It started snowing as soon as we stepped into our taxi at New Chitose Airport in Sapporo; great big flakes, falling fast and furious, adding centimetres to the already towering snow banks lining the road and rendering visibility almost impossible.
“Good for skiing,” said our driver as we pulled up outside our resort entrance. “Lots of powder,” he added with a grin. This was exactly the welcome that we had hoped for when we booked our family ski holiday to Japan.
We had arrived earlier that day, flying 14 hours direct from London to Tokyo before transferring for the 90-minute flight to Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost island. As a family of keen skiers, we had long dreamt of skiing Japan’s epic powder snow, so with 50th birthday celebrations on the horizon for both my husband Nick and I, we decided to make our ski dreams a reality and booked a 10-day trip to arguably the snowiest country on Earth.
Japan’s mountains receive up to 600 inches of light and fluffy snow annually, and the island nation is home to around 500 ski resorts, with some of the best being on the island of Hokkaido. Niseko is the most famous, but it’s also the most crowded and, with three kids in tow (aged 17, 15 and nine) we wanted to avoid the lift lines typically seen at European resorts over February half term. Turning to the experts, Crystal Ski Holidays – the UK’s largest ski operator – recommended Hoshino Resorts Tomamu. Curiously, I’d never heard of it.
The quirks of Tomamu
Located in central Hokkaido, just 90 minutes from Sapporo airport, Tomamu’s ski area is split over two mountains, Tower Mountain and Tomamu Mountain, with 21.5km of terrain and ski lifts. Although tiny by European standards, we quickly learned that size doesn’t matter in Japan; it’s all about the snow.
Our hotel sat at the base of Tower Mountain, one of four futuristic ski-in/ski-out blocks owned by the hospitality chain Hoshino Resorts. Linked by covered walkways, the sky-scraping towers also house restaurants and a rental shop, where we went to pick up the equipment included in our package and where we discovered the first of many quirks about skiing in Japan.
Despite having some of the best snow in the world, Japanese ski resorts don’t always have top-of-the-range equipment. The bigger resorts, such as Niseko and Kiroro, have powder skis for hire, but in Tomamu, there was only one type of ski available: row upon row of Atomic Redster race skis. Nor did they have much choice in terms of length and both my husband, and I ended up with skis that were a good six centimetres shorter than what we usually choose. Next time, we agreed, we would bring our own equipment.
‘It makes the long flight more than worth it’
After breakfast the next day – a generous buffet where we discovered a love of Japanese omelettes and an aversion to nattō, pungent fermented soybeans – we met our guide. 20-year-old Dane, Sebastian, was spending a ski season in Tomamu learning to be an instructor.
“This is such a cool place to ski,” he told us as we rode the slow-moving Tower Express chairlift past dense thickets of fir trees, their branches sagging under the weight of the snow. “It doesn’t seem very big when you first arrive, but there’s so much skiing here”.
We spent the morning following Sebastian as he showed us around the resort, giving us tips for navigating the famous Japow (Japanese powder). Tomamu’s ski terrain is not particularly steep, but for skiers used to the hard-packed snow of Europe, manoeuvring through the knee-high powder and navigating around the trees took some getting used to. “At least the snow’s soft when you fall,” said Sam, my youngest, after a tumble.
After stopping for a late lunch of steaming ramen noodles at the ski-in/ski-out Hotalu Street dining area, the kids, weary with jet lag, called it a day. Meanwhile, Nick and I headed back on to the slopes, lapping the black Grand Prix run again and again, our enthusiasm for skiing in snow so deep and light more than making up for our lack of powder experience.
“I haven’t skied on snow like this in over a decade,” said Nick as the fiery red sun set behind the mountains. “It makes the long flight more than worth it.”
‘We don’t tell anyone about this place’
On our second day, the sun came out and, at the top of the Tower Express, Nick and I crossed through one of the resort’s designated backcountry gates, skis slung over our shoulders. The kids declined to join us for the hike up to the Tower Mountain viewpoint and left us to carve fresh tracks in the untouched snow.
Later, the five of us headed toward Tomamu Mountain and the vintage lemon-yellow Unkai Gondola, which transports visitors to the Terrace of Frost Tree. At about 3,570ft, the viewing platform overlooks a dense copse of birch trees standing frozen to attention, sunlight dancing off their branches coated in hoar frost.
We spent the following few days gaining confidence in the powder snow, cruising on the wide, empty slopes and dipping in and out of the trees, stopping only for lunch of beef stew and fried chicken in the one on-mountain restaurant, Mt. Cafe Sol.
Once the lifts shut, we explored Tomamu’s après-ski options and spent one evening at Mina-Mina Beach, Japan’s largest wave pool kept at a bath-like temperature of 30C year-round. Another day, we visited the Ice Village, 11 dome-shaped buildings – including a ramen restaurant and a post office – made entirely from ice and snow. Nick and I sat at the Ice Bar drinking cocktails from frosty glasses while the kids made their way tentatively around the ice rink.
On our last evening, we sat in the resort lounge, enjoying the complimentary sparkling wine and hot chocolate, and chatting to a small group of Australians returning to Tomamu for the second time.
“We don’t tell anyone about this place,” one of them laughed. “We just keep telling them to go to Niseko instead. You don’t want too many people finding out about Tomamu.”
Essentials
Katja was a guest of Crystal Ski (crystalski.co.uk), which is offering ski trips to Furano in Japan this season. Flights to Sapporo with Japan Airlines (jal.co.jp) cost from £1,176. Hoshino Resorts Tomamu (hoshinoresorts.com) has double rooms from £130.