Time to come home

Our journey from Niseko to Narita Airport was a very long one and least to say we were both a little bit cranky by the end of it. After a 5:00am wake up it went something like this - taxi, train, train, bus, plane, bus, shuttle bus. We were also randomly selected by a very polite police officer for a thorough security check at the airport.

We spent last night in the Hilton Narita, which is an airport hotel about an hour out of Tokyo. It seems we're the only people staying here who aren't either business travelers, pilots or flight attendants. Luckily we were able to stay here for free because of all the Hilton points Mike accumulated last year with his business trips to Montreal. Our flight isn't until 8:50pm and they've kindly extended our check out until 3:00pm, so we're spending the day reorganising our bags so as to incur the least amount of excess baggage charge!

Last night was the first English TV I've watched in a month and I was shocked to see the CNN World News' forty minute broadcast about the floods in Queensland. I knew it was bad, but I didn't know it was as horrific as it is. So it looks like we're coming home to a Brisbane that may well be half underwater. Our suburb isn't on the flood warning list though, thank goodness.

Well it's been an amazing holiday and I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it. After 26 days though we're very much looking forward to getting home, picking up the cat and enjoying our new lounge (which is being delivered this week!).

Leaving Niseko

We're very sad to be leaving Niseko as it's been truly magical here. It hasn't stopped snowing since we arrived (6 days ago) and as a result there is more snow than everyone knows what to do with. Shop owners seem to be fighting a losing battle keeping the entrances to their shops clear and the footpaths and outdoor stairways now cease to exist all together!

Hirafu Village is a great little place, with many restaurants and bars to hang out in when you're not enjoying the slopes. It's so relaxed and the entire village seems to be run by Australians, so it's a really nice mix of Japanese and Western cultures here. Getting around is also no hassle - you can walk to most places and if you don't feel like walking there's always the free shuttle bus.

Mike has loved skiing in the powder snow and was really happy today when the lifts up to the peak of the mountain were finally opened. He hasn't had a chance to get up there until today because of the blizzard like conditions we've had here (one day was -20 with 35km/h winds). He says it's virtually untouched up there and skiing through the trees is especially amazing.

My snowboarding has come along in leaps and bounds. It's starting to feel a lot more natural and I've mastered the basics. I don't really fall over anymore and I've also (almost) conquered my fear of sliding off the chairlift! I've been down beginner, intermediate and advanced runs and absolutely love it! My favourite thing about snowboarding was being out there at night time. The visibility was a lot better with the lights and the snow covered trees look eerie! Also last night we virtually had one slope entirely to ourselves.

Our lodge 

The slopes at night

Mike's snow angel

My snow angel

Way too much snow!

Last night and today there has been heavy constant snow and as a result the slopes (even the low beginner ones) are at least knee deep in powder, and some less traveled parts waist deep. These are great conditions for confident skiers/boarders, but for me it proved very difficult!

As I was riding my board would gradually start sinking and then stop, time and time again becoming bogged in very deep snow. It was pretty amusing, but also frustrating! Additionally my body was so unbelievably sore from all the hours I did yesterday. I don't think there is an inch of me that doesn't hurt in some way - even my toes!

This is a video of me trying very hard to move and then slowly getting bogged:

I took comfort in the fact that I wasn't the only one getting bogged, there were lots of people (probably also beginners) just lying in the snow having given up.

The conditions were just crazy today. The heavy snow fall caused a complete white out for most of the day and it was -10 degrees at the bottom of the mountain. After two runs I decided to take my achy body back to the lodge for a soak in the hot tub and a relaxing day reading.

Later on when Mike eventually returned we went out for Ramen and it sure was interesting trying to navigate the streets in this weather. I have never seen so much snow in my life! You only need to stand outside for two minutes and you become completely white. The footpath and the road have all blurred into one and any car left standing too long is buried within an hour or two.

Snow is so fun!

Mike ready to go!

