Japan - Ski Furano

February 15, 2016

Japan - Ski Furano

Jan10th - Jan 24th
#japan #furano #skifurano #newprincehotelfurano #hokkaido

New Prince Hotel Furano

Being our 5th time to Hokkaido, we decided to go somewhere different this time and headed east off the plane at Sapporo to Furano rather than west to Niseko.

And as per usual the Canon was dragged along...

I possibly took as many pics on the iPhone as I did with the Canon, as I always had it with me.
It froze up on me, literally froze up, three or four times, but it was simply a case of turning it off and putting inside an inner jacket pocket to warm up, and then it rebooted no problems. Generally I could do one or two short videos and about 4 or 5 pics up the mountain (where it is colder) before it would shut down in protest against the cold.

After 2 awesome weeks here we decided we loved Furano and are keen to try out other places next trip as well. The only 2 negatives we found was the lack of nightlife that we enjoy so much at Niseko, and the remoteness of the hotel from the village restaurants meant you had to catch the shuttle in to get a feed. The hotel provided free shuttles for a couple of hours each night, or you could get the local town buses into Furano town for more variety. Also we found staying in a hotel a bit different to our normal combined house situation, but it was soooooooo convenient having the lifts at your back door, which outweighed any of these things.

As most places in Japan, there were hardly anyone on the slopes, no queues at the lifts, and night skiing every night.

The area is divided into 2 Zones, Furano zone on our side of the mountain which had a double lift and a hooded quad as well as the ropeway From the ropeway there was another 2 double chairs nearby. So not a huge amount of lifts but ample ground to come down, and enough to satisfy us losers! The runs from the hooded quad won our favourite votes with over 3 kms of groomed runs.

The other side was Kitanomine Zone (or K zone as we nicknamed it) had a lot more runs and lifts as well as an awesome restaurant at the base, you could either ski over or jump on the shuttle bus.

Aside from skiing there were few special places nearby to check out.

Ningle Terrace directly across the car park from the hotel is a little village of wooden cottages exhibiting handmade goods from local crafty wizards with patience and skills.

Most nights you could watch them at the rear of their studios creating their goods.

There was also an awesome coffee house with the best hot chocolate and apple croissants in town.