I am writing this out of memory. There are more write-ups over in the photo area on flickr also.
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12.12 - When you visit a place for the second time you tend to notice things you haven’t before.
We landed in tokyo the afternoon of 12/12 and made our way to tama ryokan, the place we stayed before during our previous trip. The journey was sort of like a short walk down memory lane. Mostly everything were the same as I last remembered back in 2004. One notable difference — and this plays to the title of this entry because I really didn’t know if it existed in 04 and I just didnt notice — was the new addition of the “Jingle” on subway lines. What’s the “Jingle”? It is a cute little midi tune that plays whenever the subway car door opens. The purpose, I believe, is to melodically indicate to travelers from far and near that (a) the train is here and (b) how long they have till the door closes. This way if you’re running up the stairs you know exactly how much time you have till the door closes so you can either run or stroll. Brilliant. I’ve already marveled at the train system in 2004 so I won’t go into any more details here but merely say that I remain impressed. At the same time it saddens me that New York City can’t and probably won’t ever be able to come close to getting their shit together like the Japanese. I also noticed that the air in Tokyo in winter is crazy dry and that all Japanese women in Tokyo are obsessed with knee-high boots.
On our way in we ran into an unusual character. His name was Taka, tho we later referred to him as Gloomy Taka. He spoke perfect English. Our encounter was very short. He was strolling in while we were heading out to get food. The basic jist of Tokyo life according to Gloomy Taka was that “life in tokyo requires cash - if you don’t have cash you can’t do anything fun. Even if you have cash, anything considered fun eventually becomes mundane and boring and no longer fun and not worthy of your cash”. We shortly parted ways.
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12.13 - The long awaited Studio Ghibli Museum
In 2004 I missed out on this in a very bad way (as in traveling 10,000+ miles only to find out the place was closed). This time I did my research. The museum only opens on certain days and you need to pre-purchase tickets before hand (preferably via JTB from the US because there is no specific time constraints if you get it from the US). More info in English. Being a life-long fan of Hayao Miyazake, this place was like a dream come true. Sadly you can’t take photos inside :(. See some outside pics here.
Aside from the museum, Tokyo was simply our tranfer hub. The next day we would hop on a domestic flight to Hokkaido and head out to Niseko - our actual destination.
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12.14-19 Niseko
This town is better described in pictures than in words. It was just simply and purely beyond expectation in all the good ways and more. The powder is unbelievable.
One thing I should note here, however, is the traveling logistics. For convenience we booked our trip with SkiJapan, which is one of the few large travel agencies there. The trip included accommodation, transfers, and 4 day all-mountain pass. Surely enough the transfer was quite easy, so was finding anything and going anywhere in Niseko. The package included excursion options like onsen tours, snowmobiling, etc. However, because we weren’t flying in from Australia nothing (and i mean NOTHING) was available for us at all. The staff, while polite and occasionally funny, didn’t really recommend anything. Overall we felt SkiJapan service was useless. We later learned that agents get about 20% mark-up from the package fee, which we paid in the same amount as the Aussies. Lesson learned: Americans — If you want to go to Niseko, do it on your own. It’ll save so much cash.
Here’s how:
- RT flight to Sapporo. Once at airport, go to the area between JAL and ANA terminal. There are a ton of bus companies that run to Niseko at all hours. You might have to wait a bit, but you’ll catch one. The bus trip is 2.5 hours on a good day and can be more on a heavy snow day. You can buy one way or RT bus tix there.
- Make sure you get off at the right place. Niseko Hirafu is the main village area. There are at least 3 other stops along the way in no particular order (Rusutsu, Niseko Annupuri, and Niseko Higashiyama). I *highly* suggest staying in the Hirafu area. There are many many more things to do and eat. Make reservations ahead of time directly to the hotel/pension/house you want. If you are getting a self-contained house, then you’ll have to go through agents like SkiJapan.
- At the bus station, pick up your mountain pass FIRST. It will allow you free access on the local bus lines. The place to pick up your mountain pass should be a spitting distance from the bus station. Grab the fantastic area map and locate your hotel or ask anyone there. Many places are within walking distance, however, the walk might be a bit difficult depending on the ice-snow condition. Sidewalks are not cleaned with salt but the roads are heated from underneath and generally remain slip-free.
- Once there, you’re golden. Local bus drops you off at the base of the mountain and off you go. Simple as that. We stayed at Niseko Park - a fantastic hotel with lovely staff only 5 minute walk (with gear) to the base lift.
And now, the top 10 reasons why Niseko is the bombdigity:
- powder (simply amazing, and we werent even there for prime time)
- tree runs (mmmm)
- safeness (leave ALL your gear ANYWHERE, mountain, restaurants, on the street. its a good thing)
- low elevation (the mountain is only about 2K meters from sea level. no high-altitude sickness)
- view (yotei san is just gorgeous)
- food (ramen + cold weather = heaven)
- onsen (this goes without saying)
- air quality (not dry at all)
- the japanese ways (aka the guys that wipe your seats clean at the lifts and bow every time)
Not to be missed — the Sapporo Chitose International Airport. It’s literally 10% airport, 90% shopping complete with live seafood swimming in tanks all the way to your gate. Fantastic.
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12.20 Wrapping up Japan
We encountered our first mom-n-pop glitch upon our return to Tokyo. Our arrival to the Takadanobaba station proved to be much more difficult with our enormous bags during the peak business hours around train stations. We ran about 15-20 minutes later than specified arrival time to the ryokan and found that no one was there. After waiting for an hour, tired and dirty, we decided to part ways and go for the nearest affordable shelter with permanent check-in staff. The Shinjuku Prince was certainly pricey even at last-minute sale rack rate and surely left many to be desired (hello space?).
We spent some time shopping before heading out to meet up with the crew who previously spent their week traveling around Kyoto. Dinner and a quite stroll around Ebisu streets were the perfect cap to a calm and comfortable night out before another long flight to Thailand.
