Best/most consistent month of the Japanese season?
Hey all,
Freddy and I are planning on finally hitting up Nippon next season (‘15/‘16). We would like to go for a month. I’m starting to think about this trip a little bit already, as in a month or so we’ll be starting to stash away money for it…when we get back from Samoa, that is. haha. 
I’d like to know people’s opinions on the best time of the season to go…All of february? 2nd Half of february and the first half of march? All of march?
We’d like an estimation on our best chance of getting pow and blue sky, I suppose.
We haven’t thought about exactly which resorts we’d like to go to yet, but I’d definitely like to be on Sapporo for a while as well as Honshu.
All thoughts welcome.
Arigato!
I went end feb this year and only got 1 fresh pow day for the 11 riding days we had there, in 2012 & 2013 i went end of jan and only got 1 blue bird day and the rest it puked, best was 65cms in one night. So in 2016 we are going end of jan again
I went for the first 2 weeks of Feb this year, had a couple of bluebird days, a couple of powder days, and a great day of freshies and blue sky.
Be good to get info from someone who lives/has lived there. Is Gamblor still around somewhere?
I’ll try and remember to ask Randy this weekend. He lived/worked in Niseko through winter for most of the last decade taking photos and skiing a lot.
I could also ask my landlord.. they live in Hakuba and own a hotel at a resort.
I just booked mid Jan tickets so I hope it’s like other years I’ve been at that time, bring forth the japow!!!!!
ooh! Who did you book tickets through, radpants & what is a good price I should be looking out for?
My money would be on Mid Jan - Mid Feb for Honshu, and Start Jan - Mid Feb for Hokkaido!!!!!
January will be dearer and busier due to school holidays, Chinese New Year will be dearer and busier (on piste) due to Chinese Celebrations!!!!! Mainly applies to Niseko!!!!!
Weekends, and especially long weekends on Honshu are insanely busy!!!!! Shibuya Crossing Busy!!!!!
You may have missed JAL and Qantas deals that were goin, which saw return SYD to CTS (or Tokyo) for around $940!!!!! JAL has 2 x 23kg Check in!!!!!!
You can risk it and wait for deals to come up as it gets closer to your travels, as they do try and fill empty seats last minute!!!!!
Good snowfall stats can be found on Snow Japan Now links!!!!!
Also, are you gonna do some sight seeing, how long will you be there, I’m guessing you guys also want as cheap as with car hire travel as a very probable option?????
My money would be on Mid Jan - Mid Feb for Honshu, and Start Jan - Mid Feb for Hokkaido!!!!!
January will be dearer and busier due to school holidays, Chinese New Year will be dearer and busier (on piste) due to Chinese Celebrations!!!!! Mainly applies to Niseko!!!!!
Weekends, and especially long weekends on Honshu are insanely busy!!!!! Shibuya Crossing Busy!!!!!
You may have missed JAL and Qantas deals that were goin, which saw return SYD to CTS (or Tokyo) for around $940!!!!! JAL has 2 x 23kg Check in!!!!!!
You can risk it and wait for deals to come up as it gets closer to your travels, as they do try and fill empty seats last minute!!!!!
Good snowfall stats can be found on Snow Japan Now links!!!!!
Also, are you gonna do some sight seeing, how long will you be there, I’m guessing you guys also want as cheap as with car hire travel as a very probable option?????
I had a little look on JAL’s website yesterday arvo and if you are a little flexible with dates, you can still get return flights to tokyo for under $1000 in the jan/feb region. We’ll probably book using our tax return moolah when we get back from Samoa in early July. Have to see what prices are around then!
We want to be there for a month and I’m not sure about the rental car option yet - I have no idea how cheap it is to get around with public transport, yet….all I do know is that at some point while we are in Nippon I AM GOING ON A SHINKANSEN!
We’d probably like to spend 3-4 days of the month (probably at the end?) looking around tokyo, I reckon.
Public transport is very reasonable, plus it’s very organised!!!!!
A lot of resorts that don’t have accommodation (or lots of accommodation) at the base of the mountain, will run a bus/lift pass option from major hotel pick up points in nearby cities!!!!! eg Saporro, Asahikawa, Nagano etc!!!!!
If it’s the lesser known (to westerner’s) resorts, then a hire car is the only way to go I reckon!!!!!
Definitely catch a Shinkansen, and if you use Tokyo as an in between a Hokkaido/Honshu Trip, it’s super easy to navigate!!!!!
If you have time, tag on a couple days in Kyoto too as I reckon you’ll like it more than Tokyo!!!!! You can then fly out of Osaka (Kansai) from there!!!!!
Also, try and get a couple nights stay in a Traditional Ryokan at some point!!!!!
