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.