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.

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.

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.

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.