We arrived at Sapporo airport on 11th January and took the train in the dark to our new snowy home. Because it was dark, we didn’t realise how spectacular our surroundings were until we arrived in Kutchan town, about 5km from Niseko ski resort and our home for the next 2 months. Kutchan is renowned as one of the snowiest towns in the world, with good reason. After briefly meeting our new boss Scott, an Australian who has lived in Niseko for twenty years and built up a monopoly of properties and restaurants, we met our new housemates. They were a mixture of Australian, English, Taiwanese, European, Korean, Canadian, Singaporean, Kiwi...the list goes on.
We went to bed early that night as we were exhausted. The house in Kutchan was a typical Japanese house we were told...what this means is that it is made of paper thin walls and is very very cold. Luckily our room had a kerosene heater - Bex's new best friend. We were lucky to have our own private room, most of Scott's staff lived in dorms or on the floor in the attic.
From here, we slowly but surely settled in to our new routine. We were to work in one of the restaurants called Wabi Sabi - a self proclaimed Japanese home style cooking, 40 seater restaurant. To begin, Bex worked on the floor serving customers and I put 23 years worth of education to good use washing dishes.
The restaurant was staffed mainly with other backpackers like us, all working 6 evenings a week in exchange for accommodation, food and ski passes. The other workers were Japanese paid staff. They were very friendly, had mixed English abilities and were all happy to help us practise our Nihongo (Japanese).
The shifts were fairly laid back but quite long and dull. The best part of work was getting to eat and drink the entire menu and speaking to the other workers. We made good friends with the majority of the people we worked with and ended up travelling with some of them in Taiwan (see the next instalment for more details). Being in the kitchen in particular was helpful for 'nihongo o renshu shimashita' (practising Japanese).
As time went on, Bex soon became the host/manager of the restaurant.
Whilst after a week of dishwashing, I got fed up and became a chef instead.
(Reservations are available from September onwards.)
The other side of life was of course the skiing. As mentioned, in return for work we were given access to a free lift pass. This was a pretty good deal as they are expensive in Niseko, around £30 a day. What we didn't have was a set of skis or boots to use. We quickly found what we needed for the reasonable price of 30,000 yens each and we hit the slopes.
For the skiers amongst our readers, the average day's snow in Niseko is equivalent to a very good day's snow in Europe. On a powder day, the snow is unrivalled. What Niseko lacked compared to European skiing was comfort and ease. It was relatively hard to work out the best way to get around on the slopes, pistes weren't marked very well and the restaurants on the mountain were like school canteens. All this doesn't matter however when you are rewarded with one of Niseko's greatest gifts on a clear day; a rare spectacular view of the iconic Mt. Yotei.
For all intents and purposes, Bex started the season as a beginner skier. The grading of slopes in Niseko goes Green, Red, Black, Double Black, the latter being the hardest. After a week Bex was confident on the greens. Two weeks in reds were no longer an issue. By the end of our time, Bex could ski every slope on the mountain confidently, in control and looking like a pro. This included a small bit of off piste skiing and some ventures into the powder and the trees, which she didn't like. She is the only skier I have met so far who was upset when it snowed, as the powder 'gets in the way of her skis'.
This busy routine didn't leave much time for extra curricular activities. Here's a few things we did do:
Made the trip to Sapporo for the annual snow festival which was great. The highlight was a gigantic snow sculpture of Darth Vader.
Picked up a new skill - hitchhiking. 'anata wa Niseko ni ikimasuka?'
Spent Valentine's Day at Niseko Pizza - a nice break from rice and noodles.
Went for a night out to the karaoke bar; hearing our Japanese friends rocking out to Living On A Prayer will be a tough memory to forget.
I had a haircut at a supermarket for 1,000 yens (£5).
Taught Japanese people how to play beer pong.
With the busy schedule of skiing in the morning and working at night, the weeks flew past in a blur. It was tiring, fun, rewarding and mostly exciting. Towards the end the work began to become a bit of a drag and I think we were both happy to see our last shift arrive.
To sum up, it was a busy couple of weeks. We learnt a lot, met many new people from across the world and will take many happy memories away with us.
Next stop - Republic Of China a.k.a Taiwan!
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