This isn’t another Japan story just about Nieseko. Imagine if all that foreigners heard about Australia was Byron Bay! With so much to offer, we took Chris Decampo, Jake McCarthy and Andy Lloyd to a Japan that you haven’t heard much about… Yet.
Words and photography by Rich Hegarty.
Nozawa Onsen during a dump of fresh snow. Photo: Rich Hegarty.
In my time snowboarding I have been to a lot of places; less than some, but more than most. I have attempted to get to as many parts of the world where snowboarding is worthy and with 21 back-to-back southern and northern winters and 22 years of snowboarding under my belt I figure I am a fairly good gage of what’s what, especially on the snowboarding travel side of things. You may think that this makes me an old bastard so not worth listening to but I have been young as well and am also brainwashed with snowboarding hype so I think I still kinda get it. For me personally snowboarding travel isn’t all about the snowboarding. I am a big fan of going somewhere I haven’t been and don’t know much about and finding out as much about the place as possible and meeting the people and their customs. This doesn’t mean going to the weirdest possible places on earth just to feel like you are in some Nat Geo documentary; some of the strangest places to visit to snowboard are the ones you least expect. Take Utah and Salt Lake City for instance – low alcohol beer only, polygamy cults, churches on every corner all on the side of a massive dead life salt pan. But no matter how hard I look to find a better and more interesting all-round snowboarding travel destination I can’t get past Japan.
Chris Decampo wallride. Photo: Rich Hegarty.
Japan is one of those places you hear a lot about as an Australian. Mainly because the Japanese are in the news all the time about killing whales, but this aside, there is a lot more to Japan than their overfishing issues. Promotions on their resorts have been in all Australian media and I am sure you all would have seen the heavy push for years just to jump on the North Island express, skip the main island of Honshu and head straight to Hokaido to ride Niseko resort. I bought into this a few years back and wasn’t disappointed at all; probably the best deep dry snow in the world, good food and good times – really an amazing place to snowboard. The one thing though that to me was really missing about the place unfortunately was big mountains and local culture. Japan is a small country compared to its population but it does have a massive amount of choices for places to go riding. The whole country is covered with mountains. I am also a big fan of travelling to places where the experience is as authentic as it can be and Japan is one of those destinations that screams of a different culture. Over ten thousand years of history and tradition. There are also over 500 resorts in Japan and yet most Australians can be found in only a handful of places. This of course isn’t something new – we Aussies have been doing it for years. We all strangely as if drawn by some invisible Aussie magnet jump on the same plane to the same destination, where for sure they have a Kangaroo bar or a Downunder club where they serve VB (or more strangely Fosters) and you can eat a pie for lunch. The Byron Bays away from home are all over the planet (don’t get me wrong though as I am Aussie and I have been to most if not all and they are some of the world’s best resorts and cities and my favourite places), but because they exist so many travelling Aussies miss out on what a foreign country really has to offer just by following the much worn trail of the travelling bogan.
Andy Lloyd guinea pigging a frontside 360 Indy. Photo Rich Hegarty.
After speaking with loads of Australians about Japan I started to get the feeling that a lot of people now don’t go there simply because they think there will be a lot of other Aussies already there, just like so many people now won’t go Bali. Reality is there are a small number of places with a Kangaroo Bar with VB on tap but out of the over 500 resorts in Japan there are seriously hundreds that are really worth riding of which many would rank amongst the best powder skiing resorts on the planet, and of those, most resorts have only a few English speakers a year visiting them. So you get the picture.
Japan is not full of Aussies, it is actually almost completely untouched by Aussies. The snow is the best in the world, the country is simple to travel around – as everything works and runs on time – and if you have any problems the locals will do everything they can to help you sort yourself out. And if by chance you get bored of riding neck deep dry powder you can jump on a bullet train (Shinkansen) and go virtually anywhere in Japan in only a few hours and check out some of the most important pieces of cultural heritage in the world, like the city of Kyoto.
Anyway, on to the details of this mission to Japan.
Along for the ride were Berridale local Jake McCarthy (loves a vending machine that sells cheap as alco pops), Shire boy Andy Lloyd and Melbourne grommet Chris De Campo. Jake is an experienced veteran of Japan, having done a few winters up North in Niseko, while Andy and Chris were Japan virgins. Both Andy and Chris had spent most of their northern winter based in Breckenridge Colorado which is notoriously flat and this winter had almost no powder days till after February; which meant that neither had their powder legs. I had been in Japan for about 20 days before the boys showed up and had scored the best 10 days riding in Myoko and Nozawa of my life. Deep perfect pow, steep and notorious pillow lines and no one around to have to fight for pow with. Pretty much as good as it gets. Based in Nozawa Onsen to start with we went exploring. Nozawa is one of the resorts where quite a few westerners do visit near Nagano. It is a really large mountain with loads of high-speed roomers to bomb down and long gondolas heading all over the place. It has a huge amount of out of bounds (illegal) tree terrain but thankfully it also has loads of steep long tree runs that you are allowed to ride. It has a shitty little park and a pipe for those that can’t survive without man made terrain.
