niseko vs furano

[foreversnow 5]

Okay got it Furano Crap - Not worth going. Furano is Rubbish nothing there. GOT IT!!

[Zaoman 0]

Actually, it's really good.

[ausi ski bum 1]

The biggest problem with Furano is the shuttle bus is rubbish, if you intend skiing there rent your own vehicle and you will love it, with the car you can also take day trips to Tomamu, Sahoro and that other one starting with an A.

 

Niseko certainly is a great resort but personally I prefer Rusutsu, again however if you have wheels you are close enough to drive over to Rusutsu from Niseko as well as trips to a few smaller places like Moiawa etc.

 

For Boarders I really like the terrain park built at Tomamu and I have to say Tomamu tends to attract more Boarders than any other place I skied in Japan.

 

I won't ski Japan again for three years after 4 trips in six years but if I did I think I would spend time at Rusutsu, Tomamu, Sahoro and day trips to others.

 

Oh driving around Hokkaido you come across these really small places with a single lift and a few runs, they can be excellent fun for a few hour stop over.

[muikabochi 208]

What's up with the shuttle bus?

 

Yuzawa has tons of shuttle buses going round. That, is actually one of the problems... not co-ordinated very well and can be very confusing with them all going different places. I think that could be done much more efficiently.

[foreversnow 5]

Originally Posted By: ausi ski bum

Niseko certainly is a great resort but personally I prefer Rusutsu, again however if you have wheels you are close enough to drive over to Rusutsu from Niseko as well as trips to a few smaller places like Moiawa etc.

Hiring a car does give you some independence but now there are regular daily shuttles to Moiwa from Niseko and shuttles twice a week to Rusutsu.

At the moment it looks like 2 weeks based in that town with poor shuttles visiting all surounding resorts and then drive to Niseko and spend a 1 week there hitting the other resorts. Or we might find some hills on the way and stop and play there.

[Go Native 70]

For all the talk about how busy it is now in Niseko and how hard it is to find fresh tracks I must say I rarely had any problems getting freshies throughout the whole season. Without a doubt Hirafu is busy but I didn't start my day in Hirafu once all season. If you start out from any of the other areas normally you'll have no problems at all getting fresh turns for the first couple of hours. Normally I'd start in Hanazono(closest base to home) getting first tracks in Bluberry's and Strawberry's and then head up to the peak and drop down Higashi One or the bowls for fresh tracks nearly the whole way. I particularly like Jackson's because it almost never gets tracked out, especially since boarders struggle with the traverse out at the base so few do it. Anyway best advice I can give is get out of Hirafu as quick as you can and head out peak gates as soon as they open and you'll never struggle with getting freshies in Niseko. Or come in March

[blinkin'ek 0]

In my experience it is no more busy than other big resorts. The most I have queued was at Kagura in Niigata, followed by Happo in Hakuba with Niseko (last season) coming in 3rd.

 

Night time - different story, but that is probably because there actually is SOMETHING going on at night!

[Go Native 70]

I guess the thing with Niseko though is that it's busy all week long not just on weekends. Mid week at Kagura and Happo wouldn't be too bad I'd think?

[HelperElfMissy 42]

-certainly no waiting at any lifts Thursday (Happone) and Friday(47/Goryu).

[Go Native 70]

Well there's no waiting at any lifts in Niseko at this time of year either.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

midweek kagura would be empty. no waiting

[iiyamadude 6]

Most places are so.

Almost too few people sometimes making for a lack of 'atmoshpere', for want of a better word.

[vertuls 0]

so now I am finally finished the trip, I can tell how trip no Furano was for my 'first time in Japan' eyes.

 

anyway - getting there:

 

from asahikawa airport very easy, just take bus, no taxis needed, from sapporo quite longer, so asahikawa better.

 

living there:

was living in two places, 3 days in each place

* naturwald hotel - they do not have no smokers rooms, quite a drawback. room was kinda old. reasonable breakfast. 50 m from kinotamine (if i remember correctly the spelling gondola. significantly cheaper than new prince hotel, but even for that still not a bargain.

* fresh powder apartments - very very nice. 30 m from the same gondola, so almost twice as close to gondola than naturwald :-) freshly refurbished rooms, washing machine, nice drying room for equipment, and can borrow DVDs and watch movies. Wifi there too. absolutely recommend.

