Hello and good morning from Niseko on this New Years Eve morning.

The snow continued once again through the day yesterday with a few people asking me 'does it ever stop'?

Huge amounts of fresh snowfall to report this morning as it keeps on coming down.

Top lifts open for Christmas!

Another fine snowy morning here in Niseko with about 25cm fresh on the ground once more outside my place here in Hirafu.

Lots of light fresh snow to report again this morning from the Niseko area - 30cm outside my place - which should make for excellent conditions today.

It's a really very - very - cold morning here in the Niseko area.

Rain! Noooooo! We don't like rain, oh no.

Just a thin cover of new snow since my last report and it's noticeably warmer this morning.

A bit of relative calm after the storm is the feeling this morning.

This particular region of Hokkaido missed the worst of the storm yesterday.

What's this... blue skies?! The sun is out this morning.

'It just doesn't stop snowing' is what I heard a few people say yesterday, and sometimes it feels like that.

Good morning from Niseko, which seems to be - and almost certainly is - getting busier by the day. There's an atmosphere building... and it's a good one!