Poor cars

Main street

At 4:00pm 

This is a car park and all those lumps were cars

Me making my way towards a hot ramen

Day 1 of snowboarding

Today was a great day! I picked up my board and boots and we were then dropped off at the foot of the mountain (which is only 3 blocks away). I had a 2 hour private lesson booked for 1:30pm, so until then I just mucked around trying to remember everything I'd learnt about snowboarding two years earlier in New Zealand.

It snowed really hard all day long, so there was constant powder on the mountain and it didn't hurt at all when falling over. My lesson was fantastic and he taught me lots of new techniques and I can now fairly comfortably go down a green run with pretty decent speed (even according to Mike!).

Mike spent most of the day skiing all over the place, mainly on black runs and he's still adjusting to the power here and is thinking of getting a private lesson himself. He took this picture with his phone from the top of one of the slopes:

At the end of the day, when it was pitch black and the slopes were lit up with huge lights (they're open till 8:45pm), Mike and I went down two runs together and for the first time I was (sort of) able to keep up with him.

Like everything else in Japan, the slopes run magically. Everyone has an electronic lift pass which is attached to your jacket and beeps when you go through the gates. There is absolutely no waiting to get onto a lift. The lift operators have little brooms which they use to brush the fresh snow off each chair when you hop on - how considerate!

We're now going back into the snow to buy a thermal nose/mouth/chin cover thing because our faces pretty much froze today.

We're engaged!

3rd January

Yes, we're engaged! Last night outside the Sapporo Brewery, whilst it was snowing heavily and extremely atmospheric, Mike proposed! It was very special and the perfect location. The ring is beautiful, but we'll have to get it resized once we're back in Brisbane. We're both really happy and super excited! Thanks to everyone who've already offered their congratulations.

He proposed outside this in the snow!

The beautiful ring

Even before the proposal, we'd had a really eventful day and I was originally going to name this post - 'Jacqui and the Chocolate Factory'. In the morning we visited Shiroi Koibito Park, which is Sapporo's famous chocolate factory. It was a really interesting place and had much more than just the factory tour. We also saw a huge Royal Doulton designed fountain, a chocolate cup collection, a gramophone gallery and a massive collection of toys from the twentieth century - a very strange mix of displays!

View from the street

The clock tower which has strange little singing characters come out of it every hour

One of many tree houses

Buildings which are part of the factory

Looking in whilst on the factory tour

Still looking in...

All around the top of the factory are fantastic sculptures of people

Below is some of the toy display:

The best part of the factory tour was the amazing Chocolate Lounge and there we enjoyed some very indulgent chocolate fondue.

Not a bad view from the Chocolate Lounge!

Mmmm what to order...

Chocolate fondue! 

After we were back in the city centre we decided to head up to the Sapporo TV Tower Observation Deck which had been closed the previous day. The tower offered a particularly good view of Odori Park stretching through the city. However once we were up there we did regret not waiting until dark so we could have got a photo of the park lit up with its stunning lights display. It was great to see the layout of the land though, with the mountains and even the sea.

Odori Park is the snowy strip through the middle

After dinner and the excitement of becoming engaged, we bought a bottle of sparkling wine from a convenience store (have I mentioned you can buy alcohol anywhere in this country?) and went back to the hotel.

What the?!

Just in case you didn't know how to use a toilet!

4th January

We woke up extremely early this morning to meet the bus bound for Niseko (Grand Hirafu). After three hours on the bus winding through the very snowy mountains, we finally arrived at the Hirafu Welcome Centre and then a shuttle bus from our lodge came and picked us up from there.

I have been astounded ever since arriving at the welcome centre. Firstly, the slopes here are so empty. If you're familiar with snow fields in Australia or New Zealand you'll know how busy they normally are. I was expecting chaos, but because there are just so many slopes around here, they remain very relaxed and free of crowds. Also, everything runs like clockwork - there's a free shuttle bus every 15 minutes and there are no queues when hiring gear or buying lift tickets. In fact, once we were delivered to our lodge we were whisked into the sitting room and the manager (a Canadian girl) had ordered our discounted lift tickets, made us a dinner reservation, brought us a cup of tea and organised a private lesson for me tomorrow in a matter of minutes.

