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Home » Powderlife Magazine » Issue 17

Powderlife Magazine - Issue 17

Sat, March 21st 2009 - Fri, April 3rd 2009

Editor's note

  • Editor's note yotei shot Issue 17
    Editor's Note
    WE’VE come to the end of another season of Powderlife, but the ski season in Niseko is still far from over. Locals and tourists alike will be enjoying the ski slopes of Niseko until early May, a...

Page Seven

  • Layers of snow
    Yep, it was a good season
    THERE can be almost no doubting that if one of the main goals on your skiing holiday is to get untracked powder, you should be coming to Niseko. Local weather watcher Mike ‘Pow’ Richards c...
  • Swedish female pros in Niseko
    Swedish pros film latest movie in Niseko
    FEMALE Swedish pro skiers Janette Hargin and Sara Orrensjö (pictured left) recently spent 10 days in Niseko filming for a segment of their new all-girl freeskiing movie, Catch Us If U Can. It wil...
  • Ski themed toilet
    Ski dunnies make a splash
    TALK about best seat in the house! In yet another Japanese stroke of genius, several ski resorts throughout the country have decorated the toilet walls, door and floor with a vision from a ski jumper'...
  • Niseko United sign
    Best of Niseko 2008/09
    HOW can you possibly choose a favourite restaurant in Niseko?! You can't, so you have to ask the public to vote for their's in the Best of Niseko Awards. The people have spoken, the votes have been co...

Niseko News

  • Bullet train (shinkansen) passes Mt Yotei's big brother, Mt Fuji
    2020 vision for a shot at bullet train
    THIS time next year it will be known whether Niseko will be serviced by Shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo, according to local officials. If it goes ahead, the service would be completed by 2020 and...
  • Getting to Niseko... by helicopter
    HELICOPTER transfers are now available for Hilton Niseko Village guests for ¥189,000 per person for the one-way flight from Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport. Patrons can be picked up at the air...
  • Hokkaido-filmed movie a hit with Chinese
    A BLOCKBUSTER Chinese romantic comedy has put Hokkaido on the map, making Japan's northern island an instant tourism hotspot for Chinese travellers. Tourism operators are already offering weekly trips...

Features

  • Ainu performance
    The Ainu: Hokkaido's hidden indigenous people
    THE little-known Ainu, Hokkaido's first inhabitants, for the most part remain unknown, hidden in the shadows of today's Japan. Their existence was even categorically denied by the government until las...
  • kurodake peak
    Kurodake: Black Mountain Calling
    WHILE Niseko offers a dream-like landscape of lift-accessed, fluffy powder runs for the masses, beyond the bright lights there are mountains of consequence to be found in Hokkaido. Standing above them...

Irasshaimase

  • Lodge and Restaurant Boyoso
    Lodge and Restaurant Boyoso
    THOUSANDS of people pass over Boyoso every day, but only a lucky few end up inside. Boyoso is the log cabin halfway up the hill under the Hirafu gondola. By day it’s one of Niseko’s few on...
  • Niseko Cheese Factory kondou takahashi
    Niseko Cheese Factory
    Kondou Takashi was born in Monbetsu in the very north of Hokkaido. He loves cheese and used to work in the deli section of a supermarket, but eventually became bored of selling somebody else’s p...
  • Asahikawa Ramen Tozanken Hirafu
    Asahikawa Ramen Tozanken Hirafu
    THE Japanese are famous for doing things really well, especially when it comes to food. So you know when they take a great Chinese dish and give it the Japanese touch, it’s going to be good. Ram...

In Focus

  • Masanobu Saito Bang Bang Izakaya Restaurant Hirafu
    Bang Bang chef Masanobu Saito in focus
    HAVE you experienced the aroma and flavour of juicy yakitori skewers? Niseko’s famous yakitori izakaya owner, Masanobu Saito, came to Niseko all the way from Kyushu 34 years ago, and quickly bec...

