Hakuba Review
Things you MUST bring (aside from your usual kit):
Face mask/neck warmer (fresh pow stuck to your face copping a breeze on the mountain is not nice)
Lots of socks (for casual wear, everytime you walk outside your shoes soak up water from the pow and your socks get wet)
Some clear or yellow tinted lenses for your goggles (when it’s overcast I couldn’t see any detail in the snow with my tinted silver lenses)
JPY!!! (pull out more cash than you need.. 7-Eleven is a PITA to get to in a blizzard.. and the 5% fee gets expensive)
A Japanese Power adapter (3 prong input, 2 prong output).. the convenience stores run out of these all the time.
Shuttle Buses/Transport
The transfer from Narita airport to Hakuba takes a while.. like 4+ hours (closer to 5). We went with Liquid Snow Tours so they arranged the transfers. On the way in, we got a 10-seater minivan which was a little cramped and a little shaky at the 150km/h+ speeds (on 60km/h signposted roads). We had to tell the driver to stop and take a break as on more than a few occasions we caught him drifting across lanes at high speeds. Flying with jetstar you
arrive in Narita at about 6:50pm, after transfers you get to Hakuba at about 12pm-1am. Echoland is the first stop.
The return journey is a long one, especially if you’re from Sydney/Melbourne and you fly Jetstar. We left our hotel in Echoland at 10am on Saturday morning and arrived at Sydney airport at 1:40pm on Sunday.. that’s a long trip home. For a couple of extra $$ I’d definitely look more closely at flight schedules and choose ones with the shorter layovers, or better yet, direct flights.
The Shuttle Buses in Hakuba are brilliant. I’ll put pictures of the timetable up below when I get home, but from Echoland the buses come at around every 40 mins from 7am through to about 10am in the morning. It takes about 10mins to get to Happo One (pronounced “Happo Oh-nay”) and 15mins to get to Iwatake. Tsugaike and Cortina take about another 10-15 mins extra as you have to transfer at the Happo Information Centre. It’s all very easy once you’re there, as most buses actually have the bus route printed on the side in a large flow chart type diagram. Every bus stop has easy to read signs in English as well. Just make sure you get on the right bus (eg check the side, or simply ask the driver) as many of the buses look similar. The return trips from the mountains are just as easy, with the first buses arriving at 1pm, then 2pm, 3pm, 3:40pm, etc
Bus Timetable (departing Echoland)
Bus Timetable (returning)
Accommodation
We stayed at Hotel Shakespeare. I can’t recommend this place enough. It’s very clean (housekeeping every 2nd day, new towels everyday) and the rooms are very generous in size. We had a twin share with singles, so you basically get two beds, a 2-seater couch, an LCD tv (all jap channels, but has RCA and HDMI inputs) and your own bathroom with a shower/bath and toilet. There is free WiFi in the building, I could get 2-bars from room 209, but rooms closer to the lounge area would probably get better reception (rooms 204-207 would be best). From the comfortable lounge area you get full reception, enough to skype home no problems. You can also use the breakout room downstairs which has excellent WiFi reception, some arcade games, etc.
The people at the hotel are fantastic. Sh?ichi (Carlos) is super helpful and speaks great English. Nothing is too much trouble for any of them. The included breakfast is perfect and the waitresses are gorgeous and really kind/gentle and well mannered. There are 2 choices for breakfast, ie Western or Japanese. The Western Breakfast includes a bread basket, 2 eggs (varies everyday between fried, scrambled, or omelet), 2 small sausages/frankfurts, a bowl of cereal, a bowl of fruit or yoghurt, tea/coffee or juice. I’m not really sure what the Japanese breakfast included but it looked like self-serve rice, miso, pickled fish, vegetables, etc.
The hotel has the Echoland bus stop directly out front, a range of convenience stores within 100metres, some great restaurants nearby (and across the road) and is ultra convenient. I’ll be back for sure.
There is a coin laundry just up the road as well which is very useful. On day 3 my thermals smelled like ass, so I took a load of washing up there and it cost 800 yen for a wash and run through the drier. You’ll need 100yen coins though, so go to a convenience store and get 8 of them.
