Kazahana was built by a Malaysian family living in Hong Kong. First and foremost it’s a winter holiday chalet, but they also use it as a year-round retreat from the heat and hustle of the big city.
With a large extended family, they wanted somewhere they could come and relax. “We wanted our own place we could call home, away from the city, without having to book 10 different rooms,” the owner says.
They designed the house with the living area on the top floor to make the most of the views.
”When you go on a ski holiday it’s about spending time together
“This is where everybody gets to hang out by the fire place or in the jacuzzi (on the veranda outside) and where most of the conversation happens at the end of every day.”
“Similarly we wanted to keep a big open-plan kitchen and just keep it a real family feel. My father likes to cook so we invested a little bit in the kitchen in terms of the materials we used and also the plates and the pots.”
Dad appears to love the year-round simple life in Niseko more than anyone else. He wakes up every morning and goes to a local spring to get his water for the day and pick up fresh produce from the farmer’s markets.
His son says the lifestyle is what they love most about Niseko. “Life here is simple, respectful and also ultimately very calming for the soul. It makes you realise there is definitely more to life than the little bubble of Hong Kong.
“This is our holiday home away from home. It’s where we go at least once a year to meet as a family and it’s something we don’t have to discuss – we just say let’s go on these dates and let’s meet up then.”
This article appeared in Powderlife 2016
Flip through the full magazine online now in English, Japanese or Chinese