Snow-Woman 0 Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Hirafu seems to be the main hotspot in "Niseko", but the other areas - Annupuri and Higashiyama - are they much quiter or just a bit quieter? Some of us don't need loud and busy busy! Link to post Share on other sites
ausi ski bum 1 Posted August 29, 2007 Share Posted August 29, 2007 Very much so I stay out of town between Hirafu and Higashiyama and personally we spend more time at Higashiyama and Annupuri then Hirafu which may have the larger town but not nessesarily the best ski area. This trip I have also hired a vehicle to head out to the other resorts in the area. As for Hirafu itself I like some of the hot spots so to speak but there are many nice restraunts in Kutchan and Niseko towns as well. There is a free bus from Hirafu each night to Kutchan and its well worth exploring the quieter streets off the main road to find some excellent eateries. Hirafu is a good introduction to skiing in Japan a great comfort zone but over the next 5 years you will see many Aussies move away from there looking for more. Link to post Share on other sites
miller 1 Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 I'm going to be staying in the Annupuri area in February. One reason I chose that is because it is "not Hirafu". Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted August 30, 2007 Share Posted August 30, 2007 Yes, stay away from Hirafu for a quieter time. The more that stay away, the better. Mind the wind on the other sides. Sometimes the other lifts stop while Hirafu keeps chugging. Link to post Share on other sites
Ezorisu 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Higashiyama is pretty much "just the Prince Hotel". If you weren't planning on having all your meals on hotel property, you'll have to catch a bus somewhere. Annupuri is similar, but there are more hotels, lodges, and pensions instead of one big property. Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 OK, I'm gonna try and sell you guys on the Hirafu side here ...... I don't know why people knock the Hirafu side. Sure there are a lot of Aussies but I've never been bothered... plus they tend to stay at particular hotels and the village is large enough to absorb them most of the time. And it's not that noisy. I don't know why people knock Hirafu.... It's is hip, fresh and alive. --Lots of young Japanese ski bums running restaurants and bars and the Japanese tourists are also a little younger and more alive too. Hirafu has heaps of culture (I don't mean kimonos and crap, I mean real young hip Japanese people who are happy to talk with you (as well as Aussy/western culture of course)). Ezorisu summed up the Higashi side pretty well I think: Originally Posted By: Ezorisu Higashiyama is pretty much "just the Prince Hotel". If you weren't planning on having all your meals on hotel property, you'll have to catch a bus somewhere. And the Prince hotel is far from 'gorgeous'. It's a slowly decaying monstrosity left over from the 70's. The ghost of skiing's past. I think Hirafu's got far far far more to offer for anyone. If you want to avoid the Aussies (and the English language), book a package trip through a regular travel agent in Japan rather than going to an English website and patching things together. We've done both and it tends to be cheaper going with a package too. It's really not that noisy and busy. If you do feel like going out for a drink though, other than a couple of places that are really popular with Aussies, there are many tiny places on quiet streets dimly lit streets with friendly young Japanese owners/staff. It's 'real'. -- Unlike the Higashiyama side, which is just 'corporate'. As for Anupuri, I've only skied down to the base a couple of times. It's also limited, with a lot of Japanese school groups staying there, so I've heard. Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 I agree ger and that's exactly what I do.. Booking through Japanese agents. Never any other gaijin at my fav spot. Link to post Share on other sites
snowboarding-sally 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 I had a bad experience booking something through a foreign owned company last season. It left a bad taste, I felt they were just scrambling for cash in a rather undignified manner. I decided to be much more careful this time and possibly "go Japanese". Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 errr? why go through an agent. Loads of places can be contacte DIRECT. C'mon, look at the listings on SJ. Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Originally Posted By: thursday errr? why go through an agent. Loads of places can be contacte DIRECT. C'mon, look at the listings on SJ. Advantages and disadvantages to each. Supporting the kind folks who advertise on SJ would be a good thing of course.... Link to post Share on other sites
Karnidge 2 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Exactly, no need for an blood-sucking agent. Link to post Share on other sites
bushpig 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 as Ger mentioned, some of the packages can be cheaper than doing it yourself. We were much better off going with a package than doing it ourselves, but they were both only 5 day trips. I suspect a longer trip would be a different story. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 supporting the listings on SJ takes precedence over price. What the hell were you thinking? Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted August 31, 2007 SnowJapan Admin Share Posted August 31, 2007 Without a doubt! Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Originally Posted By: thursday supporting the listings on SJ takes precedence over price. What the hell were you thinking? "shuuuwloop" (no smiley for licking ass!) short domestic trips would almost cost me double booking separately. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 Yes thursday you must remember the rule about not posting any supportive comments at all for sj (after all, hardly as if they deserve any). Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 BW sarcastic relpy to a sarcastic comment. Seriously though, I'll support the SJ places where I can (mainly on self drive honshu trips) but when I can get airfares, transfers & accom for the price of just the accomodation alone there's really no choice. Unless SJ go into the package deal business.. Link to post Share on other sites
