Japan: Deep Pow, Sushi and Hot Springs
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009
Skiing has brought me back to Japan.
After spending six months living in a small town on the north island when I was eight-years-old, I have finally returned to Hokkaido, in search of the islands mythical über deep pow, good food and some adventure.
I am accompanied by Jacqui Edgerly, Will Cardamone, and Gabe Rogel, and we are meeting up with Sweetgrass Productions to do some filming.
The Flight was long and draining and luckily we were picked up by old friends and taken back to Shimukappu, the town I lived in and went to school in while my father was making a Photographic book on the four season of Japan.
Communication was hard and we had no idea what we were doing, the best care was taken of us and we enjoyed the adventure. The people showed us a new meaning of kindness and joy and treated us to amazing sushi meals and hot spring excursions. After a few days of luxury chillin’, we met the film crew at an Onsen (hot springs lodge) deep in Hokkaido’s tallest mountains.
It had previously rained and then became freezing and started dumping. The skiing was pretty good, but variable with the rain crust underneath. The cold temps ofter drove us back to the comfort of the hot springs. The snow caked trees were breathtaking, like a scene from a fairy tale. The clouds blocked us from really seeing the high mountains and we left for Niseko, where the Sweetgrass crew is living for the season.
We crammed into their small apartment in true ski bum style and quickly made friends with everyone the right way, with some drinking games, sake limbo, and then a rowdy dance party. Over the next few days we skied some fun pillow lines, checked out the ocean, and night skied at the resort. Night Skiing is the shit!! We had so much fun shredding around at night, the snow was deep and only got deeper every run. Niseko is a rad resort, especially with deep snow.
More to come soon, stay tuned.
Prolific telemark skier Nick DeVore is a Cloudveil athlete.
Hey Ninjas – we were just surfing the web and thought this looked familiar. . .then realized the funny of traveling half-way around the world to run into people from your same town in Japan slack-country. Kudos Jean and Eben from Aspen.