My wife and I took a ski trip to Hokkaido last weekend. Sapporo is a lovely city, but we had to pass on staying there, because the hotels were so crowded and nighty rates were up to 3 times the normal price due to the snow festival. Instead, we stayed in Asahikawa city about 150 km north of Sapporo. On Saturday, we went to KAMUI Ski resort. This place has a snow base, however it was a sunny day, so we enjoyed groomed ski slopes there. After skiing, we stayed at a Japanese style hotel with hot springs one night and enjoyed a traditional Japanese course meal and the hot springs.
When we woke up the next morning, there was a lot of fresh snow about 15cm. We headed to Asahidake ski resort in the national park in a hurry after breakfast. When we arrived at the ski resort, there was a long line at the boarding place. Around 70% of the people there were foreign skiers or snowboarders. Asahidake is very popular and famous with foreigners, because you can see very beautiful mountains covered with snow, there is a lot of fresh snow every day and there are refreshing natural hot springs. So, we enjoyed the fresh powdery snow too. I’d like to visit again next season.