Japanese Recipes

  • Recipe salada udon
    Salada udon recipe
    By Tess Stomski and Sachiko Kageyama from Niseko Gourmet OVER winter you may have found yourself eating a hot dish of udon noodles, however moving into spring and summer, it is more popular in Japan t...

Restaurant Review

Powder Tools

  • K2 Gyrator snowboard
    K2 Gyrator Snowboard
    NOW the big companies are starting to realise what the smaller snow surfing companies knew a long time ago: when making a board to ride camber it's all about camber/rocker. K2 is one of the first of t...
  • Nordica Jah Love Alpine Ski
    Nordica Jah Love Alpine Ski
    ASIDE from Niseko local Par Dahlin, I don't know many Rastafarians who ski and there definitely isn't snow in Jamaica. But then, the Nordica Jah Love isn't really made to ski – it’s design...
  • Smart wool PHD ski socks
    Smart Wool PhD Ski Socks
    WHEN it comes to ski and board socks, SmartWool have leapt head and shoulders above the pack in recent years. SmartWool was formed by some American ski instructors tired of so-called 'high-tech' mater...
  • Black Diamond Carbon Fibre Stocks
    Black Diamond Carbon Fibre Stocks
    WHAT is it about the words 'carbon fibre' that grabs a gear freak's attention like my dog Yuki’s when I grab his dinner bowl? One of the best strength-to-weight ratios of any material, that's wh...

Niseko Survival Guide

  • Hirafu Safety Information Centre
    Niseko Survival Guide: Surviving the Village
    IT'S easy to get so wrapped up in the winter wonderment of Niseko that you forget all about common sense. Caution obviously needs to be considered while on the mountain, and certainly when outside the...

Kutchan

  • Kutchan Jagata-kun
    Kutchan history: a look at K-Town's past
    WHEN Hanpai Abe and about 16 other explorers happened upon Kutchan in the year 1892, it was the dense, lush forest wilds of the area that possessed promise for settlement. As it turns out, these settl...

Japanese for Powder People

  • Learning Japanese biiru
    Lesson 8: Working
    HAVE you fallen in love with Niseko? Or perhaps in Niseko? Many tourists in Niseko spend part of their holiday thinking about how they can afford to come back. Sell the car? Get a second job? If you c...

Real Estate News

  • Nisade The Vale progesses
    The Vale Niseko progresses, naysayers silenced
    WHILE the leaves on the trees are yet to sprout, the recommencement of work on The Vale construction site is a sure sign spring is on the way. Nisade Chairman Jonathan Martin said he was happy to sil...
  • Commercial property on the up
    WITH Japanese prime time shows praising Niseko for its culinary diversity, commercial restaurant property in upper Hirafu is maintaining strong interest. Most recent construction projects in the Upper...
  • Strong yen attracts Japanese investors
    YEN buyers are looking to take advantage of the current market conditions and make a move on Niseko investments. The strength of the yen and the current economic climate has moved some sellers to re...
  • Going green to stay in the game
    GREEN building methods are a focus for many of the those involved in Niseko’s recent architecture. From the use of local materials to eco-energy sources, builders and designers in Niseko are an...
  • Hirafu Village aerial
    Niseko's future safe, but tough times still ahead
    NISEKO'S real estate market built itself up into a seemingly invincible force, until this season. In 2008-09, after around seven years of momentum, the town's real estate trade experienced its first c...

Real Estate Articles

  • Nisade chairman Jonathan Martin
    Interview with Nisade chairman Jonathan Martin
    NISADE'S head honcho and family man Jonathan Martin gives us his views on Niseko past, present and future... How long have you been in Japan and Niseko and what brought you here? I’ve been worki...

Last Word

  • Tokyo Fuji Television building
    Japan: land of contrasts
    I LOVE Japan. I've lived here for nine years, so considering I'm 36 years old, that's most of my adult life. For those that knew me before I was 25, I'm sure they would suggest it's virtually all of m...