<img src =“http://i42.tinypic.com/x3uyro.jpg” width =“800”>
View from the room
The lounge/WiFi room
Amount of snow dumped out the front over a few nights
Dude, where’s my car?!
Yep it was colllldddd
Convenience store a few doors up
Echoland Main St (lookin down)
One of the only snow shops in the area (a bit pricey.. eg Volcom casual jacket was $230)
But if you need bindings or some random parts you can try them
Food
As above the hotel breakfast is great.
For the rest of the day you have your on-mountain eats, then your dinner.
On mountain you can grab lunch for under $5 or it can cost you $20.. up to you. There are restaurants on most mountains which have great food, like Japanese Curries, Italian, etc.. what we ended up doing after our first day was just picking up a steamed bun (Beef curry, chicken, pizza, or been curd) and a hot can of coffee for about 300yen ($3.75).. we may have done this twice a day depending on how hungry we were, but try and get a bottle of water at thredbo for that much!
Dinner is basically all priced the same as AU.. it can get pretty expensive depending on where you go, but you’ll quickly find your favourites. I was a little disappointed with the lack of easy to find Japanese food, as most restaurants were either Italian, steakhouse or Mexican. Shinshu Dining in Echoland offers great Jap food at reasonable prices.. otherwise we spent most of our time up at “Sounds Like Café” in Echoland. They have good pizza, great burgers, and other simple eats. Rocky pours a mean beer (watch him spoon out the head then re-pour EVERY beer to get it just right) and is up for a chat anytime.. he lives about 200 metres from the Café and has tons of local knowledge. Sounds Like Café also has free WiFi (ask them for the password card) and plays ski/board videos all night.. also plays some pretty good music too.
Everything else you need you can get at the convenience stores. Hot cans of coffee, Kirin or Asahi, chips, chocolates, microwave food, noodles (ask for chopsticks!!), steamed buns, face masks/neck warmers, band-aids, linament, etc.. everything is available for reasonable prices and they are open until about 10pm everynight. From Shakespeare Hotel there were 2 convenience stores within 100 metres (one is 3 doors up).
Restaurants across the road (Mexican and Jap)
Ask for chopsticks!!!
Entertainment
In all honesty, I think Hakuba lacks a little in entertainment. I was told it was a very quiet year due to the Japanese natural disasters, but that being said.. I never saw more than 12 people in either of the 2 bars (902 or Master Braster) and it was almost always a sausage fest… I usually just wandered back to the Café and got my beers there whilst watching some snowboard vids and chatting to any locals that walked in. I feel I have to say it though, so I’ll put on my flame suit now, but shit… without fail if there is any sort of disturbance or drama happening anywhere, it is almost always caused by another aussie.. there are some real idiot bogans over there and sometimes you almost feel embarrassed to say you’re from the same country. There were some problems at the hotel with 2 different groups of aussies.. one bitch was so rude to the waitstaff that I went and spoke to the manager and advised him that if she spoke to someone like that in Sydney she’d be thrown out.. I also told the lady to watch her mouth and have some respect for the locals.. so that being said, it wasn’t a huge deal to not have the nightlife as I’m sure it would’ve just brought more drama, especially once alcohol is thrown into the mix. Maybe I’m being negative, but I don’t go overseas to experience a different culture then sit in a bar with other drunk aussies/kiwis.. so the café was a decent enough option.
Master Braster - A Jamaican themed Reggae bar in Echoland
Snow
Where do I start. I can’t describe it… knee deep pow was everywhere. Our first day (Sunday 29th of Jan) was a sunny day, clear skies, and about 6 inches of fresh japow. I’d never ridden in powder before (thanks Thredbo!) so it took a bit of getting used to, but once I did you couldn’t get me off it. For the next 4 days it was basically snowing non-stop. Visibility was crap, but the snow was insane (is there such a thing as too much pow??).. one day at Iwatake it was so deep that you’d hit this patch of pow and unless you were straightlining on your back foot at full speed, you’d just sink to your hips and come to a stop.
