Khristian Snyder – Travel Journal

“What is your favorite place to travel to?”

I’ve been asked that questions countless times over the years, and my go-to answer is almost always “Japan!”. I first visited Japan back in 2014 after I was able to purchase a rare “mistake fare” ticket where I traveled around the world for incredibly cheap. I quickly fell in love with the people, food, nature, and history of Japan and couldn’t wait to get back with some friends in 2015.

Snowboarding in Japan has long been a bucket-list item. After hearing of the legendary “Ja-Pow”, countless resorts, and the endless hot springs and mount-side ramen, I HAD to get to Japan with my snowboard as soon as possible. Covid certainly delayed those ambitions but, eventually, the country opened up and I was all-in on going to Japan this winter.

Thankfully, I was able to talk a couple of good friends, Chase and Nicolette, into coming with me and we soon bought our tickets and started planning a somewhat last-minute trip to the land of the rising sun. We put together a two-week itinerary where we would hit the Sapporo Snow Festival, shred the powder at Niseko, enjoy a mountainside ryokan in Nagano, and then get lost in the urban metropolis of Tokyo.

The start of our trip featured a long layover in Tokyo. We landed at 5:30am and took advantage of our extra time by picking up our rail passes to use later in the trip and then ventured into Tokyo for breakfast. We met up with some friends (that also happened to be in Tokyo) at the Tsukiji Fish Market. We wandered the narrow alleyways as a million aromas wafted out of the endless food stands and restaurants. Wagyu, crab, sushi, scallops, you name it! We enjoyed a nice meal upstairs in a random restaurant and it was a delicious first taste of the incredible cuisine to come over the next several weeks. We kept eating our way through the market before continuing on to a park near Tokyo station and then made our way back to Haneda airport to connect to Hokkaido.

We eventually made it to Hokkaido and transited to Sapporo. Snowflakes drifted across the sky as sweat poured down my face. I quickly realized hauling 3 heavy bags across the icy streets was less than ideal. After checking into our hotel (epic location!), we enjoyed the last night of the snow festival out front. There were some really amazing massive sculptures! The cold weather had us craving ramen so we hit a popular “ramen alley” nearby and it was incredible as well. Sapporo was a fun city to explore and the all you can eat Genghis Khan at the brewery was a highlight. 100 minutes of endless food and drinks, some delivered by robot.

After 2 nights in Sapporo, we made our way to our main destination, Niseko. We did peel off for a tour of the Nikka whiskey distillery along the way and enjoyed a free tasting of their renowned whiskey and watched the Superbowl there as well. The last stretch of the train ride grew increasingly snowy as the environment transformed into a winter wonderland. Frigid snow blasted us when we exited the train station and our driver took us to our hotel for the week. We got upgraded to a suite thanks to the hotel double-booking our room so that was a win! After enjoying more ramen, Chase and I made it up to the slopes for a quick night riding session to get the lay of the land. It was hard to believe we were actually here, in Japan, snowboards in tow, about to have an incredible week of shredding powder.

Niseko was significantly larger than I was anticipating, and the terrain was so fun! The infrastructure blows Mammoth out of the water. Heated seats, covered chairs, air hoses to clean of your board…they had it all. We hit the slopes hard for a few days, enjoying endless tree runs, a few unfortunate hikes, and we nearly got stranded at an onsen in a blizzard.

On our last night we treated ourselves to a kaiseki dinner (multiple set-courses) that featured some amazing dishes, including cod milt (first for me). We then packed up the next morning and began an epic transit day to get all the way to the mountains of Nagano in time for dinner at our next spot.