American skiers have the Rockies; Europeans the Alps. But
for increasingly affluent Asia, Japan's powdery slopes are emerging as the top
international draw from Shanghai to Sydney.
Even as skiing wanes in popularity at home, Japanese mountain villages like
Niseko are trading on their fabulous snow, high-tech infrastructure and
reasonable prices to thrive as snowbound boom towns.
International investors are also taking a keen interest in Japanese resorts
as the region's skiers eschew the likes of Aspen and Davos for the pure powder
next door.
"Japan is at the top in Asia in terms of skiing. For good skiers, they know
that," said Patrick So, a 40-year-old Hong Kong financier spending a week on
the slopes of Niseko's 3,924-foot Mount An'nupuri.
Certifying its winter sports pedigree, Japan has twice hosted the Winter
Olympics and offers some 620 ski resorts. While the country lacks the
stratospheric peaks of Europe or North America - Mount Fuji is the tallest
mountain at only 12,385 feet - Japan has no shortage of good snow.
Niseko's draw is its consistent blankets of deep, dry powder - averaging 45
feet a year. The Niseko resort usually remains open until the first week of
May. Even though this winter has been warmer than usual in Japan, Nikeso was
reporting ample snowfall as of last week.
Located on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido at a latitude of
Siberia, Niseko is routinely buffeted by sub-Arctic winds that storm across the
icy Sea of Japan and drape the countryside in snow.
It's much the same all down Japan's western coast - rugged peaks buried
chest deep.
Status upgrade
"Lots of people have been to the Alps or Colorado," said Neil Riley, who
runs WeLoveSnow, a company promoting skiing in the central Japanese resort town
of Yuzawa, an easy day trip by bullet train from Tokyo.
"But there's now a lot of bragging rights to say you've been skiing in
Japan," he said.
Japan first showed off its skiing prowess during the 1972 Winter Games in
Sapporo, but the influx of foreign skiers is a recent one - fueled by the
sport's surging popularity in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.
In Niseko alone, the number of visitors from mainland Asia rose fivefold to
13,000 from 2001 to 2005, and the ranks of Australians descending on its
sister town of Hirafu exploded from barely 200 to 7,600. In 2005, the number of
South Korean skiers landing in Japan tripled to 15,000 from the year before.
The upturn has been great news for Japan's ski lodges which, like the
country's golf courses, expanded at breakneck speeds in the 1980s to match a
nationwide rush of well-heeled neophytes. Yet the craze waned with the economic
slump the following decade, and is still being undermined by the country's
shrinking population.
Today, homegrown skiers and snowboarders number around 7 million, half the
14 million who snapped on boots during the heyday, according to Morio Tsuchiya,
a spokesman for the Japan Ski Association. "The Japanese ski population is
going down as the population ages, so they realize they have to attract newer
skiers from foreign markets," Riley said of Japan's ski industry.
Some investors think it has already bottomed out and are injecting fresh
money into the country's ski facilities, which are known for sprawling hotels,
well-groomed trails and extensive networks of ski lifts and gondolas.
In December, a unit of U.S.-based Citigroup Inc. paid $51.2 million for 12
troubled ski resorts from Japanese conglomerate Seibu Holdings Inc. hoping to
revive them. The same month, Japanese property giant Hoshino Resorts said it
would spend $84 million to revamp two failed ski resorts it bailed out in 2003
and 2004.
Economical and different
"There is so much snow here, it has real potential to become something
special," said Anthony Mellowes, a property developer from Sydney who was in
Hirafu scouting condominiums to buy. "It's fantastic because you've got great
skiing plus the different culture."
Japan has long been a turnoff for foreign visitors because of its high
prices and towering language barrier.
But towns like Hirafu show that times are changing. English permeates
everything from restaurant menus and bus schedules to ski classes. Meanwhile,
an adult one-day ski pass to Mount An'nupuri's 61 runs, 38 lifts and 29 miles
of groomed slopes costs $42.
At Aspen Snowmass, by contrast, a day pass runs nearly double that, at
around $82.
Tourists also lap up the Japanese twist on the downhill tradition - ramen
noodles at mountain huts instead of fondue, and ubiquitous hot spring baths to
soothe sore muscles. Not to mention karaoke.
Yet some differences still take adjustment. "When foreigners go to the
public hot spring bath, they sometimes like to wear towels or swimsuits. But
Japanese visitors just go in naked," said Kitami Itoh, a manager at Niseko's
506-room Prince Hotel. "Sometimes, the Japanese complain about foreigners'
manners."
IF YOU GO
Skiing in Japan:
www.snowjapan.com/e/resorts /prefecturedata.php; in central
Japan:
www.welovesnow.com/eng/index.php
Niseko:
www.niseko.ne.jp/en/index.html, or Niseko Powder Holidays,
www.nisekopowder holidays.com/ 011-81-136-23-4844.