We had a 6 day lift pass to Happo, Iwatake and Tsugaike. Happo One is more of a skiers mountain and a few of them take it pretty seriously, there is plenty of room for everyone though so don’t be shy.. Happo also has a few of the steeper runs.
Iwatake is a great mountain for beginner to intermediate riders. It was only my 3rd ever day on snow, so I thought this would be a good place to start. The japow helps you build confidence quickly, and by my 2nd run I was making it from the top of the mountain (Gondola) all the way to the base without hitting my ass and even throwing in some butters and maybe a jump or three. We made a wrong turn at about midday and ended up doing a couple of black runs. I think they’re pretty generous by calling them black runs, I’d say they’d be about high-level intermediate.. .just steep and hell fast. I got so confident that on my last day I made a little ramp ontop of an 8 foot step-down and decided to straightline it down the mountain and hit it as hard as I could.. end result was I landed in pow, then hit some ice, slid out and knocked myself out 
awesome. Oh yeah.. my brother said the camera couldn’t focus with the sun behind me so all we got was shots of the snow.. quite disappointed as the whole idea was to get some good shots, whether it was landed or not. It broke my cartel binding though, so kind of glad I left this to the last day haha
We spent most of our time at Iwatake as it suited our skill level best.. I also like the atmosphere there and the view from the top of the mountain is incredible. We tried Tsugaike, but it was on a day where visbility was so poor that we couldn’t really see anything.. the trail maps look promising and it had knee deep pow everywhere, so it would probably be a good place to checkout when viability is better.. given that it’s also an extra bus ride away we just couldn’t justify it considering we were having so much fun at Iwatake. We did a 1-day trip to Cortina.. again it’s a separate bus ride and I think it’s the furthest mountain away from Echoland/Happo.. it faces a different direction though and cops A LOT of powder.. like I mean A LOT!!! Many of the runs were similar to what was on offer at the other resorts.. I think if you were a mid-level intermediate to advanced boarder, this would be your mountain. The tree runs looked awesome, however I found it difficult to keep my speed up and still do the tight turns required to make it through the trees.. so heaps of times I found myself sinking and probably spent a good half my time digging, unclipping, resetting and then doing it all over again. If you were a little more experienced or had a proper pow board it might be better.. I was on a rockered Park Pickle which had no probs with knee deep pow, but when it started to get deeper then I’d find I would bog too much.. I noticed this happening to heaps of people as well.
We didn’t even try Goryu/47, however I’ve been told these resorts are perfect for intermediate boarders.. I don’t think you can go wrong with Hakuba. There is tons of variety and so much pow that any more would probably be too damn hard to ride in.
The view from the top of Iwatake
Half-Way down an Iwatake run
Overall I couldn’t imagine the snow being better anywhere else.. anymore pow would be a nuisance, and there was more than enough variety with the resorts in the area to keep you going for a month. The accommodation was great (full 5 points go to Hotel Shakespeare), if you don’t like sharing a bathroom or sleeping quarters, or you’re worried about your stuff getting stolen, then the tiny bit extra to stay at Shakespeare might be worth looking into. Given how long it took us to get to Hakuba, I couldn’t justify travelling any further unless it was for 2+ weeks.. given the quality of the snow available at Hakuba I think it would even be difficult to justify anywhere else regardless. I’ll definitely be back.. I miss the place and the people already. If you’re looking for perfect snow, great people, and a cultural experience you can’t go past Hakuba.
FYI Japan roads speeds are in Miles so MPH
Always nice to read positive write ups about japan 
i had the same experience with jetstar
long ass trip home…promised myself i would not take them to japan again. (so following year for my Niseko trip….booked JAL non stop…its a pretty big premium about 700-800 bucks different, including Tokyo to sapporo but not including transfers)
we took bullet train from nagano to tokyo and stayed toyko for couple of nights so flew out of tokyo only
re: pow…its not always like that so count yourself lucky
my two weeks there (2 season back i believe) it was snow everyday for the first week and starting to melt the 2nd week
by the last day of my trip…it was slush fest matching perisher in spring conditions….pretty horrid…good thing we were too hung over from the major bender the night before to complain too much 
FYI Japan roads speeds are in Miles so MPH
Really? I didn’t know this!
