AFTER a cool start to summer, the last of winter’s snow is about to disappear completely with just a few small patches remaining in gullies on Mt Yotei.
The snow has held out for two and half months since the Niseko ski resorts closed, and looking ahead it should be just another two months or so before the first dustings of snow settle on the peak in late September or early October.
It’s also just another 4 months until it’s all on again next winter, with the resorts generally opening for business between November 20 and December 1 depending on how much snowfall there’s been.
It’s been a cool start to summer with this month’s average maximum daily temperature at 22C, whereas the July average is usually up around 24C+.
The ‘green season’ is well under way with all the Niseko summer activities in full swing, and plenty of domestic tourists and some international tourists enjoying all that Niseko has to offer.
Rural Hokkaido is known as the ‘food bowl of Japan’ and Niseko is one of its famous farming regions. Many domestic tourists come purely to eat Hokkaido’s famous fresh food.
Not only do the farms provide the freshest fruit and vegetables for locals and visitors to eat, but they provide a beautiful backdrop to the area, wherever you look are perfectly manicured rows of lush green crops.
Niseko is famous for its potatoes, which also happen to produce beautiful flowers at this time of year, which adds seas of purple and white among the green.
For tourists coming to Niseko in summer, the potato flowers are yet another little thing to enjoy about the area.