Jake McCarthy blasting a Method. Photo Rich Hegarty.
Nozawa is perfect when it dumps Japan style; consistent long and steep runs, pillow lines and good trees. Best of all though is the town itself. One of the oldest onsen towns in Japan (hot natural volcanic mineral baths), Nozawa is a place that lots of Japanese go to on holidays just for the onsen. 13 free public onsens litter the small town, entering the baths from one main source where the water comes out of the mountain at 98 degrees from where it then gets piped directly to the baths (98 degrees is hot enough to cook with). So you go to the bath, get butt naked, put your clothes in a basket, go into the main room where you have to completely wash and soap yourself under the taps which are sometimes only cold water, and then you try to get in the bath. By the time you are clean and ready to get into the communal onsen if the running tap water wasn’t heated you are likely to be almost freezing as the concrete floors are not heated, then you put your foot into the water. At this point most westerners scream in pain. Screaming and laughing can be heard at all times around the town. Screaming from the Westerners, laughing from the locals.
With this humiliating naked experience under your belt and with some serious time sitting on the side trying to adjust to the heat the beauty of the onsen starts to grow on you. The Japanese have been doing this for thousands of years and amazingly, despite the initial pain and suffering, the experience is surprisingly relaxing and you get drawn back to the ritual nightly. Before too long you find yourself walking around town in robes going from onsen to onsen in dumping snow and eating mystery steamed buns from carts on the side of the road.
Best of all in Nozawa is the mindblowingly dangerous Dosojin fire festival in January. The town fills up with thousands of Japanese all wasted on sake and adrenalin where they proceed to set fire to a shrine built for the occasion and just about anything else that will burn. Loads of people get burnt quite badly but it is a must see for Japanese cultural weirdness.
Andy Lloyd Frontside 540 Mute. Photo: Rich Hegarty.
Next stop was Myoko. Now Myoko is my favourite resort in Japan. I have been back a few times now and can’t get enough. It is not a place for all people as it doesn’t have the best of town life but the mountain is amazing. Not huge like Nozawa but with a massive variety of terrain and insanely deep snow. It is right on the west coast of Honshu, in a very similar position to where Niseko is on Hokkaido. This means that both mountains are in the first line of peaks to be hit by the winds coming across the Sea of Japan, which have travelled all the way across the north pole and down through freezing cold Siberia. These winds bring with them freezing cold air which then hits the Sea of Japan which has fairly warm currents, instantly creating snow clouds which dump massive amounts of snow almost unpredictably on the first peaks. One minute the sun is out – next it is dumping so hard you can see your tracks disappearing from the run before. Myoko is a mountain with plenty to offer. It is a huge volcano with great hiking access for those that know what they are doing. Avalanche is a real factor to consider for anyone going off the runs in Myoko. While we were in town huge avalanches ripped down areas we had been hiking to, which had we been there at the time would have torn us into little pieces leaving nothing but a bloodstain. So if you do go to Myoko stay in bounds! The danger far outweighs the fun factor as in Japan they do absolutely no avalanche control in bounds so out of bounds if you get caught in a slide your body won’t be found till the following summer.
Why not? Another Jake McCarthy Method. Photo: Rich Hegarty.
Both Myoko Onsen and Nozawa Onsen are less than 4 hours by train from Tokyo station and easy to get to and around. In this area of the Japanese Alps there are hundreds of resort options and if you go and travel there with the right travel company or agent you can easily move around from resort to resort. Accommodation is cheap and westerners are very welcomed. Sometimes there are western accommodation options if you need them but generally most hotels are ryokans (traditional Japanese accommodation) and provided you like Japanese food this is a much more authentic experience. And the best part about a snowboarding trip to Japan is you can walk away from a few weeks holiday having ridden powder most if not every day and with money left in your wallet. A ski holiday in Japan makes a ski holiday to the US, Europe or Canada seem like financial suicide. Go find out for yourselves.
In Myoko we stayed at Hotel Taiko. Check out the resort site myoko.tv for more information. When we stayed in Nozawa we stayed at Kiriya Ryokan – a great place and perfect location right next to the lifts. Great for westerners and caters to the Australian market a lot. For more information on the resort, visit nozawaski.com. There are also many other well-priced places to stay that cater to all of your needs. Check out IXSM Travel’s site ixsmtravel.com for options on accommodation and resort choices.
[This article originally appeared in Issue 15 of Pop Magazine].
