GREETINGS all. No doubt you've dusted the skis off and pulled your weary limbs back onto the mountain to indulge in the first tracks of the season. Of course, Goldy was born ready...

NISEKO'S newest commercial and residential development – The Vale Niseko –  was unveiled in style yesterday.

Many local guests and businesspeople were in attendance for the exclusive event, along with distinguished visitors and dignitaries from around Japan – all arriving in Niseko especially

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 last year. However, these are an indigenous people steeped in history, and remain vastly culturally different to their Japanese neighbours. Guest reporter

NISEKO Kogen Kanko Co. Ltd., the company managing Grand Hirafu, the largest mountain resort in Niseko, is working on a new development named Irenka Village.

Irenka is an Ainu word meaning Utopia and within their 25 hectare site on the outskirts of Hirafu, Tokyu is planning to develop two hotels and at least 20 condominiums. Plans

THE Japanese archipelago was once a part of the Asian mainland. The connecting bits have vanished over countless millions of years, but if you look to the north of Hokkaido, the island of Sakhalin – whose northern tip is just off the coast of Siberia – stretches to the south to fall just short of Wakkanai, Japan's northernmost town.

Like many in Niseko, Ramina Pension owner ShunichiFujimine is living the dream. Since his university days more than 30 years ago, he dreamed of owning his own accommodation in the mountains. He had lived near the mainland ski resorts around Nagano and Yuzawa but after coming to Niseko, fell in love with Mt Yotei and the local mountains. Seven years

The heavens open for Derek Begley and his fellow powder worshippers

Kamikawa National Park, in central north Hokkaido, is known in the local Ainu dialect as ‘the playground of the gods’.
In early November, some of the strongest disciples of the Holy Church of Hokkaido Powder converged on a lodge at the

Hokkaido’s modern Japanese history is very short. The Japanese Government formally annexed the island and introduced a policy to boost population from the mainland only in 1868, mainly because of fears of possible Russian colonisation.

Before that time, the only inhabitants of Hokkaido were the Ainu people. Exactly where they

Those with a basic knowledge of the Japanese language will have noticed that Niseko is written in katakana, the Japanese alphabet used to write foreign words. ‘Niseko’ was the name originally given to the area by the Ainu, Hokkaido’s indigenous people, and means ‘a cliff jutting over a riverbank deep in the mountains’.

Manager Matsura Shougo (pictured) and owner Outa Mitsuaki are good friends who met in Niseko about 11 years ago. Matsu was born in Tomamu – near the famous ski resort of the same name and moved to Furano when he was 18, before making the move to Niseko. A few years ago they decided to open Mina Mina as a place to hang out and spend time with