MASANOBU Saito has an incredible thirst for life. A native of sub-tropical Kyushu, he travelled the world by cargo ship before he was 20 and moved to Hokkaido shortly afterwards. Unconventional, especially in 1970s Japan, but adventure was in his blood.
A chance visit to Niseko saw him fall in love with the prospect of a frontier existence. At that time there were only a dozen or so buildings. He bought a plot on Hirafu-Zaka Street (the steep hill up from the traffic lights) but his wanderlust remained unquenched and he embarked on a four-year sojourn. He studied the culinary arts in Dijon, skied in Scotland and had a brush with typhoid in Algeria. He then returned to Niseko to build a lodge
By the time he got back, the domestic Japanese ski boom was in full swing, and pensions were everywhere. So he decided to build a restaurant. Bang Bang – one of Niseko’s most enduring and legendary izakayas – was born. “I skied every day and worked all night,” he smiles. “I hardly slept.”
He was also one of Niseko’s telemark skiing pioneers. “People laughed at first, but curiosity got the better of them and they wanted to learn too.” However it was on regular, pencil-thin wooden skis that he had his most epic powder day. “It must’ve been 35 years ago,” he says, smiling at the memory. “Zero visibility at the peak. The snow was perfect – bottomless, no resistance, and overhead in places… like a Zen experience.”
In December Saito-san turns 60. His ambition? To be as good a skier at age 75. With that goal in mind he started weight training this year. I ask him if he can summarise his attitude to life in a sentence. He nails it in a single word: “tanoshimi” – enjoyment.