THERE’S no surer sign that the season is winding down than the sound of snow melting back around the house on a sunny March morning.
I think everybody who loves the Niseko winter is always sad to see it go, but there’s still spring skiing to be had until early May, and the other great Niseko seasons to enjoy before it’s all on again in another eight months time (keep an eye on www.powderlife.com for summer news, events and updates, as well as the snowfall progress from September on).
If you were lucky enough to be here during the 09/10 season it was about as good as it gets in terms of snowfall, visitor numbers and the progress of the resort as a whole. The town was buzzing throughout the winter with more and more nationalities starting to appear in numbers. In particular visitors from Hong Kong, but we also saw plenty more Singaporean, Malaysian, Chinese and Europeans.
As this is our last issue of the winter, we’ve done a bit of a season wrap, but also have plenty of articles and information for those who are here throughout the rest of March and April. In Fluff, our weather watcher The Don tallies the season’s snowfall, and we preview a new winter motorbike race up Mt Moiwa (page 9). We bring you the Best of Niseko 2010 winners (p10), rerun our heart-warming 2008 interview with the wonderful taiko drumming legend Roku-san who sadly passed away last month (p17), review psychadelic bar/restaurant Jam Bar (p20), and much more.
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading Powderlife as much as we’ve enjoyed covering all the powdery action and bringing it to you this winter. See you next season!
Kristian Lund, Powderlife Managing Editor [email protected]