You may be wondering why I?m writing about snowboarding when it?s spring, it?s because I?m playing catch up again. I?m lazy, if you haven?t figured it out by now.

Around September of last year, I was chatting online with my old friend Andy, whom I had met in Australia while I was there on exchange 3 years ago. He mentioned that he and some friends were planning a snowboarding trip to Niseko (which is in the far north of Japan) as an end of school celebration. As I had been wanting to visit Hokkaido for some time, I started looking into meeting up with him in the winter. A few months later I had things worked out, and I met up with Andy, and 8 of his mates, all boys, all from Brisbane, Australia. As it would turn out, about 80% of the population of the resort town we stayed in also fit this description (minus the Brisbane specific part); there wasn?t much need for the Japanese I had learned, to be honest the place didn?t really seem like Japan.

I reached Niseko after about a half day of traveling from Nagoya via plane and then bus. After checking into my hostel, I headed over to Andy?s lodging for a little reunion. As he and his friends had been there for the week or so prior, their room didn?t greet me with the most inviting scent; it was good times and good people nonetheless though.

I put in two days on the mountain. The first had questionable weather, the second was much nicer. We had 4 different mountains worth of terrain to explore, including a snowboard park featuring an old bus as an obstacle (check out the video of Andy?as I was without my helmet, I opted against giving it a try), and a gauntlet-style run wherein some intense snow battles took place. The conditions were easily comparable to Whistler, much better when you consider there were virtually no waits at the lifts. I wonder a bit why the Olympics were in Nagano and not Hokkaido.

In addition to the snowboarding, me and the other boys ate like kings (Nepalese food one night, Mexican another?I told you it didn?t feel much like Japan) and enjoyed various other merriment (including a strange type of snow-brawling between two of the guys following a few Asahis).

After 3 nights in Niseko, I headed to Sapporo city for a bit of sightseeing before I flew back to Nagoya. The weather was poor, snow and rain, so that put a bit of a damper on things. I checked out the Sapporo Beer Museum and some other sights, but all in all, it wasn?t too exciting. Perhaps I?ll head back next year during the world famous snow festival, which is the best, if not only, time to go there.