Spring
Ahhhh, spring. After four months of winter, the spring sun’s rays warming your skin feels like finding an oasis in a desert. Don’t get me wrong – winter is great, but when it’s as harsh as Niseko’s with only a handful of sunny days, even the most hardened powder junkie has been known to squeal with delight at the end of a full winter and the first sunny spring day.
The Japanese spring officially starts on 5 February, but obviously that’s not the case in the deep north. Niseko’s unofficial “powder season” is basically all of January and February, with the first signs of spring – usually a sunny morning and the sound of snow melt dripping off the roof – arriving towards the end of February or in early March. The vernal equinox on March 21, however, marks the celestial middle of spring, when the sun crosses the equator (so to speak) and hovers over the northern hemisphere for the summer.
Within days of the snow starting to melt off the side of the roads, the first signs of the spring regrowth start to show. New plants start to shoot up instantly and rapidly head skywards. As the snow melts back, there’s actually quite a lot of mud around, and the melting snow pack takes on a yellow or brown hue without the constant fresh top up. To be honest, while it has its moment, spring on the whole is the least beautiful of the seasons.
However if you’ve had enough of the snow to look past that and see what else is on offer, there is plenty to do.
The major benefactor of the melting snow is Niseko’s rafting industry. The rivers are at their spectacular best in April, when the sun’s warmth really starts to eat through the 3-4m snow pack and feed into the rivers. It adds up to a lot of run-off that whips up Grade-3 and sometimes up to Grade-4 rapids.
While this magazine is supposed to be about the non-skiing seasons, it needs to be said that spring offers excellent skiing opportunities. March is probably the best all round skiing month – there are still a few powder days and the temperatures and conditions are much milder than the depths of the powder season, making it perfect for families and fair-weather skiers who prefer a bit of blue sky with their snow.
Summer
It’s a short summer in Niseko, but by gosh is it a good one. For two months of the year, Japanese and foreign residents alike get outdoors to celebrate summer like there’s never going to be another one – probably partly due to the fact they know for the next 10 months it will feel like that could be actually true.
Temperatures can get quite warm during the day, averaging about 25 degrees but up around 30+ on a few of the really hot days. But it always cools down in the evening and can get quite chilly overnight.
Things kick off in June, when the spring melt is all but finished except for a few gullies of snow remaining on Mt Yotei. Soon after, what I call the “Matsuri Season” kicks off. Every weekend there is one or more matsuri (festival) going on in towns and villages in and around Niseko, and for that matter, the rest of Japan. Each weekend for about six weeks is a feast of fireworks, food stalls and beer, and matsuri-goers dressed in traditional yukata and jinbei dress.
Barbecues are another key feature of the sunny season, and you are likely to host or be invited to several every weekend and holiday period. Like the matsuri, it’s almost enough to barbecue you out! The way it’s done over here is generally small, bite size chunks of meat marinated or dipped in “tare” sauce accompanied by fresh local produce like mushrooms, asparagus, onion, capsicum and. Grab a set of “hashi” (chopsticks), wait your turn then stake your claim. It’s usually an all-you-can-eat-and-drink experience.
Day to day for holiday makers there’s plenty to do to enjoy the heat or ward it off, from swimming, rafting or Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boarding in local rivers and lakes, to hiking Mt Yotei and the other peaks to experience the cool air and breezes up there. There is also endless spectacular coastline to explore, with crystal clear seas to swim in and enjoy. A barbecue beside the sea is a great way to spend the day and relax into a cool summer evening.
Autumn
Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year. Firstly the anticipation of winter is in the air. From late September onwards, after every cold, rainy night you could wake up to the first dusting of snow on the peak of Mt Yotei. Following that, the countdown is on for the first signs of white on the ski resort runs at the top of Mt Annupuri. Towards the end of October, you wait for the first snowflakes at village level, and usually the first solid dumping is not long after that.
Of course, the most spectacular thing about autumn is the changing colour of the leaves. Once again, anticipation is high in late September and early October as to when the autumn colours will appear. Very subtly, the rich green of summer starts to fade, and high up on Mt Yotei you notice the colour starting to take on an orange/brown hue.
Soon after a few leaves around the village level start to turn yellow, and as you drive around the area you notice more and more patches of colour until the green has almost disappeared for good. Just about the time you think autumn has arrived, the main event begins and kicks into overdrive. All of a sudden the mountains and forests everywhere around you burst into a patchwork of reds, oranges and yellows, and everything in between. It is truly a sight to behold and envelops everything for a week or two before rain and winds sweep the final leaves from their branches, leaving them stark, bare and ready for winter.
Sometimes, as was the case this past autumn, you get some very early heavy snowfalls, which blanket the countryside providing another climactic spectacle – the white colours contrasted against the vivid autumn colours. It’s the starkest sign yet that winter is on its way.
Inevitably the snow melts back, possibly topped up again several times, before late November when winter finally kicks off in full force and buries everything until the following spring.