Good morning from Hirafu and I'm afraid I don't have anything particularly exciting to report just at the moment. We are still waiting for the snow. It was cold overnight and it isn't going to warm up much into positive numbers during the day together either.

The forecast is looking encouraging though with snow due this week - starting late tonight or early tomorrow morning?

I will let you know!

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As we wait for the snow to arrive and for the season to get going I thought it might be a good time to re-cap on how things went last season.

You can of course read through the reports via the archive links at the bottom of the page (on the main website), but below are the headline numbers for each of the months last season and the season before. 'My observed numbers' is what I actually observe here in the Hirafu base area with my own eyes. 'JMA Kutchan numbers' are the official snowfall numbers reported by Japan Meteorological Agency for the nearby Kutchan town area. As you might expect, more snow falls higher up on the mountain than both of these lower locations - the 'general wisdom' (which seems reasonable to me) estimating about 1.5 times base numbers up top. The numbers in brackets are the monthly numbers added up giving us a total snowfall number.

November 2014

My observed numbers:
November 2014: 30cm
November 2013: 123cm

JMA Kutchan numbers:
November 2014: 41cm
November 2013: 99cm

December 2014

My observed numbers:
December 2014: 519cm (549cm)
December 2013: 275m (398cm)

JMA Kutchan numbers:
December 2014: 387cm (428cm)
December 2013: 258cm (357cm)

January 2015

My observed numbers:
January 2015: 257cm (806cm)
January 2014: 461cm (859cm)

JMA numbers:
January 2015: 230cm (658cm)
January 2014: 317cm (674cm)

February 2015

My observed numbers:
February 2015: 196cm (1002cm)
February 2014: 178cm (1037cm)

JMA Kutchan numbers:
February 2015: 167cm (825cm)
February 2014: 130cm (804cm)

March 2015

My observed numbers:
March 2015: 139cm (1141cm)
March 2014: 113cm (1150cm)

JMA Kutchan numbers:
March 2015: 141cm (966cm)
March 2014: 118cm (922cm)

April 2015

My observed numbers:
April 2015: 3cm (1144cm)
April 2014: 13cm (1163cm)

JMA Kutchan numbers:
April 2015: 3cm (969cm)
April 2014: 24m (946cm)

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Planned opening dates for the Niseko resorts:

Niseko Grand Hirafu: as soon as there's enough snow
Niseko Annupuri: Saturday 28th November
Niseko Village: Tuesday 1st December
Niseko HANAZONO: Saturday 5th December

'Nighta' should be starting on Saturday 12th December