Yesterday was a fine day out there. I had some deep fun anyway. I have heard a few comments from people saying the snow was perhaps slightly heavier than we are used to in optimal conditions here, and that was probably about right... but I think we are very spoilt here in Niseko with snow conditions.

It seems as though many mountainous regions of Japan has been on the receiving end of some decent snowfall the last few days and Niseko isn't disappointing either. There's 40cm or so of new snow to report this morning in village - more and less in places - and there will surely be half a metre fallen in places on mountain.

Good morning from Niseko - and a good morning it will certainly be! A good 20cm of lovely snow has fallen in the village since my last report. The mountain is covered in cloud and snow continues to fall. Outside the temperature is around -4C as of 9am.

Yesterday, more of the mountain managed to open up after my initial report, with the Ace Number 3, the King Number 3 lift and the Center Four lifts eventually moving at Hirafu. For those that made it out though and braved the winds and snow, there were some really nice snow conditions to enjoy.

It was another wild ride yesterday with some very strong winds indeed. This morning it is a return to much colder conditions and while it is still very windy, it's somewhat less so than yesterday. The wind is still affecting lifts though with the Gondolas at both Niseko Annupuri and Niseko Village not operating early on as planned - see below for a list up of which lifts are operating this morning.

Yesterday we had some decent snowfall in Niseko which helped to cover up the damage from that rain, and since my report in the morning a good 15cm.

Yesterday was certainly not one that people will want to remember. Persistent and heavy rain was falling through the morning and that wiped some smiles off faces, as we all knew that it would be doing it's damage to the snow out there. You can see how the snow depth numbers at Hirafu in particular have been affected.

Well, after that lovely day out in Niseko yesterday, it's another contrast this morning. It's a warm (+6C) and very wet morning, I'm afraid. Not only have we not managed to escape the rain that was on the forecast, but it's heavy rain doing some damage this morning.

Welcome to a fantastic bluebird morning in Niseko. Not a cloud to be seen and lovely blue skies up there. A sight to behold.

This morning Niseko Grand Hirafu hits 2m of snow and with another 20-25cm of snow in the village falling overnight the fine start to the season seems to be continuing.

Welcome to the weekend and guess what... it's snowing. It tends to do that a lot here, for which we are all very thankful!

Good morning from Niseko. Things did get colder yesterday and while we didn't really have much new snow to boast about by the time the lifts closed, we do have some new snowfall to report this morning... around 15cm.

Did I mention the chance of rain yesterday? Well, sadly, we did get some rain fall overnight, but I am happy to report that it has turned into snow and so just a dusting to report this morning. Currently the temperature is hovering around 1C.

Some pretty crazy winds blowing things around and it was just... fun - fun, that is, to think about what lays ahead once things calm down, more than actually out wanting to be out on the slopes! Not that the lifts were actually moving once the storm set in.