To top it all off we were told that at 5:00pm there would be Welcome Drinks held in the bar. This turned out to be an incredibly fun few hours where we were given class after glass of sparkling, white and red (on the house!) and chatted with lots of great new people. The owner of the lodge is a Frenchman and all the wine is from his vineyard in Burgundy. He is a really interesting man - he's married to a Chinese woman and they spend 6 months of the year in Hong Kong, then they spend the Summer in France and each Winter in Niseko. What a life! This lodge is amazing, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

On the right is the lodge and on the left is the restaurant

Our room

Sitting room

In the bottom cupboard there are hundreds of DVDs you can choose from to take back to your room!

Long table with fireplace on the left

The small cosy bar

Icicles outside our window!

We can't wait to hit the slopes tomorrow. Niseko is said to have snow that it is lighter, fluffier and drier than anywhere else in the world. All the better for me to fall onto!

Beer, snow and ice

Sapporo is fantastic! It's cold, there's snow everywhere and it's home to my favourite beer. Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido and Japan's fifth largest city. Interestingly, Sapporo is one of Japan's youngest cities and in 1857 the city's population stood at just seven people.

For our three nights in Sapporo we're staying at the Novotel, which is actually pretty cheap and includes a huge buffet breakfast each morning. After breakfast (which had everything from eggs, bacon and toast to rice porridge, pickles, salmon and miso) we walked through a large park next to the hotel which has its own frozen lake.

Looking out at the frozen lake

Danger danger! Yet there are still foot prints across the lake

Once we'd caught a train into the city centre (one stop) we were faced with an underground city. There is a maze of shops and food halls that all merge into each other and it becomes very confusing. It actually took a while to find a way to get outside. Which was a relief once we did because the difference in temperature between outside and inside is horrible. Outside today was -1 and inside shops, restaurants and stations it was at least 25.

First stop today was Odori park, which stretches twelve blocks and separates the city into North and South. Odori park is probably best known for the world famous Sapporo Snow Festival each February. In the park there is a TV tower with an observation deck which was closed today, but luckily it's open tomorrow, so we'll no doubt be up there then with the tripod in tow!

TV tower

We then went in search of the clock tower, which we'd read is the symbol of Sapporo. We were pretty surprised to find this relatively unassuming building, which looks more European than Japanese. The building was constructed in 1878 and they claim that the original clock mechanism still keeps accurate time today, making it the oldest working clock in Japan - fancy that!

After a coffee and cake break in one of the many many many gourmet food halls, we browsed through yet more snow gear shops so Mike could price ski poles and pants. There are some really amusing snow fashions here in Japan and they're so serious about it that a lot of shops have LCD screens featuring the latest styles on the catwalk. I'm looking forward to seeing all the outrageous outfit combinations when we're in Niseko. 

The most delicious sweet treat - called an 'omelette parfait'

Mohawk beanies!

For the girls!

For a late lunch we caught a bus to the Sapporo Beer Museum. This was a part of our trip we had both very much been looking forward to. Beer has been brewed in Sapporo since 1877 and the museum itself is a gorgeous old red brick factory building. Next to the museum is an atmospheric beer hall where you can eat and drink all you like! We spent a lot of time taking photos outside and frolicking around in the snow until we retreated into the very smoky BBQ and beer hall. We had the most amazing meal which we cooked ourselves on a hot grill in the centre of the table.

Old kegs outside

Me in front of the museum

As it started to get darker

Pouring with snow!

Inside the beer hall

Bib on and he doesn't know where to start!

Below is a video of our vegetables, lamb and salmon sizzling away on the grill. We've already decided to go back tomorrow night for dinner!