Playtime with Lola and A Changing Niseko

Here is a beautiful picture of Mt. Yotei on one of our first beautiful days in Niseko!  I was in a happy place.

 

  Michael loves having a car in Niseko and I have to admit I am 100% behind it. We get very nice views from the car and it makes getting around and making plans much easier with Lola.

While in Niseko, we went to NAC, a cafe with a kids playroom and a climbing wall, twice. 

 Michael taught Lola how to cheers on this trip and she was all about it, as well as playing with cups.

 

We went to Teuichi Soba Ichimura for lunch again.  Lola loved to play with the plastic cups that they had on the table, mainly because they stacked so well.  In an amazing feat (well, to me and Michael, but admittedly we are biased), she figured out almost immediately how to stack them when I turned them upside down.  I wish I had it videotaped so we could show her some day!  She was assiduously stacking the cups until I flipped the stack upside down, rendering the next cup that she was stacking not to fit.  I was curious how she would react and almost certain that she would figure it out, but not positive how long it would take or what she would say.  

She immediately put down her own cup and then lifted the top cup from the upside down stack, and peered at it closely.  Then she put it back down on the stack.  Then she lifted it up again and studied it again, then put it back down. Then she took her cup standing right side up, flipped it around, and stacked it on the upside down stack without any further thought!  Michael, Jovie and I were floored.  Later, we then flipped the upside down stack right side up again.  Without any hesitation, Lola didn't break stride and immediately flipped her cup and stacked it perfectly.  It was pretty amazing and we broke out into spontaneous applause.

Here is the little maestro in action:

 

In addition to all the cup stacking, restaurant eating and sledding, tubing and gondola riding, Lola also just had a great time hanging out with us in the beautiful apartment.  I love this picture of her and Michael.  She wanted to sit in the chair next to her daddy.

 Lola also had a great time in the apartment itself, which was just as beautiful as we remembered from last year - and we loved especially the large living room space which is so rare to come by in Hong Kong.

View from the living room directly out the back

But sadly, they have cut down a huge strand of birch trees across the road, which had previously hidden The Haven from the main road.

Sadly this all used to be birch trees

Future site of The Tellus

This time around we noticed a huge boom in development in Niseko, which makes us question if we will come back to Niseko.  Hanozono is getting built up with a Park Hyatt, Four Seasons and The Ritz Carlton are rumored to have plans, rumor has it that some Hong Kong tycoons have purchased the mountain next to Hanazono, Annupuri side is getting developed, and The Haven is no longer a haven because a huge plot of land is getting remade into a residential and commercial development, The Tellus.  The Fridge Bar has lost its previously pristine and amazing view.  Sigh.

But then I come to views like this as the snow just comes down relentlessly at the end of March and I wonder how we could NOT come back?  The snowfall is awesome, the food is awesome, the onsens are awesome, and the 1 hour time difference is awesome.

 Here are some pictures from when we headed back to Chitose.

Skiing "Adventures" (For Lack of a Better Word)

Oh, right, so we actually were in Niseko to ski... even though my posts may indicate the contrary. Michael has switched to snowboarding because he has terrible ankles and has destroyed every conceivable centimeter of cartilage in his joints (thank you, college athletics).  I am exaggerating, but not by much.

However, hate him as you must, he has managed to pick up snowboarding in less than one season and on this trip has become very adept at going downhill with both feet strapped to one board.  Briefly for a moment in time we were perhaps on the same skill level with me on skis and him on a board, but that moment flew by on this trip.

We arrived in Niseko to a huge snow storm, a first in a couple of weeks, so we were very lucky to arrive to a fresh layer of powder.  But then in the middle of the week we faced a huge thaw and were dismayed as each day more and more of the snow turned into slush or froze into ice.  On Thursday we thought all of our dreams were dashed because it rained nonstop, leading to what felt like spring.  But then Niseko came back strong, dumping a nonstop blizzard from Friday morning throughout the days and nights until our departure on Sunday.  In fact, I found myself wishing we were staying through the weekend because the powder just looked amazing!

I had only skiied once last year, and please keep in mind this was when I was still breastfeeding so I was waking up every 3 hours in the middle of the night as well as trying to pump in the parking lot.
This year, things were so much easier without having to work all of those logistics into my schedule.  I managed to ski twice, enjoying a companionable silence with Michael as we boarded various chair lifts and gondolas around the resort. 

