TRIP REPORT: Dutchies Do Ski - Hokkaido, Japan

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By Sam Collentine, Meteorologist Posted 6 years ago December 13, 2017

TRIP REPORT: Dutchies Do Ski - Hokkaido, Japan

The following article was written by Julie Nieuwenhuijs of @DutchiesDoSki. Photos courtesy of Caroline van 't Hoff.

Sure it is unexpected, living in a country below sea level, being a powder addict. How else would you describe someone who has spent 6 winters in the mountains and who is known outside the office as Juulski?

Together with my ski buddy and photographer Caroline, we have been traveling the world to ski the best powder. When we met 5 years ago on a Dutch avalanche course, we quickly realized we had the same dream: skiing powder, preferably every day. At that time we put our serious corporate careers on hold and started redefining our lives by becoming 'ski journalists', a self-created title: Caroline was the photographer and I became the writer and rider.

Since then our stories have been published in over 15 different countries and our pictures have been used in international marketing campaigns in Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands. Even though we don’t ski full-time anymore, for five weeks per year, we still travel to the most exotic and adventurous places in the world! Our last adventure was around Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan.

Skiing in Japan is so much more than just world-class powder. It is a completely unfamiliar world, a country of idiosyncrasies, with vending machines selling beer accessible to anyone and located in every imaginable location. It is a society that values personal responsibility and hard work, as well as modesty and a sense of solidarity.

And it is also the best place in the world to ski powder! With an average of six days of snowfall per week, fifteen meters in a season lasting just 3.5 months, Japan is no game of roulette; it’s a guaranteed jackpot!

The Japanese all-you-can-ski buffet of unlimited powder is accompanied by some of the best food in the world! Wet your appetite with bowls of the most delicious, steaming hot udon noodles, fresh fish, green tea ice cream, and sushi. Every meal is a true feast and looks as good as it tastes. No matter what your budget is, you will eat well as the Japanese hospitality is truly unique. It is embodied by the Japanese word ‘omotenashi’ meaning hospitality from the heart or the spirit of selfless hospitality. This spirit of service embodies everything from ensuring that the guests feel relaxed and happy, to the hosts' polite attitude, genuine smiles, and attention to detail.

During our trip, we noticed this unmatched hospitality and extreme eye for detail in many different ways. Don’t be surprised when you go to the toilet. You will need to wear special bright-colored toilet slippers, the seat will be heated and music will automatically start to play once you sit down.

Being ski journalists, we often get asked where to go in Hokkaido and which guide to ski with, so we have summarized our trip for you. If you want to see more shots or more detailed info on where to go, check out our Facebook and Instagram.

The Details

Night-skiing in Niseko or Kiroro. Two small, quiet and great resorts near Sapporo are Sapporo Kokusai and Sapporo Teine, where on a clear day you can see the Japanese sea from the hill. The town of Higashikawa is located in the center of the Hokkaido Powder Belt: the powder Mecca of Japan consisting of seven different ski areas. Our Japanese guide Makoto Asakawa took us for a three-day all-you-can-ski buffet near Daisetsuzan, Japan’s largest national park known as 'the playground of the gods". The snow there is divine!

Asahidake is an active volcano (with 22 craters!) that we climbed with our guide Yasuhito Arata who took us right up to the two heavily smoking craters, looking straight into the smoking volcano.

The biggest resort of Central Hokkaido is Furano and our guide Hiroshi Etori took us to one of his favorite lines, the west face of Furano. We dropped in from the top and skied our steepest line of the trip, nearly 1,000 vertical meters!

The next day starts with a snowmobile ride on a closed highway through 50 cm of powder! Our guides Hiroyuki Fukuda and Kiko show us their secret spot outside Minamifurano where we don’t cross another skier or track all day.

Our trip ends on a high note with an epic karaoke session joined by our new friends Shigeo and Tohru, our ice fishing guide who had the patience to teach us how to fish, Japanese style: drinking hot cocoa in his heated hut!