Ski Japan on a Budget

Ski Japan on a Budget

Ever wondered how much it costs to ski Japan? Eight powder filled days in Hokkaido? Some lift passes, lodging, food, and beers cost me just under $1,600 Canadian dollars. Who said chasing snow had to melt your wallet? Turns out face shots and ramen don’t have to come with credit card regret. So, welcome to NCO, Japan or Japo. Thought that was just our slang for it, but in uh the Saporro airport, they’re like, “Welcome to Japa. Let’s [ __ ] go.” So, we’ve had a few host and dorm rooms. We’ve had some ridiculous powder. Like, I’ve snowboarded for like 15 seasons and I’ve never experienced snow like this. It’s p powdery, light, fluffy. Even I can start keeping up. Um we’ve had today’s the first bluebird day. So, it’s going to be nice to see yai or the volcanoes. Um we’re staying in this house. There’s like seven of us. Jai organized it. Japan relatively pretty affordable place. Some things are expensive like this place we’re staying that’s like full-on Aussie land and it’s as expensive as Whistler or the States or Australia, but we’ve got a kitchen here. We’ve bought a load of good Japanese food and we’re just cooking up a storm. Having some drinks, but yeah, it’s been great. How you feeling? I feel fantastic, my man. We’ve tried three different ski resorts so far. Kuroro, Kokasai, Rousutsu, which we get 5 days free on the Epic Pass. And today we’re going to Nco Harafu, I think. And ski passes are ranging from $40 to $60 Canadian. Today’s one is a bit more at about $100, but we get free skiing for Rasutu, so it all averages out for us. Um, and it’s been quite a vibe, different vibe in different places, you know, like some of them you can’t ski the trees. I think they’re a bit tight and there’s ropes. But in her Rasutu, absolutely incredible. So many lifts. It’s absolutely huge and you can ski any of the trees and like this is days after it snows and there’s still like fresh lines to be had. Um there’s definitely a lot of Australian tourists around but also a lot of locals. I think it’s also Chinese New Year so there’s a bit of people from everywhere but it’s not overcrowded. It takes like 30 to 40 seconds to get on a lift. I’ve kind of just given up in powder days in Whistler. It’s been so busy lately and so much traffic and it gets tracked out so quickly and this is absolutely glorious. You don’t have to go up early. You can go up when you want and still get the fresh lines. So, I love that. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Great day, guys. Start to finish. Pow pow. Not bad. Not bad. – 4.6° down at the base right now. 2:41 p.m. We’ve been riding since 9 at Kokusai Resort. impression is holy [ __ ] wow. [ __ ] [Music] Wow. Why did I organize this trip? This trip has been culminating over 10 years. We uh we started uh talking about it first or second season in Whistler because we heard about the the Japanese power was just amazing and we all decided we’re going to do it and then you know us young youngsters just it didn’t it didn’t end up getting organized and happening and but the Facebook group was still there and uh yeah and two years ago obviously uh two and a half years ago left Whistler and still want to chase that power and this was the next Yeah, this was the next step place to do it. Um, and yeah, we um, yeah, set up that Facebook group again and um, got as many people involved in the Japa as possible. Just uh, enjoying that. Stoke. Nice. All right, let’s go. What are you doing there, Annie? I am happy alcoholic beverage from sound alarm. [Music] Wednesday is like it starts coming down. Bang bang bang bang. So, but tomorrow is just flarries. It snows nothing until the hour. Intro. Okay. And it starts snowing. It doesn’t stop snowing. The day after tomorrow for me. See, my shoes go again.

Thinking about skiing in Japan but worried about the cost? I spent 16 days exploring Japan with 8 days of epic skiing in Hokkaido, Rusutsu and Niseko — all without breaking the bank. This show’s a little of our journey and a few ski resorts we went to.