spook 0 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 i used the SJ places for my last trip to hakuba and nozawa. it was pretty straightforward and seemed cheap to me. both places were good too Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted August 31, 2007 Share Posted August 31, 2007 no worries. I book my flight from the airline website. I email my requirements to the hotel and leave credit card details if they need a deposit. I buy the coach tickets on arrival. Then we lug our stuff across the Hirafu carpark. Link to post Share on other sites
journey_man 0 Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Lol, now for my 2 yen worth. I agree with the comments above, mostly. However: Hirafu - is a cool place with plenty of things to do - especially if you explore a bit. If you avoid the overly busy places you don't get the too many foreigners effect. It is a great little town. Unfortunately you occasionally see the ugly Aussie side that many complain about. One example was when I went clubbing and a guy hit on every girl and tried to pick a fight with every guy. He got tossed out 4 times. It's weird, I've skied places in Canada with just as many Aussies and I've never seen behaviour like you occasionally get in Hirafu. The important thing is that it is occasional and if you avoid the really busy places you will never see it. Skiing wise it can get big queues at the weekend. Lots of competition for pow. Higashiyama - There is more than the Prince (ick). There is the Black Diamond Lodge! Excellent restaurant and bar that is open to outsiders. They do a big(ish) air comp too! If you want to go out, Hirafu isn't far away. Also the excellent Onsens near Anuupuri aren't far either. However Higashiyama, like Annupuri, can't even really be called villages whereas Hirafu is definitely a town. There were comments about the lifts being shut - when the Higash gondola is shut you catch the bus to somewhere else. Having a car is definitely useful as there are a bunch more ski fields you can visit. Skiing wise Higashiyama is much quieter - even when Hirafu is packed at the weekends. You can ski Higashiyama and Annupuri and avoid Hirafu altogether. If you want to go to Hanazono you can get back by only using one Hirafu lift and that lift doesn't attract huge queues. Can be good pow. If they ever open up the forbidden areas it will be fantastic, the pow is great! Or so I'm told... Annupuri - head there when the top lifts are closed. The gondola there almost never closes and you get the place almost to yourself. The Hirafu-ites get trapped in Hirafu and can't go anywhere else, especially if the Higashiyama gondola is closed as well. Generally the best off piste pow here! Hanazono - great off piste pow if you don't mind walking out. But there can be avalanche danger. The Kami Ramen rocks! Niseko and Kutchan: These are "real" towns and are independent from skiing. Worth visiting for a more Japanese experience and some real shops and some great restaurants. SB-Sally: can you PM me the bad foreign owned agent you used? I think I know who they are, but probably shouldn't say their name out loud! Oops, that was more like 5 yen worth... Link to post Share on other sites
AET 0 Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 Good question and thanks for the answers Link to post Share on other sites
mrjamie 0 Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 In my opinion Annupuri has more interesting off-piste, especially if you hike from the gate to the peak of the mountain. There are quite a number of routes you can take, all which end up at Annupuri base... and the two natural halfpipes (gulleys) that continue for a few kilometers each mean endless slashing on powder days to finish speeding down powder runs... I remember getting first tracks at Annupuri four or five times last March/April at 12:00pm, 1:00pm etc...!!! I haven't gotten a chance to ride back-bowl yet, or the area between back-bowl and the front face of Hirafu, but Annupuri definitely was plenty last season and I ended up spending most of my days in that area. Less people on the piste as well, so as a hard-booter there's more room to lay down carves! There's talk of new pensions/hotels going up in that area, however, so who knows what next season will be like. They are revising the hirafu area though, restructuring the terrain on the bottom to make it more gradual and gentle, a 'beginner area.' No more sudden steep drops before the hirafu gondola. Oh, and another advantage of Annupuri is that staying in that area you're just a hop skip and bus-ride away from Mo'iwa... Of course, as some people have mentioned, if you're interested in the night-life you might as well forget east of Hirafu... but I'm here for the powder Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted September 1, 2007 Share Posted September 1, 2007 "They are revising the hirafu area though, restructuring the terrain on the bottom to make it more gradual and gentle, a 'beginner area.' No more sudden steep drops before the hirafu gondola." oh geeze, people are going to be pushing themselves to the gondola.. Link to post Share on other sites
ShinyDiscoBall 2 Posted September 2, 2007 Share Posted September 2, 2007 Perhaps people will be able to take the lift down as well! Link to post Share on other sites
lin 0 Posted September 3, 2007 Share Posted September 3, 2007 I would recommend people look into Annupuri as well, especially if you want to be away from the hordes. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts