Just wanted to let our loyal readers know about a couple of special dining events coming up over the next few weeks here in Kitanomine, Furano.

First is the Naturwald Restaurant’s all-you-can-eat Steak Lunch Buffet, featuring steaks cooked up teppan-yaki style right before your eyes. The buffet is rounded out with soups, salads, pizza, fresh baked bread, and a selection of desserts. At 1300 yen per person it is hard to beat this value. This restaurant can be found just two doors down from Fresh Powder Furano, and the special lunch will be run on the weekends of 20th & 21st Feb, and 27th & 28th Feb. 11:30 to 14:00.

Also on the upcoming dinner menu is Sri Lanka Curry Night at the Furano Brewery Yama no DOXON on Saturday 27th February. Kicking off at 6:00 pm, the curry will be prepared and served by a visiting exchange chef from Sri Lanka. Live entertainment will include local bands such as Coffee Beans Band and DOXMASU (actually thought to be a stage name for Mr Miyata, the owner of DOXON.) Advance tickets 1500 yen, at the door 1800 yen include all you can eat curries. Yama no Doxon is also home to a variety of microbrews and just 4 blocks from Fresh Powder.

Speaking of which, did you know that the 22nd of each month is “Furano Curry Day”? Special menus and discounts await at the many mouthwatering curry shops throughout town. If you ever needed an excuse to stretch your legs and go exploring, here it is!

Tempura lovers are in for a treat in March. Every weekend and holiday lunch at Naturwald will feature an all-you-can-eat Tempura Buffet, with each piece cooked right before your eyes and served sizzling hot. You can have yours with a little green tea powder and salt, as “ten-don” on a rice bowl with sweet sauce, or alongside a bowl of udon noodles. Also 1300 yen for all you can eat, what a way to take a lunch break from the slopes! 11:30 to 14:00.

Happy skiing, boarding, and dining! - Blog Boy

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.

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:

1. Yellow lines are mapped roads and trails, click the white arrows to move along them
2. Top left controls free zoom and angle
3. Drag the little guy on the bottom right map to move around. When you drag, the available areas are shown in blue outline.
4. Move the mouse over the picture to see other angles available.
5. 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.

What’s the best way to get autumn photos and exercise at the same time? Hiking of course. There is a super easy and rewarding hike right outside our front door - the Kitanomine Ski Hill. In anticipation of the November snows, the main runs are cleared and cut, making it a very easy 20 minute walk to the top of the quad lift. That boosts us from the 250 m lift base to about 500 m ASL, offering amazing views of the autumn leaves, farmland of the Furano valley, and Tokachidake mountain range. Hope you enjoy the results.

If you’re feeling frisky and have more than a 30 minute lunch break to do your photography, it’s about another 60 minutes hike to the top of the Kitanomine Gondola.

Bitterly cold rain swept through the Furano valley yesterday evening, and this morning rain clouds lifted to reveal snow on Nishi-dake. The snow line is now just over 1000 m, which means that the next flakes to fall are likely to land on the upper ski slopes. I was hoping to get up with the Furano Mountaineering Club and hike the traverse to Nishi-dake’s peak next weekend, but it looks like the climb may be called off due to early winter. You can see last year’s hike here.

The view from our front steps this morning. From Furano Autumn 2009 Scenery

Clouds are stubbornly sticking to the Tokachi range, Taisetsuzan seems to be getting even more snow! You can also check our weather page for a live webcam of the ski hill, just in case we get a surprise dump at ground level here.

Snowfalls on the moutains are very early this year, hopefully we have a great start to the Furano ski season in store.

As promised, photos of the early snow! Here is the Tokachi mountain range, a popular back country destination including Mt Tokachidake, Mt Asahidake, and Mt Kurodake.

Tokachi Mountain Range - From Furano Autumn 2009 Scenery

First snows on Mt Ashibetsu - From Furano Autumn 2009 Scenery

As evening temperatures dip into the low single digits, the mountains are bursting with reds, oranges, and yellows. The elusive “yuki-mushi”, or “snow bugs”, considered to be harbingers of the first snows, have already been sited at ground level.

The nearby highest peaks of Asahidake (Hokkaido’s highest) and Tokachidake (home of the highest drivable point on the island) have received their first dustings of snow weeks ago, but Typhoon #18 has given us something even better. We don’t get many typhoons up here in Hokkaido and I’ve always wondered what would happen if one of those warm, wet masses of air passed through our chilly autumn skies. Yesterday morning we had a brief break in the cloud and I was able to witness the result: snow covering the upper third of nearby Mt. Ashibetsu-dake. Ashibetsu is 1600 some meters, and our ski hill on Nishi-dake is just over 1000 meters, so I would estimate the snow line is only about 200 m above the upper slopes. Not bad for the second week of October!!

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a photo and the rest of the typhoon effect has resulted in heavy cloud cover today. Will update you shortly. In the meanwhile, here are some shots of the autumn foliage I got last week. Click the photo for more!

From Furano Autumn 2009 Scenery

Great news for international visitors to the Furano ski resort: Furano finally gets its dedicated English-language snowsport school, Furano Snow School. Best of all, the school will be located in the Kitanomine Gondola Terminal, just 30 m from our front door.

Repeat visitors to Furano will find many of their favorite English-speaking instructors such as Kei and Meg putting their skills to full use in English-only lessons. Furano Snow School also offers the resort’s first and only dedicated English group lessons. These are a great and economical way to improve your technique and make new friends on the way.

The private lesson program has also been fully overhauled to cater to overseas visitors. Among other things, the starting times are now flexible, allowing you to have the first shot at fresh powder with your coach or spend an hour or two warming up on your own first.

Meg leads the way for an anxious first time skiier using the "Magic Carpet" conveyor lift.

Last but not least, we are now able to offer discounts for multi-day private and group lessons. If you have already booked a stay at Fresh Powder, please contact us to reserve your lessons in advance. You may also contact Furano Snow School directly through their website for bookings.

From first-timers to experts looking to improve their enjoyment of Furano’s amazing slopes, the Furano Snow School is a great way to get the most out of your holiday.

Hello golfers!!

Now that the 80% of the audience reading this blog for ski information have left, here is a little secret. For all of September, the Furano Sorachi River Lavender no Mori Golf Course is running a “Twilight Special”. Start from 2:00 pm and enjoy the 18-hole North course for 2,000 yen, or the 9-hole South for just 1,400 yen. (These are weekday rates.)

This scenic riverfront course has to be the most beautiful I have ever seen at less than $30 USD for a full round, and Furano’s clear autumn skies make for an incredible sunsets. (Just don’t get stuck out after dark without a jacket, as it gets very cold very fast due to our continental climate.) They are just 15 minutes drive from here, so add in Fresh Powder’s multi-night discount rates and you have an attractive little golf getaway right there. For those looking to stretch their legs a little, there is also the Palmer-designed Furano Golf Course (25 minutes away), Orika Resort Golf Course (25 minutes), or Park Hills Shirogane Golf Course (1 hour).

Even the Sapporo Golf Club Wattsu Course (home of the Japan Golf Tour ANA Open, and hosted the 24th Japan Ladies’ Open) is not out of reach, at about 2 hours by expressway. Also makes a great last round on the way back to Sapporo Chitose Airport if you have a late flight.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s almost 2:00 pm…

Some days it is rather hard to find a blogworthy topic. Today is not one such day.

Introducing Furano Parkside Chalet’s American-style BBQ. I will let the photos do the speaking.

FLAME ON! This unit has heavy cast-iron, adjustable diffusers for maximum grilling satisfaction.

Hiro is grillin' and chillin' Hokkaido style. Note the teppan on the left and the California grill on the right... two handed action for pros like Hiro only!

Bobby Flay wishes he could get onions as phat as in Furano. On the left hand side we have a big pile of Hokkaido's definitive summer dish, Genghis Khan lamb and veggies.

Dessert anyone? The cherry tree in our private garden is ripe for the picking (so to speak)

Hello blog readers, just thought you might want to know that the Furano Shizen Juku Ecological Interpretation Park English website is now fully online. You can see details of their programs here:

http://furano-shizenjuku.yosanet.com/english.html

I had the opportunity to tour the park and be one of the first participants in the “forest restoration” project a few years ago. The goal of the program is to return an old golf course to a natural forested state, paying special attention to the natural growth patterns of trees in this climate. Compared to square grid “reforestation”, the results of this “forest restoration” are astounding, and it is hoped that this technique will result in more advanced ecological restoration techniques, that can even be used to add natural green space in the middle of cities.

Forest Restoration Project

In Furano, the snow continues to melt from the peaks, leaving the beautiful mottled patterns known as zan-setsu (lingering snow). The sakura (cherry blossom) season has come and gone, leaving us in anticipation of the next flower season.

Although not actually a type of cherry, shiba-zakura (literally “grass cherry”) is a small pink flower that grows wild this time of year. You can see a light pink tinge to the ski hill, and hikers will be delighted to find patches of pink and white shiba-zakura up the hill.

Another great day trip to make from Furano is to Takinoue, which is famous throughout Japan for its fields of shiba-zakura. It’s about 2.5 hours to reach there from here, but easy to incorporate a number of interesting stops along the way (For example, Asahiyama Zoo, followed by Sounkyo Valley, then Takinoue Park will make for a full-day tour.) I haven’t had a chance to visit yet this year, but I’ll pull some photos from the archives.

As the melt continues a number of spring activities are starting up, with rafting being especially popular (but a little chilly - don’t worry, they have dry suits!) due to high river levels. Jed, our Niseko manager from this winter, is working with the Alpine rafting team and sent through these pictures the other day. As you can see by the smiles, this is a lot of fun for all ages!

Spring season is also ideal for horseback riding, and mountain biking will be kicking into gear as well. Furano is primarily an agricultural community, and there are a wide of agricultural activities such as butter making and farm experience that you can try as well. We’ll keep you informed as the season progresses.

It’s an overnight miracle, as the +20 daytime temps over the last week have at last coaxed the delicate cherry blossoms (sakura 桜) from their buds. It also happens to be the last day of the ski hill operation. Your dedicated blog boy has escaped from the front desk and gotten some shots from the top! The hill in the very center of the photo below is Asahi ga Oka Park. You can see the little pink puffs of all the cherry trees doing their magic.

Snow and Sakura, Together At Last! (Click for bigger)

Thanks to the kind liftie who snapped this one of me at Downhill #2. You can see quite the contrast between winter and spring! [EDIT: No, that is not a codpiece, I lashed my cap to my belt to keep it from blowing away. Thank you to those who inquired.]

Half Way Down Furano on the Last Day

The park next to our Furano Chalet is also filled with cherry trees. Simon is on site, we’ll see how he does!

SWEET UPDATE: Check out these sakura photos from around Furano.

Furano Golden Week 2009 Scenery

If we’re lucky, the sakura season will last about 2 weeks, but the delicate blossoms are often destroyed by high winds or heavy rains. If you’re in the area it’s worth a trip to check out Asahigaoka Park (near the Sorachi River) or the Highway 38 Jukai Pass (southeast from Furano towards Obihiro.) There are over 1000 cherry trees at each location.

Check out some of these shots on Chuck’s blog. Cycling is a great way to experience the blossoms up close and get great exercise.

Hokkaido culture fact: Our “Hana-mi” (cherry-blossom viewing party) is normally BBQ + beers. Apparently in the rest of Japan they have some other kind of crazy tradition?

Japan Fresh Powder announces the grand opening of our newest property, the Furano Chalet.  This three-story, five-bedroom house is fully furnished for long-stay groups of 6 to 10 guests.  While conveniently located within minutes walk from restaurants, pubs, and a convenience store, the Chalet offers excellent privacy.  Best of all, the Chalet backs onto parkland and offers a magnificent view of the Tokachidake mountains from the open kitchen / dining area.

The kitchen is the centerpiece of our design.  Ideal for large groups, with work space for three people to work at once, the kitchen also features a pass-through counter as well as a breakfast bar.  The entire kitchen area offers scenic views from the dining area full-length windows.

Other thoughtful touches include a walk-in ski rack room, dedicated drying room, and a basement play room for the kids.  With English satellite, PlayStation 3, and AppleTV on tap, there are plenty of options for an easy night in.  Popular restaurants and night spots in the area include the Tyrol Lamb BBQ & Cafe, Panier Family Restauarant, Doxon Furano Beer Hall Bakery & Restaurant, and Shojiki-Mura Noodle & Curry Shop.  Just a 5 minute walk away is the new Ajito Sports Bar, which has proven immensely popular already this season with billiards, darts, and several big-screen TVs.

Please take a look through our photo gallery below.  Bookings now open year round!

It has literally been snowing all day long in Furano. Never stopped, just alternated between light and heavy snow fall. Huge fluffy flakes. It looked like we were in one of those snow globes. The kids were in heaven. Even our dog has decided he likes to play in the snow, though he was quite hesitant at first.

Just went out and measured the day’s total:  35 cm! Not bad for less than 24 hours.

Only 17 days left until Opening Day! I can hardly wait.

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas! … Christmas in October you say?  Well, we received a very early present this morning at about 5:00 am in Furano.

Ground temps in the ski village were just below freezing and heavy cloud cover blew in. Minutes later the first fluffy flakes of the season started to fall… and I have photographic evidence this time!  An hour later left the ski hill 80% covered with the white stuff.

At about 7:00, I was snapping a few pictures from in front of our office and was feeling immensely satisfied with myself, when I noticed a familiar dark blue Mitsubishi Delica Chamonix rumbling up the ski hill access road in low-4! Sure enough John had also been awakened by the snowfall and, as always, had to be first to the top.  We decided to split the difference and put all the photos together into one snow report.  Please enjoy!

Update - Looks like the Yukimushi were only one day early. Science prevails!

October 17th marked the last day for autumn season operation of the Furano Ropeway.  The fastest ropeway in Japan, this mechanical marvel propels 101 enthusiastic skiers or lazy hikers over 850 m of elevation in under 5 minutes. Cruising speed is a brisk 36 kph.  With ropeways running every 5 or 10 minutes through the ski season, that keeps a lot of people on the mountain.  We’ve found a number of guests at Furano get worn out more quickly than they expected, due to the amount of time actually spent skiing instead of waiting in lines and waiting on slow lifts. We encourage you to start getting in shape now!

In summer and autumn, the ropeway is ideal for lazy hikers (like myself) who would like to abbreviate the bottom 900 m of the hike for Furano Nishi-Dake.  Nishi-dake is the high point of the same mountain as the Furano Ski Hill, and is accessible through a ridge traverse from the top of the Ski Hill’s Furano Zone Panorama Run.

Rushing to catch the first ropeway, I found a fairly good crowd turning out to partake in the spectacular autumn scenery. I even encountered a few expat faces, Hayden and Carlie, who both teach English as native-language instructors at local schools. However, hardcore hikers were already on the way up, considering the bottom 900 m a mere warmup to the ridge traversal ahead.

Using the ropeway, the hike is shortened to about 2 hours total. Once the sun came up, we found the low altitude areas to be T-shirt weather. However, near-freezing temperatures and strong winds at the top quickly reminded us that winter is nearly here. We met up with friendly members of the local mountaineering club, who even put on a pot of coffee for us. Nothing makes it taste better than working for it…

Back at ground level, we took the opportunity to try out the brand new onsen at the Furano New Prince Hotel, “Shisai no Yu”. They spent over a year drilling for the hot water, but it was worth it!

On Furano Ropeway

We planned our holiday to Furano in summer for a mix of relaxation, fun for our two year old daughter Sienna, and showing my mother the local flowers. We were blessed with beautiful weather that woke us up (at 4.00am, or should I say woke up Sienna our daughter) with sunshine every morning. Coming from Hong Kong we appreciated the clear fresh skies, and low humidity. Our regular morning walks had us saying hello to the locals, smelling the fresh bread for sale at the farmers market, and hearing the rush of gas as the hot air balloon lifted up high to capture a view of the township below.