I thought Japan was on the metric system, hence why all the road signs read KM (eg. Narita Airport 30km).. also my R33 import skyline had a kph dash!
weird…
that was a nice read. thanks for going to the trouble of writing it. If I ever get around to going to Japan, I’m sure I’ll search this thread and try and read it again!
Great post Busta. Will have to be alert on my bus ride with Liquid. that is 1 reason I definitely prefer trains in general. You aren’t relying so much on a single driver
TR’s like this make me second guess my choice to abandon plans to hit up Japow next year to go to Miami/Vegas…
Why Deano?
Great report.. Busta
And you highlighted my points of tell people to take cash and not rely on ATMS there! It is a PITA!!
Shame about the bogan Aussies. I never encounted any when I went last time. Either Hakuba or Niseko.
And yeah I def support the not flying jetpoo. I just can’t!!! Such a long arse day for not much cheaper.
Anyone else yet to go to Hakuba - Can I suggest Emu down in town near the Train Station. Great food! and get the japanese pancake Okonimyaki! (sp??)
There are more Japanese restaurants in the Wadano area. Windy is great (but a bit more pricey than Emu). For cheap but home cooked style food the restaurant in the Highmont Hotel is good. But the menu changes each night so you will have to call ahead and find out when is Japanese or Hot Pot nights. (both Rider and I have stayed and eaten there!) It is nothing flash but a lot of people from other hotels eat there.
Great write up mate brings back some memories and I pretty much agree with it all except for the snow bit as I didn’t get the powder!
Get yourself a travel card (28 degree card) for the next time you travel (also perfect for overseas online shopping) you don’t get any ATM fees and a true exchange rate.
Tsugaike is definitely worth hitting up, it was probably my favourite of the ones I went to considering the conditions.
Just seeing the pics of the convenience stores makes me miss the gorgeous golden retrievers that used to either greet you at the door or lie right in the middle of the shop as speedhumps. I have mixed emotions about the Master Braster pic.
Glad to hear you loved Hakuba/Japan it definitely is a lovely part of the world!
I was wondering if those 2 dogs were still at the store! They were the nicest dogs!
That Japanese restaurant across from you was great. We tried teh 7 different bits of Pig. Was very interesting. Also had raw deer and horse there.
Good write up mate!
I was wondering if those 2 dogs were still at the store! They were the nicest dogs!
That Japanese restaurant across from you was great. We tried teh 7 different bits of Pig. Was very interesting. Also had raw deer and horse there.
Good write up mate!
Thanks!
Yep, the two Golden Retreivers are still at the convenience store.. the Doberman is still at 902 and there are numerous Shiba’s and Akita’s being walked around outside everyday.. We even saw some Shiba’s having a play in the snow at Iwatake a few times.
Shinshu dining was awesome.. great Jap food. The mexican wasn’t too bad either, just not what I expected in Hakuba!
Yeh that doberman is bloody clever! Owner had him doin all sorts of tricks one night at about 2am
Why Deano?
cause i want to ride pow…but i want to hit up the pool parties in Vegas/Miami…but i want pow…
i will save $$$ and leave my decision till later in the yeer
Why Deano?
cause i want to ride pow…but i want to hit up the pool parties in Vegas/Miami…but i want pow…
i will save $$$ and leave my decision till later in the yeer
I am confused is the TR making you want to go to Japan or go to US?? I interpreted your post as NOT to go Japan. And wondered what he said to make you not go.
FYI Japan roads speeds are in Miles so MPH
Really? I didn’t know this!
I thought Japan was on the metric system, hence why all the road signs read KM (eg. Narita Airport 30km).. also my R33 import skyline had a kph dash!
weird…
i stand corrected
its Kph