 

though was not living in new prince hotel (or the old one as well), their location is not so good IMHO, being in the part of town where we were, could make some trips to center of town, or just around kinotamine area, but new prince hotel far away from everywhere. if all you need is peace, can go there. From new prince hotel can get to the better runs faster than from kinotamine.

 

mountain:

pistes tended to be in good shape, but to be honest going there just for pistes not worth (sorry, cannot beat french alps there). as for offpiste - hmm... I guess everyone who needs to know, is informed I could write small handbook on what we discovered. Lets just say we had strict off-piste policy, the correct kind of off-piste policy. we were reasonably lucky with snow, which is always nice.

 

Lifts - reasonable. ahh, yea, the sweet bonus of going after high season - zero queues at lifts.

 

no snow-park - thats is actually quite a loss for furano. They could definitely find some place for that.

 

apres-ski:

totally enjoyed food in furano, found good places both in kinotamine area and in center of town, as we were walking to center every day I think. (takes approx 20 min, but we not lazy

locals are very friendly and helpful, even with their usually very limited english language. actually even in tourism office sometimes there are people who can barely speak english.

so as we communicated with local people we asked which places they recommend for eating and their recommendations were good - tomizushi and fukuzushi are good sushi places (again, if I remember names correctly), do not remember other names, but we were eating out almost every day and in different places and do not remember bad places to warn.

drinking in furano - bars were rather empty at the times we visited them, there were like two bars where tourists (like all five of them and expats were gathering, quite boring. the most fun and main alco consumption happened in place called kingyo dream house. totally recommend, communication with drunk locals (me being drunk too) - very very good thing to do. this is place where I learned about ShÅchÅ«. and little bit of karaoke. but in general still quite mellow. dunno how it is during high season.

 

so thanks for the advice to visit this place.

 

(as for photos - it was unfortunately mostly cloudy, so all pics are grey, dunno if worth posting)

[batsugun 0]

I have never been up there but planning to this year.

Perhaps I will be one of the only Japanese there?

[JA2340 16]

I doubt it, batsugun, there are plenty of locals ski at Furano. In fact, when we were there in January a couple of seasons ago, there were millions (well not realy, though it seemed like it) of school kids there and they inhabited the Kitanomine area, forming "learner snakes" all over the place.

 

We went over to the Furano zone as soon as we could, and avoided them, and the army guys as well.

[batsugun 0]

I hear you JA, I was actually meaning more Niseko than Furano.

[thursday 1]

and you meant it as a joke. Some people didn't get that.

[JA2340 16]

I saw the wink, but couldn't resist. Note to self - don't rise to thursday's bait again!

[blu 3]

Originally Posted By: ausi ski bum

For Boarders I really like the terrain park built at Tomamu and I have to say Tomamu tends to attract more Boarders than any other place I skied in Japan.

ASB, did you stay in the Tower ($$$?)
I'm tempted to drop into Kamui again.

[ausi ski bum 1]

I stayed at the Galleria for 5 nights, nice spot overlooking the resort from the 26th floor, it did cost a few $$$ but it was the last five nights of a three week tour so i wanted it to be special.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

ASB, how much was it per night? My next Hokkaido trip prolly wont be for a few years, but Ill base myself out of Asahikawa for sure

[blu 3]

sorry to hijack the thread - CB, where was 'that photo' taken from your Kamui trip, was it off the back chair?

[vertuls 0]

Originally Posted By: batsugun

I have never been up there but planning to this year.
Perhaps I will be one of the only Japanese there?

nope, Furano much less popular with tourists than Niseko

and - why not - two pics form my time there
http://twitpic.com/193dxu
http://twitpic.com/193epg

nice time it was

[thursday 1]

define your tourists. Furano is the hub of Hokkaido tourism.

[Yuki's Passion 1]

Originally Posted By: blu

sorry to hijack the thread - CB, where was 'that photo' taken from your Kamui trip, was it off the back chair?

Sorry I missed your question blu... You mean from these pics here? They were right off the top of the gondola go out the right, then drop immediately in the trees and go straight down the fall line. Its the run with the two (I guess) summer roads in it. Off the back chair was nice too, though it flattened out too quickly. I wanna hit up Furano again for sure. That resort is pretty badass I think.