Our Hokkaido adventure started with our car which we had again arranged through Mark. It was at the airport but it was -10°C and windy. The car would not start, we suspect due to the electronic key being frozen. We trained into Chitose and walked the 800m to our hotel. Next day we managed to get the car started but our 2 hour journey to Niseko/Kutchan ended up taking 7 hours as the roads were blocked by too much snow.

This might sound fantastic but we were both too sick to go out and spent the next 3 days sleeping and resting in the backpackers in Kutchan. Thursday we did venture out to see Harro and took our skis but ended up going back to the backpackers.

Finally Friday we did go out for 4 hours. I found it very cold and tiring.

Saturday we drove up to Furnano where we were booked in to the same Pension we had stayed in the past 2 years: Young House.

There had not been much fresh snow and even if there had been I was too sick to go out. Annette ventured out a few days without me.

It wasn't till Friday (11th March) that I started feeling a bit better and probably not till the following Tuesday that I was back to 80-90%. About 17 or 18 days of being crook.

Sunday (13th) we headed out to Fukiage and finally got a day of backcountry. We took it pretty easy and hiked up for about 2 hours and then took a very enjoyable run down before an Onsen (spa).



Tuesday we met Ben, a snowboarder we had met last year and he coaxed us to go off-piste to the skiers left at the top of the Kitanomine Gondola. We ventured there again on Wednesday for some fun short side country powder.


Annette to off piste to left of Gondola……A view of Fuano and Tokachi in the distance….The view from our Pension window.

The rest of the week we only skied for about 3 hours a day as it was all on piste, groomed run skiing.

Monday we said farewell to John Morrell and to Furano and drove to Chitose Airport, and would you believe when we arrived it started snowing.

Here is our skiing Record for Japan:

day	date	place	Gary	Annette	comments	Gary SICK
Tue	2	left Sydney arrived Tokyo
Wed	3	Tokyo
Thu	4	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Fri	5	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Sat	6	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Sun	7	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Mon	8	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Tue	9	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Wed	10	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Thu	11	Myoko Suginohara	ski	ski
Fri	12	Akakura: Myoko Kogen	ski	ski
Sat	13	car to snow Monkeys
Sun	14
Mon	15
Tue	16	Happo-One, Hakuba	ski	ski
Wed	17	Happo-One, Hakuba	ski	ski
Thu	18	Myoko Suginohara	ski	ski
Fri	19	Madarao	ski	ski
Sat	20	bus to Nozawa
Sun	21	Nozawa Onsen	ski	ski
Mon	22	Nozawa Onsen	ski	ski
Tue	23	Nozawa Onsen	ski	ski
Wed	24	Nozawa Onsen	ski	ski
Thu	25	Nozawa Onsen	ski	ski
Fri	26	Nozawa Onsen	ski	ski		sick from noon
Sat	27	Nozawa Onsen		ski		v. sick
Sun	28	bus to Tokyo				v. sick
Mon	29	drive to Kutchan				sick
Tue	1	Kutchan/Niseko				sick
Wed	2	Kutchan/Niseko				sick
Thu	3	Kutchan/Niseko				not as sick
Fri	4	Kutchan/Niseko	ski	ski		a bit better
Sat	5	drive to Furano				tired and lethargic
Sun	6	Furano		ski		tired and lethargic
Mon	7	Furano				tired and lethargic
Tue	8	Furano	ski	ski		tired and lethargic
Wed	9	Furano	ski	ski		tired and lethargic
Thu	10	Furano		ski		tired and lethargic
Fri	11	Furano	ski	ski		little energy
Sat	12	Furano	ski	ski		feeling okay
Sun	13	Furano Fukiage Onsen	ski	ski	backcountry skin & ski	80.00%
Mon	14	Furano				90.00%
Tue	15	Furano	ski	ski
Wed	16	Furano	ski	ski
Thu	17	Furano	ski	ski
Fri	18	Furano	ski	ski
Sat	19	Furano	ski	ski
Sun	20	Furano	ski	ski
Mon	21	drive Chitose Flight home
Tue	22	arrive Sydney
			31	34