Japan Fresh Powder - Ski & Snowboard Furano & Niseko, Hokkaido

Furano Culture Nights 2010

Blog Boy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:28:43 +0000

Visitors to Furano in Jan and Feb will be glad to hear that the Saturday Night Live Cultural Performances are back! Here is the schedule:

23rd Jan: Poetry & Calligraphy, Hyottoko Dance, Japanese Folk Tales

6th Feb: Shakuhachi (Flute) and Guitar, Shishimai (Lion Dance), Traditional Dance

13 Feb: Traditional Dance, Koto (Japanese Harp), Heso Odori (Belly Button Dance)

20 Feb: Traditional Dance, Poetry & Calligraphy, Yosakoi Dance

27 Feb: Traditional Music, Traditional Dance, Japanese Folk Tales

This year the cultural performances will be held inside the Kitanomine Gondola terminal, just across the street from Fresh Powder! Hope to see you there…

More of the Good Stuff

Blog Boy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:19:57 +0000

It was sad to see our early fall melt away under heavy rain last week. (The first fall almost always melts, but sad nonetheless!) Even worse news over at Kuro-dake, they were unable to open last weekend as they did not get that last push of snowfall.

Now for some good news, exactly 10 cm of it!

: My highly scientific snow measuring apparatus

The next morning: we are reminded of Furano’s characteristic blue sky mornings. Pretty hard to resist hiking up. Kei from Furano Snow School is talking a walk to look at the accumulation by the top of the quad station.

The 10 cm is sticking to the hill, showing that earth temperatures have reached freezing.

A new meaning to “skiing on concrete”…

Blog Boy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:06:40 +0000

This goes under the “only in Japan” department.

The "Segway Ski" enables skiing on flat dry surfaces like concrete.

This fancy set of kicks features auto-balancing technology similar to the Segway. Hopefully they will have it perfected by May in time for the snow melt!

Check out Engaget’s article on the technology at work.

Kuro-dake Nov 6 Open Looks Possible!

Blog Boy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:01:44 +0000

This just in from our friends at Kuro-Dake… things are looking good for their plans to open on Nov 6, once again aiming to be Japan’s first ski lift in operation for the season. They are reporting 40 cm accumulation at their base with temperatures locked below freezing at the base station (1100 m ASL). This picture from their staff says it all:

Kuro-dake Base Station, 2 Nov 2009: 40 cm!

First Ground Level Snow in Furano Resort

Blog Boy — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:27:57 +0000

The news you powder hounds have been waiting for! All Hallow’s Eve has become bitterly cold, with the mercury at -2 C and dropping. At 5:00 pm we saw the first specks of white and within 20 minutes later it is coming down non-stop.

Update - check the photo gallery below for daily updates.

Furano’s Sister City Knee Deep in Pow!

Blog Boy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:41:08 +0000

Stani, living in Furano’s sister city of Schladming, Austria just sent these amazing photos of an early snow season. They have over 120 snow guns at Schladming but it looks like they only needed a few of them to complete this picture…

Check out the discussion and more amazing photos on ski.com.au.

Furano Ski Hill up on Google Streets!

Blog Boy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:24:05 +0000

While I was playing around at the zoo, it seems that most of Furano City, including the ski hill area, is now up on google streets. Based on the decoration it looks like the photos were taken over a year ago, but you can still get a really good idea of how close we are to the ski hill (simply rotate the camera 180 degrees!)

I have overlaid our google map of the area, check it out! Just click any of the locations shown on the index to the left. The system will automatically jump to the nearest available viewpoint. You can see exactly where our apartments and Chalet are located, and even take a virtual stroll around the block!

Note: The photo data of this area is over a year old, many signs and storefronts have changed. For example our apartments’ sign has been redone in stainless steel.

Asahiyama Zoo, Furano on Google Streets

Blog Boy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:03:24 +0000

This is either really cool or really scary, depending how you look at it. You may have heard of Google Streets, the search engine giant’s somewhat controversial program to provide photo-realistic virtual representation of the world’s streets. They have just added a few local areas including Asahiyama Zoo. You can’t actually go inside the main exhibits, but I was able to get this view of the rhino exhibit.

Maybe because I am in Japan, but I could not get the English interface to come up. In case you are stuck in Japanese:

Yellow lines are mapped roads and trails, click the white arrows to move along them
Top left controls free zoom and angle
Drag the little guy on the bottom right map to move around. When you drag, the available areas are shown in blue outline.
Move the mouse over the picture to see other angles available.
Click and drag on the picture to freely change the angle 360 degrees. (Each point on the map is actually a full 360-degree panorama!)

大きな地図で見る

If you can’t see the map above, click here to open in a new window.

Paradoxvision “End of the Line” to Promo in Furano, 24 Oct

Blog Boy — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:17:31 +0000

Just over a month until the slopes are scheduled to open, and the locals are getting stoked! The new Daisuke Sasaki powder video, “End of the Line“, (trailer on their site) will hold a promotional showing in Furano at the Kitanomine Gondola Terminal (just across the street from us) on October 24th. The showing is free, doors open at 5:30 pm. There is a party with the crew at 8:30 pm, 1000 yen includes your first drink.

I’d also like to bring your attention to Sweetgrass’ “Signatures”. In addition to the extremely authentic locations including Moiwa, the film exceptionally captures the magnificence and beauty of Hokkaido’s winter, and is more about appreciation and emotion than the usual video motif of “who can plow the most pow”. Here is the trailer (HD available)!

Asahidake - 10 cm at Lift Base!!

Blog Boy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:56:25 +0000

Many of you probably know Asahidake as a back country destination. The highest mountain on the island of Hokkaido, it features a single cable car from 1150 m to 1600 m. To give you some idea of the snow quality at that height, take the best snow from the top bowls of Niseko and Furano and put that at the lift base. Sure enough they had an amazing story of their own to match our Typhoon report - 10 cm of ACCUMULATION at the base on the morning of the 11th.

Christmas in October?

This picture is from Asahidake Onsen, at the BASE. Of the ski runs. In early October. You can see the news with video feed through the link below.

Doshin News - 10 cm Accumulation at Asahidake Onsen, Oct 11