Unfortunately I was terrible at meeting up with my other friends, never managing to get up early enough to hit the slopes with them.  And doubly unfortunately, I really was not improving at skiing.  My first day on the slopes (Sunday) I skittered uneasily down a bunch of runs feeling a bit out of control.  My second day on the slopes (Friday) I got a late start because I had to work and get a bunch of things out in the morning, which stressed me out a ton.  That was all fine and I actually found my edges and was doing a good job getting down the mountain despite some fierce conditions (blinding snow storms, howling winds, very reduced visibility), until Michael convinced me to go to the top of the mountain and take a more challenging run down to cross over to the Hanozono side.

It would have all been fine except for how steep the mountain was and how dreadfully icy it was.  There was a particular part where the slope just dropped away and I did not know how I was going to make it down in one piece.  He finally suggested I take off my skis and walk down to him.  I couldn't hear him and, in a fit of stupidity, gathered my skis, poles, and started sliding on my belly toward him.  Well!  Once you start sliding on a nearly 40 degree icy pitch, you're a goner!  I couldn't figure out how to stop and I started howling with increasing panic as I gathered speed.  I was moving so quickly that, as illogical as this sounds, I really felt like I was going to fly off the mountain - like into orbit or something.  That's how it felt.

Thank goodness Michael was there to catch me.  We slid together for a bit and then stopped.  He still has a huge black and blue and purple imprint on his calf from where my ski boot slammed into him.  Ooops. At that point we had gotten past the worst of the steepness and could cut across the mountain to access another still very steep but more accessible run.  We cut through the trees and the powder and then I made it down the entire mountain without any issue.  Finishing, Michael turned to me and mused, "wouldn't it have been easier just to go down that part of the mountain the way you're supposed to?"  Touche, husband, touche.  I'm just glad I did not die.  There was a strand of birch trees that would have stopped me but I really hate to think of how that would have felt on impact...

Next time, I think I should take a refresher course before I tackle some of the steepest slopes on the mountain.

Sledding, Gondola Rides, Tubing... All the Activities

We started out the week in Niseko with Lola being pretty skeptical of snow (but calling snowflakes "bubbles") but gradually she warmed up as the week progressed.  Michael and I patiently exposed her every day to snow by means of playing, sledding, tubing and just generally walking around outside.  Eventually she was willing, albeit still reluctantly, to stand on and touch (but through gloves) the weird substance.

We made an excellent discovery at the little slopes by the Green Leaf Hotel in Niseko Village - they have a sledding hill and they provide you big and small sleds as well as snowball makers free of charge.  Excellent.  Lola, ever the adventurer, loved sledding and was not scared at all.  But as you can see from these pictures, sledding and being out in the snow and sun made her supremely sleepy.

 

In fact, we had an unprecedented event - Lola asleep in the car!!

We went a few times during the week and each time Lola started off with some level of hesitancy or skepticism, and then generally decided she liked the thrill.

Michael and Lola also just generally enjoyed horsing around in the mounds of powder - Michael maybe a bit more than Lola.  We tried to lay her down and teach her how to make snow angels, but as soon as she was flat on her back she panicked and screamed to be picked up.

I still maintain that we made very good progress.

We took Lola on the gondola twice - the first time with all of us on a little gondola from Niseko Village, and the second time from the large gondola by the Hilton on the last day of our trip (when Michael got the time wrong and thought we had plenty of time to leave for the airport when actually we were cutting it very close).  She was generally fine and not at all scared.

Once we got onto the mountain, Lola was fascinated by the chair lifts and kept saying "vroom vroom."  She also spent a lot of time staring at the older (but still very little) kids who were on skis.

We waited for a glass bottomed gondola for our ride down the mountain.  Again, fearless.

On Saturday, our last full day in Niseko, we took Lola tubing at the tubing park in Hanazono.  It essentially is a couple of huge, powdery, long runs down hill.  This is the view from the top.

The magic carpet conveyor takes you back up to the top, and you can do it over and over again.  The tubes were thick and heavy and sturdy and felt very solid and safe.  We rented a tube for an hour.

It had just dumped snow so the mountain looked fantastic.

The munchkin was as calm as you please - not at all scared even as the lift picked up speed.  She went down with Michael, me, Jovie... basically she got the most rides out of all of us!  Here, taking a banana break at the top (as one does).

I love it when Lola just kicks back and relaxes with her daddy.

All in all, we had a great time and we really think Lola did as well!