It’s midday on the mountain and I’m sitting on the top of Niseko Annupuri at Lookout Café, slurping a giant bowl of seafood ramen, crab legs poking through the creamy broth.
I wouldn’t ordinarily order seafood at a ski pit stop, but given the mountain’s close proximity to the ocean, it appears to be a stellar choice; an hour north of the resort, fierce waves crash against snow-covered cliffs where fresh fish is brought in daily. In North American ski resorts, refueling on the mountain often involves a stale cafeteria and plates of greasy fries, gloopy soup, or dried-up salad. But in Niseko, located on the northern island of Hokkaido, this is certainly not the case: Only in Japan can you spend your morning gliding through powder snow before eating fresh crab legs or salmon sashimi as a midday mountain meal. Food has always been a big, shiny drawcard for the country—it’s one of the many consistently good threads that runs through the country. Like the Italians, the Japanese have simply nailed it.
Sashimi and ramen aside, another element that Japan has nailed is skiing. And it’s all thanks to the country’s terrific snow.
While some European ski resorts are experiencing dwindling snowfalls, Niseko can’t quite get enough of it. The trees drip with snow, their branches heavy and weeping from all the dumping. In the five days that I’m there, it snows every single day. And not just a light sprinkling, but buckets of snow that keep many of the lifts closed and snowplows busy. Every few hours, the sun breaks through the clouds and I catch a glimpse of Mount Yotei, the impressive distant volcano and pinup for the resort. After days of hazy views, seeing it standing proud and tall in the distance is a welcome sight. But for the majority of the time, I’m skiing through fresh droppings of snow. Many of the locals tell me that it’s a snowstorm, that it doesn’t always snow this much. But the reality is, if you want lots of fresh powder snow, you’re going to have to take the not-so-good visibility and fewer bluebird days with it. “You get used to skiing in bad visibility,” Alex, a ski instructor, tells me, “but I’d rather pick good snow over blue skies,” she continues. Bluebird days are definitely not overrated. But skiing on old, compacted snow is.
The whiteout days don’t deter the avid skiers and snowboarders from hitting the slopes. You don’t fly all the way to Japan to be put off by a bit of bad weather. In the gondola queue, in the midst of a snowstorm, I hear languages and accents from all over: Sweden, Australia, England, China. Niseko has become one of the most sought-after ski destinations in the world. What draws people here is obvious. On the chairlift I meet a guy from Canada who “can’t get enough of the powder snow . . . and food.”
The food is an undeniable draw. In Hirafu, a village that sits at the base of the mountain, there are a number of Michelin-starred restaurants. Some argue that Japanese food is as good in a fancy restaurant as it is on the streets, and Hirafu has no shortage of street food. Food trucks sit at the base of the slope, drawing in hungry skiers on even the coldest and snowiest of days. And if the snow gets, well, too snowy, there’s always Ebisu-tei, a cozy wood-clad restaurant that serves up some of the best agedashi (deep-fried tofu) in town. If you’d rather eat dinner in your own dining room, then stay at the refined Kasara Niseko Village Townhouse, where you can have a private chef make soba noodles in front of you.
Food might not be the main attraction for skiers when selecting a ski resort, but it can certainly keep guests coming back. With so many of us guilty of traveling for food, it only seems fitting that you would want your powder snow and Michelin meal, too. When a popular sport like skiing and a popular interest like food are together, then bang: dream holiday. This isn’t a new idea.
But what Niseko has that other places don’t always have is snow. Mountains and mountains of fresh, powdery snow.