And More

An unexpected surprise this year in Niseko was the need to make “reservations” for many of the restaurants. Apart from a couple of high-end restaurants, I had never encountered being turned away because the empty tables were “reserved”. There was no particular pattern to which days were worse than others but the time of evening had a major bearing as to whether tables were available or not. I did learn to adjust so that I could find somewhere to eat without having to book ahead.

As always the food plays an integral part of the whole experience

The diary foods are always good The snow speaks for itself Not too mention the beer

Apart from the addition of a few more small blocks of apartments there has not been any really obvious changes to the landscape. Land prices have soared as Australians have been buying anything attached to the ground, especially old dis-used houses and then renovating. Any vacant block is destined to have either a house or apartment block built upon it in the near future.

Village roads by day

Slopes by night

Another noticeable change was the erection of English signs all over the resort and inside restaurants. The shuttle bus service now has 12 (memory fading) dedicated bus stops, each with a big sign with the bus stop number on it. For those foreigners who do not know where they are staying or can’t pronounce it correctly they can now relate by number to the bus driver. Luckily the bus staff have a pretty good hold of the English language but I know they still appreciate attempts by guests to say “ichi-ban” rather than “number one”.

Talking of the shuttle bus, there appeared to be less buses running in peak time than last year. Whether this is because they are spread over a larger area or they have cut down the number of buses (having purchased new and slightly bigger buses) is not known to me. There were several mornings that I walked to the lifts because no buses came in the first half hour or they were full when they did come.

Occassionaly the sun came out to reveal the spectacular Mt Yotei as seen from Annupuri

Outside peak times the shuttle buses now carry passengers who are not going to or from the slopes. This is a wonderful improvement in service as it makes it so much easier carting wine and beer back from the supermarket or in getting to that restaurant up the hill.

Some space for a few more happy snaps ...