Yet Another perfect day in Hakuba.  Crisp clear skys and fresh silky lines all day.  What bliss!!!

Wow! we just had the biggest snowfall Hakuba has seen in the past 4 years. We had 5 metres in two weeks and a lot more to come

Well…I’m happy to report that the powder is still cranking in Hakuba. Another foot or so of fresh to fill in the tracks from the day before and some great visibility in the trees. Dropped some lines with Suzi who snapped away with her new toy – a telephoto lens.

We had quite the spread this year! 22 kilos of Roasted Turkey Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Rosemary Stuffing Cranberry -Orange Relish Sweet Potato Casserole Roasted Winter Vegetables Homemade Bread Rolls and Scones And for Desert… A traditional Bouche De Noel Pumpkin cheesecake New York Cheesecake Spiced Baked Apples with Vanilla Ice Cream All washed down with wine and holiday spirits!   Saving the best for last… a traditional Bouche De Noel! A Gorgeous Christmas Dinner! Enjoying the Meal. Fine Food and Fine Wine.  

The Backcountry in Hakuba is endless and is probably the reason why I ended falling in love with Hakuba. From cruisy long faces peppered with perfectly spaced glades of birch to big open alpine bowls. Narrow steep chutes with over a km of vertical to endless rolling natural fun parks with cornice drops, cliffs, natural half-pipes, rollers and hits galore. Alaskan style faces with steep spines to long cruisy valleys with frozen waterfalls. All of it buried in deep powder and lightly populated by Kamoshika or Japanese Serow (medium sized animals that resemble the cross between an antelope a deer and a pig – seriously!!). The best thing about all of this backcountry is that most of it lies directly off the lift or only a short hike away. The snow pack is also conducive to relatively safe backcountry being deep and having a low temperature gradient through the snow pack. There is depth hoar to worry about but as it rarely gets extremely cold (below -20) it’s nowhere near as much of a worry as in continental ski areas such as the European Alps or Colorado or Alberta. Wind is also a factor with windslab generally in crossloaded ridges and south east faces in the alpine. Generally though the regime is one of rapid stabilising after a storm but you need to know what to look out for because the generally good conditions are punctuated occasionally be very dangerous spells that can catch the uneducated out. Of course if you want to head into the backcountry you must always have at least a beacon, a shovel and a probe and also ride with friends who have these essential items and are experienced too. We can point you in the right direction as we have extensive experience riding backcountry in […]

Zenkoji temple is the most important pilgrimage site in central Honshu. It houses the first image of Buddha to reach Japan in the 7th century and has a 1400year history. The building itself is huge and has the largest thatched roof in Japan. Under the temple is a pitch black maze visitors can enter that offers the way to nirvana for those who navigate its passageway and find the key.

The Nozawa Onsen Fire Festival is a must see if you find yourself in the vicinity mid-January. It`s one of the three most famous fire festivals in Japan & certainly one of the crazier spectacles you`ll ever witness! It`s held on January 15th every year to pray for a plentiful harvest, health and good fortune in the coming year. The festival dates back to 1863 and involves a very colorful combination of snow, fire & sake. We run a bus tour from Hakuba to the Nozawa Fire Festival every year so send us a mail anytime if interested!! During this festival the twenty-five and forty-two year old men from the village play a very important role. An old belief in Japan dictates that, for men, these years are unlucky. So all of Nozawa`s twenty-five and forty-two year old men, in their inauspicious ages, are made to construct a huge wooden shrine known as “the Shaden” that reaches 18 meters high. It takes roughly 100 villagers to build the shrine. The trees are cut down in October and brought down from the mountain, through the village, on January 13th. After the Shaden has been constructed, the priest from Kosuge shrine performs a ceremony endowing it with a God. Along with the Shaden there are an average of five Tôrô (dedicatory lantern poles) erected every year. These poles are made by families in the village to celebrate the birth of their first son. The Tôrô are offered to the Gods in a prayer for health and good fortune. The festivities begin with the lighting of the fire by the twenty-five and forty-two year old men. A small group of men carry a torch, which is lit by striking two stones together, from the Kôno residence to the festival grounds. The torch is used to start […]

Matsumoto castle is the oldest surviving castle from the age of the feudal warring states in Japan dating back to 1592. The view from the surrounding moat to the North Alps beyond is breathtaking. The inside of the castle includes many items from japans feudal past.