Let it Snow, Let it Snow

For some reason when ever I think of the lyrics "Let it Snow, Let it Snow" - I think of John Mcclaine in Die Hard. Anyway I guess the only link is the lyrics and the fact that I`m in Japan. Obviously I have been travelling on my own for too long....

So I arrived in Sapporo and stayed in the Sapporo International Youth Hostel which is out on the Tozai line, pretty nice hostel though has a curfew of 00:00 which is a bit strange, oh and you cant use the showers after 09:00. But pretty nice. Meet a lad from Melbourne, Australia who randomly was learning to Snowboard, we went up to the local snowfield which was pretty impressive and quite a bit bigger than XScape in Castleford (www.xscape.co.uk).

The first thing you realise about Sapporo is that it snows a lot and all the time. I dragged my board b**ody miles through the snow it almost killed me.. but hey ho thats that price you pay for going boarding round the world.

Due to the previously mentioned shower timing I left the hostel unshowered and made it on to the Niseko Ski Express .. bound for Niseko station, it takes 2hrs and costs about 4000 Yen. The train cars are luxury and really nice, though play some pretty awful Japanese music.. but you cant have everything. As we made it to Niseko the amount of snow just grew and grew.. buildings submerged under the stuff... unbelievable!

Got to Niseko station as promised in 2hrs and got the bus from Niseko station to Annupuri for 100 yen. Funny thing, when on the bus we went to pick up some school kids and one of them had an Ipswich Town Football Club hat on, made me laugh (he thought I was a bit weird as I laughed at him - so didnt try and get a photo).

Arrived at Annupuri bus stop and got picked up by Yoichi the owner of Annupuri Youth Hostel. Now this Youth Hostel is like no other hostel I have stayed in, make sure you get dinner and breakfast as the food is incredible! On the first night met Will from Hong Kong who was over Snowboarding and later Heiner from Germany..

The terrain here is incredible, the snow amazing and perfect for anybody wanting to learn without hurting themselves. The resort is fast becoming filled with Aussies as its being pushed as the aussie snow resort.

Anyway one piece of advice, make sure you stock up on money and phone cards if needing to call home as I didnt and had to get back to Sapporo on a day trip to get it all sorted. You can get money from the Niseko town Post Office but its a bit of a trek from Annupuri.. Gotta scoot as bus leaves in an hour and havent really seen much of Sapporo yet!!