Make your base: Sapporo
Travel dates: February
Flight: American Airlines from Tampa to Tokyo and Sapporo via Dallas Fort Worth
Hotels: OMO 3 Sapporo Susukino and Oyado Kinkiyu Bettei Suikazura
What I Loved
With the US dollar still solid against the Japanese yen, ski bookings to the Land of the Rising Sun from North America have surged in recent years. Japan’s premier ski destinations on the island of Hokkaido see an average of between 300 and 600 inches of snow a season (hence the nickname “Japow” for all the powdery white stuff you can schuss through here). This trip was my first time skiing in Japan, and there was so much to love—beyond the snowy slopes.
I made the modern OMO3 Sapporo Susukino resort, part of Japan’s esteemed Hoshino Resorts chain, my base in the metropolis of Sapporo. From there, you can ride the hotel’s free shuttle (one hour) to ski the powder at Sapporo Kokusai Ski Resort. It’s a great little mountain if you want to introduce kids to the sport without too much terrain to get lost in, with a noodle shop at the base where everyone slurps ramen to warm up between runs. Further afield, also consider visiting the bigger-name ski mountains of Niseko and Rusutsu.
Sapporo city has incredible dining, as you’d expect from any place you go in Japan. I slurped the best oysters of my life, straight from the chilly waters of northern Hokkaido, at a stall at the Nijo Fish Market. From Sapporo, we flew to Kushiro in eastern Hokkaido to indulge in winter fun sans skis. It’s hard to beat basking in onsen (hot spring) culture in the incredible little village of Kawayu Onsen, where a river bubbling up with thermal springs rich in healing minerals cuts straight through a postcard-perfect town. When I wasn’t soaking my bones, I tried snow canoeing on Lake Kussharo, Japan’s largest caldera lake, and went snowshoeing above the crater lake within Akan-Mashu National Park, home to Japanese deer and red foxes.
Next time…
I’ll tack on at least three extra days in Tokyo to catch more of the sakura (cherry blossom) season at the end of my trip. By late February, there were already some cherry blossoms blooming on the streets of Ginza and elsewhere in the city when I passed through on my way home to Tampa. But mid-March into April is when the pink floral explosion is truly prolific. In Hokkaido, where the cherry blossoms bloom last since the island is furthest north in Japan, you could even plan an April trip that allows you to ski all that japow before retreating back down to near sea level in Sapporo to catch the pretty blooms in the city’s famous Odori Park.
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