I’m no great snowboarder, in fact I’m pretty amateurish really, but I love doing it and Japan has the best snow in the world, so it seemed rude not to at least have a look while I was in this part of the world.
My friend Caryn in New Zealand works for a travel agents and the word among them was not to go - the season was over, there was no snow and everything was closed. Well I agreed with them on the latter point, absolutely every hostel in the region was closed as were most hotels. It wasn’t until the Friday that I found somewhere to stay on the Sunday.
I knew from the webcams there was still snow, but whether I’d be able to hire a board or an instructor I wasn’t sure. I just had to wing it. Oh well, wouldn’t be the first time this trip!
I caught an overnight train from Tokyo to Sapporo, which was an experience in itself. Sixteen hours in a four-man shared cabin and noone else on the train spoke English. In Tokyo I’d seen plenty of gai-jin and the whole idea that westerners have that they’re going to walk around Japan as conspicuous giants just wasn’t true. In Tokyo at least.
But on this train I felt a real outsider. Not because of the way I was treated - in fact you couldn’t find a nicer more polite people than the Japanese - but because I felt so conspicuous. This mode of transport obviously isn’t one tourists take, most usually fly, and it was full of ordinary Japanese who couldn’t stop staring at me.
After a couple of train changes and about 20 hours after leaving Tokyo I saw the snow caps of the Japanese Alps appearing over the low hills and arrived in Niseko to take possession of my little chalet.
It was a funny old place, all wood and weird angles and for the next week it was just me and the ladybirds and the mountain.
It did have a lovely fire though!
Since arriving in Japan, I've tried to avoid electronic toilet pictures, but this one was too good to miss. This is the control panel...
The resort was deserted and being on my own took a bit of getting used to after the chaos of Tokyo and being with my folks. But once I got my head round it, it was very relaxing and kind of zen.
I’d wake up every morning to a gorgeous view of the volcano,
go off for a couple of hours with the instructor, come home, have a very hot bath, watch Dexter (the only programme that wasn‘t dubbed on Japanese TV), listen to my iPod, catch up on my blog and retire to bed.
I’d never experienced boarding on a mountain that was so empty and to be quite honest there isn’t that much else to say. There was noone there so I met no interesting people, there are no temples to see so I have no colourful pictures to share. It was just me, my ipod and the snowboard.
I always used to say before I left home when people asked me why I was going away that I was going to sit on top of a mountain in Nepal and think about my life. It’s not Nepal, but a mountain in northern Japan is pretty close.
I did do a lot of thinking in that little chalet though, and while I’m not sure if I have come up with the answers to any questions that will benefit the human race, I do feel a little bit wiser. About myself at least.
Living in a little wooden hut in a deserted mountain town in northern Japan with noone but ladybirds for company will turn a man’s thoughts internally, so sorry for being self-indulgent again.
Oh, and just to prove I can snowboard…ish
