Beautiful Hokkaido or Northern Island

Coming down Mt. Isola with visibiity perhaps 3 meters at most.

Every year for the last 3 years, my family have taken a ski holiday for over 1 week each time. In 2010, it was Daemyung ski resort in Korea, in 2011 it was Tomamu in Hokkaido, Japan and last year 2012, it was in Rusutsu, Hokkaido. Hokkaido or Northern Island is the northernmost island, sparesly populated and subject to extreme cold weather as early as October. It is also home to 16 international, world class ski resorts and is famous for its 'powder snow'.  

My 2 sons, Noel and Andrew, with their snowboards 

2012 winter snowfall was extremely early and heavy, and by early December, much of the resort we were in was in meters deep of snow. How lucky we were ! Anyway, the Rusutsu resort is known for its many intermediate slopes as well as advanced slopes, and my wife and I were treated to an adventure of sorts (we are experienced beginner and intermediate respectively) when we mistakenly went up the highest mountain on the first day of skiing and had to ski down at least 5km of slope, which took us easily 1 and a half hours ! 

Stark and Beautiful Scenery in Winter

My teenage sons are keen snowboarders and they too, enjoyed the powder snow. The softness and compactness of the snow makes it very enjoyable to ski plus the fact that the snow is so soft and powdery gives one a sense of daring, so we tried the intermediate slopes which, in Korea would rank as advanced or black piste level. 4 days of skiing is equivalent to burning off calories  while running one full marathon of 42km, let me assure you. Additionally, one uses the arms to coodrinate and push through rough terrain as well as move forward on flat ground. It gives me a full body workout.  

Chirashi or Rice Bowl complete with Miso Soup and Sapporo Beer 

At the end of each day, we invariably eat Japanese or Hokkaido special dishes such as Chirashi (or rice bowl) with seaurchin eggs, salmon roe, steamed prawn, Japanese cucumber, chawamushi or steamed egg,miso soup and topped with the best dry Sapporo beer.

        Oishi !   Delicious as I would say. I still have very fond memories of the ski holiday.