Looking at Japan again in 2016, just gotta decide where!
Did Hakuba with a bunch of people last year and was great, it really got me itching to do more sidecountry/backcountry stuff next time around!
Trying to decide between Myoko, Nozawa, or go up to Hokkaido and do Niseko, Furano or Rusutsu. Looking likely I’ll be with powder virgins, so looking at somewhere that can suit a range of abilities. Leaning toward Myoko for lack of crowds, but ideally want somewhere with some more wide open powder runs as opposed to only finding stashes in tight trees, as experienced last time in Hakuba.
I am also pretty tempted to do a guided backcountry tour in Hokkaido separately to scratch that itch!
So, those with experience in Myoko/Nozawa/Niseko/Furano/Rusutsu can you gimme a few pros and cons I might not have considered?
Looking at Japan again in 2016, just gotta decide where!
Did Hakuba with a bunch of people last year and was great, it really got me itching to do more sidecountry/backcountry stuff next time around!
Trying to decide between Myoko, Nozawa, or go up to Hokkaido and do Niseko, Furano or Rusutsu. Looking likely I’ll be with powder virgins, so looking at somewhere that can suit a range of abilities. Leaning toward Myoko for lack of crowds, but ideally want somewhere with some more wide open powder runs as opposed to only finding stashes in tight trees, as experienced last time in Hakuba.
I am also pretty tempted to do a guided backcountry tour in Hokkaido separately to scratch that itch!So, those with experience in Myoko/Nozawa/Niseko/Furano/Rusutsu can you gimme a few pros and cons I might not have considered?
Hokkaido has a shite load of options for guided tours (English Speaking), so if you aren’t fluent in the native tongue of Nihon, I reckon Hokkaido’s the best option!!!!! Check out Black Diamond Tours!!!!! (Based near Higashiyama in Milk Kobo, just down the road from The Hilton in Niseko) * There are tons of others that do Cat/Heli/Guided Tours as well, with Nisade and NAC just to name a couple that are based in Niseko!!!!!
While many will lumber crap on Niseko, it is a good base to visit other mountains and resorts, as well as having a great intro to real powder for the uninitiated!!!!!
From there, you can either go to Asahikawa or Sapporo and use them as another base to access more great resorts!!!!!
From what I’ve read/heard about Furano is that while it has good terrain, the powder dumps can be fickle!!!!!
But, you never never know if ya never never go, I spose!!!!!
January is your best bet for powder. Not so much for blue skies.
I went to Niseko last winter and was shocked at how un-Japan it is. Walking around the shops felt like I was in Sydney! It was definitely disappointing.
ok so I’m home again from an awesome trip to Samoa and now keenly turneth mine eyes towards Nippon.
I’d like you experienced Nippon fans/residents to give me some feedback on my current ideas as I feel I’m still pretty uninformed.
Thoughts at present - a month away in total and aiming for 20-22 days riding and the rest getting between places and checking out Tokyo & maybe Kyoto if we have time. We are not and nor do we ever, go away to relax. We go away to see and do as much as we possibly can, so that is what we plan for. If we end up having a few down/relaxing days inserted because we’re exhausted, then we at least know that we tried. haha.
How to spend that month (which is looking like being from around Jan 19th-Feb 19th…ish)
Arrive in Tokyo and make our way to Hokkaido (tips on the best way to do this? Can you shinkansen it up there? and if so what is the trade off between time spent and money spent vs flying?) and spend 10ish days checking out as much of Niseko, Rusutsu and Furano as we can.
Then head south again to Honshu and check out Hakuba and surrounds (myoko, nozawa, shiga kogen) if we can for 10ish days,
Then return to Tokyo and see the sights and chill a little bit before we fly home.
For accommodation for those rough plans - is it feasible to get one lot of accommodation (in say, Niseko or Sapporo and Hakuba) to broadly base ourselves from and then taken transport options to the other places each day? Or should we look at hiring a car? Or would it be easier to take transport options between them and organise accommodation at each different place?
Both JAL (although i don’t know how you book this online as i was always lead to believe that it had to book by the agent - and coudl never do it with jet* flight) and NH offer approx 10,000-11,000 yen flat domestic sector fares (i.e the price never changes) to foreigners. Generally bookable 90 days out. Will be totally availability dependent though at short notice. Latest can be booked is 3 days out online for NH.
https://aswbe-i.ana.co.jp/internati…dtrip_input.xhtml?CONNECTION_KIND=LAX&LANG=en
I will be going to Myoko first and then flying up to sapporo from the local airport rather than goign back to tokyo to fly between.
I am not sure you will be able to get the train for under that!
Good car rental - https://nissan-rentacar.com/english/