Braving the single track with Chuck

We had a week to enjoy the flowers that make Furano famous, taste all the yummy food and appreciate the magnificent scenery around. Well we accomplished all! My husband even snuck in a cheeky mountain bike ride under the guidance of Chuck the local instructor. The single track looked amazing in his photos, passing by rivers and through forests.

The girls set off to tour the local farms, in search of lavender along with the bus loads of other tourists also in the area. Farm Tomita was our first stop, and by far and away the best of them all. My mother wandered off to marvel at the colours and smells of the lavender (really the main reason everyone is there, there are other flowers too but these aren’t rated as highly). Sienna (our two year old) and I went straight to the ice cream vendor. Ice cream is highly decorated in Japan in summer, and in Furano they make lavender flavoured ice cream to celebrate the lavender season. We stuck to vanilla, and thoroughly enjoyed sitting on the bench overlooking the fields of flowers with ice cream melting down our faces and hands. There are plenty of souvenir stalls also selling everything possible in lavender (soaps, pens, cakes) and this is where we found my mother, a bag overflowing of lavender perfume, notebooks and pencils.

Flowerland was another farm we found that’s worth a visit. It had a little petting farm for Sienna to play with a few animals, and a tractor pulling a train around the area for people who wanted to save their legs. Mum rated the flowers there pretty highly, and once again they had a farmers market to buy corn, potatoes, pumpkin and ice cream.

We got excited on one drive just out of town when we passed Lake Takisato. It was fabulous, a huge lake (actually a dammed part of the Sorachi River which passes through Furano). There was a massive campground right beside this gorgeous lake and we stood there planning a camping trip there next year. It seems on further research that you can only camp during August, quite strange since the summer months of June, July and September would be great for camping too.

Our food tour of Furano took us to the best sushi train going round. The freshest, most tender and delicious sushi is available there at super reasonable prices. Masaya’s was our second restaurant stop another night for unforgettable okonomiyaki. Ordering the flame cooked spare rib was a treat as Masaya cooks it up on hot plates right before your eyes. The radish salad was also a knockout.

A highlight of our week was the Heso (or Bellybutton) Festival. It’s an annual event where locals form teams (usually corporate or sports teams) and paint their chests to represent a face. All sorts of faces appear, some smiling, some poking their tongues out. Participants then cover their heads with a big hat and do a dance in unison with their team mates while walking down the main street of Furano. The town stops for this event, which is held over two consecutive evenings. Music, food and local produce stalls make the event full of excitement and colour.

We had the pleasure of cheering on my husband who joined a local team and had a great time mixing with the locals for an evening (and dressing up in body paint!) The international team, sponsored by the Furano Tourist Association, also made a big appearance with dozens of visitors from overseas joining in the festivities.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are open for business!

The Lim family in Furano!

It was a great pleasure to welcome the Lim family, Anne, Kenneth, Krystal, and Kristin, to Furano. Already familiar faces from our Niseko apartments, the Lims are our first ever guests at Fresh Powder Furano, which has ben re-opened as Furano’s first and only self-contained accommodation designed specifically for international guests.

The construction went smoothly thanks to the professional and dedicated efforts of our local construction contractor, Karumai Construction Ltd. Our owners and our new guests both agree that the crew at Karumai have done an amazing job adapting the timeless look and feel of Fresh Powder apartments to the new environs in Furano.

Opening Night - that's a lot of snow!

Our guests are even more delighted to find that our location is even closer than Niseko, literally across the street from the ski fields and just 30 m from the gondola terminal. On top of that the early snowfall means that almost every run is open - only Kumagera is closed due to unstable conditions. (According to the ski patrol, the cause is too much snow!)

The moment is not without a little sadness as we forever say goodbye to part of the building’s past. With the complete renovation of the building, the Pension Ginrei and B&B Fresh Powder Lodge are now part of local history. We have retained a number of decorations from the original pension, including a set of antique wooden telemark skis and numerous vintage prints of the ski hill. Expect to find these artefacts decorating the halls and rooms of Fresh Powder Apartments. We’ve also made a point to retain the original common bath from the ground floor. The bath has been completely retiled and retained as a private deep soak Japanese bath in our 1 BR apartment suite.

Here are a few shots from around the apartments.