My brother and I are planning a snowboarding trip to Japan for a couple of weeks over January/December. I know it's right in the middle of kiting season so I probably need my head read.
Any tips or tribulations. Probably want to keep it relatively cheap, so if anyone has any suggestions for where to go and stay that's be awesome.
Don't go to Niseko unless you want familiarity. Look into resorts in Honshu, or resorts other than Niseko in Hokkaido. Some places are very authentic and Japanese yet have killer hills and snow.
Tip - don't get lost in the snow going from the bar back to your room. They won't find you until the snow thaws out in 2050 from global warming.
We went to Mt niseko annupuri in Hokkaido, it was unreal. We went for 9 days on the slopes in mid Janurary, the entire trip (flights, transfers, accomodation, ski hire, lift pass) was about $3600, but you could do it a bit cheaper. It was a bit of a mission to get there, Brisbane to Tokyo (8.5hrs) where we stayed overnight and caught a domestic to Sapporo (2hrs), waited 4 hours there then got the shuttle bus to the resort (bout 2.5 hrs).
The snow is unreal, we had killer powder every day on the main skiing areas, and the back country stuff amazing. Its a busy mountain but its also enormous so the longest we waited in lift lines was about 5 minutes, most of the time it was more like 1 minute. Definately will not regret going there
